JAMES GRAHAM

Writer

James Graham is a playwright and screenwriter. His work in theatre includes Dear England and This House at the National Theatre and in the West End; Privacy at the Donmar Warehouse and the Public, NY; Finding Neverland on Broadway and US tour; Best of Enemies (Critics’ Circle Award, Olivier nomination) at the Young Vic and in the West End; Ink at the Almeida and in the West End and also on Broadway (nominated for six Tony Awards® and Best Play winner at Evening Standard Awards); Tammy Faye at the Almeida and in the West End; and Labour of Love (Olivier award) in the West End. TV includes Sherwood (RTS Best Series Award winner), Quiz and Brexit: An Uncivil War (Emmy nomination, BAFTA). Film includes X+Y (Toronto International Film Festival selection 2014). James Graham received an OBE in 2020 for services to drama and young people.

RUPERT GOOLD

Director

Rupert Goold is the Artistic Director of the Almeida. He was founding Artistic Director of Headlong 2005–2013, Artistic Director of Northampton Theatres 2002–2005 and is an Associate Director at the RSC. As director, work for the Almeida includes Women, Beware the Devil, Tammy Faye, Patriots, Spring Awakening, Albion, The Hunt, Shipwreck, Richard III, Medea, The Merchant of Venice, The Last Days of Judas Iscariot, American Psycho (also Broadway), Ink and King Charles III (also in the West End and on Broadway). Other productions include The Effect and Earthquakes in London for Headlong and the National Theatre; Time and the Conways at the National Theatre; The Merchant of Venice, Romeo and Juliet and Speaking Like Magpies for the RSC; The 47th at the Old Vic; The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe at Kensington Gardens; King Lear for Headlong at Liverpool Everyman and the Young Vic; ENRON (also on Broadway) and Six Characters in Search of an Author for Headlong in the West End; and Made in Dagenham, Macbeth (also at Chichester and on Broadway), Oliver!, The Glass Menagerie and No Man’s Land in the West End. Opera includes Turandot for English National Opera; and Le comte Ory for Garsington Opera. TV includes Macbeth, King Charles III and Richard II. Film includes Judy and True Story. Rupert Goold has twice received Olivier, Critics’ Circle and Evening Standard awards for Best Director and won a Peabody Award in 2011 for Macbeth. He received a CBE in 2017 New Year’s Honours for services to drama.

ES DEVLIN

Set designer

Artist and designer Es Devlin’s recent works include the large-scale choral sculpture ‘Come Home Again’ outside the Tate Modern which fused drawings and voices of 243 endangered London species; Conference of the Trees, which brought together 197 trees at COP26 in Glasgow; Memory Palace at Pitzhanger Manor which mapped shifts in human perspective over 73 millennia; Forest of Us which forms part of the inaugural exhibition at Superblue Miami alongside new works by TeamLab and James Turrell. Her recent theatre work includes The Motive and the Cue (also in the West End), The Lehman Trilogy (also in the West End and on Broadway), The Crucible (also in the West End), Light Shining in Buckinghamshire and Ugly Lies the Bone at the National Theatre; A Number at the Old Vic; Girls and Boys and The Nether at the Royal Court; Faith Healer at the Donmar; Hamlet at the Barbican; and Chimerica at the Almeida. Es Devlin has conceived stage sculptures with Beyoncé, The Weeknd, U2, Kanye West, Saint Laurent, Dior and the 2021 and 2022 Super Bowl halftime shows featuring Dr Dre, Kendrick Lamar and Eminem, as well as Olympic Ceremonies in London and Rio. She was the first woman to design the UK Pavilion at EXPO 2020 and her practice was the subject of the Netflix documentary series Abstract: The Art of Design. Her design for The Lehman Trilogy won the 2022 Tony Award® and she has previously been awarded The London Design Medal, three Olivier awards, doctorates from the universities of Bristol, Kent and UAL, and a CBE.

