Karen Zacarías was recently hailed by American Theatre Magazine as one of the 10 most-produced playwrights in the U.S. Her award-winning plays include The Copper Children, Destiny of Desire, Native Gardens, The Book Club Play, Legacy of Light, Mariela in the Desert, The Sins of Sor Juana and the adaptations of Just Like Us, Into the Beautiful North and How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accent. She is the author of 10 renowned Theatre for Young Audiences musicals (including Ella Enchanted: The Musical) and is the librettist for several ballets. She is one of the inaugural resident playwrights at Arena Stage, a core founder of the Latinx Theatre Commons—a large national organization of artists seeking to update the American narrative with the stories of Latinos—and she is the founder of the award-winning Young Playwrights’ Theater (YPT). YPT was cited by the Obama Administration as one of the best arts-education programs on the nation. Zacarías was voted 2018 Washingtonian of the Year by Washingtonian Magazine for her advocacy work involving the arts. She is an inaugural 2019 Sine Fellow for Policy Innovation at American University and is selected by The League of Professional Theatre Women to receive the 2019 Lee Reynolds Award, given annually to a woman in theater who has helped illuminate the possibilities for social, cultural or political change. In 2021, Zacarías was awarded a United States Artists Fellowship award. She lives in Washington, D.C. with her husband and three children. KarenZacarias.com

Deborah Wicks La Puma is a composer, music director, and orchestrator, and one of the most produced Theatre for Young Audiences artists working today. Some of her most popular musicals include Ella Enchanted (based on the book by Gail Carson Levine), Oliverio: A Brazilian Twist, Einstein is a Dummy with playwright Karen Zacarías, and the Off-Broadway hit She Persisted (based on the book by Chelsea Clinton) with playwright Adam Tobin. She has created three musicals with bestselling children's author Mo Willems: Elephant and Piggie’s We Are in a Play, Naked Mole Rat Gets Dressed: The Rock Experience, and Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus: The Musical. On the small screen, she has worked with Willems on the adaptation of Naked Mole Rat Gets Dressed: The Underground Rock Experience (released in 2022 on HBO Max) and the upcoming animated series “Unlimited Squirrels.” As a music director and orchestrator, she has worked with major regional theatre companies nationwide, including the Guthrie Theater, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, South Coast Repertory, La Jolla Playhouse and the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. She received her MFA from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts and her bachelor's degree from Stanford University. Her honors include the Harold Oaks Award for Sustained Excellence in TYA, an Off-Broadway Alliance Award for Best Family Musical, the Jane Chambers Playwriting Award, an NEA New American Works Grant, two Parents' Choice Awards, and a Helen Hayes Award for Outstanding Musical Adaptation. A proud Mexican-American and "Navy brat" who grew up in Brazil, Portugal, and California, La Puma is a member of TYA/USA, ASCAP, and The Dramatists Guild. Mother to three daughters and Mimi the Cat, La Puma lives in Southern California with her PR agent and loving husband, Chris.