SAT 17 – SAT 31 JULY

Supported by a National Lottery grant from the Arts Council England’s Ambition for Excellence fund

Gin Craze! A BOOZE-SOAKED LOVE BALLAD FROM THE WOMEN OF GIN LANE

BOOK AND LYRICS BY APRIL DE ANGELIS MUSIC AND LYRICS BY LUCY RIVERS

A ROYAL & DERNGATE, NORTHAMPTON AND CHINA PLATE CO-PRODUCTION IN PARTNERSHIP WITH ENGLISH TOURING THEATRE

Welcome to this performance of Gin Craze!

It’s wonderful to have audiences back in the theatre and it’s been a joy to have a production rehearsing in the building once again, albeit under stringent Covid protocols, with the cast and core team members in a bubble for the entire rehearsal and production period. We’re very grateful to everyone who has had to put in the extra effort to make this happen. We hope you’ll agree that it’s been worth it to bring this fantastic new musical to the stage!

We would like to thank the following supporters:

The Made in Northampton season is sponsored by Michael Jones Jeweller

#HereForCulture

Jo Gordon & James Dacre

With the support of Arts Council England’s Ambition for Excellence fund, Royal & Derngate has been leading a consortium including China Plate, Improbable, Mercury Musical Developments, Musical Theatre Network, Perfect Pitch and Scottish Opera, which has been working to address the barriers that prevent the creation of new, and original, musical theatre specifically developed for mid-scale regional touring.

Gin Craze! has been developed as part of this three-year project which has seen Royal & Derngate and its partners support 150 artists in nurturing the creation of new musical theatre.

Also developed as part of this project, An Improbable Musical will take to the Royal stage next spring and the concept album #ZoologicalSociety is available to stream or download from all major streaming platforms.

Inspiring and supporting the creation of new musicals and operas

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April De Angelis reflects on developing the musical Gin Craze!I met Michael Oakley, the director of Gin Craze!, when he directed another ‘historical play’ of mine Playhouse Creatures at Chichester in 2012 about the first English actresses, set in the 17th century. He then directed a further play set in the mid-18th century, Fanny Hill, at Bristol Old Vic in 2015. We enjoyed the experience of working together so much that we looked around for an idea for another play with an historical setting.

I had been given a book on the subject of the Gin Craze and suggested it as an idea. So the seeds of the project go back to those early conversations. We then approached Northampton and ETT who commissioned it. BUT as I began to write I had a strong feeling that the characters I was creating would be singing. I had never written a musical before but started to write lyrics for the

Gin Lane by William Hogarth, 1751

characters. After we had showed a draft to our producers they suggested we bring a composer on board and that was when we met Lucy Rivers for the first time. We were lucky enough to be invited to a residential development workshop in Saratoga Springs, USA by the Orchard Project and it was actually there that Lucy, Michael and I met for the first time. Lucy brought her guitar to America. I remember the day she came over and sat on my porch in Saratoga and sung the tune she had written to Inebriate You. Michael and I were blown away - we loved what she had done. She then composed more music and Lucy and I wrote the lyrics for a new song too. It was a very liberating and exhilarating experience. Lucy and I found a method where when we felt there needed to be a song - which the scene should be wrapped around - I would send Lucy some thoughts on content and images and then she would create the lyrics and the music. Lucy and I talked a lot about street ballads and how they would have been the music of the streets and Lucy’s music reflects that. Any Hogarth print will show you multiple sources of sound.

The challenge of writing Gin Craze! was finding a story to match the history and tell it through character. The women of Gin Lane did not write their stories down as they were working women and so we have had to imagine their lives. Court records are one of the only

places to get information apart from looking at Hogarth prints to get a flavour of the age, although of course he was not kind to the women of Gin Lane. Slowly the story of Mary and Lydia emerged as the heroines who struggle to make a success of their lives in a hostile world. At some point in my research I was amazed to discover that the novelist Henry Fielding was a magistrate at the very time the Gin Craze was occurring and he had joined the battle against gin. It seemed too juicy a piece of history to leave out of the play and he became a character as well as his novelist sister Sarah and his blind brother John who set up the Bow Street Runners with Henry. Our first police force!

We hope the musical transports our audience back to the world of the Gin Women. Like a lot of working class and women’s history it is a largely forgotten chapter but it’s worth knowing about the inventiveness, resilience and comradeship of the women as well as reminding us that governments often like to blame the less powerful in society for its own mistakes.

