John Hastings

as ‘Francis’

Trained: Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts.

Theatre credits: To Kill A Mockingbird (Gielgud Theatre); Small Island, Angels in America, The Beaux’ Stratagem, King Lear (National Theatre); Corpse! (Park Theatre); King Lear (Chichester Festival Theatre and Duke of York’s Theatre); Frozen (Theatre Royal Haymarket); The Merchant of Venice (Shakespeare’s Globe); The Homecoming (Jamie Lloyd Company); As Is (Finborough); Macbeth (YSC); Insufficiency (Riverside Studios); A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Erasmus); The Tempest, Much Ado About Nothing (Principal); This Lime Tree Bower, Phone Play (Edinburgh Festival)

Film credits: Christmas Karma, Hot Property, Love/Me/Do

Shaun McCourt

as ‘Pieter’

Shaun trained at the Guildford School of Acting.

Theatre credits include: The Mousetrap (UK Tour), The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe (Gillian Lynne Theatre), The Windsors: Endgame (Prince of Wales Theatre), Blood Brothers (UK Tour), War Horse (New London Theatre), The Railway Children (Kings Cross Theatre), Imagine This (Union Theatre), Iolanthe (Wilton’s Music Hall), The Pirates of Penzance (Kilworth House Theatre), Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (UK Tour), Bernstein’s Mass (Royal Festival Hall).

Workshops include: The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry (Chichester Festival Theatre), The Grinning Man (NT Studios), I Capture the Castle (NT Studios), The Attic (Theatre Royal Haymarket).

Helena Antoniou

as ‘Nan’

Helena Antoniou trained at LAMDA.

Theatre credits include Trial By Laughter (Watermill/ UK Tour), The Snow Queen (Yvonne Arnaud), Bin Juice (Vault Festival), Love Them to Death (Underbelly, Edinburgh Fringe), The Hound of the Baskervilles (Theatre by the Lake).

Television credits include Call the Midwife Series 9 (BBC), Eastenders (BBC).

Film credits include Love Without Walls (Hidden Door)

MICHAEL MORPURGO

AUTHOR

Michael Morpurgo has been writing stories since the 1970’s and is one of the UK’s best-loved authors, Michael was appointed Children’s Laureate in 2003. He has written over 130 books, including The Butterfly Lion, Kensuke’s Kingdom, The Mozart Question and War Horse, which was adapted for the stage by the National Theatre and then, in 2011, for a film by Steven Spielberg. Many of Michael’s other books have been adapted for the stage including Private Peaceful, An Elephant In the Garden, Toro Toro!, The Mozart Question, The Butterfly Lion, Waiting For Anya, I Believe In Unicorns, Why the Whales Came and Kensuke’s Kingdom.  

Michael was awarded the OBE for his writing in 2006 and was knighted in the 2018 New Year’s Honours list. In 1976, Michael and his wife, Clare, started the charity Farms for City Children.

SIMON READE

WRITER

Simon’s previous Michael Morpurgo adaptations include the multiple versions of Private Peaceful: the UK and international tours of the one-man show (West End, Off-Broadway, Chicago, Dublin) and the UK tours of the ensemble version (National Youth Theatre, director Paul Hart; Nottingham Playhouse UK tour); the Goldcrest feature film starring George Mackay and Jack O’Connell; and the audio dramatisation for BBC Radio 4. His other versions of Michael’s stories include Pinocchio (Watermill Theatre), Waiting for Anya (Barn Theatre, Cirencester), An Elephant in the Garden (UK tour + Philadelphia, starring Alison Reid), The Mozart Question (Scamp Theatre), Toro! Toro! (Salisbury Playhouse), and Twist of Gold (Polka.) Simon’s previous collaborations with song-writer Chris Larner include David Copperfield (Barn Theatre/Frinton+Riverside Studios) and Philip Pullman’s The Scarecrow & His Servant (Southwark Playhouse.) He has also adapted Geraldine McCaughrean’s Not the End of the World, Jill Tomlinson’s The Owl Who Was Afraid of the Dark, Philip Pullman’s Aladdin & the Enchanted Lamp, and the TMA Award-winning Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, all for Bristol Old Vic where he was Artistic Director.

