Maggie Moore Abdow, Development Manager, began her tenure with Central Square Theater as resident company Underground Railway Theater’s  Education Director in 2004. Bringing 25 years of theater performance, direction, and teaching to CST,  Maggie has created, directed, and taught a wide range of URT’s award-winning programs, including Page to Stage, A Young Playwright’s Program, Youth Underground, Underground Players and residencies at MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics, Harvard’s Project Zero, Boston Museum of Fine Arts, and the Institute of Contemporary Art. In 2014, Maggie transitioned from Education to Development. In her new role, Maggie works closely with CST leadership to nurture and cultivate donor relationships and coordinate all fundraising efforts. Maggie holds a BFA  and MA in theater education from Emerson College and is a Massachusetts certified teacher in K-12 theater.

Lee Mikeska Gardner*, she/her (Artistic Director & Understudy) continues her mission of creating access and opportunity for underserved artists. For eight years with The Nora Lee focused on the feminine voice. In this, her tenth year, Central Square Theater builds on the history of both The Nora and Underground Railway with stories and artists across a spectrum of our community. Lee has directed, among others, The Hound of the Baskervilles (2024), The Rocky Horror Show (with Jo Michael Rezes), Arcadia, Cloud 9 (Elliot Norton, Outstanding Director and Production), Saving Kitty with Jennifer Coolidge and The Midvale High School 50th Reunion with Gordon Clapp. Lee performed the title role in Emilie: La Marquise du Châtelet Defends Her Life Tonight (Norton Award, Outstanding Actress), Marjorie Prime, Precious Little, The Revolutionists, and The Half Life of Marie Curie. In her tenure, Lee produced or co-produced over 35 productions, primarily with women directors, earning multiple Elliot Norton and IRNE awards and nominations. Hailing from the greater Washington, D.C. area Lee is a Helen Hayes Award winning actor and director spending a decade with Woolly Mammoth Theater as an Associate Artist, seven years with The Shenandoah Playwright’s Retreat working with playwrights on new work and was a company member with Washington Shakespeare Company, Potomac Theater Project, an Artistic Associate at 1st Stage, Charter Theatre and Keegan Theatre. Lee has taught or served as a guest artist at Colleges and Universities across the nation including locally Emerson, Leslie, and Northeastern. Lee earned her B.F.A. from George Mason University and her M.F.A. from the Catholic University of America.

Hatem Adell is thrilled to be back at Central Square Theater, having previously assisted Daniel Gidron on The Nora Theatre Company’s productions of Hysteria and Silver Spoon. He is a writer, translator, and director. Previous directing credits include Edward Albee’s The Zoo Story and Christopher Durang’s Beyond Therapy.

Anna Ziegler is an award-winning playwright whose play PHOTOGRAPH 51 won London’s 2016 WhatsOnStage award for Best New Play. It was selected as a “Best of the Year” play by The Washington Post (twice) and The Telegraph.

Her play BOY was nominated for the 2016 John Gassner Award by the Outer Critics Circle. In 2017, The Williamstown Theatre Festival, The Manhattan Theatre Club and The Geffen Playhouse premiered her play ACTUALLY (winner of the Ovation Award in Los Angeles for Playwriting of an Original Play), and The Roundabout Theatre Company produced THE LAST MATCH.

Her work has also been produced on the West End (PHOTOGRAPH 51, starring Nicole Kidman, winner of the Evening Standard Award for Best Actress) and at The Old Globe, Seattle Rep, The Ensemble Studio Theatre, The Magic Theatre, Playwrights Realm, City Theatre, and many more, and developed at the Sundance Theatre Lab, The O’Neill Playwrights Conference, NY Stage & Film, Soho Rep and the Cape Cod Theatre Project, amongst others.

She holds commissions from The Roundabout, The Geffen Playhouse, Second Stage Theater, Seattle Rep, and Grove/Whitman Productions.

Anna is developing a television series for HBO and a screenplay for Scott Free Productions. Oberon Books has published a collection of her work entitled Anna Ziegler: Plays One.