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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 Match Girl 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); The Cat and the Canary (Told by an idiot) 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, 946, Ubu 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 leads the band Eleven Magpies.

VICKI MORTIMER

SET AND COSTUME DESIGNER

Bio

THEATRE INCLUDES:

The Buddha of Suburbia
(RSC/ Wise Children); Blue Beard (Wise Children); 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 Little Match Girl and Happier Tales (Wise Children); Juno and the Paycock (West End); The Constituent (Old Vic Theatre); The Artist (Drew McOnie Company & Theatre Royal, Plymouth); The Buddha of Suburbia (RSC/ Wise Children); Blue Beard (Wise Children); 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: Barcelona (Duke of York’s Theatre); Why Am I So Single? (Garrick Theatre); The Buddha of Suburbia (Royal Shakespeare Company/Barbican Theatre/ Wise Children); The Secret Garden (Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre); Barnum (Watermill Theatre); Macbeth(Wessex Grove/Shakespeare Theatre Company, Washington); Cuckoo, Graceland (Royal Court); Othello (National Theatre); Accidental Death of an Anarchist (Haymarket Theatre/Lyric Hammersmith/Sheffield Theatres); The Trials (Donmar Warehouse); My Son’s A Queer (But What Can You Do?) (Ambassadors Theatre/Garrick Theatre/Turbine Theatre); Stolen Ground (Les Théâtres de la Ville de Luxembourg); Chasing Hares (Young Vic); Robin Hood (Rose Theatre Kingston); Lost and Found (Factory International); The Real and Imagined History of the Elephant Man (Nottingham Playhouse/UK Tour); Birthmarked (Bristol Old Vic/Theatre Royal Stratford East/UK Tour); For Tonight (Adelphi Theatre); Scissors (Sheffield Theatres); Cruise (Duchess Theatre); August in England, House of Ife, Lava (Bush Theatre); Worth (Arcola Theatre/New Earth); The Cherry Orchard (The Yard/HOME/ETT); Cherry Jezebel (Liverpool Everyman); Big Big Sky, The Hoes (Hampstead Theatre); The Sorcerer’s Apprentice (Northern Stage); Shuck’n’Jive, Whitewash (Soho Theatre); Anansi the Spider (Unicorn Theatre); I’ll Take You To Mrs. Cole (Complicité); Cuzco (Theatre503); Losing Venice (Orange Tree Theatre).  Film design includes The Magic Finger (Roald Dahl Company).

AWARD: Association of Lighting Designer’s ETC Award.

ETTA MURFITT

MOVEMENT DIRECTOR AND CHOREOGRAPHER

Bio
THEATRE INCLUDES:
As Movement Director and Choreographer: The Buddha of Suburbia (RSC/ Wise Children); Blue Beard (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

Bio

Kev is an Equity Registered Fight Director of 24 yrs, stage combat tutor of 31 yrs & co-founder of The Academy of Performance Combat.

Kev teaches at The Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama and has been a guest instructor at universities in Oklahoma and Missouri and on workshops in Norway, Sweden, Finland and Canada.

Upcoming fight choreographing projects include: Hamlet and Edward II at RSC.

Theatre includes: previous work with Wise Children: The Buddha of Suburbia (RSC & Wise Children); Blue Beard (UK tour); Wuthering Heights (UK/US tours and The Holland Festival); Bagdad Café (The Old Vic).