His classic adaptations include: Christopher Isherwood’s A Single Man (Troupe Productions); the hugely popular Pride & Prejudice (Theatre Royal Bath Productions/Regent’s Park UK tour/Sheffield Crucible/Guthrie Theater Minneapolis); A Room With A View (starring Felicity Kendal, ACT Productions); Penelope Lively’s Moon Tiger (starring Jane Asher, TRBP); and Ted Hughes’s Tales from Ovid and Salman Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children, both for the RSC where he was Literary Manager. With Ian Rankin he co-wrote Rebus: A Game Called Malice (Queen’s Theatre, Hornchurch) which is revived on UK tour autumn 2024. His other screenplays include the critically acclaimed version of R.C. Sherriff’s Journey’s End (director Saul Dibb, starring Sam Claflin, Asa Butterfield and Paul Bettany, Lionsgate/BFI.) 

 

PHILIP WILSON

DIRECTOR

Theatre includes: The Voice of the Turtle, The Oyster Problem (Jermyn Street Theatre); A Single Man (Park Theatre); Starcrossed (Wilton’s Music Hall); The Boy With The Bee Jar (Hope Theatre); Perfect Nonsense, After The Dance (Theatre by the Lake); The Star, The Norman Conquests, Noises Off, Dr Faustus, The Astonished Heart/Still Life (Liverpool Playhouse); As You Like It (Storyhouse, Chester); Beacons (Park Theatre); his own adaptations of Philip Pullman’s Grimm Tales (Oxo Tower Bargehouse & Shoreditch Town Hall); The Three Lions (St. James Theatre & Edinburgh & UK Tour); How Many Miles to Babylon? (Lyric Belfast), Toro! Toro! (national tour); Twist of Gold (Polka); The books of Ruth and 2 Samuel in Sixty-Six Books (Bush Theatre & Westminster Abbey); The Importance of Being Earnest/Travesties (Birmingham Rep); If Love Were All, In Praise Of Love (Minerva, Chichester); The Found Man (Traverse); Un Uomo Trovato (Teatro della Limonaia, Florence); Ain’t Misbehavin’ (Sheffield Crucible); Breaking The Code (Northampton Theatre Royal).

As Artistic Director of Salisbury Playhouse (2007-11): The Game of Love and Chance, The Constant Wife, The Picture, Private Lives, Arsenic and Old Lace, The Winslow Boy, his own adaptation of JL Carr’s A Month in the Country, What the Butler Saw, People At Sea, Alphabetical Order, Corpse! As director and designer: Blackbird, Faith Healer and Toro! Toro!

Writing includes: Cinderella (Chichester Festival Theatre); Philip Pullman’s Grimm Tales (Nick Hern Books); Dramatic Adventures in Rhetoric, with Giles Taylor (Oberon Books).

Film includes: Performance Consultant on Shakespeare in Love (Miramax).

 

 

YOAV SEGAL

SET & COSTUME DESIGNER

Yoav is an Arts Foundation winning theatre designer, a BAFTA Long-listed art-director and D&AD nominated creative director. In 2024 Yoav set and costume designed Michael Morpurgo’s Pinocchio at the Watermill Theatre, directed by Elle While and Indiana Lown-Collins, which was selected in the Guardian’s top ten shows of the year. Their review says that ‘Every aspect of the stagecraft is outstanding’. Yoav also set designed Cable Street, directed by Adam Lenson, which was selected in The Stage’s top shows of 2024 and is described by The Stage as a show with ‘Genuine theatrical swagger’. Yoav has worked extensively in projection design for artists including Sally Cookson, Mervyn Millar, George the Poet, DJ Shadow and Rocio Molina. Yoav also delivers creative work in TV and Film and his animated title sequence for Once Upon a Time in Londongrad for Sky Originals was longlisted for a BAFTA.

Set and Costume design credits: Pinocchio (Watermill); Corpus (Edinburgh Festival)

Set design credits: Cable Street (Southwark Playhouse); Pilgrim Plays (NT Studio); George at the National (National Theatre)

Projection design credits: Varmints (Sadler’s Wells); Crow (Cultural Olympiad); In Progress (Sadler’s Wells)

Art Direction credits: Sleeping Forecast (BBC, Joseph Wallace), Londongrad titles (Sky Originals), Irons in the Fire (Sky Arts)

 

 

RYAN DAY

LIGHTING DESIGNER

Ryan is a lighting designer for theatre, dance, opera, concerts and fashion.

