Anne Adams
anne@umaproductions.org
Anne is Uma's Literary Manager and is both a graduate of Emerson College in Boston and The School at Steppenwolf. Chicago acting credits include Cherry Orchard (Steppenwolf), Life and Limb (Pine Box Theatre), BottleCanDraft and Can You Spot Me? (Sandbox Theatre Project), The House of Bernarda Alba (Greasy Joan), and Sketchbook '04 (Collaboraction). Anne is the co-artistic director of Pine Box Theatre Company and this season, she will appear in their production of Kenneth Lonergan's This Is Our Youth directed by Matt Miller and will direct Paula Vogel's Hot N Throbbing. Anne loves reading plays, so serving as Uma Productions new literary manager is a dream come true. Much love to Mikhael and all of Uma for this wonderful opportunity! 

Eric Evenskaas
eric@umaproductions.org
joined Uma as its Development Director in December 2004 and also currently works in development at Steppenwolf Theatre Company. In more than fifty shows, Eric has done virtually everything on stage from tap dancing to Shakespearean sonnets to bad British accents. With Uma he has appeared in Recent Tragic Events, Enter Alice, and Pool of Bethesda (understudy). A California native (and he misses it dearly), Eric studied theatre at the University of California—San Diego, attended the British American Drama Academy (where he studied with John Barton and Deborah Warner), and worked with the La Jolla Playhouse before moving to Chicago. 

Jon Faris
jon@umaproductions.org
Jon is Uma's Managing Director and works as the Management Associate at Writers' Theatre in Glencoe. He previously worked at Steppenwolf Theatre Company as the Coordinator of The School at Steppenwolf, a 10-week ensemble-based summer training program for actors, and as the assistant to Artistic Director Martha Lavey and Executive Director David Hawkanson. Some of Jon's favorite projects include working as Frank Galati's Assistant Director on the world premiere of Loving Repeating (a new musical with music by Stephen Flaherty) and the Midwest premiere of Tony Kushner's Homebody/Kabul at Steppenwolf Theatre Company. Jon is thrilled to work with this company of friends and colleagues, and gives his gratitude and love to all of Uma, most especially his lovely fiancee, Steph. Jon is a proud graduate of Northwestern University.

Mikhael Tara Garver
mikhael@umaproductions.org
Mikhael is the Artistic Director and Co-founder of Uma Productions. She founded Uma five years ago with Kim Kelly and Jim Hornor. For Uma, her directing credits include Moment: Three Days of Rain/The Author's Voice by Richard Greenberg; The Lover by Harold Pinter (Chicago, IL); why they invented dancing, an adaptation she also choreographed and co-wrote from several plays by Charles Mee (produced twice in Chicago, IL and then successfully at the 2003 New York International Fringe Festival); The Pool of Bethesda by Allan Cubitt; Enter Alice, which she also choreographed; Recent Tragic Events by Craig Wright; and The Violet Hour by Richard Greenberg. Mikhael directed and choreographed Tintypes at American Theater Company and was the Associate Director on Hannah and Martin at Timeline Theatre after assisting Jeremy Cohen and choreographing for the Midwest Premiere in 2003. She was the assistant director for Martha Clarke on the world premiere of Hans Christian Anderson at American Conservatory Theater (San Francisco, CA); Charlie Newell on Hamlet and The Dead at Court Theatre (Chicago, IL); Gary Griffin on My Fair Lady at Court Theatre (Chicago, IL); and Jeremy Cohen for the world premiere of The Idiot Box by Michael Elyanow with Naked Eye Theatre Company (Chicago, IL). She was also the casting director for Naked Eye on Nickel and Dimed. Mikhael has also directed in festivals at Collaboraction and Northlight Theatre.

Stephanie Jacobs
steph@umaproductions.org
Stephanie serves as Uma's business manager, dealing with money and doing one of her favorite hobbies...data entry. Also an actor, Steph was seen in Uma's Enter Alice as Rose in 2004. By day she works as a salon coordinator and wedding coordinator at Art+Science salon, teaches spinning at West Loop Athletic Club, and spends most of the rest of her time doing crazy things like running long distances (half-marathons/marathons...) and practicing yoga in 105 degrees. A Northwestern Theatre/Music Theatre graduate, Steph met her future fiance, Uma's managing director, working on a play at school. She and Jon will be married in October 2007 in North Carolina, in the first Uma-centric wedding. Jon proposed on the 50-yard line of Soldier Field...beat that story...

Heidi Koling
Heidi is a brand spanking new company member to Uma and couldn't be more thrilled about it. She is their Casting Director and friend, even though she did not go to Northwestern University. Heidi most recently made a cameo appearance in Uma's part of Chicago's 365 project. Before this, however, you may have seen her cameo appearance in Collaboraction's Sketchbook '06 as the "voluptuous maid" in Heinrich Heine. Heidi really likes cameos. They're her favorite. She is also the proud "factotum" of Montague Films. Other film credits include Counting Backwards, Ends Runway and Ladybug. Some of her favorite stage roles include Woman in Furs in Marisol, Countess deLage in The Women, Renee in the world premier of The Blue Martini, and Ms. Minchin in The Little Princess. She graduated from UNC Greensboro in 2004 with a BFA in Acting. You may see her as the rhythm guitarist in the soon-to-be famous band, Storming the Castle. Finally, she would like to thank Mikhael for this awesome opportunity and Candace for introducing her to everyone she has ever known in her whole life.

Chris Plevin
chris@umaproductions.org
is Uma's Production Manager. Chris is an Uma Company Member and was Production Manager for Recent Tragic Events & Enter Alice and worked as a welder and carpenter for The Pool of Bethesda. Chris is the Production Manager at Chicago Shakespeare Theater where he has had the pleasure of collaborating with Shakespeare's Globe Theater, the Comèdie Française, the Abbey Theatre of Ireland, Second City Theatricals, and currently with Teatro Piccolo of Milan, Compagnie du Hanneton of France, and the Royal Shakespeare Company. He has served as Production Manager and Instructor at the National High School Institute at Northwestern University, an intensive 6 week theatre performance and design program for high school students. He has also worked in production management at the Goodman Theatre on the Stephen Sondheim musical Bounce! and as a stage/event manager for Collaboraction and Fusion 5 Productions. Chris is a graduate of Northwestern University.

John Zinn
john@umaproductions.org
John is Uma's Associate Artistic Director and also serves as Marketing Director. As an actor, his stage credits include Uma's The Violet Hour, The Pool of Bethesday, why they invented dancing (also at the New York Fringe Festival), and Uma's first show Moment: Three Days of Rain/The Author's Voice. He has acted at a number of other Chicago & West Coast theaters, including Timeline, Collaboraction, Artists Repertory Theatre and Tygre's Heart Shakespeare. Film credits include the acclaimed short The Fifth Horseman, the independent feature Into It, and he has done numerous commercial voice-overs. And you may have seen him in a loincloth in Altoids ads in your favorite magazines. John has an MFA in Acting from The Theatre School/DePaul University and is the Associate Director of Marketing at Steppenwolf Theatre Company.