Demosthenes Chrysan (Usama) is making his SCR debut. His London credits include Blood and Gifts at the National Theatre. He appeared on Broadway in Golden Boy (Lincoln Center Theater). Other New York credits include Urge for Going (The Public Theater), Aftermath (New York Theatre Workshop) and Queens Boulevard (Signature Theatre Company). Regionally, he has appeared in Travesties (McCarter Theatre Center), Water by the Spoonful (Hartford Stage), Tennis in Nablus (Alliance Theatre), The Kite Runner (San Jose Repertory Theatre), Homebody/Kabul (Trinity Repertory Company) and Blood and Gifts (La Jolla Playhouse). He has appeared in the films A Case for You, Behind the Mirror, Santa Claus in Baghdad and on television in “Boardwalk Empire,” “Damages,” “Louie,” “30 Rock,” “Killing Kennedy,” “The Fear,” “Reckless,” “Blue Bloods” and will be recurring in the new series “Flesh and Bone.”

Adam El-Sharkawi (Yousef) is delighted to be making his SCR debut with Zealot. He is a recent graduate of the MFA acting program at California State University, Fullerton. At CSUF, his credits include Dollhouse, Twelve Angry Jurors, Lobby Hero, The Drunken City and Measure for Measure. His other theatre credits include All’s Well That Ends Well (Great River Shakespeare Festival), Sinbad: The Untold Tale (Adventure Stage Chicago), Romeo and Juliet (New Swan Shakespeare Festival), Harper Regan (Steep Theatre) and The Book of Liz (Chemically Imbalanced Comedy). He is a very happy California transplant and a very proud Seattle native.

Nikki Massoud (Marina) is thrilled to be making her SCR debut. She is a recent graduate of the Brown/Trinity Rep MFA acting program. Her recent roles include The Dove in Conference of the Birds (B Street Theatre), Ruthie Joad in The Grapes of Wrath (Trinity Repertory Company) and Laura/Ensemble in The Glass Menagerie Project (Arena Stage). Her Brown/Trinity Rep roles include Celia in As You Like It, Marisol in Marisol and Mary Swanson in Middletown. She earned a BA in history, psychology and theatre from Georgetown University; attended the British-American Drama Academy (BADA); and earned an MFA in acting from Brown/Trinity Rep. nikkimassoud.com

Alan Smyth (Edgar) appeared at SCR previously in Absurd Person Singular. He is from Ireland, where he trained at the Dublin School of Acting. His theatre credits include The Importance of Being Earnest, Lady Windermere’s Fan, Salome, Pride and Prejudice, A Christmas Carol, The Sunshine Boys (Gate Theatre); The Freedom of the City, The Importance of Being Earnest (Abbey Theatre); The Plough & the Stars, Hamlet, Macbeth, King Lear (Second Age Theatre Company); Cinderella, Mother Goose, Aladdin, Jack & the Beanstalk, Snow White & the Seven Dwarves, Sleeping Beauty (Gaiety Theatre); The Merchant of Venice, How the Other Half Loves (Andrews Lane Theatre); and Normal and Trios (Meridian Theatre Company). He produced the Irish premieres of Burn This by Lanford Wilson, Dinner with Friends by Donald Margulies and The Real Thing by Tom Stoppard. On television, he appeared in “Ballykissangel,” “Career Opportunities” (BBC), “CSI: NY,” “NCIS,” “Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior,” “The Bold & the Beautiful,” “Leverage,” “The Last Ship,” “Grimm,” “Person’s Unknown,” “Children’s Hospital,” “The Middleman” and “Caper.” He was also a series regular on Ireland’s number one show, “Fair City,” for five years. His film credits include Bobbie’s Girl (Showtime), Becoming Jane (JA Films), The Fallen Faithful (Other Side of the River Prod.), Botched (Madigan Pictures) and The Crooked Mile (Tribeca ‘First View’ Award). Follow him on Twitter @AlanGSmyth.

Charlayne Woodard (Ann) is a two-time Obie Award winner and Tony Award nominee who has written and performed four acclaimed solo plays: Pretty Fire, Neat, In Real Life and The Night Watcher. Her play, Flight, is an adaptation of African and African American folktales. Her acting credits include off-Broadway productions of The Witch of Edmonton (Obie Award), Suzan-Lori Parks’ In the Blood (Obie Award), Jon Robin Baitz’s Substance of Fire (Second Stage), Lynn Nottage’s Fabulation (Playwrights Horizons) and Athol Fugard’s Sorrows and Rejoicings (Second Stage); regionally in The Taming of the Shrew (Kate, Shakespeare Theatre Company) and A Midsummer Night’s Dream (La Jolla Playhouse); and on Broadway in Ain’t Misbehavin’ (Tony nomination). She completed a TCG/PEW Charitable Trust National Theatre Artist Residency Program Fellowship at Center Theatre Group and has taught at California Institute of the Arts. Her film credits include Unbreakable, Sunshine State, The Crucible and Eye for an Eye. Her television credits include recurring roles on “Law & Order, SVU;” “Terminator: Sarah Connors Chronicles;” “ER;” and “Chicago Hope.” Visit CharlayneWoodard.com

