Susan Hill was born in Scarborough and educated at grammar schools there and in Coventry and took her English degree at King’s College, London. Her best known books, apart from The Woman in Black, are the novels I’m the King of the Castle, Strange Meeting and In the Springtime of the Year. Her books have won the Whitbread fiction Award, the Somerset Maugham Award and the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize and been shortlisted for The Booker Prize. She has also written non- fiction and children’s books and been a regular reviewer of books for numerous national newspapers and journals and broadcast regularly. Her most recent books are the eight novels in the Simon Serrailler  crime series, and new ghost novels including The Small Hand, Dolly, Printers Devil Court and The Travelling Bag. She is married to the Shakespeare scholar Sir Stanley Wells, and has two adult daughters and one granddaughter. Of her fiction, Susan Hill writes: “I was born on the North East coast of Yorkshire, in the beautiful town of Scarborough, in a snow-bound February during the Second World War. There were a good many old ladies living there in those days but there never seemed to be any children near to us, so that I spent a lot of my time on my own. But quite contentedly so. I had imaginary friends and I made up stories about them. As soon as I could, I wrote them down. So there was never a time in my life when I was not a writer. And so it has gone on. At school, between work for O and A levels, I wrote two novels, which were published when I was at university reading English. They were very bad novels, my apprentice work, and they are out of print – but they were the best I could do at the time. It took me some years to find my real voice, and mean- while, I lived from hand to mouth as a freelance book reviewer, and always, I read, not just the new books, but the things I had grown up with – Dickens, Hardy, the Brontës, everything with atmosphere and a sense of place.” Susan Hill was awarded a CBE in the 2012 Queen’s Birthday and Diamond Jubilee Honours.Online: susan-hill.com

Robin read Philosophy and English at St. Andrews University and trained as an actor at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School. Much of his early career was involved with Alan Ayckbourn and the Stephen Joseph Theatre in Scarborough. Joining the company in 1976 as an actor, he was appointed Associate Director in 1979 and was Artistic Director from 1986 to 1988. Robin has appeared in the original production of more Ayckbourn plays than any other actor, from Ten Times Table in 1977 to Henceforward… in 1987, and including the monster 16-play two-hander Intimate Exchanges. He came to London with Season’s Greetings and Suburban Strains (Round House Theatre), Intimate Exchanges (Ambassadors Theatre) and Henceforward…(Vaudeville Theatre). While Artistic Director at Scarborough, he commissioned and directed Stephen Mallatratt’s phenomenally successful adaptation of The Woman in Black which has been running in the West End for almost 30 years, and has completed 12 national tours. He always personally directs every recast, and has also directed productions of the play abroad: in Tokyo (in Japanese!), India, Singapore, Hong Kong, Australia and New Zealand. Other London productions include The Glory of the Garden, (Duke of Yorks Theatre), Rough Justice (Apollo Theatre), Joking Apart and The Importance of Being Ernest (Greenwich Theatre) and The Secret of Sherlock Holmes (Duchess Theatre). Elsewhere, directorial credits include Serjeant Musgrave’s Dance, All My Sons, Twelfth Night, Old Times, Clouds, Butley, She Stoops To Conquer, The Beaux’ Stratagem, Touch Wood And Whistle, Calling, Spokesong, Getting On, Tapster, Just Between Ourselves, Forty Years On, A Going Concern and What Every Woman Knows (Scarborough Theatre), Hard Times (Croydon Warehouse), Last of the Red Hot Lovers (The Old Laundry Theatre – Bowness-on-Windermere), Ten Times Table, Sisterly Feelings, Woman in Mind, and The Constant Wife (The Royal Windsor Theatre), Man of the Moment, Absent Friends, and Same Time Next Year (World Tours), Bedroom Farce (Royal Lyceum Theatre Edinburgh), A Going Concern (Nuf eld Southampton Theatres), Time Of My Life, Taking Steps, Perfect Days, Shining City (Derby Playhouse), Talking Heads, April in Paris (Exeter Northcott Theatre), Time And Time Again (Salisbury Court Theatre) and The Rivals (Vienna). Most recent regional productions are Hay Fever (Basingstoke), Sugar Daddies (Sonning), Home, Driving Miss Daisy, The Turn of the Screw, Proof, The Mortal Ash, An Inspector Calls, Blithe Spirit, Private Lives, Bedroom Farce, and Taking Steps (Oldham Coliseum Theatre) and The Price (New Vic Theatre, Stoke on Trent). National tours include Relatively Speaking, Confusions, Time And Time Again, Corpse!, Strangers on a Train, Arsenic and Old Lace, The Hound of the Baskervilles, Bedroom Farce, Season’s Greetings, Rain Man and Duet For One. As an actor, Robin’s radio credits are numerous, and his TV appearances include Only Fools And Horses, Casualty, and The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole. Most recently, he has played the lead role of Arthur Kipps in The Woman in Black in Singapore, India, Hong Kong and New Zealand.