Find out more in April’s article in The Guardian in December 2020:

https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2020/dec/21/gin-craze-april-de-angelis-future-plays-royal-and-derngate

Thoughts from Lucy RiversWhat’s been amazing about this whole experience is not only working with this rich material but also the writing process has been very collaborative and supportive. Over the three years we’ve been able to really dig into the story and style we wanted to create, and April and I found a fluid way of working together on the lyrics. Quite quickly we got hooked onto the idea of street Ballads which were the pop songs of the time, and were sang and sold on street corners. I was also inspired by folk ballads, Cabaret, Kurt Weill, Torch songs and even George Frideric Handel has made it in there. Like the writing, I never wanted it to feel like we had to be tied to the period but wanted to make the music feel contemporary and speak to a modern audience.

I’ve worked on many music-driven shows and particularly enjoy writing Gig-theatre, but Gin Craze! is my first official musical. Luckily we had the brilliant Victoria Saxton as dramaturg to help us with the musical form and expectations, and it’s been a great learning experience, ie hitting those big numbers, turning dialogue scenes into songs and pin-pointing the moments when the best way a character can express themselves is to sing. More recently it’s been fun working together

with the wonderful Tamara Saringer who’s come up with beautiful arrangements and the songs and music hopefully carry the spirit, energy and emotion of those women of the time.

Now a brilliant team and multi-talented cast are assembled and rehearsals are underway it’s been so exciting to see everyone working together to bring the story and music alive. Gin Craze! feels like a perfect show for our time. It’s full of wonderful and flawed female characters singing their heart out, it’s a political satire, it’s a love story, it’s full of humour, full of drama, and all washed down with plenty of gin – what’s not to enjoy! I hope audiences will be gagging to get back into theatres now we’re allowed and I think Gin Craze! is a welcome tonic to the past 15 months. As the women of Gin Lane say...

“We’re the ones who made the fuss You should thank the lord for us We drank the most So raise a toast to Gin Gin Gin!”

Cast & Creative Team

ARUHAN GALIEVA

Mary

RACHEL WINTERS

Sarah Fielding/Informer

PAKSIE VERNON

Lydia

ALEX MUGNAIONIHenry Fielding/

Jekyll /Constable

PETER PEARSONJohn Fielding/

Thomas Wilson/Bartholomew

DEBBIE CHAZENMoll/Queen

Caroline

PAULA JAMES

Evelyn/Mistress

ROSALIND FORD

Suki/Betsy

Cast and creative biographies can be found later in this programme

APRIL DE ANGELISBook and Lyrics

LUCY RIVERSMusic and Lyrics

MICHAEL OAKLEYDirector

HAYLEY GRINDLEDesigner

TAMARA SARINGERMusic Supervisor and Arranger

PAUL ISAIAH ISLESChoreographer

JACK KNOWLESLighting Designer

TONY GAYLESound Designer

TIAN BROWN-SAMPSONAssistant Director

ALISON DE BURGHFight Director

MATILDA JAMES CDGCasting Director

VICTORIA SAXTONDramaturg

Creative Team

Follow the link below to read the Rehearsal Room Diary by Assistant Director Tian Brown-Sampson:

www.royalandderngate.co.uk/gin-craze-blog-1

SARA CRATHORNECompany Manager

PATRICIA DAVENPORTCompany Stage Manager

ANNE BAXTERDeputy Stage Manager

MADDY WADEAssistant Stage Manager

DARREN ABELAssistant Stage Manager

JUSTIN TEASDALE Sound No 1

JOSEPH BERRYSound No 2

JOSEPHINE LEWISWardrobe Manager

GINA SASSI Wigs Manager

MARTIN THOMPSONProduction Manager

TOM LEETour Production Manager

OWEN DONKINAssociate Touring Production Manager

JOE WHITERigger

ADAM BEELighting Programmer

JACK HOPKINSKeyboard Programmer

JOHN YOUNGHealth and Safety Consultant

Scenery, set painting, properties, costuming, wigs and make-up by Royal & Derngate workshops and facilitated by in-house stage management and technical teams

Production Team

Rehearsal photography by Ellie Kurttz

BETTY MARINIWig Hair and Make-Up Supervisor

ABI JACKSONFreelance Costume Maker

TAMSYN PAYNECurtain Maker

Act OneGin Lane Versus Beer Street What Does a Woman Have to Do I am a Mother Gin Dive One More for the Road Lydia’s song It’s the Law We Could Have it All Got Here Without You The Informers’ Song Look at Me Jack Divine Gineva

Act Two The New Queen of this Town They’ll Never Know Look at Me (reprise) The Problem of (Not) Having a Cock The Path I Choose Puss and Mew Watch Your Back What Does a Woman Have to Do Got Here Without You (reprise) Suki’s Lullaby We Could Have it All (reprise) This World Stinks Gin Lane

Musical Numbers

Royal & Derngate, China Plate and ETT would like to thank the following for their help on Gin Craze!

