MES PYTH YWA TRE? AN ARVOR HEN GERNOW?
YW TRE AN TIR MA ORTH AMAL EBRON? AN GWYNS GWYLS, OW TOS DYWORTH AN WEST ARVOR MAY HWRA TAN-TRE LESKI? PO HWANS KOLON MAY TEHWELLI?
RAG TY YW TRE CORNISH TRANSLATION BY POL HODGE
DIRECTOR’S NOTE
For me, this is a story about home. It’s set on the coast of North Cornwall where I grew up – a part of the world I called home for almost twenty-five years. While this adaptation of Fitzgerald’s short story is very much a love letter to my Cornish homeland, that’s not really the home to which I’m referring. I don’t mean home in the sense of bricks and mortar, a house, a village, or even a country, but home in the sense of where we feel we belong. Somewhere we can be ourselves. Somewhere we can find sanctuary. Somewhere we can love and be loved.
This is a story about a man who is born at the end of his life, rather than the beginning. But, for me, it’s more simply the story of someone searching for their place in the world – searching for somewhere to belong. Beneath the magic and the fairy tale, it’s the story of someone who is different. Someone who believes these differences will stop him from ever achieving what he wants in life. Benjamin Button’s life is unique, but his search for somewhere to belong is universal.
What’s become clear to me is that this “somewhere” is rarely found in a place - it’s far more likely to be found in other people, or perhaps in another person.
Over the last weeks, I’ve found a home alongside the most extraordinary, talented, determined, generous, caring people I could ever imagine. Throughout the rehearsal process, this ensemble, and the team behind them, created a “somewhere” filled with compassion, acceptance, and love. For each and every one of them, I’ll forever be more thankful than I can say.
Jethro Compton
It must have been a huge temptation when creating this programme to include lots of clocks in the artwork. Indeed, as you can see from this particular page it was a temptation too strong to resist. The music of Benjamin Button however, was not inspired by the mechanical, rigid ticking of clocks or any other man-made device for measuring time… When Jethro had the inspired idea to transplant the tale of Benjamin Button, a man born old who ages backwards into his native Cornwall, I was first drawn to the elemental nature of the place. A land filled with sea and storm. I was reminded that we have not always kept time by the ticking of clocks. We’ve used the seasons, we’ve used the moon and sun, and we’ve used the coming and going of the tide. That idea was the main inspiration behind the music for this story. The music needed to ebb and flow, rise and fall as we followed this curious man through his curious life.
The Strangers tell this story, they are elemental characters, by turns whimsical and cheeky, named for the various elemental forces at work in the coastal environment; the tide, the stars, the earth, the rocks. Their music is similarly elemental in character. It aspires to combine the earthy with the celestial, to ground this fantastical story in a very real musical environment. I was inspired by the music of some of my favourite folk writers, the delicacy and whimsy of Kate Rusby and Laura Marling, the storytelling of Seth Lakeman and Jon Boden, the thunderous sound of Bellowhead and of course the deep rooted shanty tradition of the Cornish fishermen.
Since our first production in 2019 a lot has happened… life has changed considerably for me, I have a wonderful little family of my own now who have taught me so much about making the most of this life. And at its heart, that’s what this show is about. It is a show about life, and how it is not how long we live, or indeed what direction we live it, but the manner in which we go about living that is important.
This glorious ensemble of actor musicians breathe life into every note and lyric of this score and I sincerely hope that you enjoy watching the show as much as I’ve enjoyed writing it.
Darren ClarkMatthew Burns (he/him)
Training: ALRA
Theatre Credits: Once the Musical (Original UK Tour); The House With Chicken Legs (Les Enfants Terribles, HOME Manchester); The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button (Southwark Playhouse, 2019); Treasure Island, The Wind In The Willows (New Vic Theatre); The Ruff Tuff Cream Puff Estate Agency (Belgrade Theatre Coventry); The Scarecrow’s Wedding (Leicester Square Theatre); Romeo & Juliet, Macbeth (Oddsocks Shakespeare Company); Twelfth Night (Kew Gardens Open Air Theatre); A Christmas Carol, The Ballad of Rudy (Goblin Theatre); Aladdin (Stafford Gatehouse); Robin Hood (Leeds City Varieties); Henry V, Hamlet, Romeo & Juliet (Pendley Shakespeare Company); Buddy Holly and The Cricketers (UK Tour); The Jungle Book (Sixteenfeet Prods).