An established and successful designer for drama, opera and ballet, Michael has collaborated with leading arts companies around the world. He has been associated with playwright Alan Ayckbourn at the Stephen Joseph Theatre in Scarborough for over 20 years where his numerous designs for this author/director include Hero’s Welcome, Confusions, Roundelay, Intimate Exchanges, The Safari Party, Taking Steps, Way Upstream, Man of the Moment and the much praised Othello with Michael Gambon, to name just a few. Michael has long associations with repertory companies and independent producers across the UK. West End credits include the long-running West End success The Woman in Black; Absurd Person Singular (Whitehall Theatre), The Glory of the Garden (Duke of York’s Theatre), Rough Justice (Apollo Theatre) and June Moon (Vaudeville Theatre). He designed Julius Caesar for Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre and the highly successful centennial touring production of Charley’s Aunt. International credits include Ayckbourn’s Hero’s Welcome, Confusions, Intimate Exchanges and Season’s Greetings (New York), The Woman in Black (Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong and Singapore) and many productions for Den Nationale Scene, Bergen, the Alley Theatre, Houston, Texas and the English Speaking Theatre in Vienna; Opera productions include collaborations with the Royal Opera House, Copenhagen; the Avignon Festival, France; the Knokke Opera Festival, Belgium and Benjamin Britten’s Billy Budd for Brisbane Festival, Australia. Michael has over thirty ballet designs to his credit including The Sleeping Beauty, Quartet and Romeo and Juliet for Northern Ballet and Madam Butterfly for the Hong Kong Ballet company. Michael has also written a number of books on stage and costume design and has published a book on the plays of Alan Ayckbourn.

Gareth is the youngest person ever to be nominated for the Tony Award for Sound Design for his work on Trevor Nunn’s Broadway production of A Little Night Music, starring Angela Lansbury and Catherine Zeta-Jones. Gareth is also the youngest person to be nominated for the Olivier Award for Best Sound Design for his work on Terry Johnson’s End of the Rainbow, starring Tracie Bennett. International designs: Disney’s The Little Mermaid (worldwide), Let It Be (St. James Theatre, Broadway), A Little Night Music (Walter Kerr Theatre, Broadway), Sister Act (UK, Milan, Paris, Korea & Holland), Disney’s Beauty & The Beast (Paris), Jesus Christ Superstar (US & European Arena Tours), Glee Live (Worldwide Arena Tour), Hairspray (Malaysia & Singapore), End of The Rainbow (Belasco, Broadway & Ahmanson, Los Angeles), The Sound Of Music (Malaysia), Spring Break (Encore, Las Vegas), Hair (Slovenia), A Chorus Line (Israel), Buddy (international arena tour), Evita (Bellagio, Las Vegas), Fame (International Arena Tour), Excalibur (Excalibur Theatre, Las Vegas), Expert At The Card Table (MGM, Las Vegas), Footloose (South Africa), Time Travel (Mirage Theatre, Las Vegas), Saturday Night Fever (Korea & Taiwan), Return To The Forbidden Planet (Korea), Thoroughly Modern Millie (South Africa), Chicago (Montreux), The Blues Brothers (Austria), Grease (Cyprus & Slovenia), Without You (Worldwide), Evita (Beirut) and Cats (International Arena Tour). West End musical designs: X-Factor – I Can’t Sing, Merrily We Roll Along, Let It Be, Top Hat, Pippin, Midnight Tango, Roadshow, End of the Rainbow, Aspects of Love, Sweet Charity, A Little Night Music, Carousel, Shout!, Fiddler on the Roof, Footloose, Paradise Found, Little Shop of Horrors, Dickens Unplugged!, Follies, Dame, The Rocky Horror Show, Camelot, High Society, Calamity Jane, Side by Side by Sondheim, The Big Life, tick, tick…BOOM!, The Next Big Thing, The Last 5 Years, Romeo and Juliet and La Cage aux Folles. West End play designs: Barking In Essex, Uncle Vanya, A Long Day’s Journey Into Night, Torch Song Trilogy, An Ideal Husband, Sign of the Times, Smash, The Invisible Man, The Woman In Black, Prick Up Your Ears, Dealer’s Choice, RSC winter season, Jeffrey Bernard is Unwell, Epitaph for George Dillon, Hamlet, Breakfast With Jonny Wilkinson and Secret Rapture. UK Tour designs: Sister Act, Strictly Come Dancing, High School Musical Two, Ready Steady Cook, End Of The Rainbow, Corrie, The Woman In Black, Little Shop of Horrors, Midnight Tango, Hairspray, Nine To Five, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy arena tour, Top Hat, Tell Me on a Sunday, High School Musical 2, Flashdance, Can’t Smile Without You, The Wedding Singer, Fame, Footloose, Rocky Horror Show, Godspell, Singin’ In The Rain, Calamity Jane, Anything Goes, Godspell, Singin’ In The Rain, Annie Get Your Gun, Summer Holiday, The Tempest, Jesus Christ Superstar, Children of Eden, Slamdunk and Thoroughly Modern Millie.

