Matt choreographed Will Ferrell’s Broadway debut, You’re Welcome America at the Cort Theater. His Off-Broadway credits include Rooms, A Rock Romance and the 2012 revival of Carrie, the musical. Matt was the assistant director to Casey Nicholaw on the Broadway production All About Me and was also the Movement Director for Wicked creator, Stephen Schwartz’s only opera, Seance on a Wet Afternoon at Lincoln Center. For fourteen seasons he was the resident choreographer and act-builder for the internationally acclaimed touring company of Circus Smirkus as well as the "Big" Piano Dance Choreographer for eight years at FAO Schwarz Toy Store in New York City. His work has appeared at The Alley Theater, St. Louis Repertory Theater, PCPA Theaterfest, Rubicon Theater Company, Geva Theater, Surfight Theatre, Irish Repertory Theatre, La MaMa, and the Big Apple Circus. Matt is a 2019 Harvey Fellows Scholar and recipient of the 2019 Joel Zwick Award for Directing at Brooklyn College where he received his MFA in Theater Directing in 2020. He is currently collaborating with Gordon Gano, lead singer of the Violent Femmes on a new musical utilizing the band's catalogue of hits from their Platinum-selling debut album. Earlier this year, Matt served as the Creative Director and show-writer for Eclipse Day at Saluki Stadium celebrating the 2024 Total Solar Eclipse. He is currently a Tenure-Track Assistant professor of Theater & Dance at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, IL.

Angela Shultz is a MAC (Manhattan Association of Cabarets and Clubs) Award winning singer, actor and teaching artist who has appeared in cabaret clubs across NYC and was part of the 100thAnniversary US/Canada tour of Titanic as Alice Beane. She appeared in NYC productions including Assassins (Sara Jane Moore) This Very Moment (songs of Brett Kristofferson), Making God and Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (Midtown Int’l Festival), and A Casual Gathering (Theatre for the New City). She has many regional performing credits including Closer Than Ever (Miss Byrd), Titanic (Alice Beane) and has been in several incarnations of Nunsense! Angela also wrote book and lyrics for the musical In Her Place, partially based on the life of Annie Smith Peck. Directing credits include productions of Steel Magnolias (NYC), Matt & Ben, Emma by Stephen Karam, Working, Fools, Carousel, Babes in Arms, Godspell and others. At SIU, she served as director for She Loves Me, Sondheim Tribute Revue and Philoten and as musical director for Ride the Cyclone and Little Women. She also directed The Bridges of Madison County for McLeod Summer Playhouse. Angela has served on voice and theater faculty at NYC's Professional Performing Arts School and Wingspan Arts as well as Fontbonne University, University of Memphis, Missouri Baptist University and Jefferson College. As a teaching artist, she directed and taught a variety of theatre and music courses for Stages St. Louis, Playhouse on the Square, Theatre Memphis and others. She is the co-founder of Stomping Ground Theatre Company, a professional theatre which began in NYC. At SIU, she serves as head of the BFA in Musical Theater program.She thanks her students who inspire her daily!

M.K. is a graduate of Southern Illinois University with an MFA in Scenic Design for the Theater. She was previously Visiting Faculty in scenic Properties and Design at the University of Pittsburgh, Adjunct Instructor of Paints and Scenic Design at Point Park University in Pittsburgh, and Adjunct Faculty in Scenic Design at Marywood University in Scranton, Pennsylvania. For the past 9 years she has been working as a freelance set designer, props artisan, and scenic painter at various locations including: LaCrosse Community Theater in LaCrosse, Wisconsin (Design), Point Park University in Pittsburgh (Design), Prime Stage in Pittsburgh (Props & Design), The New Hazlett Theater in Pittsburgh (Design), the Alabama and Oregon Shakespeare Festivals (Painting), McLeod Summer Playhouse (Props, Paints, & Design), and Kansas State University (Design, Paints, and Props).

Jaemin is a native of South Korea and began his career as a lighting designer in 2005 by designing the opera "La Traviata" in South Korea. He has designed more than 100 productions in various genres such as plays, musicals, operas, and dances. While he was in South Korea, he worked as a full-time lighting supervisor and resident designer in the national theatre with about 1,200 seats in Daegu, South Korea. His unique background in studying vocal music during his undergraduate courses has given him a keen ear for analyzing and expressing music. He has directed opera and loves musical works. He was the most popular lighting designer in Cleveland for the 2021-2022 season. He had nominated for Best Lighting Design of A Play Or Musical at the 2022 Broadway World Cleveland Awards for all seven shows I designed during that season and I had the honor of being a winner for one of them. In addition, he won the 2023 Barbizon Lighting Company Jonathan Resnick Lighting Design Award. The United States Institute of Theatre Technology (USITT) for Young Designers Managers and Technicians in the Performing Arts presents the annual award.

Wendi Zea is an Associate Professor, and Resident Costume Designer, in the School of Theater and Dance at SIU. As well as designing and mentoring student designers, she teaches classes in costume design, costume history, and costume crafts. Favorite shows at SIU include The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe and Irving Berlin’s White Christmas; favorite MSP designs include Jungle Book. She has also designed costumes for numerous professional theatres including Cortland Repertory Theatre, Porthouse Theatre, and Northern Stage, as well as designing the national tour of Noel: the Musical.

Matt is the staff technical director for SIU’s School of Theater and Dance Hailing from Cleveland, OH, Matt was previously a lead carpenter for MadeFirst: Experiential Marketing in Nashville, TN. Over the past year, he has built and erected an array of scenic installations for such events as SuperBowl LVIII, the NBA All-Star Game 2024, McDonald’s Investor’s Day 2024, and the 2024 Gatorade Player of the Year Awards amongst others. Matt formerly served as the technical direction apprentice for the Cleveland Playhouse in Cleveland, OH, a lead theater technician for Cuyahoga Community College, and lead carpenter for McLeod Summer Playhouse in Carbondale, IL. He holds a BA in technical theater and design from Cleveland State University and was an MFA candidate, with an emphasis in technical direction, from 2020-2023 at Southern Illinois University Carbondale.