EVIE GURNEY

Costume Designer

Evie Gurney studied at Central Saint Martins, graduating with a BA in Fashion Communication and Promotion and at the Royal College of Art, graduating with an MA in Curating Contemporary Art. Her work in theatre includes Dear England (also in the West End), Much Ado About Nothing and Antony and Cleopatra at the National Theatre; Women, Beware the Devil and The Hunt at the Almeida; The Vortex at Chichester; Måsen / The Seagull at Dramaten, Stockholm; and The 47th at the Old Vic. She won the Stage Debut Award for Best Designer in 2019.

Jon Clark

Lighting Designer

Jon Clark is a Tony and Olivier award-winning lighting designer. He has designed extensively in the West End, on Broadway, for the National Theatre, Royal Opera House, Royal Shakespeare Company and with many other companies in the UK and internationally. His work in theatre includes The Motive and the Cue (also in the West End), The Lehman Trilogy (also on Broadway and in the West End), The Effect, Amadeus, ANNA, Othello and Hamlet at the National Theatre; The Book of Dust and A German Life at the Bridge; Evita at Regent’s Park; The Lorax at the Old Vic, in the US and in Toronto; The Jungle at St Ann’s Warehouse and the West End; Betrayal, King Charles III and The Inheritance (also at the Young Vic) in the West End and on Broadway; Cyrano de Bergerac at BAM, NY and in the West End; Aspects of Love and Stranger Things: The First Shadow in the West End; and A Doll’s House on Broadway. Opera includes Hamlet at the Metropolitan Opera and Glyndebourne; The Exterminating Angel at the Metropolitan Opera, Royal Opera House and Saltzburg Festival; Macbeth in Copenhagen and Valencia; Król Roger at Royal Opera House and Sydney Opera House; and Written on Skin at Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, Royal Opera House, Lincoln Center and internationally. Jon Clark won a Tony Award® for The Lehman Trilogy on Broadway, an Olivier Award for The Inheritance, a Green Room Award for King Roger in Australia and a Knight of Illumination award for Three Days of Rain.

Ellen Kane

Co-Movement Director

Ellen Kane’s work in theatre includes Legally Blonde at Regent’s Park; A Chorus Line and West Side Story at Leicester Curve; Groundhog Day The Musical (co-choreographer; Tony and Olivier award nominations) at the Old Vic and on Broadway; Pieces of String at the Mercury, Colchester; Matilda the Musical (as worldwide associate choreographer) for the RSC in Stratford, the West End, on Broadway, US, Australia, New Zealand, UK and international tours; Billy Elliot the Musical (as international choreographic supervisor and associate) in the West End, on Broadway, in Chicago and on US, Australia, Holland and UK tours; and Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown and, as associate choreographer, Charlie and the Chocolate Factor, Sister Act and The Lord of the Rings in the West End. TV includes Gangsta Granny Strikes Again and Children in Need’s Musical in a Week. Film includes Matilda and Cats. Music videos include Elton John’s ‘Electricity’.

Hannes Langolf

Co-Movement Director

Hannes Langolf is a German-born physical theatre artist, based in London. His independent stage productions include DANDELION with Ermira Goro for The Onassis Cultural Center, Athens; UNRUHE for the Susanne Linke Dance Company, Germany; and THE FALL with Joy Alpuerto Ritter for Orsolina28, Italy, among others. Recent work includes choreographing for the film Catherine Called Birdy, and duetting with Akram Khan in Breathless Puppets, an animated film produced by Manchester International Festival. Langolf was DV8 Physical Theatre’s first Creative Associate and formed part of the original cast of the critically acclaimed stage productions To Be Straight with You (Olivier Award nomination), Can We Talk About This? and JOHN, in which he performed the title role. All three productions, conceived and directed by Lloyd Newson, toured internationally and were performed at the National Theatre. He continued his role as Creative Associate as well as tour director for the much-anticipated recreation of DV8’s Enter Achilles in 2019–20, produced by Rambert and Sadler’s Wells. Langolf has collaborated with numerous artists and companies, including William Forsythe, Wayne McGregor, Lost Dog and Punchdrunk. He works as creator and educator for institutions and organisations across the globe and was nominated as one of the 100 most influential and innovative people working across Britain’s creative industries by The Hospital Club, London. In 2022, Langolf founded MOONWALKING BEAR PRODUCTIONS, a home for his creative ideas, a hub for innovation and collaboration, and a launch pad to support new talent.