TV/Film Credits: Hanna (Amazon Prime Studios); The Capture (BBC); Into The Abyss (Indie Film Prods); Born On This Day (Channel 4); Money (Loaded Productions); Absent (dreamthinkspeak); Equal Measure (Front Row Centre Productions).
Jonathan Charles (he/him)
Training: Bristol Old Vic Theatre School
Theatre Credits: A Christmas Carol (Bolton Octagon); The Wicker Husband (Watermill Theatre); Beauty & The Beast, Robin Hood & Marian, The Borrowers and Dracula (New Vic Theatre); On Hostile Ground (Royal & Derngate Northampton); War Horse (National Theatre and No 1 Tour); The Butterfly Lion and A Christmas Carol (Barn Theatre); Cinderella (Queen›s Theatre, Hornchurch); Peter Pan In Scarlet (New Vic Theatre and Oxford Playhouse);The Tempest (Stafford Castle); Sunset Five (Edinburgh Festival, Pleasance Theatre & Greenwich, DugOut Theatre Co); Juno & The Paycock (Bristol Old Vic and Liverpool Playhouse); The Revenger’s Tragedy (Gentleman Jack Theatre)
TV Credits: ‘Art Spiegelman’ in The Toys That Built America (History Channel); Down To Earth (BBC)
Oonagh Cox (she/her)
Training: ArtsEd
Theatre Credits: Cinderella (Newcastle Theatre Royal); Footloose the Musical (UK & International Tour); Cinderella (Richmond Theatre); Matilda the Musical (West End). Other credits include: The Courtship (NBC); Hay Fever (workshop).
Anna Fordham (they/she/he)
Training: Rose Bruford College
Theatre Credits: And We’ll Catch Stardust; Yes We Will (Women’s Writes/Vault Festival); Sleeping Beauty (Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch); Sunshine on Leith; Little Women (Pitlochry Festival Theatre/Watford Palace); The Brother’s Grimm Present Cinderella (Barn Theatre); NewsRevue; I’m Eric Get Me Out of Here (New Vic Stoke); Women in Power (NST/Oxford Playhouse); The Borrowers (Watermill); Fantastic Mr Fox (Lyric Hammersmith/UK Tour).
TV Credits: The Athena (Sky).
Other credits include: The Wild Party (Workshop), A Penny Dreadful (Workshop), We Progress (Short), Flood of Light (Rolo Tomassi); Blink (Midas Fall).
Philippa Hogg (she/her)
Theatre Credits: Blood Harmony (ThickSkin/Traverse Theatre); The Jungle Book (Watermill Theatre); Peter Pan (National Theatre/Bristol Old Vic); Pippi Longstocking (Royal & Derngate); The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (Southwark Playhouse, 2019); Little Robin Redbreast (Salisbury Playhouse); Utility Function (Bristol Old Vic); The Scarlet Pimpernel (Theatre Royal Bath); The Leftovers (Leicester Curve); Alice’s Adventures Underground and The Vaudevillains (Les Enfants Terribles); The Scarecrow’s Wedding (Leicester Square Theatre); The Forever Machine (The Wardrobe Ensemble); The Games We Played (Theatre 503); Cinderella (The Riverfront); Jack and the Beanstalk (Key Theatre); Romeo and Juliet (New Wolsey); Rift Zone and Vertigo (Night Light Theatre).
TV Credits: Flack (Amazon Prime).
Damien James (he/him)
Training: Rose Bruford College
Theatre Credits: Red Riding Hood: The Rock ’n’ Roll Panto (Liverpool Everyman); Othello (The Watermill); The Play That Goes Wrong (UK Tour); The Play That Goes Wrong (The Duchess); Camelot (The Watermill); Romeo and Juliet (Stockwell Playhouse).
TV Credits: Doctors (BBC).
Training: Webber Douglas, receiving a Carleton Hobbs commendation.
Theatre Credits: Brendan, Son Of Dublin; ICC; A Unicorn For Joe (R&D, Riverside Studios); Two Ladies (The Bridge Theatre); Checkpoint Chana (Finborough); The Mighty Walzer (Royal Exchange, Manchester); Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time (National Theatre, Tour and Gielgud); The Lottery (Bury Court Opera); Bloodhound (Northern Stage); Perfect Strangers (winner of the Stratford New Writing Festival); The Glass Slipper (Northern Stage); The Family Reunion (Donmar Warehouse); Little Wolf and Hard Love (Hampstead Theatre); Needle (winner of Brave New Roles, Soho Theatre); Sweet Dreams (Sphinx Theatre Company); Strange Love (Young Vic); Brassed Off (York Theatre Royal); I Dreamt I Dwelt (Marble Halls at Tricycle/Watermill, Newbury - Best Performance, Times “Play”); Pinocchio (Regent’s Park Theatre); Twelfth Night (Keswick); Little Shop of Horrors (Basingstoke Haymarket); Night Swimming (Nuffield); Great Gatsby (New End, Hampstead); Diary Of Anne Frank (Harrogate); Over Ruled (King’s Head).
