EMMA RICE
DIRECTOR AND ADAPTOR
Bio
Emma Rice is the proud Artistic Director of her company, Wise Children, and an internationally respected theatre-maker and director. For Wise Children, Emma has adapted and directed the productions The Buddha of Suburbia, Blue Beard, The Little Matchgirl and Happier Tales, Wuthering Heights, Bagdad Cafe, Romantics Anonymous, Enid Blyton’s Malory Towers and Angela Carter’s Wise Children.
As Artistic Director of Shakespeare’s Globe: Romantics Anonymous, Twelfth Night, A Midsummer Night’s Dream and The Little Matchgirl (and Other Happier Tales).
As joint Artistic Director of Kneehigh: The Flying Lovers of Vitebsk, Tristan & Yseult, 946: The Amazing Story of Adolphus Tips, The Wild Bride, The Red Shoes, The Wooden Frock, The Bacchae, Cymbeline (in association with RSC), A Matter of Life and Death (in association with National Theatre), Rapunzel (in association with Battersea Arts Centre); Brief Encounter (in association with David Pugh and Dafydd Rogers Productions); Don John (in association with the RSC and Bristol Old Vic); Wah! Wah! Girls (in association with Sadler’s Wells and Theatre Royal Stratford East for World Stages); and Steptoe and Son.
Emma received the Outstanding Contribution to British Theatre award at the 2019 UK Theatre Awards and in 2022 was named one of Sky Arts’ ‘50 most influential British artists of the last 50 years’.
IAN ROSS
COMPOSER
Bio
Ian’s work with Wise Children as Composer includes: The Little Matchgirl and Happier Tales (The Lucky Chance); Wuthering Heights (UK, US tour and The Holland Festival); Bagdad Café (The Old Vic); Malory Towers (Bristol Old Vic) and Wise Children (UK National tour).
Other work as Composer includes: Twelfth Night (Shakespeare’s Globe); The Flying Lovers of Vitebsk (Kneehigh) and on the film The Princess and Peppernose.
As a musician for Kneehigh Theatre: Brief Encounter, The Red Shoes, Don Jon, The Wild Bride, Tristan and Yseult, Dead Dog in a Suitcase, The Very Old Man with Enormous Wings, and The Flying Lovers of Vitebsk.
His work as Musical Director includes: London Tide (National Theatre) and Girl From The North Country (Toronto 2019, Runway.)
Nominations include: Dora Mavor Award for Outstanding Musical Direction 2020 (Girl from the North Country) and The Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Music in a Play 2023 (Wuthering Heights).
Ian is a Bristol based multi-instrumentalist and Composer. He is the Head of Music for The School for Wise Children and leads the band Eleven Magpies.
VICKI MORTIMER
SET AND COSTUME DESIGNER
Bio
THEATRE INCLUDES: Bluebeard (Wise Children); Medea (@sohoplace); GOOD (West End); Our Generation (scenery) (National Theatre/ Chichester Festival Theatre); Wuthering Heights (Wise Children/ Bristol Old Vic/National Theatre/UK tour); Bach and Sons (scenery) (The Bridge); Normal Heart (scenery), The Visit (scenery), Anna, Follies (Critics’ Circle Award for Design and Olivier Award for Best Costume Design 2018), The Plough and the Stars,
The Threepenny Opera, Here We Go, The Silver Tassie, Othello, Hamlet, Waves, Cat in the Hat, Three Sisters, The Seagull, Closer (National Theatre); Wise Children (Emma Rice/ Wise Children); The Meeting (Chichester Festival Theatre);
The Little Match Girl (Shakespeare’s Globe/UK tour); Oil (Almeida). Vicki has also designed for Kneehigh, Young Vic, Donmar, Almeida,
Royal Court, on Broadway and internationally.
OPERA INCLUDES: Death in Venice (Volksoper, Austria/Royal Opera House); New Dark Age Double Bill: The Knife of Dawn, A New Dark Age (Royal Opera House); Lessons in Love and Violence, Lucia di Lammermoor (Royal Opera House/international tour); Written on Skin (Aix Festival/ on tour); Al Gran Sole (Salzburg Festival/Staatsoper Berlin); Neither/ Footfalls (Staatsoper Berlin);
Die Entführung aus dem Seraglio,
Die Meistersinger von Nurnburg,
St Matthew Passion, Cosí Fan Tutte (Glyndebourne); The Winter’s Tale, After Dido, The Way Back Home (English National Opera/Young Vic); Wozzeck (winner of the International Opera Award for Design 2016) (Lyric Opera, Chicago). DANCE INCLUDES: With Wayne McGregor: Royal Ballet, Stuttgart Ballet, Random Dance, Paris Opera Ballet, American Ballet Theatre.
