Margaret Atwood was born in 1939 in Ottawa and grew up in northern Ontario, Quebec, and Toronto. She received her undergraduate degree from Victoria College at the University of Toronto and her master’s degree from Radcliffe College.

Atwood is the author of more than forty books of fiction, poetry, and critical essays. Her MaddAddam trilogy – the Giller and Booker prize-nominated Oryx and Crake (2003), The Year of the Flood (2009), and MaddAddam (2013) – is currently being adapted for television. Some of her recent non-fiction books are Payback: Debt and the Shadow Side of Wealth (2008) and In Other Worlds: SF and the Human Imagination (2011). Her novels include The Blind Assassin, winner of the Booker Prize; Alias Grace, which won the Giller Prize and the Premio Mondello; and The Robber Bride, Cat’s Eye, The Handmaid’s Tale –a multiple Emmy-award-winning TV series with MGM and Hulu – and The Penelopiad. The Heart Goes Last was published in September 2015; following is Hag-Seed, a novel revisitation of Shakespeare’s play The Tempest for the Hogarth Shakespeare Project, and Angel Catbird, a graphic novel with co-creator Johnnie Christmas. Atwood lives in Toronto with writer Graeme Gibson.

Lila York danced with the Paul Taylor Dance Company for 12 years, appearing in over 60 works. Since 1990 she has choreographed works for Birmingham Royal Ballet, the Royal Danish Ballet, San Francisco Ballet, Boston Ballet, Norwegian National Ballet, Houston Ballet, Pacific Northwest Ballet, Scottish Ballet, Washington Ballet, Pennsylvania Ballet, Tulsa Ballet, Atlanta Ballet, Milwaukee Ballet, Ballet West, Colorado Ballet, Louisville Ballet, Ballet Memphis, Kansas City Ballet, Dayton Ballet, Cincinnati Ballet, Orlando Ballet, American Repertory Ballet, Connecticut Ballet Theatre, NBA Ballet of Tokyo, The David Parsons Company, The Alvin Ailey Repertory Ensemble, and The Juilliard Dance Ensemble. She recently premiered a new work for the Paul Taylor Dance Company that has been taken into the permanent repertory of the company. From 1989 to 1992 Ms. York directed a program for the production of new choreography at Pacific Northwest Ballet. She graduated from Skidmore College with a degree in English literature.

Liz Vandal started her career as a self-taught fashion designer in 1988, bringing her originality to dance, circus and films. She has collaborated with choreographers and dance companies around the world like Marie Chouinard, Kevin O’Day, Septime Webre, Paris Opera Ballet and Stuttgart Ballet. Vandal designed flamboyant costumes for Cirque du Soleil’s productions of OVO, Viaggio and Sonor. She also created 3,000 costumes for the 2015 European Games’ closing ceremony in Azerbaijan. In 2018, Vandal’s costumes were showcased in Alice (in wonderland) (Hong Kong Ballet) and The Wizard of Oz (Kansas City Ballet, Royal Winnipeg Ballet, Colorado Ballet) both created by Septime Webre.

Clifton Taylor has created theatrical designs for Broadway as well as opera, theater and dance companies around the world. His designs have been commissioned for the repertories of the Mikhailovsky Theater, Russia; Sardono Dance Theater, Indonesia; The London Philharmonia, UK; The Hamburg Elbe Philharmonie, Germany; American Ballet Theater, US; Scottish National Ballet, UK; the Ballet Company of Rio de Janeiro, Brasil; Maggio Danza, Italy; Ballet de Lorraine, France as well as other major companies in Europe, Asia and South America. Mr. Taylor is particularly interested in the development of new operas and ballets and has worked with Ms. York on many projects since 1995. This season he has upcoming commissions in the US, the United Kingdom, Chile, Hong Kong, Germany and Italy. For more information, please visit designcurve.com.

Anshuman Bhatia’s designs for opera, theater and dance have been seen at Beijing’s National Center for the Performing Arts, Dublin’s Civic Theater, Soho Rep, The Public, The Atlantic, Arena Stage in Washington D.C., The Park Avenue Armory, Bard Music Festival, The Juilliard School, Madison Opera, Classic Stage Company, HERE Arts Center, LoftOpera, Ma-Yi Theater Company, Keen Company, Pacific Symphony, Puerto Rican Traveling Theater, Virginia Arts Festival, Rattlestick Theater, The Sheen Center, Troy’s EMPAC. Upcoming work can be seen at Kentucky Opera, Cleveland Playhouse, Santa Fe Opera and D.C’s Shakespeare Theater. M.F.A. NYU. www.bhatiadesign.com

Sean Nieuwenhuis is a Canadian projection and media designer whose work encompasses a wide variety of stage, screen, and event projects. With a formal background in broadcast production and years of experience in staging and design. Nieuwenhuis’ work adapts ever evolving presentation technology and tools to help tell stories.

Theatrical credits include SUMMER: The Donna Summer Musical, Dr. Zhivago and Jesus Christ Superstar on Broadway; The Who’s Tommy, JCS, Wanderlust, Evita and Cabaret at the Stratford Festival; Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, JCS, SUMMER and Sideways at the La Jolla Playhouse; Christopher Plumbers’ one man show A Word or Two for the Ahmanson Theatre and The Stratford Festival; Rear Window at the Hartford Stage; The Mountaintop, Little Prince and Mary and Max for Theatre Calgary and Anne of Green Gables for the Charlottetown Festival. Past opera credits include Faust for the Metropolitan Opera, Macbeth at the L.A. Opera, The Manchurian Candidate for Minnesota Opera, Vancouver Opera’s production of Nixon In China. Sean also designed the projections for the Royal Winnipeg Ballet’s Going Home Star - Truth and Reconciliation.

In the world of large-scale events, Sean was privileged to be the visuals director for the 2017 Invictus Games Opening and Closing Ceremonies and the Vancouver 2010 Paralympic Opening and Closing ceremonies. Outside of the theatre, his production studio, Sensory Overload Productions Inc., provides visual design support and production services for projects around the globe.