Film/TV Credits: The Power (Sister Pictures/Amazon Studios); This Is Going To Hurt (BBC); Redemption Day (H Films); Emmerdale (ITV); The Divorce (ITV); A Place For Everything (BFI); Shark (Met Film); Relentless (October Films); Family Affairs (Freemantle); The Bookworm (BBC). Radio: Sabbat (London Radio); The Middle Eastern Cookbook (Radio 4).
Training: Trinity Laban
Theatre Credits: The Sex Party, Indecent (The Menier Chocolate Factory). Fiddler On The Roof (The Menier Chocolate Factory/Playhouse Theatre).
TV Credits: Call The Midwife (Neal Street Productions); Anansi Boys (Amazon Studios). Short film credits: Path To Ecstasy (Mamar Films) and Eschet Chayil (nomination at the Richard Harris International Film Festival 2021 for Best Actor in a Female Role).
Theatre Credits: The Doctor (Adelaide Festival); Harry Potter And The Cursed Child (Palace Theatre - Olivier for Best Actor and Lyric Theater, Broadway - Tony Nomination for Best Actor); High Society (Old Vic); Guys And Dolls (Chichester Festival and Savoy Theatre); Candida (Theatre Royal Bath); PROOF (Menier Chocolate Factory); Cat On A Hot Tin Roof (West Yorkshire Playhouse); Rosencrantz And Guildenstern Are Dead (Chichester and West End); My Zinc Bed (Northampton Theatre Royal); Racing Demon (Sheffield Crucible); A New World, As You Like It, Henry IV (Parts 1 & 2), Henry V (Shakespeare’s Globe); Revenger’s Tragedy, History Boys (National Theatre); The History Boys (Broadway and World Tour); Singer (Tricycle Theatre); Between The Crosses (Jermyn Street); Holes In The Skin, The Gondoliers (Chichester Festival Theatre) and After The Dance (Oxford Stage Co).
TV Credits: The Long Shadow (ITV); Becoming Elizabeth (STARZ); Des (ITV); BBC Proms, Jonathan Strange And Mr Norrell, Count Arthur Strong, Silk, Burn Up, Silent Witness, and Maxwell (BBC); Endeavor, Wire In The Blood, and Foyle’s War (ITV).
Film Credits: 1917; Dirty Weekend; Valkyrie; The History Boys; Journey Home; The Lady In The Van Music Credits: The Golden Age Of Broadway (Proms, 2021); The John Wilson Orchestra Performs Frank Sinatra (Proms, 2015).
Ann Marcuson (she/her)
Molly Osborne (she/her)
Jamie Parker (he/him)
Jack Quarton (he/him)
Training: Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts (LIPA).
Theatre Credits: Amélie (Criterion Theatre, West End); The Wicker Husband (Watermill Theatre); Assassins (Nottingham Playhouse/Watermill Theatre); Wonderland (Nottingham Playhouse/Northern Stage); Coram Boy (Nottingham Playhouse); An August Bank Holiday Lark (Northern Broadsides); Much Ado About Nothing, The Tempest, Swallows & Amazons (Storyhouse/Grosvenor Park Open Air Theatre); Great Expectations, Peter Pan, Alice in Wonderland (Derby Theatre); On the Mend (Everyman Theatre, Cheltenham); Ovid’s Metamorphoses (Pants On Fire Theatre Company); Alice in Wonderland (Octagon Theatre, Bolton); The Master and Margarita (Lodestar Theatre Company).
Film Credits: Mike Leigh’s Peterloo
Benedict Salter (he/him)
Training: LAMDA.
Theatre Credits: Othello, The Importance of Being Earnest, A Little Night Music (Watermill Theatre); Lone Flyer (Jermyn St/Hull Truck - shortlisted for Best Supporting Performance, Off-West End Awards 2022); Lady Windermere’s Fan, An Inspector Calls (West End); A Christmas Carol (Derby Theatre); Vespertilio (VAULT Festival and Dublin Fringe); The Last Days of Anne Boleyn (Tower of London); Shakespeare in Music (RSC/Southbank Sinfonia).