KRISTA NORRISSign Language Interpreter

DAVE MIDDLETONCaptioning

HEAR THE PICTUREAudio Description

RUTH MORGAN – BIRMINGHAM REPProps loanA special thank you to the cast involved in the development process:

Michael Begley, Helen Clifford, Georgia Frost, Richie Hart, Guy Hughes, Eleanor Kane, Laura Rogers, Witney White

Supported by the Garrick Charitable Trust

April de Angelis, Lucy Rivers and Michael Oakley were resident artists of the Orchard Project.

Thanks

Character-led audio description from Hear the PictureGin Craze! features the real-life historical character of John Fielding, a magistrate and social reformer, who was blind from the age of 19. He famously went on to found the first professional police force, the Bow Street Runners, along with his half-brother Henry Fielding. For this production, Hear the Picture bring their specialist character-led approach to the audio-description offered for blind and visually-impaired audience members. The company explain their approach:

Hear the Picture are a company of four professional actors passionate about delivering audio description with creative integrity.

Dan Parr, Jo Mousley, Tessa Parr and Darren Kuppan trained to audio describe after working together in Leeds Playhouse Pop Up ensemble for ten months, inspired by the first UK production to include all actors performing live character-led audio description onstage.

Our investigation into a new style of audio description is an ongoing process and as individual as each production.

By being part of the creative process from day one and having access to conversations between director, designer and actor we can deliver an audio description detailed with the same understanding of a production whilst imaginatively creating an aural world that immerses the listener fully into the energy and spirit of the performance.

We’re thrilled to be describing Gin Craze! – full of booze, ballads and brawls and the raucous energy of Hogarth’s Gin Lane. Hear the Picture will bring to life in vivid detail the irreverent characters that inhabit the stage to absorb audio description users into the very heart of this new musical.

Audio-described performance – Wed 28 July 7.30pm

Other access performances for Gin Craze!:

Captioned performance – Tue 27 July 7.30pm

Signed performance – Fri 30 July 7.30pm

Click here to find for details of other shows with access performances this season

www.royalandderngate.co.uk/access-performances

Royal & Derngate TeamThe pandemic has put a huge pressure on the theatre sector and, like many of our fellow venues, Royal & Derngate closed its doors for nearly 14 months. While our building may have been closed and our stages empty, a skeleton staff continued to engage with our local community, through on-line work with young people, supporting the development of artists, releasing digital musicals, running a drive-in cinema, and much, much more.

As team members returned from furlough, they have worked tirelessly to help prepare the building for our reopening and our gradual return to a fuller programme of shows and activities. We’re also delighted to have welcomed back our enthusiastic team of volunteers. As we come together once again to support the creation of new work for our stages, we’d like to thank all the people who help make Royal & Derngate what it is.

For the full Royal & Derngate team list please visit www.royalandderngate.co.uk/team-list

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Thank you to all our Business Club members for their continued support

QU I N T O N

HO U S E

SC H O O L INTEG RI OMNIBUS IN

QH

Thank youWe would like to thank the following for their generous support:

Director’s Circle DonorsMr Chris Almand Mr Ronald Barden Kate Calnan Mr & Mrs Greenwell David & Christine Lloyd Mrs Fiona Rawlings Ms Kay Roberts

Director’s Circle SupportersMr Ally McLeish Mr Gregory Steele

Director’s Circle ContributorsMr D Atkinson Mrs S Hampden-Smith Miss Helen Hickman Mrs Melissa Little Mr Roger Martin Mr Adrian Pryce Mr James Rutherford Mr Christopher Saunby

Biographies

DEBBIE CHAZENMoll/Queen CarolineTheatre credits include: Rags (Park Theatre); Sitting (Hong Kong International Theatre); Romeo & Juliet (Shakespeare’s Globe); AmDram: The Musical (Leicester Curve); Love and Information, The Cherry Orchard (Sheffield Crucible); 3Women (Trafalgar Studios); The Girls (West End & tour - Olivier Award Nominee, Best Actress in a Musical); A Lovely Sunday for Creve Coeur (Coronet Print Room); The Duck House (Vaudeville Theatre); In Basildon (Royal Court); Calendar Girls (West End & tour); The Girlfriend Experience (Royal Court/Young Vic); Cinderella (Old Vic); Dick Whittington (Barbican); Crooked (Bush Theatre); A Prayer for Owen Meany, Mother Clap’s Molly House (National Theatre & West End); A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Albery Theatre); and The Rise and Fall of Little Voice (Salisbury Playhouse).

