The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe

Jane Wagner has won numerous awards, including two Peabodys, four Emmys, a Writer’s Guild Award for her work in television, and the seldom-given New York Drama Critics’ Circle Special Award for her Broadway success, The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe. Wagner made her writing debut with the acclaimed CBS teleplay entitled J.T. (1969) and her book of the same title. In 1971, Wagner began working with Lily Tomlin on an Edith Ann album, Edith Ann: And That’s the Truth (1972). Wagner’s later credits include two more Grammy-nominated albums, Modern Scream (1975) and On Stage (1978), which she also produced, eight Lily Tomlin television specials (1973 – 82), three Edith Ann animated specials (1994 – 96), and Edith Ann’s book, My Life, So Far (1994).

In 1977, Wagner wrote and directed for Broadway Appearing Nitely and also wrote the screenplay for The Incredible Shrinking Woman. In 1985, Wagner brought The Search to Broadway where it became an acclaimed play of the Broadway season. The hardcover edition of The Search became the first play in 20 years to appear on the New York Times Best-Seller list.

In 2019, Lincoln Center honored Wagner and Tomlin with a retrospective of their careers, Two Free Women. In 2020, Wagner was honored with the prestigious Lambda Literary Visionary Award, for her innovative work.

Leigh Silverman’s Broadway credits include Grand Horizons (2ST; Williamstown Theater Festival), The Lifespan of a Fact (Studio 54), Violet (Roundabout; Tony nomination), Chinglish (Goodman Theatre; Longacre), and Well (Public Theater; ACT; Longacre). Recent Off-Broadway credits include Soft Power (Public Theater; Ahmanson Theater/Curran Theater; Drama Desk nomination), Tumacho (Clubbed Thumb), Hurricane Diane (New York Theatre Workshop; Two River Theater), Harry Clarke (Vineyard Theatre/Audible, Minetta Lane; Lortel nomination), Wild Goose Dreams (Public Theater; La Jolla Playhouse), Sweet Charity (New Group), On The Exhale (Roundabout), and The Outer Space (Public Theater). Encores include Bring Me to Light, Violet, The Wild Party, and Really Rosie. Silverman received 2011 and 2019 Obie Awards for Sustained Excellence. Upcoming projects include Suffs (Public Theater).

Cecily Strong is best known for her work as a cast member on Saturday Night Live, where she returns for her 10th season. Strong received back-to-back Emmy nominations in 2020 and 2021 for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series for her work on SNL. She has entertained viewers with her standout “Weekend Update” character, Cathy Anne, Michael Che’s wacky chain-smoking neighbor who offers her opinions on current events. Her recurring character Gemma, a British “singer” with various boyfriends, also quickly became a fan favorite. She has earned rave reviews for her notable Judge Jeanine Pirro, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, and Melania Trump impressions. Strong has co-hosted “Weekend Update” alongside both Seth Meyers and Colin Jost.

Most recently, Strong starred on Apple TV+’s 2021 hit musical series, Schmigadoon!, on which she also serves as a producer. Her memoir, This Will All Be Over Soon, was released in summer 2021. In Chicago, Strong improvised regularly at iO and served as an understudy for the Second City Main Stage and E.T.C. shows. She performed as a member of the Second City national touring company and has also appeared at the Chicago SketchFest, Chicago Just for Laughs, the New York Sketch Fest, and the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Strong has appeared in the films The Female Brain and Paul Feig’s reboot of Ghostbusters, as well as Melissa McCarthy’s The Boss, The Bronze, and The Meddler. Additionally, Strong headlined the 2015 White House Correspondents’ Dinner. Strong was raised in Oak Park, Illinois, and has a BFA in theater from the California Institute of the Arts.

James Alsop most recently choreographed the Peacock musical TV series Girls5eva, executive produced by Tina Fey. Her choreography has also been featured on the FX series Pose, the Netflix musical series Soundtrack, and the HBO Max reboot of Gossip Girl. Up next her choreography will be featured on the upcoming season of Emily in Paris on Netflix. In addition, she is currently co-choreographing the upcoming Broadway musical The Devil Wears Prada.

She began her career as co-choreographer of Beyoncé’s videos, tour, and promotional materials for the multiplatinum selling records “Who Run the World (Girls),” “Dance For You,” and “Love on Top.” She also assisted in choreographing the megahit music video “Booty” by Jennifer Lopez and worked with Oscar-nominated director Paul Thomas Anderson for the HAIM music video “Just A Little of Your Love.” After choreographing the entire season of Maya Rudolph and Martin Short’s variety series Maya & Marty, she was asked by Tina Fey and Jeff Richmond to choreograph season three of the Emmy-nominated series The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt and has since worked for shows on NBC, Showtime, Netflix, and others. When not working with top stars, she teaches around the country and world, educating young artists and dancers to be who they are in their art form and love it.

Mary Hamrick’s New York credits include One Thrilling Combination (The Public Theater, dir. Ted Sperling), Leisure, Labor, Lust (HERE), and Portals (Dusan Tynek Dance Theatre). Regional credits include Oh Hello tour (dir. Alex Timbers) and Peter Pan: The Boy Who Hated Mothers (Blank Theatre Co.). Hamrick has worked as an associate on many Broadway productions including King Kong, The Cher Show, Rocky, and Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. Currently, Hamrick is designing the world premiere of Other World at Delaware Theatre Company, directed by Adrienne Campbell-Holt, and written by Hunter Bell, Jeff Bowen, and Anne McNamee, with art direction by WETA Workshop.