Tonny Shim (he/him)
Training: Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts
Credits whilst Training: Carrie; Red Riding Hood – The Rock ‘N’ Roll Panto; The Three Lives of Lucie Cabrol; Hadestown; Pippin; Blood Brothers; The Two Gentlemen of Verona and Dracula.
Theatre Credits: The Borrowers (Theatre By The Lake); Runesical (Edinburgh Fringe Festival).
TV Credits: Gangs of London.
Roles: Morlan, Landlord, John Jenkin, Bus Terminal Worker, Psychiatrist.
Understudy/Cover: Jack Trenlee, Captain Carrick, Mr Gladstone.
Instruments: Guitar, Drums, Percussion, Piano.
Growan, Trenlee Senior, Drunkard.
Understudy/Cover: Roger Button, Miss Moncrief, Mrs Gladstone, Electrotherapist.
Instruments: Fiddle, Mandolin, Accordion, Guitar, Whistles, Piano,
Ebron, Lowen, Mr Gladstone.
Understudy/Cover: Mary Button, The Sheep.
Instruments: Flute, Whistles.
Keynvor, Locryn, Mrs Bennett, Harbour Master, Receptionist.
Understudy/Cover: Morwenna Keene, Bus Terminal Worker, Newspaper Seller.
Instruments: Double Bass, Bass Guitar, Accordion.
Avoryow, Mary Button, Captain Arthur Adam Carrick, Captain Adam Arthur Carrick, Electrotherapist.
Understudy/Cover: Elowen Keene, Lowen, Mrs Bennett.
Instruments: Fiddle, Piano.
Tir, Miner, Mrs Gladstone, Doorman, Drunken Sailor.
Understudy/Cover: Locryn, Landlord, Millie Dyer, John Jenkin.
Instruments: Bass Guitar, Double Bass, Guitar, Drums, Percussion.
Roles: Treth, Morwenna Keene, Miss Moncrief, Doctor.
Understudy/Cover: Jago Bligh, Mr Bennett, Mrs Gladstone’s Sister, Receptionist.
Instruments: Trumpet, French Horn, Cornet.
Sterenow, Elowen Keene, The Sheep.
Understudy/Cover: n/a
Instruments: Guitar.
Roles: Reverthi, Benjamin Button, Mrs Gladstone’s Sister.
Understudy/Cover: n/a
Instruments: Piano, Guitar.
Tonnow, Jack Trenlee, Mr Bennett.
Understudy/Cover: Drunkard.
Instruments: Accordion, Trombone.
Understudy/Cover: Benjamin Button, Trenlee Senior, Doctor.
Instruments: Cello, Whistles.
Gwyns, Millie Dyer, Newspaper Seller.
Understudy/Cover: Harbour Master, Doorman, Drunken Sailor, Psychiatrist.
Instruments: Fiddle, Cello.
JETHRO COMPTON | Book & Lyrics / Director / Stage Designer
Jethro is a Cornish theatre director, designer, and producer, and writer for stage and screen. He began his theatre career in 2008 as the Producer and Co-Artistic Director of Belt Up Theatre, company in residence at York Theatre Royal. He worked on all Belt Up’s productions between 2008 and 2012 including those presented at Southwark Playhouse: The Tartuffe, The Trial, Quasimodo, Atrium, and The Boy James.
For his own company, Jethro has directed the following productions, The Bunker Trilogy (Edinburgh Fringe/Southwark Playhouse/Adelaide Fringe/Seoul International Festival), The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance and White Fang (Park Theatre), The Capone Trilogy and Sirenia (Edinburgh Fringe), The Frontier Trilogy (Edinburgh Fringe/Rabenhof Vienna), and the 2019 production of The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (Southwark Playhouse)
Between 2017 and 2022, Jethro was based in Vienna, where he was directing German language productions of his own writing. These include his adaptations at Theater Im Zentrum of Louis Sachar’s Schlamm, Charles Dickens’ Oliver Twist, Victor Hugo’s Hunchback of Notre Dame, and H G Wells’ War of the Worlds, and in the 700 seat Renaissance Theater of Frances Hodgson Burnett’s A Little Princess and Mark Twain’s Prince and the Pauper. In 2018 he directed his original play Blutrache for Theater Rabenhof, a co-production with Vereinigte Bühnen Bozen in South Tyrol, Italy, where it also played in 2019.
Jethro’s stage design credits include: The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button (2019), The Bunker Trilogy, The Capone Trilogy, The Frontier Trilogy, Sirenia, White Fang, A Little Princess, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, and The Prince and the Pauper.