SIMON BAKER
SOUND AND VIDEO DESIGNER
Bio
THEATRE INCLUDES: The Nutcracker (Southbank Centre); Girl From the North Country (US/UK/ Ireland/Australia tour); The Secret Life of Bees (Almeida); Hex (National Theatre); Woman in Mind (Chichester Festival Theatre); Wuthering Heights (Wise Children/ UK tour); Bagdad Café (Wise Children/The Old Vic); A Christmas Carol (The Old Vic/West End/ Broadway/Canada); Groundhog Day (The Old Vic/Broadway); Lungs, Present Laughter (The Old Vic); Malory Towers (Wise Children/Bristol Old Vic/UK tour); Standing at the Sky’s Edge (Sheffield Crucible); Wise Children (Wise Children/The Old Vic/ UK tour/BBC film); Brief Encounter (UK tour/Broadway); The Moderate Soprano, The Birthday Party, Shakespeare in Love, Mojo, Boeing-Boeing, Loserville, Deathtrap, La Bête, The Caretaker, The Master Builder, Future Conditional, High Society, Electra, The Real Thing,
The Norman Conquests (Broadway); Arcadia, Wah! Wah! Girls,
The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, The Lord of the Rings, The Grinning Man (West End); Girl From the North Country (West End/Broadway/Canada); Complicité, Hedda Gabler, Pinocchio, The Amen Corner, The Light Princess, Tristan and Yseult (Off-Broadway); The Little Match Girl (UK tour); Romantics Anonymous (UK/US tour); A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Twelfth Night (Shakespeare’s Globe). Live-streamed theatre: A Christmas Carol, Faith Healer, Three Kings, Lungs (The Old Vic in Camera);
The Flying Lovers of Vitebsk (Wise Children/Kneehigh/Bristol Old Vic/ UK tour); Romantics Anonymous (Wise Children/Bristol Old Vic). AWARD: Olivier for Best Sound for Matilda The Musical.
OTHER: Simon is a Fellow of the Guildhall School, Associate Artist for The Old Vic, Kneehigh Theatre and part of Emma Rice’s new movement, Wise Children.
JAI MORJARIA
LIGHTING DESIGNER
Bio
TRAINED: RADA.
THEATRE INCLUDES: Macbeth (Wessex Grove/international tour); Accidental Death of an Anarchist (Haymarket/Lyric Hammersmith/ Sheffield Theatres); Cuckoo, Graceland (Royal Court); Othello (National Theatre); My Son’s a
Queer (But What Can You Do?) (Ambassadors/Garrick/Turbine);
The Trials (Donmar Warehouse); Chasing Hares (Young Vic); Wuthering Heights (St Ann’s Warehouse/National Theatre/US tour/Wise Children); Lost and Found (Factory International); The Real and Imagined History of the Elephant Man (Nottingham Playhouse); Birthmarked (Bristol Old Vic); For Tonight (Adelphi); Scissors (Sheffield Theatres); Cruise (Duchess); August in England, House of Ife, Lava (Bush); Cherry Jezebel (Liverpool Everyman); Big Big Sky, The Hoes (Hampstead); The Sorcerer’s Apprentice (Northern Stage); Anansi the Spider (Unicorn). FILM: The Magic Finger (Roald
Dahl Company).
AWARD: Association of Lighting Designer’s ETC Award.
ETTA MURFITT
MOVEMENT DIRECTOR AND CHOREOGRAPHER
Bio
CHOREOGRAPHY AND MOVEMENT DIRECTION INCLUDE: As Movement Director and Choreographer: Bluebeard (Wise Children); Wuthering Heights (National Theatre/US tour); Bagdad Café (The Old Vic); Wise Children (The Old Vic/ UK tour); Romantics Anonymous (Bristol Old Vic/Sam Wanamaker); Orpheus in the Underworld (English National Opera); A Clockwork Orange (Everyman/Playhouse); The Tin Drum (Kneehigh/UK tour); Much Ado About Nothing (Shakespeare’s Globe);
Le Nozze di Figaro (Holland Park Opera); The Way of the World (Wilton’s Music Hall); The Infernal Galop (Images of Dance/Sarasota Ballet); A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Shakespeare’s Globe/Albery); Umbrellas of Cherbourg (Kneehigh/ Leicester Curve/Gielgud); Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead (Chichester Festival Theatre/ Haymarket); Wild Bride, Midnights Pumpkin (Kneehigh/Asylum Tent, Cornwall); Travesties, Sleeping Beauty (Birmingham Rep). As Associate Director and Performer: Romeo and Juliet, Sleeping Beauty, The Midnight Bell, The Red Shoes, Cinderella (original London and LA productions), Dorian Gray, Edward Scissorhands, Nutcracker (AMP/New Adventures). Etta also originated roles in: Nutcracker (Opera North/ Sadler’s Wells); The Car Man (The Old Vic); Swan Lake (Sadler’s Wells/ West End/LA/Broadway); Highland Fling (Donmar Warehouse/UK tours); The Infernal Galop, The Percy’s of Fitzrovia, Deadly Serious, Town and Country and the role of Peg in Edward Scissorhands. TELEVISION AND FILM INCLUDE: Nutcracker (BBC/NVC); The Car Man (Channel 4); Cinderella (South Bank Show/ITV); Swan Lake, Late Flowering Lust,Roald Dahl’s
Red Riding Hood, Mrs Hartley and the Growth Centre (BBC); Storm (Aletta Collins/BBC); Swan Lake 3D (Sky Arts).