Television credits include: Avenue 5, Sticks and Stones, Holby City, The Last Kingdom, Dead Pixels, Agatha Raisin, You, Me and the Apocalypse, Ambassadors, Asylum, Sherlock, Trollied, The Spa, Coronation Street, Doctor Who, Tittybangbang, This Is Jinsy, Doctors (Soap Awards Nominee, Villain of the Year), We Are Klang, Psychoville, The Smoking Room, Nicholas Nickleby, Mine All Mine, Murder in Suburbia, Doc Martin, Midsomer Murders, Gimme Gimme Gimme, Lucy Sullivan is Getting Married, Tess of the D’Urbervilles, A Christmas Carol and The Lakes.

Film credits include: Topsy Turvy, The Duel and Red Joan.

Cast

ROSALIND FORDSuki/BetsyTheatre credits include: Once (UK tour); And the World Goes Round, Daddy Long Legs, Just So (Barn Theatre, Cirencester); The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Mother Courage and her Children (both at Southwark Playhouse); Metta’s Little Mermaid (regional tour); Oranges & Elephants (Hoxton Hall); These Trees are Made of Blood (Arcola Theatre); Vampire Hospital Waiting Room, Apocalypse Cruise Ship Love Affair (Edinburgh/London); Sard Traven and Boostak are Dead, The Fear (both at Theatre N16); The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee (Assembly Roxy, Edinburgh); Rent, A Chorus Line (Churchill Theatre, Edinburgh); The Drowsy Chaperone and You’re a Good Man Charlie Brown (Edinburgh Festival Fringe).

ARUHAN GALIEVAMaryTheatre credits include: My Cousin Rachel (Theatre Royal Bath); Twelfth Night (Southwark Playhouse); The Comedy of Errors (Royal Shakespeare Company); Much Ado About Nothing, Two Gentlemen of Verona (Shakespeare’s Globe); Romeo & Juliet, Twelfth Night (Watermill Theatre); Bakkhai (Almeida Theatre); and King John (Shakespeare’s Globe and Royal & Derngate).

Television credits include: Doctor Who, Black Mirror, Whitechapel and Doctors.

Film credits include: Anna Karenina and BAFTA award-winning BBC3 film Glasgow Girls.

As vocal soloist: Carnegie Hall (New York), Royal Albert Hall, Midem Festival (Cannes), Tokyo City Opera Hall, and headlined at the Royal Festival Hall.

PAULA JAMES Evelyn/MistressTheatre credits include: Henry V, A Christmas Carol, Thy Eternal Summer, Love’s Labour’s Lost, Robin Hood, Julius Caesar (Guildford Shakespeare Company); Tudor Palace Palaver (History Riot/ORNC); The Odyssey (Jermyn Street Theatre); The Snow Queen (Park Theatre); Honour (Royal Court/Angry Bear Scratches); Collapsing Creation (Kākāriki Theatre Company); Half a Horse, Unearthed, The Gift, Larksong (Hoard Festival - New Vic Theatre); Hamlet (Iris Theatre); First Encounters: Comedy of Errors (Royal Shakespeare Company); The Gingerbread Man (Derby Theatre & UK tour); Alice in Wonderland (Derby Theatre); Dead Reckoning (Five Plays - Young Vic); Snow Child (Tutti Frutti international tour); The Revenger’s Tragedy, The Tragedy of Mariam, Electra, Hecuba (Lazarus Theatre Company); Not With A Whimper (Arcola Theatre); Duvet Day (Theatre Delicatessen); Price Tag, Emil and the Detectives (Red Earth Theatre - UK tour); Stronger Than Me... and A Puppet in the Works (BAC).

Film credits include: Devotion (TW Productions); Triangles (Satusfaction Films); Blood In (Booruffle Pictures); Lovely Monster (Claw Films); Half a Horse, Unearthed, In Defence of the Monster (New Vic/National Theatre); and Romeo & Juliet (Guildford Shakespeare Company).