ASH J WOODWARD

Video Designer

Ash J Woodward specialises in video and projection design for live performance. Woodward has designed and animated content for large-scale shows in the West End, on Broadway and around the world. Work includes hand drawn, 2D and 3D animation, cinematography, visual effects and design work for other live performance genres such as live music, exhibitions, and art installations. Woodward is an Associate Artist at Squint Theatre Company. Woodward’s work in theatre as video and projection designer includes Hex at the National Theatre; Harry Potter and the Cursed Child worldwide; Local Hero at Chichester; Famous Five the Musical at Theatr Clwyd; The 47th at the Old Vic; The Glass Menagerie at Duke of York’s; Can I Live? for Complicité; The Beauty Parade at Wales Millennium Centre; Bletchley Park Hut 11A at Bletchley Park; Armadillo at The Yard; Molly for Squint; and Patriots in the West End.

DAN BALFOUR

Co-Sound Designer

Dan Balfour is a sound designer. Recent work includes I AM KEVIN for Wildworks; How to Break Out of a Detention Centre and Wipe These Tears for Bezna Theatre; One of Them Ones for Pentabus; Assembly for Wayward Productions; Les Dawson: Flying High for So Television, Edinburgh Fringe and on UK tour; The Dance of Death at Theatre Royal Bath and on UK tour; The Misfortune of Others and Sugar Syndrome at the Orange Tree; LAVA on UK tour; The Tempest at the Pleasance; Private Peaceful at Nottingham Playhouse and on UK tour; The Hatchling (a large-scale event) for Trigger Productions; Two Character Play and Wilderness at Hampstead; Can I Live? and Voices of the Earth for Complicité; Pavilion at Theatr Clwyd; HOME at the Young Vic; hang for Sheffield Crucible; and Operation Mincemeat at New Diorama and Southwark Playhouse. He has been nominated for three Off-West End Awards for Best Sound Design, for his work on Operation Mincemeat, Great Apes and Blood Wedding.

TOM GIBBONS

Co-Sound Designer

Tom Gibbons is a sound designer and composer for theatre, musical theatre, film and live installation. Work includes After Life, The Antipodes, Home, I’m Darling (also at Theatr Clwyd and in the West End), Hedda Gabler, Sunset at the Villa Thalia, The Red Barn and People, Places and Things (Olivier Award for Best Sound Design) at the National Theatre; White Devil and As You Like It for the RSC; Cabaret at Göteborg Opera; Oresteia and Hamlet at the Park Avenue Armory, New York; Animal Farm on UK tour; Judas at Internationaal Theatre, Amsterdam; The Doctor (also at Internationaal Theatre, Amsterdam, Burgtheater and in the West End), Oresteia, Mr Burns, 1984 (also in the West End and on Broadway) and Hamlet (Olivier Award nomination for Best Sound Design; also in the West End) at the Almeida; The End of History, Pah-La, The Woods and Love Love Love at the Royal Court; Oedipus at Toneelgroep Amsterdam; Fanny and Alexander and The Lorax at the Old Vic; A View from the Bridge (Olivier nomination for Best Sound Design), Life of Galileo, Happy Days, A Season in the Congo and Disco Pigs at the Young Vic; Les Misérables at Wermland Opera, Sweden; The Crucible on Broadway; The Moderate Soprano and Elephants at the Hampstead; Translations at Sheffield Crucible; The Absence of War and Romeo and Juliet for Headlong; Lion Boy for Complicité; Henry IV and Julius Caesar at the Donmar and St Ann’s Warehouse; and All About Eve and Best of Enemies (also at the Young Vic) in the West End.