He studied Theatre Lighting Design at The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama.

 

Theatre credits include: Handbagged (Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch), Twelfth Night (National Youth Theatre), A Marvellous Party (Prince of Wales), The Red Shoes (RSC), The King’s Speech (Watermill), The History Boys (Theatre Royal Bath & UK tour), Pericles (RSC & Chicago Shakespeare Theater), Now, I See (Stratford East), The Lion Inside (Rose Theatre & international tour)), The Boy at the Back of the Class (Rose Theatre & UK tour), Backstairs Billy (Duke of York’s), Quiz (Chichester Festival Theatre & UK tour), Never Have I Ever (Minerva – Chichester), Saving Face (Curve Leicester & The Place), War and Culture (New Diorama), Black Superhero (Royal Court), Local Hero (Co-Lighting Designer with Paule Constable, Minerva – Chichester), Wild Onion (Norwich Theatre Royal & UK tour), Lizard Boy (Hope Mill & Edinburgh Fringe), Mission, The Ballad of Corona V (The Big House), Christie Done It, Dr Faustess (Cockpit), Rabbit Hole, Darknet (Union), I Know I Know I Know (Southwark Playhouse), Into the Woods, A Merchant of Venice (Playground).

As associate/assistant, theatre credits include: The Rite of Spring (Sadler’s Wells & UK tour), Wickies (Park 200), The Lemon Table (Salisbury Playhouse/UK tour), Les Misérables, Les Misérables In Concert (Sondheim).

 

 

ELLA WAHLSTRÖM

SOUND DESIGNER & COMPOSER

Credits include:  The Koala Who Could (UK Tour); Pinocchio, The Wicker Husband  (Watermill Theatre); The Lion Inside  (UK Tour); Power of Sail  (The Menier Chocolate Factory); Errol’s Garden (UK Tour); Drop The Dead Donkey (UK Tour); The Unfriend (Wyndham’s, West End); Peter Pan Goes Wrong (Lyric Theatre / UK Tour / Ethel Barrymore Theatre, New York); A Christmas Carol (Nottingham Playhouse / Alexandra Palace); The Hypochondriac (Crucible, Sheffield Theatres), Sam and her Amazing Book of Dinosaurs (Hong Kong Cultural Centre);  Bleak Expectations (Criterion Theatre); 101 Dalmatians (Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre); Ava: The Secret Conversations (Riverside Studios); Dogs of Europe (Barbican Centre);  Rare Earth Mettle, Inside Bitch (Royal Court); The Lemon Table (UK Tour); Piaf (Nottingham Playhouse); I Think We Are Alone (UK Tour);  Noises Off (Garrick Theatre); Jellyfish, Sometimes Thinking (National Theatre).

 

Other credits include: Esa-Pekka Salonen’s Cello Concerto (Mandel Concert Hall, Cleveland / Davies Symphony Hall, San Francisco / Gothenburg Concert Hall, Gothenburg / Symphony Centre, Chicago / Lincoln Centre, New York / ); As Co-Sound Designer: Letter to a Man (Robert Wilson and Mikhail Baryshnikov, International Tour)

 

 

JAN HAYDN ROWLES

ACCENT & DIALECT COACH

Jan has worked as an accent and dialect coach  for over 30 years. She has trained countless actors in the UK’s leading drama schools, been Head of Voice at Shakespeare’s Globe, and worked across the country’s regional theatres, as well the West End.

Recently her work has been heard in the highly acclaimed film Belfast, Game of Thrones, House of the Dragons, Joan, The Regime and This England to name a few. Jan is a highly skilled and experienced accent and dialogue coach for Theatre, TV & Film.

 

 

ZOE LITTLETON

ACCENT & DIALECT COACH

Zoe is a voice, text and dialect coach based in London. After completing her MFA in Professional Voice studies at Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, Zoe went on to teach across Drama schools in the UK and internationally. Zoe also works in Theatre including productions for the Birmingham REP, Lyric Hammersmith, Theatr Clwyd and West End Credits including Dr Semmelweis and Matilda the Musical (Royal Shakespeare Company) where she works currently as part of the Voice department.

 

 

ANTHONY HOUGHTON

CASTING DIRECTOR

 

 

CHARLOTTE PRICE

FIGHT DIRECTOR