ALEX MUGNAIONI Henry Fielding/Jekyll/ConstableTheatre credits include: The Visit (National Theatre); Captain Corelli’s Mandolin (Harold Pinter Theatre); The Taming of the Shrew, Twelfth Night, Othello, King Lear, Much Ado About Nothing (Shakespeare’s Globe); Assassins (Nottingham Palyhouse/Watermill Theatre); Sleeping Beauty (Watermill Theatre); Alice in Wonderland, The Beggar’s Opera, The Tempest, Much Ado About Nothing (Storyhouse Chester); and The Drowned Man (Punchdrunk).

Screen credits include: Mr Sloane (Sky Atlantic); The Borgias (HBO); and Romeo and Juliet (National Theatre, Sky Arts, PBS).

PETER PEARSON John Fielding/Thomas Wilson/BartholomewPeter is a partially sighted actor, yoga teacher and breath coach trained at Drama Studio London. Peter works mainly in devising and improvised theatre and is a member/collaborator of several social theatre companies (PSYCHEdelight, Actors for Human Rights, Arts for Action) combining activism with art and has performed throughout Europe.

He is Co-Director of The Growth House, who create experimental live events. Current work includes: AMP (A Manhood Project) and Tales at Twilight.

Theatre credits include: Welcome to The UK (The Bunker Theatre); Borderline (Southbank Centre/European tour); Mohand & Peter (Theatre Deli Sheffield); Europe 2121 (Impro Theatre Festival Würzburg); Twelfth Night: A Gender Experiment (Rose Bankside); A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Much Ado About Nothing (Cambridge Shakespeare Festival).

Recorded media credits include: Love_Dances (Adam Russell Dance); Samsung First Look 2021 (CLYNDR). Music videos include On and On - Sian Cross (Sian Cross Music); and Counter Culture - Henrik Schwarz & Metropole Orkest feat. Ben Westbeech (7K!).

PAKSIE VERNONLydiaPaksie trained at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.

Theatre credits include: Network, Angels in America (National Theatre); The Watsons (Chichester Festival Theatre); Our Country’s Good, A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Tobacco Factory); The Philanderer (Orange Tree Theatre); Jungle Book and Little Sure Shot (Leeds Playhouse).

Television credits include: Shetland (BBC) and Eve (CBBC).

RACHEL WINTERSSarah Fielding/InformerRachel trained at Royal Central School of Speech and Drama.

Theatre credits include: A Christmas Carol (Royal Shakespeare Company); Much Ado About Nothing, Macbeth (Shakespeare’s Globe); Wuthering Heights, Private Lives (Oxford Shakespeare Company); The Woman in the Moon (Sam Wanamaker Playhouse); Babette’s Feast (The Print Room); Sleeping Beauty (Watermill Theatre); Dracula (UK tour); As You Like It and The Comedy of Errors (Guildford Shakespeare Company).

Television credits include: Borgia (Netflix/ Canal Plus); and Doctors (BBC).

Film credits include: Vicious (multi-award winning short horror film).

Rachel also regularly takes part in the Read Not Dead rehearsed readings at Shakespeare’s Globe.

APRIL DE ANGELISBook and LyricsApril De Angelis is an acclaimed playwright who has worked in stage, radio and television.

Her plays include: Extinct (Theatre Royal Stratford East 2021); My Brilliant Friend, a two-part dramatisation of Elena Ferrantes’ epic family saga (Rose Theatre Kingston and National Theatre 2019/20); The Village (Theatre Royal Stratford East 2018); Frankenstein (Royal Exchange Manchester 2018), Jumpy (Royal Court 2011 & Duke of York’s Theatre, West End 2012, Melbourne and Sydney 2015); an adaptation of Wuthering Heights (Birmingham Rep 2008); Wild East (Royal Court 2006); A Laughing Matter (Out of Joint at National Theatre 2001); A Warwickshire Testimony (Royal Shakespeare Company 1999); The Positive Hour (Out of Joint at Hampstead Theatre 1997); Playhouse Creatures (Sphinx Theatre Company at the Haymarket Theatre 1993 and revived at the Old Vic Theatre 1997 and at Chichester Festival Theatre 2013); The Life and Times of Fanny Hill (The Old Fire Station Oxford 1991; revived at the Bristol Old Vic 2015).