MAX PERRYMENT

Additional Music

Max Perryment’s work in theatre includes Jitney for Headlong at the Old Vic; Sunset Shift for PoliNations; Corrina, Corrina for Headlong at Liverpool Everyman; Living Newspaper and Is God Is at the Royal Court; Romeo and Juliet at Shakespeare’s Globe; Miss Julie for Chester Storyhouse and on UK tour; Shipwreck at the Almeida; The Convert, In a Word and The Tide at the Young Vic; The Sweet Science of Bruising (also at Wilton’s Music Hall), Last of the Boys and Dear Brutus at Southwark Playhouse; The Rise and Fall of Little Voice at Park Theatre; Utility at the Orange Tree; Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992 at the Gate, Notting Hill; Romeo and Juliet at the Orange Tree; Hair at the Vaults, Hope Mill, Manchester and on UK tour; Broken Dreams and Blood and Water at Kestrel Theatre: HMP Springhill and the Royal Court; Start Swimming at the Young Vic and Summerhall, Edinburgh; Replay (also at 59E59, New York) and Goodbear at Soho Theatre; Landmines at the BRIT School, Ovalhouse and the Otherplace, Brighton; Skin of the Teeth at the Vaults and Ophelia Theatre, New York; Nest at the ArtsDepot, Brighton Fringe and on UK tour; Dust at New York Theatre Workshop, Trafalgar Studios and Soho Theatre; and Rasheeda Speaking and A Guide for the Homesick at Trafalgar Studios; and One Woman Show on UK tour and in the West End. TV includes Footsteps of Tagore. Film includes 7 Keys, David vs. Goliath, Buddy Goes to Nollywood and the short films The Everlasting Club, Ma’am and Waiting for Fukushima. Audio includes People Who Knew Me, Skyscraper Lullaby and The Half Life of Joshua Jones.

ELIN SCHOFIELD

Revival Director

Elin Schofield is a director, writer and movement director. She co-founded and directed both award-winning, small-scale touring company Footprint Theatre and the Young Company (18–25) at Sheffield Theatres. She trained as a director on Sheffield Theatre’s The Bank Scheme and Company Three’s Making Work with Young People Course. She has been a part of the Royal Court’s Playwriting Group and the Sheffield Theatres’ Playwriting Group. Her work as a director includes Scissors (Best Director, UK Theatre Awards) for Sheffield Theatres; The Queen’s Head at Battersea Arts Centre; Screwdriver (also co-writer) for the Lyric Hammersmith, and Sheffield Theatres; This Is Not a Demo for Sheffield Young Company; and Signals and Daniel for Footprint and on UK tour. Her work as assistant and associate director includes Standing at the Sky’s Edge at the National Theatre and for Sheffield Theatres; LOVE at Park Avenue Armory and on European tour; Talent and hang for Sheffield Theatres; The Narcissist at Chichester; Pop Music for Paines Plough and on UK tour; and Stick Man on UK tour and in the West End. Work as a movement director includes Seagulls at Bolton Octagon; The Changing Room for Sheffield Theatres; and The Snow Queen and The Nutcracker for Theatr Clwyd.

BRYONY JARVIS-TAYLOR

casting director

Bryony Jarvis-Taylor is Deputy Head of Casting at the National Theatre. Work at the National Theatre includes The Witches, The Odyssey, Dear England, Dixon and Daughters, Romeo and Julie, Much Ado About Nothing, Trouble in Mind, Hex (2021/2022), After Life, Dick Whittington, The Visit, or the old lady comes to call, My Brilliant Friend and Peter Gynt. Freelance projects include The Enormous Crocodile for Roald Dahl Storytelling Company, Leeds Playhouse and Regent’s Park; What It Means at Wilton’s Music Hall; and The Importance of Being Earnest for English Touring Theatre. Films for TV include Romeo and Juliet.