In 2010 he was awarded a bursary from Stage One to support his development as a commercial producer. Between 2011 and 2013 he was Associate Producer of Southwark Playhouse, London. He was an Associate Artist of Hall For Cornwall from 2016 to 2023.
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance was published by Oberon Books in 2014. The Frontier Trilogy, including an additional two short stories, was published in 2015 by Samuel French Ltd. In 2018, White Fang was published by Samuel French Inc under the new title, Wolf’s Blood.
DARREN CLARK | Music & Lyrics / Orchestrator & Arranger / Co-Music Supervisor
Darren is a composer & lyricist living in Maidstone in Kent. He has been writing musical theatre professionally for nearly 15 years. Amongst his many shows are the critically acclaimed musicals The Wicker Husband (Watermill), The Day of the Living (RSC), and The Coup Coup Club (Southwark Playhouse - billed as These Trees Are Made Of Blood).
Darren’s musical theatre writing has received numerous awards including the MTI Stiles & Drewe Mentorship Award, the PRS Open Composers Award and the Musical Theatre Executive Trust Award. Along with Rhys Jennings, his work has been selected for the NAMT Festival of New Musicals in New York. Four of Darren’s musical theatre projects have been featured in the UK’s premiere musical theatre festival BEAM. He has been a finalist for The Fred Ebb Award for Musical Theatre, The Perfect Pitch Award, The Old Vic 12 and The KSF Artist of Choice. He has been a three time finalist for the Cameron Mackintosh Composer in Residence Award and a three time finalist for The Stiles & Drewe Best New Song, winning runner up in 2015.
He is a co-founder of children’s theatre company Paper Balloon, creating original musical theatre for children, including The Boy and the Mermaid and The Grumpiest Boy in the World which continues to receive productions across Australia and throughout the USA.
Darren received ACE funding and the Farnham Maltings Our Towns Award for his community musical theatre project Ordinary People which celebrates the lives of the residents of Maidstone, Kent. He is a passionate advocate for new musical theatre writing in the UK and is the founder of NEW UK MUSICALS, a community providing competitions, opportunities and a website which allows writers of new musical theatre to sell their songs to their fans.
He has been a member of Mercury Musical Developments since 2014 and takes part in the MMD Advanced Writers Lab. He honed his craft at the BML (Book, Music and Lyrics) weekly workshops in London.
CHI-SAN HOWARD | Choreographer & Movement Director
Upcoming: The Pillowman (Duke of York); Grenfell: In The Words of the Survivors (National Theatre) and Never Have I Ever (Chichester Festival Theatre)
Movement credits include: Private Lives (Donmar Warehouse); Faun (Cardboard Citizens/Theatre503); Beginning (Royal Exchange); Les Miserables (Sondheim Theatre, UK Tour, Netherlands/Belgium Tour); Betty! A Sort of Musical (Royal Exchange); O, Island (Royal Shakespeare Company); Ivy Tiller: Vicar’s Daughter, Squirrel Killer (Royal Shakespeare Company); A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Shakespeare North/ Northern Stage); The Narcissist (Chichester Festival Theatre); Chasing Hares (Young Vic); That Is Not Who I Am/Rapture (Royal Court); Corrina, Corrina (Headlong/Liverpool Everyman); The Taxidermist’s Daughter (Chichester Festival Theatre); Anna Karenina (Sheffield Crucible); Two Billion Beats (Orange Tree Theatre); Aladdin (Lyric Hammersmith); Milk and Gall (Theatre503); Arrival (Impossible Productions); Typical Girls (Clean Break/Sheffield Crucible); Glee and Me(Royal Exchange) Just So (Watermill Theatre) Home, I’m Darling (Theatre by the Lake/ Bolton Octagon/Stephen Joseph Theatre) Harm (Bush Theatre) Living Newspaper Ed 5 (Royal Court), Sunnymeade Court (Defibrillator Theatre), The Effect (English Theatre Frankfurt) The Sugar Syndrome (Orange Tree Theatre), Oor Wullie (Dundee Rep/National Tour) Variations (Dorfman Theatre/NT Connections) Skellig (Nottingham Playhouse) Under the Umbrella (Belgrade Theatre/Yellow Earth/ Tamasha) Describe the Night (Hampstead Theatre) Fairytale Revolution, In Event of Moone Disaster(Theatre503) Cosmic Scallies (Royal Exchange Manchester/Graeae), Moth (Hope Mill Theatre) The Curious Case of Benjamin Button; Scarlet; The Tempest (Southwark Playhouse) Homos, or Everyone in America; Bury the Dead and Adding Machine: A Musical (Finborough Theatre).