Marc Masterson (Director) is in his fourth season with SCR. His recent directing credits include Death of a Salesman, Eurydice and Elemeno Pea at SCR, As You Like It for the Houston Shakespeare Festival, The Kite Runner at Actors Theatre of Louisville and the Cleveland Play House. He previously served for 11 years as artistic director of Actors Theatre of Louisville and produced the Humana Festival of New American Plays. During his Actors Theatre tenure, he produced more than 100 world premieres, expanded audiences and the repertoire, deepened arts education programs and spearheaded numerous community-based projects. His other Louisville directing credits include A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Shipwrecked! An Entertainment, Glengarry Glen Ross, The Tempest, Mary’s Wedding, The Crucible, Betrayal, As You Like It, The Importance of Being Earnest and Macbeth. The world premieres he directed at the Humana Festival include works by Lisa Dillman, Wendell Berry, Craig Wright, Eric Coble, Adam Bock, Gina Gionfriddo, Melanie Marnich, Charles Mee and Rick Dresser. He served as artistic director of City Theatre in Pittsburgh for 20 years, was founder and chairman of the Greater Pittsburgh Arts Alliance, and has been a theatre advisory panel member for the National Endowment for the Arts as well as numerous foundations. He won the Man of the Year Vectors Award, and received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Pittsburgh New Works Festival.

Ralph Funicello (Scenic Design) returns for his 28th season at SCR. Among his many SCR credits are the designs for 4000 Miles, Elemeno Pea, Misalliance, Hamlet, Brooklyn Boy, Major Barbara, The Circle, Private Lives, Six Degrees of Separation, She Stoops to Folly, Speed-the-Plow, Buried Child, Good and Da. His work has been seen on and off-Broadway, and at many resident theatres, including Lincoln Center Theater, Mark Taper Forum, The American Conservatory Theater, Huntington Theatre Company, Intiman Theatre, Seattle Repertory Theatre, Denver Center Theatre Company, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Guthrie Theater, McCarter Theatre Center, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Milwaukee Repertory Theatre, The Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford Shakespearean Festival of Canada, Royal Shakespeare Company, Theatre Royal Bath and The Old Globe, where he is an associate artist. He also has designed for New York City Opera, L.A. Opera and San Diego Opera. He has been nominated for New York Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle, Lucille Lortel and Tony awards. He has received the Merritt Award for Excellence in Design and Collaboration, and his designs have been recognized by the Bay Area Theatre Critics’ Circle, the LADCC, Drama-Logue, Backstage West and the United States Institute for Theatre Technology. He is currently the Powel≠l Chair in Set Design at San Diego State University.

Alex Jaeger (Costume Design) previously designed Cloudlands, Goldfish, What They Have, Skylight, But Not for Me, All My Sons, True West, Nostalgia, Play Strindberg and Two Sisters and a Piano at SCR. Jaeger’s additional credits include Mr. Burns at Guthrie Theater; Major Barbara at Theatre Calgary; Arcadia, Rock ’n’ Roll, Maple and Vine, Once in a Lifetime and more at A.C.T.; Two Sisters and a Piano at The Public Theater; Wiesenthal at the Acorn Theatre, NY; A Wrinkle in Time, A Streetcar Named Desire, Romeo and Juliet, Dead Man’s Cell Phone, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and August: Osage County at Oregon Shakespeare Festival; 15 productions at Magic Theatre, San Francisco; Romeo and Juliet, Gulls, Light and Gilgamesh at The Theatre @ Boston Court: 14 productions at Studio Theatre in Washington D.C.; and Looped, Doubt and Talley’s Folly at Pasadena Playhouse. He is the recipient of many awards, including two L.A. Ovations.

Russell H. Champa (Lighting Design) returns to SCR where he previously designed Completeness. His current and recent projects include To the Bone (Cherry Lane Theatre), Billy and Ray (Vineyard Theatre), The Qualms (Steppenwolf Theatre Company), When We Were Young and Unafraid (Manhattan Theatre Club), Intimacy (The New Group), Water by the Spoonful and Modern Terrorism (Second Stage Theatre) and The Twenty-Seventh Man (The Public Theater). On Broadway, Champa has designed In the Next Room or the vibrator play at the Lyceum Theatre and Julia Sweeney’s God Said “Ha!” also at the Lyceum. Other New York theaters he has designed for include Lincoln Center Theater, Playwrights Horizons, Classic Stage Company, New York Stage & Film, La MaMa E.T.C. Regionally, he has designed for American Conservatory Theater, The Wilma Theater, Arena Stage, The Old Globe, Trinity Repertory Company, Mark Taper Forum and The Kennedy Center. Thanks J + J. Peace.