Christine Jones is the creator and artistic director of the critically acclaimed Theatre For One and a director of one-of-a-kind experiences for companies like Rag & Bone and productions such as Queen of the Night (Drama Desk Award for Best Unique Experience). She is a Tony- and Olivier Award–winning set designer for Harry Potter and the Cursed Child Parts I & II and received a Tony Award for American Idiot. During the pandemic, she conceived and directed SOCIAL! the social distance dance club with Steven Hoggett and David Byrne at the Park Avenue Armory, where she is also an artist-in-residence, and curated Radiohead’s digital art exhibition KID A MNESIA, which launched in November 2021. Upcoming credits include Macbeth (starring Daniel Craig and Ruth Negga).

Anita Yavich designed the Broadway productions of Fool for Love, Venus in Fur, Chinglish, and Anna in the Tropics. Her New York design credits include Soft Power and Oedipus El Rey at the Public; The Mother at the Atlantic Theatre Company; Apologia at the Roundabout; The View Upstairs at the Lynn Redgrave Theatre; Nathan the Wise, The Caucasian Chalk Circle, Orlando, Venus in Fur, New Jerusalem, and Texts for Nothing at Classic Stage Company; Thom Pain, Big Love, Kung Fu, Golden Child, and Iphigenia 2.0 at Signature Theater; The Oldest Boy at Lincoln Center Theater; Tales from Red Vienna and The Explorer’s Club at Manhattan Theatre Club; Lives of the Saints and All in the Timing at Primary Stages; The Legend of Georgia McBride, The Submission, Coraline the Musical, and The Wooden Breeks at Manhattan Class Company; and Macbeth, Coriolanus, and Svejk at Theater for a New Audience. She has received numerous awards for her designs, including the Ovation Award, Drama Desk Award, Lucille Lortel Award, IRNE Award, Obie Award, Henry Hewes Awards, and the Irene Shariff Young Master Award.

Her opera credits include Aida at San Francisco Opera; Cyrano De Bergerac at La Scala, the Metropolitan Opera, and Royal Opera House (Covent Garden); Les Troyens at the Metropolitan Opera; Facing Goya at Spoleto Festival and Singapore Festival; La Hija de Rappaccini with Gotham Chamber Opera; The Rape of Lucretia at Houston Grand Opera; Ainadamar at Tanglewood; The Gambler at Opera Zuid (Holland); Steve Reich’s Three Tales international tour; Salome, Fidelio, Die Walkure, and Das Rheingold at Washington National Opera; Arsace Il at San Francisco Opera; Madame Butterfly at Houston Grand Opera and Grand Théâtre de Genève; and The Silver River at Spoleto and Lincoln Center Festival. She has also designed puppets and costumes for The Sound of Music at Salzburger Marionetten Theater. She is currently working on a new production of Der Ring des Nibelungen at Opera Australia.

Stacey Derosier credits include The Last of the Love Letters (Atlantic Theater Company); The Great Filter (Wild Project); PEEP SHOW (Soho Rep, Project #1); Here We Are (Theater for One); All the Natalie Portmans (MCC Theater); Stew (Page 73); The Copper Children (Oregon Shakespeare Festival); Men on Boats (Baltimore Center Stage); for all the women who thought they were Mad (Soho Rep); White Noise, conceived by Daniel Fish (NYU Skirball); Playing Hot! (Pipeline Theater Company); Mies Julie & Dance of Death (Classic Stage Company); and No One Is Forgotten and Lewiston/Clarkston (Rattlestick Playwright’s Theater). Derosier is a 2018 Lilly Award Daryl Roth Prize recipient.

Elisheba Ittoop’s designs and original music have been heard at the Kennedy Center, the Public Theater, Roundabout Theatre, American Repertory Theatre, Playwrights Horizons, Manhattan Theatre Club, MCC, Guthrie Theater, Atlantic Theatre, New York Theatre Workshop, American Conservatory Theatre, Williamstown Theater Festival, Steppenwolf Theatre, Signature Theatre, Soho Rep, Shakespeare Theatre Company, National Gallery of Art, Bonnaroo Music Festival, Okeechobee Music Festival, and the Life is Beautiful Music Festival. Ittoop is a sound designer and composer for the New York Times. She has produced podcasts and written music for NPR, CNN, Audible, WGBH, WFMT, and Sony Music. She attended New York University and the North Carolina School of the Arts. Visit ElishebaIttoop.com.

Joseph Whitmeyer hails from central New York State. After a detour styling wigs for Walt Disney World, he returned as a hairstylist on several Broadway shows including 42nd Street and Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. Joseph then began working in tv/film as a key hairstylist on Blue Bloods, Madam Secretary, The Wolf of Wall Street, and The Normal Heart. He has been a member of the Saturday Night Live hair team for 13 seasons, serving as a key stylist for film units and earning four Emmy Awards. He is also owner/operator of a wig design and rental company Whitmeyer Wigs.

Jeremy Chernick has worked on over 50 Broadway shows. Recent Broadway credits include Pass Over, Company, Beetlejuice, and Hadestown. Chernick worked on The Shed’s Dragon Spring Phoenix Rise and created special effects for Disney Theatrical Group’s Beauty & the Beast, Frozen, Aladdin, Hunchback of Notre Dame, and Tarzan. West End credits include Harry Potter and the Cursed Child and Let the Right One In. Chernick won an Emmy Award for NBC’s Jesus Christ Superstar Live and serves as head designer for J&M Special Effects in Brooklyn.

Justin Scribner is a stage manager, producer, playwright, poet, and self-care advocate. He was the production stage manager of the Tony-winning Broadway revival of Once on This Island and the associate director of its national tour. Other Broadway stage management credits include The Crucible, Rock of Ages, A Chorus Line, RENT, The Times They Are A-Changin’, Lennon, Pacific Overtures, and Little Shop of Horrors. Scribner is the producing director of the Forest of Arden, as well as an adjunct professor for the MFA stage management program at Columbia University. His first collection of poetry and short stories, every grain of sand, was published in 2020.