Jackie Davis is making her debut at Central Square Theater in this URT/Nora co-production of Arabian Nights. She is the artistic director of the New Urban Theatre Laboratory, producers of  the annual NUTLab 5 & Dime.  On stage, she has performed roles in Hamlet (Gertrude), Bug (Agnes), and The Bluest Eye (Pauline). Film credits include The Company Men, Shuttle, and RIPD. Television credits include Body of Evidence and spots for Comcast and Dunkin’ Donuts.

Zena Chatila is thrilled to be returning to the cast of Arabian Nights. She is currently a sophomore at Wellesley College, where she studies theater and the sciences. Previous credits include A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Chicago, Pride and Prejudice, Urinetown (Marlborough Theatre); Dark of The Moon, The History Boys (Marlborough Drama Ensemble); The Bald Soprano, On the Razzle, Durang/Durang (Wellesley Upstage); You Can’t Take It With You (Wellesley College); and Commencement (Theatre M, Edinburgh Fringe Festival). Zena would like to thank Gleason Bauer, Anne and Ernie Scarbrough, Doug Lowry, and the Marlborough Drama Ensemble for their inspiration and her family for their endless love and support.

Yavni Bar-Yam is excited to be back in the wondrous world of Arabian Nights. He is an actor, puppeteer, playwright, and artist. Boston appearances include the ART/MIT Media Lab US premiere of Death and the Powers: the Robots’ Opera (as a misery), The Visit with Chelsea TheaterWorks (Lobi), Richard III with Actors’ Shakespeare Project (Dorset) and Zalmen, or the Madness of God at the Harvard Arts First Festival (Zalmen/puppet designer). He wrote, designed, and puppeteered the narrated shadow-puppet play Wilderness Dreams. In 2009, he designed and created a puppet accompaniment to Osvaldo Golijov’s song cycle Ayre and performed it with an ensemble of musicians at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music. His play Shrapnel was performed in the 2012 Boston Theater Marathon.

Terry Johnson has written plays that have been performed all over Great Britain and worldwide. He is the recipient of a dozen major theatre awards, including the Tony Award for Best Director of a Musical 2010, Olivier Award for Best Musical Revival, and Critics Circle Best Musical 2009 for La Cage Aux Folles. He also won the Olivier Award for Best Comedy of 1994 and of 1999, Playwright of the Year 1995, Critics Circle Best New Play 1995, The League of American Theatres and Producers Best Touring Play 2001, two Evening Standard Theatre Awards, Time Out Best Play Award 1995, Writers Guild Best Play 1995, Writers Guild Best play 1996, the Mayer-Whitworth Award 1993, and the John Whiting Award 1991. In addition, he has received over a dozen further nominations for various awards. West End credits include: The Duck House, End of The Rainbow, The Prisoner of Second Avenue, The Rise And Fall of Little Voice, La Cage Aux Folles, Rainman, Whipping It Up, One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest, Hitchcock Blonde, Entertaining Mr. Sloane, The Graduate, Dead Funny, Hysteria, Elton John’s Glasses, and The Memory Of Water. For the Hampstead Theatre, he has recently directed the acclaimed revival of his own play Hysteria, Race by David Mamet and Old Money.  He has twice worked with Steppenwolf Theatre in Chicago, directing John Malkovitch in The Libertine, which was nominated for five Jeff Awards, including Best Production, and Lost Land, both plays by Stephen Jeffries. For the Royal National Theatre, he has written and directed three productions: Cleo, Camping, Emmanuelle and Dick, The London Cuckolds, and Sparkleshark (by Philip Ridley). His film Way Upstream was chosen for the London Film Festival and Insignificance was the official British Entry at Cannes in 1985.

Daniel Gidron recently directed Master Class at Shakespeare & Company and Absurd Person Singular, The How and the Why, and Photograph 51 for The Nora Theatre Company, as well as the immensely popular collaboration between The Nora and Underground Railway Theater, Arabian Nights (2011 IRNE Award, Best Director of a Drama). At Central Square Theater, he has also directed the world premiere of Silver Spoon by Amy Merrill and Si Kahn, Hysteria, The Caretaker, The Lady With All The Answers, The Cherry Orchard in a world premiere translation by George Malko, and We Won’t Pay! We Won’t Pay! for The Nora.  An IRNE Award nominee for Best Director of a Drama for the company’s 2007 production of Buried Child, Mr. Gidron has directed 17 other productions for The Nora, including The Unexpected Man, How I Got That Story, Richard McElvain’s world premiere adaptation of Sophocles’ Antigone, Smelling a Rat, The Countess, Full Gallop, and Mere Mortals, among others. He has also directed for many other companies such as The Lyric Stage Company of Boston, Tremont Theatre, Opera Boston, Merrimack Repertory Theatre, New Repertory Theatre, Gloucester Stage, and La Mama ETC. In Israel, where he was born, he has directed at Habimah National Theater, Haifa Municipal Theatre, Arab Theatre, Beit Lessin, Dror Theatre, and Beersheva Municipal Theatre. He has taught at Tel Aviv University, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and Brandeis University. He currently teaches at UMass Boston. Other productions include The Chosen, Or, Groundswell, and November (Lyric Stage Company of Boston); Picasso at the Lapin Agile (New Repertory Theatre); The Consul at Opera Boston; and Golda’s Balcony (Elliot Norton and IRNE Awards, Best Solo Performance, Shakespeare & Company).