Film: Hurt by Paradise (Sulk Youth Films); Pretending - Orla Gartland Music Video (Spindle) I Wonder Why - Joesef Music Video (Spindle Productions) Birds of Paradise (Pemberton Films).
MARK ASPINALL | Co-Music Supervisor / Musical Director | (he/him)
Mark is an Associate of the Royal Academy of Music. Previously as Musical Supervisor: Titanic (UK tour), Ragtime (Charing Cross). As Musical Director: Anything Goes (Barbican), Perfect Show for Rachel (Barbican), City of Angels (Garrick Theatre), West Side Story, Guys and Dolls and Sweet Charity (Royal Exchange, Manchester), The Band (UK Tour), Three Phantoms (Parisian Theatre), The Wicker Husband (Workshop), Travels With My Aunt (World Premiere, Chichester Festival Theatre), The Smallest Show on Earth (World Premier, UK Tour), Titanic (UK tour & Princess of Wales, Toronto), Mack and Mabel (Southwark Playhouse) and Cinderella (Qdos, Cliffs Pavilion). Film credits include The End (2023), Cyrano (2021), and Cats (2019).
ZOE SPURR | Lighting Designer | (she/her)
Zoe is a theatre lighting designer whose work has been seen on the West End, throughout the UK and internationally. She won the 2019 Theatre and Technology Award Lighting Design for The Unreturning (Frantic Assembly UK Tour), Lightmongers’ ALD Award ‘New Talent in Entertainment Lighting’ and the OFFIE award for Lighting Design for her work on Tiny Dynamite at the Old Red Lion Theatre.
Recent designs include: The Vortex (CFT); Bonnie And Clyde (West End); Beginning (Royal Exchange Manchester); How Not To Drown (Thickskin UK Tour); GOOD (Harold Pinter Theatre); The Importance Of Being Earnest (ETT), Migrations (The Welsh National Opera); Our Generation (National Theatre); Fantastically Great Women Who Changed The World (Kenny Wax Family Entertainment for Mast Mayflower and UK Tour); Hamlet (Bill Kenwright Ltd at Theatre Royal Windsor); The Unreturning (Frantic Assembly UK Tour); Meek (Headlong UK Tour); Emilia (Vaudeville Theatre West End).
LUKE SWAFFIELD for Autograph Sound | Sound Designer | (he/him)
Past sound design credits include: Saw: The Escape Experience (Tower Hill, London); Peaky Blinders: The Rise (Vanguard Theatre, Camden); TRAPLORD (180 Strand, London); Pride & Prejudice* (*sort of) (Criterion, London); Doctor Who Time Fracture (Immersive LND, London); Monopoly Life-Sized (London & Saudi Arabia), Catch Me & The Limit (Embassy Theatre, London); Anything Goes (The Other Palace, London); The League of Legends European 10th Anniversary (Excel Centre, London); Parade (The Other Palace, London); Shakespeare’s Rose Theatre (Blenheim Palace); Forgotten (Arcola, London); The Full Monty (UK Tour); The Legend of Sleepy Hollow (The Other Palace, London); Big Fish The Musical (The Other Palace, London); Billy The Kid (Leicester Curve); Not Moses (Arts Theatre, London); Stay Awake, Jake (The Vaults Waterloo, London) and The Wasp (Trafalgar Studios, London).
Luke works as sound designer and head of sound for Secret Cinema and has designed numerous of their past productions including; Guardians of the Galaxy, Bridgerton, Stranger Things (London & Los Angeles), Casino Royale (London & Shanghai), Romeo & Juliet, Blade Runner, Moulin Rouge, Dirty Dancing, 28 Days Later and Dr Strangelove
As an associate his credits include: The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time (West End and International, UK & US Tours), A Taste of Honey (Trafalgar Studios, London), Fatherland (Lyric Hammersmith, London), Committee... a new musical (Donmar Warehouse), Fracked! (UK Tour), Big The Musical (Plymouth & Dublin), Les Enfants Terribles Presents: Stella Artois Time Capsule (London), The Girls (Leeds Grand & Lowry, Salford), Kiss Me, Kate (Leeds Grand, London Coliseum & UK Tour 2015 & 2018), The Elephant Man (Haymarket Theatre, London), The Vote (Donmar Warehouse/ Channel Four, London), Sweeney Todd (English National Opera, London), The Nether (Duke of York’s Theatre, London), Shrek The Musical (UK Tour).
