Jeff Hooper (Founder and Resident Playwright) is the founding director of Mad River Theater Works. Jeff has worked at Actors Theater of Louisville in Kentucky, Arena Stage in Washington DC, Berkeley Stage Company in Berkeley, California and with Roadside Theater in Whitesburg Kentucky. He was also a founding director of the Half Moon Theater in London, England. Jeff pioneered techniques of combining storytelling with drama and music to produce lively original works for the stage. Wings of Courage is the most recent play developed by Jeff for Mad River. Other plays written for Mad River include Captive Heart, John Henry, Liberty Line, Freedom Bound, Black Hats, Riverboatin', and Coming of Age. Jeff also collaborated with Native American Poet Lance Henson to create Cry of the Americas and Coyote Road and directed the premiere of John Olive's Evelyn and the Polka King at the Humana Festival of New American Plays at Actors Theater of Louisville in 1992. Last year Jeff was commissioned to write a new play for the Indiana Repertory Theatre in Indianapolis, where his play Freedom Bound was produced in 1995. Jeff was awarded an Ohio Arts Council Playwriting Fellowship in 1989-90 and has served on numerous panels for the National Endowment for the Arts, the Ohio Arts Council, and the Florida Arts Commission.

Bob Lucas (Composer, Musical Director, Performer) comes from a singing family tradition. He is a rhythm guitarist, banjo player, old-time fiddler and has a rich tenor voice spanning over three octaves. As a composer and lyricist with Mad River Theater Works, he has collaborated with playwright Jeff Hooper to create Freedom Bound, Black Hats, A Christmas Carol, and Evelyn and the Polka King and has acted as musical director and performed in those plays and many others. Bob was music director and performed in Evelyn and the Polka King at Actors Theater of Louisville, Steppenwolf Theatre, Chicago, and City Theatre in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Moreover, Bob is a songwriter whose words and tunes have been praised by "Melody Maker" and "Pickin" Magazines, and two of his songs appear on Alison Kraus' most recently released CD. Bob's first album, The Dancer Inside You, received a 4-star rating from "Downbeat" Magazine and Bob has recently produced a new CD, Rushsylvania. Bob's musical expertise encompasses folk, bluegrass, swing, rock, and spiritual music of many genres.

Margaret Piatt (Producing Director) has built a career in public education by developing drama based experiences for museums. For Ohio's Bicentennial, she acted as Artistic Director of Time Flies: A Living History Experience produced by Carillon Historical Park in Dayton. This program which won an Ohio Museum Achievement award featured a festival with twenty hours of original live programming including interactions with twenty-five historical characters, storytelling, plays, historical recreations and hands-on visitor experiences. Margaret is a trained classroom teacher and curriculum consultant. As a participant in a Kennedy Center Artists as Educators seminar, she developed a teacher workshop integrating readers theatre with academic subjects. As a dramatic artist, Margaret has directed for several regional theatres in Massachusetts and is currently the Director of Theatre at Urbana University in Urbana, Ohio. She presents storytelling and creative dramatics productions in schools and museums and has written and directed over forty historical dramas for museums throughout the United States. Margaret is a past board member and Vice President of the International Museum Theatre Alliance.

Holly Hudson (Director of Marketing & Development) ) recently returned to her native Ohio after many years of living in London, England and New York. She has worked as a television production manager, producer, administrator, writer and performer. Most recently, she coordinated outreach for the launch of the film A Lion in the House for PBS and was Assistant Director of the Antioch Writers' Workshop. She was a founding member of the Mint Theater Company in New York City and also worked with New Georges, The Acting Studio and the Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theatre. She received a BA in theater and film production from Hampshire College.

Elise Peyroux (Teaching Artist) is a multi-talented theater artist with a background in business administration as well as the arts. Elise joined Mad River in 2006 to oversee the Youthworks educational outreach program but also serves as a costume designer, performer, and marketing assistant. Elise has been involved in theatre since she was in high school, debuting at Yellow Springs Center Stage. She attended the Wright State University Theatre program in Directing/Stage Management and worked as Managing Director for the Licklog Players in North Carolina. While working as a Purchasing Director in Athens, Georgia, Elise spent several years as a director, designer, and choreographer for the Town and Gown Theatre where she also served as President of the Board of Directors.

Michelle F. Cornell (YouthWorks Director) is a drama teacher and storyteller from Columbus, Ohio. Michelle's acting and directing credits include the Columbus Children's Theatre, the Greater Columbus Arts Council Artists in Schools program, the Muse Machine of Dayton and Artsbridge of Marietta, Ohio and Parkersburg, West Virginia. She has worked as a teaching artist in New York City public elementary and junior high schools and in rural New York State as a public speaking coach for high school students. Michelle has performed as a story teller with the Discovery Place Libraries Summer Reading Program, the Franklin Park Conservatory and the Toledo Museum of Art. She tells stories and presents solo performances in school settings throughout the region and is a proud member of The Story Tellers of Central Ohio. Michelle has an MFA in Stage Direction from The Ohio University School of Theatre and a Masters degree in Education from the Teachers Training Program at SUNY Plattsburgh.