Laura Stanczyk is a Producer and award-winning Casting Director. Upcoming Broadway: The Secret Garden, Titanic, Bull Durham. Past Broadway/Off-Broadway/Tours: Side Show, After Midnight, A Night With Janis Joplin, Follies, Lombardi, Ragtime, Impressionism, The Seafarer, Radio Gold, Coram Boy, Translations, Little Rock, Damn Yankees, Dirty Dancing, Carefree, Poison (Origin Theatre), The Glorious Ones (Lincoln Center Theatre), The Cripple of Inishmaan (Atlantic Theatre & International Tour), The Brother Sister Plays (The Public Theatre), Tryst, Flight, Urinetown, Wonderful Town, and Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf (with Kathleen Turner and Bill Irwin; West End). Other: Broadway Center StageB(The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts), Ghost Brothers of Darkland County (John Mellencamp, Stephen King and T. Bone Burnett), Are You There McPhee (John Guare), Cotton Club Parade (Encores! With Jazz at Lincoln Center), Harps and Angels (Mark Taper Forum), Me, Myself & I, Fetch Clay Make Man, Gruesome Playground Injuries (World Premier, Alley Theatre), The Guardsman (adapted by Richard Nelson, Kennedy Center), Master Class, The Libson Traviata, Golden Age (Philadelphia Theatre Company), Don’t Dress for Dinner (Royal George Theatre, Chicago), The Sidewalk Redemption (Gaiety Theatre, Dublin/West End), Gate/ Beckett (Lincoln Center Festival), Long Day’s Journey Into Night (Druit Theatre Company, Galway and Dublin Theatre Festival), The Importance of Being Earnest (Rough Magic, Dublin). She has cast for The Cleveland Playhouse, Hartford Stage Company, Chicago Shakespeare Theatre, The Shakespeare Theatre of Washington, D.C., The Alley Theatre, The McCarter Theatre Center, The Wilma Theatre, The Long Wharf Theatre and has consulted for The Lyric Theatre, Belfast, Rough Magic Theatre Company (Dublin), The Gate Theatre (Dublin), The Druid Theatre (Town Hall Theatre Galway), The Chicago Shakespeare Theatre, The Westport Country Playhouse, The Pittsburgh Public Theatre & American Conservatory Theatre. She was an associate casting director at Binder Casting for seven years and was a member of the Senior Artistic Staff at McCarter Theatre Center for five years. She has been nominated for six Artios Award for Excellence in Casting, and won for the Broadway revival of Follies.

Eva is a voice and text coach based in Chicago. Recent Chicago credits include: The Doppelganger (Steppenwolf Theatre); Blind Date (Goodman Theatre); Nell Gwynn, Mary Stuart (Chicago Shakespeare Theatre); Plantation! (Lookingglass Theatre); The Importance of Being Earnest (Writers Theatre); Oklahoma (Marriott Lincolnshire Theatre); The Belle of Amherst (Court Theatre). Regional: Born Yesterday, Blood Knot, Cyrano de Bergerac, The Maids, Death of a Salesman, The African Company Presents Richard III, A Streetcar Named Desire and The Island (American Players Theatre); The Who and the What, Always Patsy Cline (Milwaukee Rep); Love’s Labour’s Lost (Actors Theatre of Louisville); Around The World In 80 Days (Baltimore Center Stage/Kansas City Repertory) and Mamma Mia! (National Tour/Las Vegas). Television: Empire, Betrayal, The Chicago Code. Eva is an associate artist at TimeLine Theatre Company.

