Lisa Helmi Johanson (she/her) is a multi-hyphenate who has a passion for developing new works, authentic storytelling, and intentionality in representation as a means to further the work of racial justice and social equity. Broadway: POTUS, Or Behind Every Great Dumbass Are Seven Women Trying To Keep Him Alive; Tours: Into the Woods, Avenue Q; Off Broadway: Avenue Q, Einstein’s Dreams (OG), Rescue Rue (OG), Three Sisters, Women Beware Women, Soft Butter (Ars Nova AntFest). Select Regional: The Chinese Lady (Milwaukee Rep; Best Actress in a Play, Broadwayworld), Anything Goes (Arena Stage), Vietgone (Denver Center), Amadeus (Syracuse Stage), The Drowning Girls (Drama League, NYC). TV/Film: Law and Order: SVU, A Holiday Spectacular (Hallmark); Her first co-written piece, Kim Loo Gets a Redo, was selected for the 2021 Ice Factory Festival at the New Ohio Theater who subsequently produced The Porch on Windy Hill as part of their Now In Process series. Lisa and her husband are close to launching a sitcom podcast called “Preschool” in which she co-directs, acts, and sound designs. Her greatest joy is her Junho and Jake. May I tirelessly strive to better the world, that it may be worthy of your light.

For the lives lost in Atlanta and the ones that continue with more fear than before.

Lisa is repped by The Katz Company and HCKR. More at www.lisahelmijohanson.com and on IG: @hurricanehelmi

BROADWAY: Inherit the Wind; Ring of Fire; The Civil War; The Will Rogers Follies.

N.Y. CITY OPERA: Paul Bunyan

OFF-BROADWAY: Southern Comfort; Stars in Your Eyes; Winter Man; The Portable Pioneer & Prairie Show, and Woody Sez: The Life & Music of Woody Guthrie (Outer Critics’ Circle, Off-Broadway Alliance and Drama League Best Musical nominations)

LONDON: Dark of the Moon; Woody Sez (Evening Standard Best Musical nomination)

REGIONAL UK: Bonnie and Clyde; A Month In The Country.

REGIONAL US: Our Town; Man of La Mancha; Big River; Elmer Gantry; Finian’s Rainbow; The Will Rogers Follies; Fire On The Mountain; Lost Highway; Buddy; Pump Boys and Dinettes; The Love List; The Man Who Came to Dinner; On Golden Pond; Mark Twain’s River of Song; Almost Heaven, and The Porch on Windy Hill. (Best Actor nomination, Connecticut Critics’ Circle Awards)

With Woody Sez, he and his company have toured Europe, the British Isles, China, the Middle East and The United States. For his portrayal of Woody Guthrie, David won the Helen Hayes and the Joseph Jefferson Award for Best Actor.

He has performed at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, The Public Theater, The 92nd St Y, at Cooper Union, Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium, Chicago’s Navy Pier, with the North Carolina Symphony and the Baton Rouge Symphony Orchestra, on NPR, the BBC, Polskie Radio Troika, ORF Austria, Voice Of America, and The Louisiana Hayride.

Morgan Morse is an actor, musician, and writer originally from Connecticut. Selected credits: Southern Comfort (The Public Theater), Once, Godspell, and Stand By Your Man (Ivoryton Playhouse), Once (Cape Playhouse), and Ring of Fire everywhere from Houston to Vienna. In addition to theatre, he also writes and performs original music, and makes comedy videos online (linktr.ee/themorsecoda for more info!). So many thanks to Lisa, Sherry and David, my intrepid co-conspirators; Christine Mok, our brilliant dramaturg; and everyone at Northlight for your support, your work, and your faith in this piece.

Sherry directed the premiere of The Porch on Windy Hill at The Ivoryton Playhouse (Connecticut Critics nomination: Best Director). Off-Broadway and Regional directing and choreography credits include: The Bourgeois Gentleman, The Million Dollar Quartet, Pump Boys and Dinettes, Hank Williams: Lost Highway, Stand By Your Man, Stars in Your Eyes, Almost Heaven, Hopscotch and Anything Goes. In 2009, she directed the first regional theater production of Ring of Fire: The Music of Johnny Cash at North Carolina’s Flat Rock Playhouse. She has directed many subsequent productions around the US, as well as internationally — at Vienna’s English Theatre and The Deutsches Theater in Munich. As Associate Director of the critically acclaimed Woody Sez: The Life and Music of Woody Guthrie, Sherry has staged productions of the musical in Chicago at Northlight Theatre (Joseph Jefferson Award nomination: Best Musical Revue), Washington D.C. (Helen Hayes Award nomination: Best Musical), Florida, Pennsylvania, and its first National UK Tour.