OTHER: Etta is currently Associate Artistic Director for New Adventures, and Associate Artistic Director and Artistic Lead for New Adventures’ Take Part activity. Etta is a previous associate of Kneehigh Theatre and The Globe.
NANDI BHEBHE
ASSOCIATE CHOREOGRAPHER
Bio
Trained at Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts.
Theatre credits include: The Little Mermaid (Bristol Old Vic); Twine (Yard Theatre); Robin Hood: The Legend Re-Written (Regent’s Park Theatre); Mimi’s Shabeen (KVS Brussels); Wuthering Heights (St Anne’s Warehouse Brooklyn/National Theatre); Bagdad Café, A Monster Calls (The Old Vic); Europeana (RSC); Faultline (Gate Theatre); Mid Life (Diverse City); Ubu, The Tin Drum, 946(Kneehigh); Torch (ANU Productions); Twelfth Night, A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Globe); Boy Breaking Glass (Sadler’s Wells Theatre); A Season In The Congo (Young Vic); Fela! (Al Hirshfeld Theatre, New York/The Royal National Theatre); 5,6,7,8 (The Royal Court Theatre).
Screen credits includes: The Thing with Feathers (Film4); Cyrano (MGM/Working Title Films); The Jetty (BBC); Emmerdale(ITV).
JOHN LEADER
PUPPETRY DIRECTOR
Bio
Trained at East 15 Acting School.
Theatre includes: The Little Mermaid (Bristol Old Vic); Merry Wives of Windsor, The School for Scandal (RSC); Wuthering Heights (Wise Children/ National Theatre); A Monster Calls (The Old Vic); The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (Bridge Theatre); Henry IV Part 1, Henry IV Part 2, Henry V, Doctor Faustus, Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons: A Reimagining (Shakespeare’s Globe); Peter Pan, War Horse (National Theatre); Chigger Foot Boys (Tara Arts); Running Wild (Regent’s Park); Romeo and Juliet (Orange Tree); Beasty Baby (Theatre Rites/ Polka); Alice’s Adventures Underground (Les Enfants Terribles)
Television includes: The Sandman (Netflix); Doctors (BBC); Britannia (Sky); The Girlfriend Experience (Amazon)
Film includes: Femme (BBC/Netflix)
KEV MCCURDY
FIGHT DIRECTOR
PAT MORAN
MUSIC DIRECTOR
Bio
Pat trained at California Institute of the Arts (USA), earning a performer/composer dual focus MFA. He relocated to the UK in 2015 and has worked extensively as a theatre multi-instrumentalist and music director.
UK theatre credits include: Wuthering Heights (National Theatre/Wise Children); The Wicker Husband (Westerna/Watermill Theatre); Cinderella (Hall for Cornwall); The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe (Bridge Theatre); Brief Encounter (Kneehigh); Hireth (Hall for Cornwall/O Region); Tristan & Yseult (Kneehigh); 946: The Amazing Story of Adolphus Tips (Kneehigh); A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Shakespeare’s Globe) and Sleeping Beauty (Bristol Old Vic). Pat served as resident composer/lyricist/musical director/multi-instrumentalist for the San Francisco Mime Troupe from 2007 – 2013. Recent compositions include work with BBC Ideas, visual artist Adébayo Bolaji, and with the projects PM Syndicate; Unreliable Witness, and Yesterday’s Camel.
LAURA KEEFE
ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR
Bio
THEATRE INCLUDES: Previous work with Wise Children: Blue Beard (UK tour); The Little Matchgirl and Other Happier Tales (The Lucky Chance); Wuthering Heights (UK/US tours and The Holland Festival); Bagdad Café (The Old Vic); Romantics Anonymous (Bristol Old Vic); Malory Towers (UK tour). Other work as Director: Wildfire Road (Sheffield Theatres); The Christmas Goblin (Marlowe); One Million Tiny Plays About Britain, Robin Hood (Watermill); Parakeet (Boundless); Dennis of Penge (Albany/Ovalhouse); The Ladykillers of Humber Doucy Lane (Eastern Angles); My Beautiful Black Dog (Roundhouse/Southbank Centre). Previous work as Staff Director:
As You Like It (National Theatre); Brief Encounter (West End);
A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre); Feast (Young Vic); The Two Gentlemen of Verona, Romeo and Juliet (Shakespeare’s Globe). OTHER: Laura is Head of The School for Wise Children and a Creative Associate at The Northwall, Oxford.
ANNA LEWIS
COSTUME SUPERVISOR