Other work includes: the opera libretti: Flight (Glyndebourne Opera 1997); and The Silent Twins (Almeida 2007).

LUCY RIVERSMusic and LyricsLucy is a writer, composer, actor, and musician, and is co-founder of the award winning Gig-theatre company Gagglebabble.

Composing/Writing credits include: Father Christmas (Lyric Hammersmith/Pins and Needles); Mold Riots (Theatre Clwyd); Kite (The Wrong Crowd); The Bear

Creative Team

(Pins and Needles), Sinners Club (TOR and Theatre Clwyd); The Bloody Ballad, Double Vision (Festival of Voice), Wonderman (National Theatre Wales and WMC), Forsythe Sisters (all for Gagglebabble); Alice in Wonderland, Sleeping Beauties, The Happy Prince, The Selfish Giant, The Devoted Friend (Sherman Theatre); Little Sure Shot (West Yorkshire Playhouse and The Egg); Y Storm (Theatr Genedlaethol); Grimm Tales (Theatr Iolo), Finding Mr Average (Channel 4); The Devil’s Violin, Arden of Faversham, Wide Sargasso Sea, Floor 13 and Seven Songs For Simon (BBC Radio 4.).

MICHAEL OAKLEYDirectorTheatre credits as director include: Wuthering Heights, Private Lives, As You Like It (Oxford Shakespeare Company); Romeo and Juliet, Much Ado About Nothing (PSwDB, Shakespeare’s Globe); NOF*CKSGIVEN (Vaults Festival); About Leo (Jermyn Street Theatre); William Wordsworth (Theatre by the Lake/ETT); A Lovely Sunday for Creve Coeur (Print Room at the Coronet); The Invisible (Bush Theatre); The Life and Times of Fanny Hill (Bristol Old Vic/Lamplighter); Variation on a Theme (Finborough Theatre); Playhouse Creatures (Chichester Festival Theatre); The Changeling (Southwark Playhouse); Edward II (BAC).

Michael was Trainee Director in Residence at Chichester and a recipient of the prestigious JMK Award for young directors.

HAYLEY GRINDLEDesignerHayley graduated from the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama in 2002, where she was the recipient of the Paul Kimpton Prize for Innovation.

Theatre credits include: Oliver Twist (Leeds Playbouse, Ramps on the Moon & UK tour); As You Like It (Queens Theatre Hornchurch & National Theatre); Hamlet, Road

(Leeds Playhouse); A Christmas Carol (Hull Truck); Alice Wonderland (Sherman Cymru); Double Vision (Wales Millennium Centre); Romeo and Juliet (West Yorkshire Playhouse); Iphigenia in Splott (Sherman Cymru, Edinburgh, National Theatre & 59E59 New York); Wonderman (Gagglebabble, National Theatre of Wales & Wales Millennium Centre); Made in Dagenham (Queens Theatre Hornchurch & New Wolsey Theatre Ipswich); The Tale of Mr Tumble (Manchester International Theatre); Little Sure Shot (Bath Theatre Royal, West Yorkshire Playhouse & tour); Caucasian Chalk Circle (Unicorn Theatre); All My Sons, Of Mice and Men (Watermill Theatre); A Taste of Honey (Hull Truck & Derby Theatre); Arabian Nights, All the Way Home (Manchester Library Theatre); Cooking With Elvis (Derby Theatre); Fantastic Mr Fox (Singapore Repertory Theatre); The Nutcracker, Animal Farm (Theatre Royal Bath); Mongrel Island (Soho Theatre); Little Voice, Peter Pan (The Dukes, Lancaster); and God in Ruins (Royal Shakespeare Company).

TAMARA SARINGERMusic Supervisor and ArrangerTamara trained as a classical pianist at the Royal Conservatory of Toronto. She also holds a Master’s degree from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.

Credits as Musical Director/Supervisor include: A Chorus Line (upcoming, Leicester Curve); Vanara (upcoming, Hackney Empire); Stay Awake Jake (upcoming album release); The Wizard of Oz (Leeds Playhouse); Stages (vaults Festival); The Season (The Other Palace); Growl (Leicester Curve); Signal (ongoing concert series, The Hospital Club); Me and My Girl ( as AMD - Chichester Festival Theatre); Cry Baby, Priscilla Queen of the Desert (Arts Ed); Mamma Mia (Mark Goucher productions); The Life (Southwark Playhouse); Vanities (Trafalgar Studios); Heaven On Earth (UK arena tour); and Savage (The Arts Theatre)’

PAUL ISAIAH ISLESChoreographerPaul Isaiah Isles was a West End performer and dancer for over 20 years and is now a choreographer and agent. He has choreographed shows for Shakespeare’s Globe, Oxford Shakespeare Company and Opera Della Luna.