Anshuman designs for Opera, Theater and Dance have been seen at Beijing’s National Center for the Performing Arts, Canada’s Royal Winnipeg Ballet, Soho Rep, The Public, The Atlantic, Arena Stage in Washington, D.C., Dublin’s Civic Theater, The Juilliard School, HERE Arts Center, LoftOpera, Ma-Yi Theater Company, Pacific Symphony, The Park Avenue Armory, Bard Music Festival, Puerto Rican Traveling Theater, Virginia Arts Festival, Rattlestick Theater, Troy’s EMPAC, Infinity Theater Company, and The New School for Drama. Upcoming work can be seen at Madison Opera and Classic Stage Company. M.F.A. NYU. Online: bhatiadesign.com

kClare is a Chicago-based Costume Designer. She is an Adjunct Professor and manages the Costume Shop at Dominican University in River Forest. Recent design credits include: Songs for a New World, The Addams Family (Dominican University); The Last Five Years, The Drowsy Chaperone (Metropolis Performing Arts Center); Scarcity, The Cripple of Inishmaan, Elling (Redtwist Theatre); At Home at the Zoo, Confederates in the Attic, Peyton Place (City Lit Theatre). She has also served as a designer and faculty member with the National High School Institute at Northwestern University (Cherubs). Online: kClare.com

CHICAGO: Macbeth and The Tempest with Posner and Teller, A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Chicago Shakespeare Theater); The 39 Steps (BrightSide Theatre); A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Shakespeare 400 Chicago/Civic Orchestra of Chicago); The Valkyries (Gorilla Tango Theatre). REGIONAL: The Tempest (The Smith Center; South Coast Repertory Theatre); A Christmas Carol, Gutenberg! The Musical!, Forever Plaid (Milwaukee Repertory Theater); Completely Hollywood Abridged (Old Creamery Theatre). INTERNATIONAL: Next to Normal, Seussical!, Blooming Season (Shanghai Conservatory of Music). EDUCATION: MFA in Directing, Western Illinois University. Ms. Spanuello is an adjunct assistant professor of music theatre at Carthage College.

Ray is co-owner of Aria Music Designs, LLC which provides music and sound for theatre, lm, and owns a sound rental company (Online: ariarental.com). Off Broadway credits include Lookingglass Alice at The New Victory Theatre. Regional theatres include The Goodman Theatre, Steppenwolf Theatre, The Gutherie Theatre, Old Globe Theatre, The Arsht Theatre in Miami, Indiana Rep Theatre, Dallas Theatre Center, Oregon Shakespeare Theatre, The Auditorium Theatre, McCarter Theatre, Long Wharf Theatre, Milwaukee Rep Theatre, Walnut Street Theatre, The Court Theatre, Hartford Stage, The Alliance Theatre, Syracuse Stage, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Congo Square, Buffalo Arena Stage, The Alley Theatre, American Theatre Company, Chicago Shakespeare Theater, Northlight Theatre, Drury Lane Theatre, AppleTree Theatre, Lookingglass Theatre, Victory Gardens Theatre, The Gift Theatre, Notre Dame Summer Shakespeare, American Girl Theatre (New York, Chicago), Skylight Opera. He has recorded, mixed and produced CD’s for the musicals Sense & Sensibility, Eastland, Oh Coward, The Sound of One, La Luna Muda and Hillbilly Antigone. Over 400 Film, TV, DVD, and computer game credits worldwide. Mr. Nardelli has received nominations for a Column award for Cabaret in Dallas, An Elliot Norton nomination for Jungle Book in Boston, A nomination for a Suzi Bass award for Lookingglass Alice in Atlanta, four Chicago Jeff Awards and eight nominations. Production work includes The Last Ship, Bring It On, Ann, The Addams Family, Light in the Piazza, All Shook Up, Death of a Salesman, Moonlight and Magnolias to name a few. Pre-Broadway: The Last Ship, Bring It On, Ann, The Addams Family, Light in the Piazza (assistant designer), All Shook Up, Death of a Salesman, Moonlight and Magnolias. Mr. Nardelli’s memberships include USA #829, ASCAP and IATSE #2. Ray lives in Chicago with his wife Lynn and two children Elliot and Olivia.

David is thrilled to join the touring company of The Woman in Black and has previously toured with the first national tours of Jim Henson’s Sid The Science Kid: Live! and The Screwtape Letters – including its extended run at Chicago’s Mercury Theatre. From Chicago, David’s stage management credits there include: The Marriott Theatre, Buffalo Theatre Ensemble, Victory Gardens, First Folio Theatre, Chicago Children’s Theatre, The Music Theatre Company, Porchlight Music Theatre, Silk Road Rising, Provision Theater, American Theatre Company, Congo Square Theatre, Noble Fool Theatricals, Pegasus Players, Metropolis Performing Arts Centre, and Bohemian Theatre Ensemble. Other regional work includes: three seasons in residence at TheatreSquared (Fayetteville, AR), Lake Dillon Theatre Company (Dillon, CO), and Lincoln Amphitheatre (Evansville, IN). David is a proud graduate of Western Illinois University and member of Actors’ Equity Association. Online: davidloranca.com