Named “one of Houston’s most talented creative forces” by Broadway World Houston, Aaron Alon (he/him) is an award-winning composer, writer, director, filmmaker, and teacher. His stage musicals include THE CHOSEN ONES, winner of the 2026 Broadway World Houston Critics' Choice Awards for best musical; THE GREAT WHITE WAY: THE BERT WILLIAMS MUSICAL, a semifinalist for the 2026 Pipeline Foundation Awards, a finalist for the 2023 Stanley Drama Award, and an Honorable Mention in the 2025 Relentless Awards from the American Playwriting Foundation; MAD! (co-written with Russell Sarre); and EVERYBODY’S SON (co-written with Alric Davis). He was one of six international finalists for the 2022 Fred Ebb Awards for musical theatre writers. His feature film musical BULLY was screened in festivals around the world, winning over twenty festival prizes. He's also a YouTube content creator with over 11 million views. His channel features comedic shorts, as well as videos of his musical theatre songs. Aaron’s classical music has been performed in eight countries on five continents, including 14 US states and DC. He is a member of the Recording Academy (voting member for the GRAMMY Awards), ASCAP, and Mu Phi Epsilon. He holds a doctorate in composition from Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music. Learn more at aaronalon.com.

Alric Davis (he/him) is driven by the age-old tradition of preserving history through storytelling. Since 2013, he has served as the Founding Artistic Director of The Sankofa Collective, a non-profit theatre organization in his hometown Houston, Texas with the purpose to expose, educate and enrich the lives of at-risk communities of color to theatre. He holds a B.F.A. from Howard University with a concentration in Musical Theatre and Playwriting. He is also a freelance performer, director, theatre critic and adjunct instructor in acting, playwriting, slam poetry and choreography. Some of his favorite directing credits are The Color Purple, Twelfth Night, The Bodyguard, Julius Caesar, Eclipsed, Burden of Proof, Marie Antoinette, Next to Normal, Miss Evers Boys, A Midsummer Night’s Dream and The Wiz (2019 – Broadway World Award winner). Alric is also a commissioned playwright with Remember The Resurrection in 2024 and Reap the Reparations for Theatre Alliance in D.C in 2020. His original play Different, Damaged, Damned appeared at the D.C. Capital Fringe Festival, his work Queen Peaches appeared at The Tank in New York and his play Bashful and the Noize won the 2021 Page to Stage Festival for the Kennedy Center.

Thrity Umrigar (she/her) is the best-selling author of the novels Bombay Time, The Space Between Us, If Today Be Sweet, The Weight of Heaven, The World We Found, The Story Hour, Everybody’s Son, The Secrets Between Us, Honor (a Reese Book Club pick), The Museum of Failures and Missing Sam. She is also the author of the memoir, First Darling of the Morning, and four children's picture books. An award-winning journalist, her articles have been published in national publications such as The New York Times, the Washington Post and the Boston Globe. Her books have been translated into several languages and published in over twenty countries. Umrigar was born in Bombay, India and came to the US when she was 21. She is a Distinguished Professor Emerita of English at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland., Umrigar was the recipient of the Nieman Fellowship to Harvard, a PEN/Beyond Margins finalist for The Space Between Us and winner of the Cleveland Arts Prize, a Lambda Literary award, and the Seth Rosenberg prize. Umrigar is active on the national lecture circuit and has spoken at book festivals, universities, literary societies, libraries, and civic organizations across the country. Learn more at umrigar.com.