Paul featured in hit musicals such as: The Lion King (original cast), Saturday Night Fever, Oh What a Night, Porgy and Bess, Fame and The Full Monty. He has danced with Madonna; Kylie; Sugar Babes; Shirley Bassey and appeared on the Royal Variety Show, Top of the Pops, Stars in Their Eyes and the Disney film Cinderella.

He also runs his own agency, Isles Management.

JACK KNOWLESLighting DesignerJack trained at the Central School of Speech and Drama.

Recent credits include: Nine Lessons and Carols, The Duchess of Malfi, Three Sisters, Shipwreck, Machinal, They Drink it in the Congo, Boy, Carmen Disruption, Game (Almeida Theatre); Caroline, or Change (Chichester Festival Theatre/Hampstead Theatre/Playhouse Theatre); Light Falls, The Producers, Death of a Salesman, Happy Days, Parliament Square, Our Town, Twelfth Night, A Streetcar Named Desire, Wit, The Skriker, There Has Possibly Been An Incident (Royal Exchange); Bluebeard. Kill. Glass. Imp, The End of History, Instructions for Correct Assembly, 2071 (Royal Court); Top Girls, Cleansed (National Theatre); Venice Preserved (Royal Shakespeare Company); The Importance of Being Earnest (Vaudeville Theatre); Barber Shop Chronicles (National Theatre/World tour - 2018 Knight of Illumination Award); Piaf, Wonderland (Nottingham Playhouse); The Greatest Play in the History of the World (Royal Exchange/Traverse/Trafalgar Studios/UK tour); Steel (Sheffield Crucible); Good Vibrations (Lyric Theatre, Belfast); Circle Mirror

Transformation (Home MCR); Beginning (National Theatre/Ambassadors Theatre); Committee (Donmar Warehouse); The Beacon (Staatstheater Stuttgart); 4.48 Psychosis, Reisende auf einem Bein, Happy Days (Schauspielhaus, Hamburg); Junkyard, Pygmalion (Headlong); The Forbidden Zone (Salzburg Festival/Schaubühne, Berlin/Barbican); Phaedra (Enniskillen International Beckett Festival); A Sorrow Beyond Dreams (Vienna Burgtheater); Lungs, Yellow Wallpaper (Schaubühne, Berlin); and Night Train (Schauspiel, Köln/Avignon Festival/Theatertreffen).

Opera includes: La bohéme (Gothenburg Opera).

TONY GAYLESound DesignerSound Design credits: Get Up, Stand Up! The Bob Marley Musical (Lyric Theatre); and breathe... (Almeida); The Living Newspaper (Royal Court); Shoe Lady (Royal Court); Poet In da Corner (Royal Court & UK tour); Salad Days (UK tour); American Idiot (UK tour); Songs for Nobodies (Wilton’s Music Hall & West End); Floyd Collins (Wilton’s Music Hall); The Wild Party (The Other Palace); and Lazarus (King’s Cross Theatre).

Other credits include: Wise Children Trustee, Stage Sight Committee Member, Founder of The Audio Cartel. Awards: British Black Theatre Awards Lighting and Sound Recognition Award 2019.

TIAN BROWN-SAMPSONAssistant DirectorTian is a British-Caribbean theatre director, producer, movement director and choreographer. Her focus lays mainly within Black, South Asian and East and South Asian (ESEA) theatre work, new writing and promoting diversity, representation and accessibility on and off stage and in positions of power and leadership.

Directing credits include: For Her (Chinese Arts Now Festival); Different Book Covers (Tamasha); Lost Laowais (VAULT Festival); Like Yesterday (Young Vic); Sentenced

to Silence (Camden Fringe); Jollof Court (The Bunker Theatre); Embalmers and The Lost Boys (Theatre503).

Assistant Directing credits include: Ivan and the Dogs (Young Vic); Does My Bomb Look Big in This? (Soho Theatre, Tara Arts); Under the Umbrella (Belgrade Theatre, Tara Arts); and Forgotten (Arcola Theatre).

Movement credits include: Sax: Music Video (Waltham Forest Borough of Culture); Heard (Camden People’s Theatre); and Spring Awakening the Musical (SOAS).