RICHARD RYDER

Dialect Coach

Richard Ryder has been working as a voice coach for more than 20 years and he has an accent app for actors called ‘The Accent Kit’, a free download for iPhone and Android. His work for the National Theatre includes Our Country’s Good, Jane Eyre, Waste, One Man, Two Guvnors, A Taste of Honey, Blurred Lines, Protest Song, 50 Years on Stage, Emil and the Detectives, Home, Romeo and Juliet, Untold Stories, Table, This House, Port, Cocktail Sticks and Hymn. Other work includes The Southbury Child, Allelujah!, A Christmas Carol and The Book of Dust – La Belle Sauvage at the Bridge; Greek (the Opera) at Hannover Opera House; My Fair Lady at Cologne Opera House; Street Scene at Teatro Real, Madrid and Cologne Opera House; Richard III for Headlong; Sons of the Prophet, Cell Mates, iHo, Race and Hysteria at Hampstead; Holy Sh!t, The Invisible Hand, The House That Will Not Stand, Multitudes, A Wolf in Snakeskin Shoes, Red Velvet and One Monkey Don’t Stop No Show at Kiln; Ah, Wilderness! and A Streetcar Named Desire at the Young Vic; and The Moderate Soprano, Labour of Love, Glengarry Glen Ross, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Orlando, The Entertainer, Kinky Boots, Red Velvet, The Elephant Man, Fatal Attraction, Uncle Vanya and Barking in Essex. TV includes Black Cab, Alex Rider, Henpocalypse, Pennyworth, Raised by Wolves and Cradle to the Grave. Film includes Allelujah!, 6 Minutes to Midnight, Holmes and Watson, Lady in the Van and Set Fire to the Stars. www.richardrydervoice.com

Cathleen McCarron

Voice Coach

Cathleen McCarron trained at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and the University of Edinburgh. She is Head of Voice at the National Theatre and previously spent six years as Senior Voice and Text Practitioner at the Royal Shakespeare Company. She has coached extensively in professional theatre companies for over a decade and has taught widely in drama schools and training institutions across the UK and abroad. She has coached voice and presentation skills in a range of businesses and organisations including the United Nations and Apple, and is a regular narrator of audiobooks, specialising in writers from her native Scotland.

BEN JACOBS

Associate Lighting Designer

Ben Jacobs trained in lighting design at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama. His work has been nominated for the Off West End Award for Best Lighting Design four times, as well as winning the award in 2018 and 2022. Work as a lighting designer includes Dawn French is a Huge Twat on UK tour and in the West End; Evita at Parque Villa-Lobos, Sao Paulo; King Hamlin at Park Theatre; Salome, Seussical and Bring it On at Southwark Playhouse; A Midsummer Night’s Dream at Wilton’s Music Hall; Caterpillar at Stephen Joseph; The Sorrows of Satan at Brocket Hall; Dolphins & Sharks, Melting Pot, Maggie & Pierre and The Retreat at Finborough; NoMad, Lord of the Flies and Edward II at Greenwich; Nora: A Doll’s House, H.R.Aitch, Heartbreak House, Carmen, Twang, Privates on Parade and Imagine This at the Union; Midlife Cowboy and Freefall at Pleasance; Sister at Ovalhouse; People We Didn’t Quite Meet, Red and Are We Stronger Than Winston at The Place; Proud, Southern Belles, Stripped and The Stones at King’s Head; Caterpillar, In Event of Moone Disaster, The State We’re In, Elexion and Red Like Embers at Theatre503; Blood Wedding, The Lower Depths, Hamlet, Burial at Thebes, Love and Information and Secret Circus at RCSSD; Cuncrete and Mrs Armitage and the Big Wave on UK tour. Work as associate lighting designer includes Les Misérables on UK tour, in the West End and internationally; ANNA at the National Theatre; Le nozze di Figaro at Glyndebourne; Sondheim’s Old Friends at the Sondheim and Gielgud; Ostalgie at National Theatre Studio; Project O at Southbank Centre; and Crave at Prague Quadrennial.