Luke is a full-time member of the Sound Design team at Autograph Sound. Autograph are Europe’s leading sound design and supply company with an unparalleled 50-year history. They are currently designing and/or supplying, amongst others; Cabaret, Frozen, Hamilton, Moulin Rouge, Tina and Harry Potter and the Cursed Child
Luke is a graduate of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.
ANNA KELSEY | Costume & Associate Stage Designer
Anna is a set and costume designer based in London. She is currently designing Sin at The Barn in Cirencester and is associate designer for Opera Up Close’s new production of The Flying Dutchman.
Anna trained at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama. She completed a year with the Royal Shakespeare Company as a resident assistant designer 2018-19, is an associate artist at The Watermill Theatre and was shortlisted for the JMK 2023.
Recent design credits include: The Wicker Husband, Under Milk Wood, Our Town (Watermill); The Sorcerers Apprentice, Indecent Proposal (Southwark Playhouse); The Snow Queen, Lark Rise to Candleford (Hammerpuzzle); Blue Stockings (Mountview); Le Loup-Garou, Le Dernier Sorcier (Gothic Opera); Ring Ring, Dance Nation (Omnibus); If.Destroyed.Still.True (Hope).
Assistant / Associate credits include: Pride and Prejudice* (*Sort of) (Minack); Purple Snowflake and Titty Wanks (Royal Court); The Boy in the Dress, Measure for Measure, Venice Preserved, Kunene & the King (RSC).
POL HODGE | Cornish Translator
Pol Hodge B.Eng, PGCE, was born in Redruth in 1965. He obtained distinction at the highest level of Cornish language exam and was barded in 1991, taking the bardic name Mab Stenek Veur, ’son of a great tin -ground’. He has been a Community Educator for over 30 years and worked for Kowethas, Kesva, Cornish Language Office and Language Officer for Golden Tree Productions. Hodge has performed at nearly 450 poetry gigs, published four volumes of poetry, helped with over 20 Cornish language films and even tried to sing! He is the current Grand Bard of Gorsedh Kernow and lives with his Cornish speaking wife, Jane, the bard Kesklywores, at Lambriggan in West Pydarshire.
GINNY SCHILLER CDG | Casting Director
Ginny has been an in-house casting director for the RSC, Chichester Festival Theatre, Rose Theatre Kingston, ETT and Soho Theatre and has worked closely with Bath Theatre Royal and Ustinov Studio for the last decade. She has cast extensively for the West End and touring circuit as well as for the Almeida, Arcola, Birmingham Rep, Bolton Octagon, Bristol Old Vic, Cambridge Arts, Charing Cross Theatre, Clwyd Theatr Cyrmu, Frantic Assembly, Hampstead Theatre, Headlong, Jermyn Street, Leicester Curve, Liverpool Everyman and Playhouse, Lyric Theatre Belfast, Menier Chocolate Factory, Northampton Royal & Derngate, Nottingham Playhouse, Oxford Playhouse, Plymouth Theatre Royal and Drum, Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre, Shakespeare’s Globe, Shared Experience, Sheffield Crucible, Traverse Edinburgh, West Yorkshire Playhouse, Wilton’s Music Hall, Young Vic and Yvonne Arnaud Guildford. Some recent productions include Noises Off with Felicity Kendal and Matthew Kelly, Deborah Warner’s The Tempest at the Ustinov Studio, The Starry Messenger at the Wyndham’s, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel directed by Lucy Bailey, the latest revival of Michael Longhurst’s production of Bad Jews at the Arts Theatre and 4000 Miles for Richard Eyre at the Minerva, Chichester. She has also worked on many television, film and radio productions, including the BBC Radio 4 series Nuremberg and Nazis: The Road to Power.
NIX WOOD | Puppetry Consultant
Nix Wood trained at the Curious School of Puppetry in 2016. She works as a puppeteer on stage and on screen.
Theatre includes: Wow! Said The Owl, We’re Going On A Bear Hunt, The Smartest Giant, Prince Charming and The Storm Whale (for Little Angel Theatre); The Dong with A Luminous Nose (Peter O Rourke); The Adventures of Curious Ganz (Sarah Wright); The Hare & the Tortoise (Puppet Barge); Red Riding Hood (horse+bamboo); RAT (The Rat Affair) and The Hatchling (Trigger).
Screen includes: The Princess & Peppernose (RSA) and Monty & Co (CBeebies)
She also makes her own puppetry work for younger audiences.
