Michelle Azar is an NYU graduate with a BFA in Drama and an MA in Drama Therapy. She is currently touring as Ruth Bader Ginsburg in the world premiere of Rupert Holmes’ All Things Equal.

Michelle recently filmed the upcoming Amazon series Joseph of Egypt, portraying Queen Neni. Her selected television credits include NCIS: Los Angeles, The Magicians, Criminal Minds, and How to Get Away with Murder. On stage, she appeared as Masha in the New York production of Mayakovsky and Stalin at the Cherry Lane Theatre, and most recently performed in the Yiddish Fiddler on the Roof in concert with the Folksbiene Theatre at The Soraya.

She received the 2016 Stage Raw Award for Best Actress for her performance in My Barking Dog. Her voice work can be heard across multiple animated series for Netflix as well as in video games.

Michelle’s acclaimed one-woman show, From Baghdad to Brooklyn, tours nationally following its premiere at the United Solo Festival on Theatre Row. The piece explores her diverse American, Israeli, and Middle Eastern upbringing, uncovering the complex emotional landscape it shaped. Through storytelling and performance, the work seeks to ask essential questions that release constriction and invite greater understanding and peace.

Yoni Avi Battat (he/him) is a composer, multi-instrumentalist, educator, and vocalist whose work brings Arab music into the soundscape of American Jewish life through performance, prayer, and composition. He performs on viola, violin, oud, and voice, drawing especially from his Iraqi-Jewish heritage and a deep engagement with questions of ancestry, identity, and healing.

His debut album, Fragments, has been described as “an education for the ear and the soul,” exploring new musical pathways to connect with heritage and address the complexities of fragmented identities. Yoni’s most recent project, Kedmah: The Rising Song Piyyut Project, continues this exploration; the group’s first album, Simu Lev, was released in April 2024 on Rising Song Records.

As part of From Baghdad to Brooklyn, Yoni will present a short program of original compositions in advance of his Sunday concert at Pico Union Project on January 18. From 2021–2022, he toured nationally as an actor and violinist with the Tony Award–winning musical The Band’s Visit.

Brian Kite is Dean and Vice Provost of Graduate Education at UCLA and an award-winning theatre director whose work has been seen across the U.S. and internationally. He served as Producing Artistic Director of La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts (2008–2015), directing acclaimed productions including Billy Elliot, Les Misérables, Miss Saigon, and American Idiot. His direction of Spring Awakening earned the 2013 Los Angeles Ovation Award for Best Direction of a Musical. Kite has directed internationally, including the first production of Miss Saigon in China, and has collaborated with Tony Award–winning director Daniel Sullivan at the Geffen Playhouse.