Other theatre includes: Sister Act (UK tour, London Palladium & Dominion Theatre); Les
Mis
érables (Sondheim Theatre); Phantom of The Opera (Her Majesty’s Theatre); Barbarians, Mandela, Hamlet, Nora- A Dolls House, The Homecoming, Fairview, The Little Foxes (Young Vic); Jitney (Old Vic); A Streetcar Named Desire, West Side Story, Billy Elliot (Curve Theatre); Some Mothers Do ‘Ave ‘em (UK tour); Moreno (Theatre 503); Nine Night (Leeds Playhouse); Gunpowder(Tower Of London); Guardians of The Galaxy (Secret Cinema); Trouble In Butetown, The Fear Of 13 (Donmar Warehouse); Brokeback Mountain (Soho Place); The Wizard Of Oz (London Palladium / UK tour); The Beaux Strategem, The Muthafu**er With The Hat, Anthony And Cleopatra, Othello (National Theatre); O Island, Ivy Tiller-Squirrel Killer, The Box Of Delights, The Tempest, Cymbelline, Othello, (RSC); The Buddha Of Suberbia (RSC & Wise Children); Tambo and Bones (Stratford East); Carrie The Musical, Julius Caesar (Richard Burton Theatre) Macbeth (Bristol Old Vic); Enemy Of The People (Duke Of York’s Theatre); Out Of Season (Hampstead Theatre); One Man Two Guvnors (Everyman Open Air Festival); An Officer And A Gentleman (UK tour); Player Kings (Noel Coward Theatre / UK tour); The Lightning Child, Eyam, The Duchess Of Malfi, Othello, Edward II, All’s Well That Ends Well, Romeo and Juliet (Shakespeare’s Globe) The Play That Goes Wrong (Duchess Theatre); Red Pitch (Bush Theatre / Soho Place); Wolves On Road (Bush Theatre); Stranger Things (Phoenix Theatre).

Opera includes: Bajazet (Irish National Opera tour); Carmen, The Barber Of Seville (Garsington Opera); Rigoletto, Don Giovanni, Jenufa, Candide (Welsh National Opera); Jephta, Rigoletto, Don Giovanni, Bajazet (Royal Opera House); Semele, Don Giovanni (Glyndebourne) Carmen (Waterperry Opera)

Film includes: Season Of The Witch, John Carter Of Mars, Protein, Scopophobia, The Lady Of Heaven.

Television includes: Eastenders, Dr Who, The Pact S2, Hollyoaks, The A List S2, Until I Kill You, Pobol Y Cwm, Bariau.

Directing includes: The Saliva Milkshake; The Glass Menagerie; Making of a Motherer; Jekyll And Hyde The Musical; The Welsh Dragon; The Fight (World premiere).

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: The Buddha of Suburbia (RSC/ Wise Children);

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

Bio

Anna is a Costume Supervisor and award winning Set and Costume Designer.

Costume Supervisor credits include: Wuthering Heights (Lyttelton, National Theatre, UK Tour, USA Tour, SE Asia Tour), The Book of Dust (Bridge Theatre), Straight Line Crazy (Bridge Theatre).

Selected design credits include: Outlying Islands (Set and Costume Designer) and The Marriage of Alice B. Toklas (Costume Designer) (both Jermyn Street Theatre), Prima (Thick and Tight, Royal Opera House – Costume Designer), Life According to Saki (C+2 Edinburgh, Fourth Street Theatre NYC – Winner of Carol Tambor Best of Edinburgh Award), Anna Bella Eema (Arcola Theatre), Outlying Islands, EAST, Carmen (All Kings Head Theatre) Stray Dogs (Theatre 503), Amma (Tara Theatre), A Christmas Carol (Reading Rep).

She has also worked extensively as a Props Supervisor and Buyer at the National Theatre.

Anna has been nominated for 3 Off West End Awards and was the recipient of an MGC Futures Bursary. She recently completed a Masters in Sustainability and is passionate about ensuring her work is sustainable.

FAY LUMSDALE

WIGS AND HAIR SUPERVISOR

Bio

Fay has been a wig and facial maker for 20 years after gaining her city in guilds qualification during two years at Retford internal make up school. from there she joined the hair and make-up team of the English national opera for 6 years. Theatre credits include: Blue Beard (Wise Children); Aida (Zandra Rhodes); Madame Butterfly (Antony Mingellas); Faust (Terry Gillingham’s) and Dogs Heart (Complicite).