Melia Bensussen is an American theatre director and producer who has been artistic director of the Hartford Stage since 2019. She won an OBIE Award for Outstanding Direction for Turn of the Screw in 1999 and is Professor of Performing Arts at Emerson College.
Melia Watras is an American violist, composer and professor of viola. She is a soloist, chamber musician and recording artist, who has commissioned, premiered and recorded numerous new compositions, and appeared at venues such as Carnegie Hall, Weill Recital Hall and Alice Tully Hall. Her compositions have been performed in the United States and Europe. Educated at Indiana University and the Juilliard School, Watras has been on the faculty of the University of Washington in Seattle since the fall of 2004.