Mara Ishihara Zinky is thrilled to be back at at Northlight, where she most recently designed The Porch On Windy Hill, and has worked as a carpenter. Other recent design credits include Night Watch (Raven Theatre), Last Hermanos (A Red Orchid Theatre), and Routes (Remy Bumppo Theatre). BFA in Scenic Design, The Theatre School at DePaul University.

Gregory is a Chicago costume designer and milliner.. His credits include: Chicago:Garbologist, Fireflies (Northlight Theatre); Once (Writers Theatre); Anna in the Tropics, Routes (Remy Bumppo Theatre) The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas (Theo Ubique Cabaret Theatre) 1919 (Steppenwolf Theatre); Enough to Let The Light In (Teatro Vista); Private Lives (Raven Theatre); Rent, Porchlight Revisits: Passing Strange (Porchlight Music Theatre); On the Greenbelt, Herschel and the Hanukkah Goblins (Strawdog Theatre); The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice (Court Theatre); Dream: A Community Reimaging of A Midsummer’s Night Dream (Chicago Shakespeare Theatre); The Facts of Life: Satan’s School for Girls, The Drag Seed (Hell in a Handbag Productions). Regional: Raisin (Skylight Music Theatre);  Blood at the Root (Millikin University, School of Theatre and Dance). Education: BA in Theatre Design, University of Illinois at Chicago. www.gregorygrahamdesign.com

Lindsay is very happy to be making her debut at Northlight Theatre. She has worked with theatres all over the Chicago area including Steppenwolf, Drury Lane Theatre, Goodman Theatre, Chicago Shakespeare Theatre, Lookingglass Theatre, Silk Road Rising, Blair Thomas & Co, Haymarket Opera, Roosevelt University’s Opera Program, Wheaton College Opera Program, Chicago Dramatists, and the Phoenix Theatre and Summit Performance of Indianapolis. She received her MFA in lighting and scenic design from Northwestern University. Lindseylyddandesign.com

Rick has composed and designed sound for numerous Chicago-area theaters, including Steppenwolf, Lookingglass, Northlight, Congo Square, Writers, Chicago Children’s Theatre, Court, and American Blues. Regional credits include Arena Stage and Roundhouse Theatre in Washington D.C., Alliance Theatre in Atlanta, South Coast Rep in Southern California, The Getty, Boston Playwrights’ Theatre, Arden Theatre Company in Philadelphia, 2nd Stage and Playwrights Horizons in New York City, Actors Theatre of Louisville and Portland Playhouse. He is an artistic associate of Lookingglass, an artistic affiliate with American Blues. He composed the music for The Thanksgiving Play at 2nd Stage Theatre on Broadway. Sims won a Jeff Award for sound design for Lookingglass’ Moby Dick, Frankenstein, and Hephaestus, and a BTA award for Congo Squares Brothers In the Dust. Sims also wrote the book, music, and lyrics for Lookingglass Hillbilly Antigone. 

Christine is a dramaturg, designer, and scholar. Recent dramaturgy credits include Lloyd Suh’s The Heart Sellers (Milwaukee Rep), Lloyd Suh’s The Far Country (Atlantic Theater Company), and Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig’s Snow in Midsummer (OSF). She is assistant professor of English at the University of Rhode Island. She has published in Theatre Survey, Theatre Journal, JADT, PAJ: A Performing Arts Journal, Modern Drama, and the Journal of Asian American Studies. She is co-editor with Joshua Chambers-Letson of Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig’s China Trilogy: Three Parables of Global Capital (Bloomsbury, 2021). She is a member of Wingspace Theatrical Design.

KATIE KLEMME is pleased to return to Northlight where her credits include Georgiana & Kitty: Christmas at Pemberley, Intimate Apparel, Mr. Dickens’ Hat, The Wickhams: Christmas at Pemberley, Landladies, and You Can’t Take It With You. Recent credits include Villette (Lookingglass), Tiger Style!, Wife of a Salesman, and Into the Woods (Writers); Mamma Mia! and Much Ado About Nothing (Lake Tahoe Shakespeare Festival), Hamilton: An American Musical (Chicago, Sub); Sorin: A Notre Dame Story (National Tour); If I Forget, Indecent (Victory Gardens); Mr. Burns, The Realistic Joneses, others (Theater Wit); Mother and Me (Geva Theater Center, Rochester, NY). She was resident production stage manager at American Theater Company from 2008-2018 where highlights included the world premieres of Disgraced (Pulitzer Prize), The Project(s), and columbinus (Chicago and ArtsEmerson, Boston). She is on the faculty at Loyola University Chicago and is a proud member of Actors Equity Association.