ERIN WITTON | Production Manager for GBA
Erin trained at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Erin’s work for GBA includes projects for Secret Cinema, Coventry City of Culture, New Substance, and Crossroads Pantomimes; Bleak Expectations (Criterion Theatre); Peaky Blinders: The Rise (Immersive Everywhere); Kes (Bolton Octagon/Theatre by the Lake); Tom’s Midnight Garden (Theatre by the Lake) and Mythosphere (Stone Nest).
She was previously Production Manager at Battersea Arts Centre and the Roundhouse, and Deputy Production Manager for Sadlers Wells’ Producing department. Freelance work includes Cave (London Sinfonietta/Royal Opera House) and Assistant Production Manager for Arts Stages at Latitude Festival.
KAY HUDSON | Stage Manager | (she/her)
Kay is a theatre and events stage manager and a TV production coordinator. Previous work includes Theatre: shows at Bristol Old Vic, Hackney Empire and Theatre Royal Bath, Events: Olympic and Commonwealth Games Opening and Closing Ceremonies, UAE National Day Celebration, Liberation International Music Festival, TV: The One Show, Crimewatch Live, Amol Rajan Interviews.
LUCY REES | Deputy Stage Manager | (she/her)
Lucy trained on LAMDA’s Stage Management and Technical Theatre course and since graduating has worked in various stage management roles. ASM: Peter Pan (NT Productions & Troubadour Theatre), Raleigh: The Treason Trial (Shakespeare’s Globe), Babylon Beyond Borders (The Bush Theatre), Pirates of Penzance (Sasha Regan’s All Male). SM on Book: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (Southwark Playhouse, 2019), 1st Luv (The Big House); Cops (Southwark Playhouse). SM: The Wolves (LAMDA Sainsbury Theatre); Troilus and Cressida (LAMDA Sainsbury Theatre) Stage Crew: Richard II, The Wild Duck, Dance Nation and The Writer (Almeida Theatre).
OLIVIA HILTON-FOSTER | Assistant Stage Manager | (she/her)
Olivia is a London-based Stage Manager, Prop Maker and Wardrobe Assistant. She studied at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, gaining a degree in Production Arts: Stage Management. Credits include Stage Management: Bootycandy (The Gate); Sexquisite (BGWMC). Prop Making: Fisherman’s Friends: The Musical (UK and Canada Tour); Peaky Blinders: The Rise (Camden Garrison). Wardrobe: Jersey Boys (Trafalgar Theatre); Between (Silk Street Theatre).
MEADHBH LYONS | Assistant Choreographer | (she/her)
Meadhbh is a movement director, choreographer and teacher who is on placement from the MA Movement: Directing and Teaching 22/23 at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama.
EMMA HOLLOWS | Costume Supervisor | (she/her)
Emma trained at Cambridge University and the University of Massachusetts Amherst before going on to work in a variety of costume roles in the UK and internationally. Costume Supervisor: The Bodyguard (UK Tour); One Woman Show (West End/Sydney Opera House) Assistant
Costume Supervisor: Back to the Future (Broadway); Alcina (Royal Opera House) Designer: Midsummer Night›s Dream and Xerxes (Opera Holland Park); The Taming of The Shrew (US Tour) Associate Designer: One Woman Show (Soho Theatre/Edinburgh Fringe); She Loves Me (UCONN)
Costume Maker/Technician: Tina: The Tina Turner Musical (Broadway and West End); for Aisha Jawando’s performance at Magic at the Musicals (Royal Albert Hall); Swan Lake, Don Pasquale, Lohengrin, La Traviata, Peter Grimes, Tosca, Nabucco, The Marriage of Figaro, Nutcracker, and Macbeth (Royal Opera House); Queer and Now (NYPOP) Wardrobe: Merry Wives of Windsor, As You Like It, and Macbeth (Shakespeare and Company, MA); GLORIA (Hampstead Theatre) and Death Takes a Holiday (Charing Cross Theatre).
AMY WALLACE | Assistant to Jethro Compton | (she/her)
Amy is an actress from Cornwall, now based in London. Amy graduated from Italia Conti in 2021 and has acted in a variety of productions since, including Nines (The Canal Café Theatre) and Cookie Jar (The Space Arts Centre). Her film work since graduating includes Letters for Lost Lovers (Talking Lens Productions) which was awarded Best Ensemble cast at the Independent Short Film awards and the IndieX Festival in LA. Amy wrote and directed her first play Beneath the Sand in 2021.