Cricket S. Myers (Sound Design) is thrilled to return to SCR after designing Trudy and Max in Love, 4000 Miles, The Fantasticks, The Parisian Woman, Sight Unseen, Elemeno Pea, The Trip to Bountiful and Three Days of Rain. On Broadway, she earned a Tony nomination and a Drama Desk Award for her design of Rajiv Joseph’s Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo. Her designs off-Broadway include the 16-month run of The Marvelous Wonderettes (Westside Arts, Upstairs). She also has designed regionally at the Ahmanson Theatre (Sunshine Boys), Mark Taper Forum (Steward of Christendom, Joe Turner’s Come and Gone, Vigil, Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo, The Lieutenant of Inishmore), La Jolla Playhouse (Sideways, The Nightingale), Berkeley Repertory Theatre (In the Wake), Arena Stage (Book Club Play), Kirk Douglas Theatre (Twist Your Dickens, The Little Dog Laughed), Pasadena Playhouse (Crowns) and Geffen Playhouse (Play Dead, Wrecks, Some Girls, Emergency). Her other selected Los Angeles designs include The Colony Theater Company, The Antaeus Company, The Celebration Theater, Ford Amphitheater and Circle X Theatre. Myers has earned 16 Ovation nominations, and won LADCC and Garland awards in Los Angeles. cricketsmyers.com

Kelly L. Miller (Dramaturg) is the literary director of SCR and the co-director of the Pacific Playwrights Festival. Regionally, she has worked at Actors Theatre of Louisville, Williamstown Theatre Festival, and as the literary manager of Long Wharf Theatre and Playscripts, Inc. In 2008, she co-founded Creative Destruction, a company dedicated to the support of playwrights and the development of new work. Her favorite new play dramaturgy at SCR includes The Purple Lights of Joppa Illinois, Fast Company, The Parisian Woman, The Whale, How to Write a New Book for the Bible, The Prince of Atlantis, Completeness, Circle Mirror Transformation, Becky Shaw, Doctor Cerberus, Saturn Returns and Emilie. Miller has worked as a freelance consultant for The O’Neill National Playwrights Conference, The Kennedy Center, PlayPenn, The Playwrights’ Center, The Public Theater, Huntington Theatre Company, New Dramatists, NEA/Arena Stage, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, and Carnegie Mellon. She is a proud member of The Kilroys, an LA-based group of playwrights and producers advocating for gender parity in the American Theatre.

Sue Karutz (Stage Manager) has been part of the stage management team on more than a dozen productions at SCR. Elsewhere, she has toured with The Black Rider (London, San Francisco, Sydney, Los Angeles), Wicked (Chicago, L.A., San Francisco), Les Misérables (U.S., Canada, China and Korea) and Cirque du Soleil’s Corteo (Russia and Belgium.) Off-Broadway, she earned her Equity card on Howard Crabtree’s When Pigs Fly. Karutz is a graduate of El Camino College, UC Irvine and UC San Diego and has stage-managed for Center Theatre Group, Los Angeles Opera, Pasadena Playhouse, Falcon Theatre, Deaf West, American Conservatory Theater, La Jolla Playhouse, Idaho Shakespeare Festival, Alpine Theatre Project and The National Theatre of the Deaf, and she also spends some of her time running the show Fantasmic! at Disneyland Resort.

Kathryn Davies (Assistant Stage Manager) previously stage-managed Tartuffe, Reunion, Trudy and Max in Love, Ivy+Bean: the Musical, The Motherf**ker with the Hat, How to Write a New Book for the Bible, Sight Unseen, Topdog/Underdog, Sideways Stories from Wayside School, In the Next Room or the vibrator play, Doctor Cerberus, Ordinary Days, Our Mother’s Brief Affair, The Injured Party, The Brand New Kid and Imagine at SCR. Her favorite credits include Dividing the Estate at Dallas Theater Center; La Bohème at Tulsa Opera; The Mystery of Irma Vep at The Old Globe; Daddy Long Legs at Laguna Playhouse; Tosca and La Fille du Régiment at Opera Ontario; Of Mice and Men at Theatre Calgary/CanStage/Neptune Theatre; The Dresser at Manitoba Theatre Centre; Skylight at Tarragon Theatre; To Kill a Mockingbird at Citadel Theatre/Manitoba Theatre Centre/Theatre Calgary and The Designated Mourner at Tarragon Theatre and the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Davies also has worked as head theatre representative at the Toronto International Film Festival, Dubai International Film Festival, AFI Fest (part of the American Film Institute), Los Angeles Film Festival and as team leader at Sundance.