Assistant/ Producing credits include: Milk and Gall, Reset Festival 2021 and Rapid Write Response: Paper Cut (Theatre503); ImagiNation Festival (Theatre Centre and Theatre503); and New Stories: Digital Short Play Festival (New Earth Theatre).

ALISON DE BURGHFight DirectorTheatre credits include: The Man in the White Suit (West End); My Cousin Rachel; What’s In A Name?, The Girl on the Train (UK tour); Romeo and Juliet (Shakespeare’s Globe); The Last King of Scotland (Sheffield Crucible); Jubilee (Manchester Royal Exchange); The Ladykillers (Lyric Belfast); Elephant (Birmingham Rep); Intemperance (New Vic); The Sweet Science of Bruising (Southwark Playhouse); A View from the Bridge, The Scotsboro Boys (Young Vic); A Small Family Business (National Theatre); and It’s A Mad World My Masters (Royal Shakespeare Company).

Opera credits include: Oklahoma! (Grange Park Opera); Joseph and His Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (Killworth House); Carousel (Opera North); Don Giovanni (Glyndebourne Festival Opera); Florentine Tragedy, Gianni Schicci (Greek National Opera); Varjak Paw (The Opera Group); and The Trojans at Carthage (English National Opera).

Film credits include: Mindhorn, The Wall of Lyon, Being Othello, Mine, The Dark Room, Ghost Story, Stubborn and Spite, Four, Respect and Promises Promises.

Television credits include: Lemon La Vida Loca, Maestro, The Hour and The Eleventh Hour.

Alison was the first ever female to become an Equity Registered Fight Director.

MATILDA JAMES CDGCasting DirectorMatilda is a casting director and creative producer from Cornwall. She was Casting Director at Shakespeare’s Globe between 2012 and 2017, casting over 50 shows for the Globe and Sam Wanamaker Playhouse. Highlights there included: The Merchant of Venice (dir: Jonathan Munby), Imogen (dir: Matthew Dunster), Farinelli and the King in the Playhouse, West End and on Broadway, A Midsummer Night’s Dream (dir: Emma Rice), and the touring production of Hamlet which went to every country in the world (dir. Dominic Dromgoole and Bill Buckhurst).

Other theatre includes: Nationwide Voices (ETT); Lady Windermere’s Fan (dir: Kathy Burke) and A Woman of No Importance (dir: Dominic Dromgoole, both for Classic Spring at the Vaudeville Theatre); and Mary’s Babies (dir: Tatty Hennessy for Jermyn Street Theatre).

Film credits include: Pond Life (dir: Bill Buckhurst); Benjamin (dir: Simon Amstell); Undercliffe (dir: Lisa Mulcahy); and The Complete Walk, 37 short films made for the Shakespeare 400 celebrations (as Casting Director and Associate Producer).

She is also Executive Producer of Citizens of the World Choir, a choir for anyone seeking sanctuary or asylum, for refugees, displaced people and their allies, which is based in south-east London.

VICTORIA SAXTONDramaturgVictoria Saxton is a writer and dramaturg with an expertise in new musical theatre. Her dramaturgy clients range across Broadway, Off Broadway and UK touring producers and writers. Victoria has worked with writers who are produced at the National Theatre and the Royal Shakespeare Company as well as The Public Theatre, Vineyard and NYTW.

Victoria was a visiting lecturer at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama where she designed and led a Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Programme. For many years Victoria worked at the National Theatre and helped co-design the advanced musical theatre writers’ group. Victoria was Executive Director of Mercury Musical Developments from 2015-2019 co-creating and producing BEAM2016 & 2018 - the UK’s largest showcase of New British Musical Theatre. She has an MFA in Musical Theatre Writing from GMTWP, NYU, Tisch School of the Arts, and an MA in Creative Writing from Dartmouth College, USA. Victoria also trained at the Royal Court, Young Writers Programme.

Writing credits include: audio dramas for Big Finish; Head of the Table (Young Vic Labs), Fragments (Playground Theatre); and Marriage a la Mode (Chichester University). She is currently working on a book about the dramaturgy of new musicals (Bloomsbury) as well as several other writing commissions.

Co-Producers

Royal & Derngate, NorthamptonRoyal & Derngate Northampton is the main venue for arts and entertainment in Northamptonshire and one of the major producing theatres in the country, with its acclaimed Made in Northampton work touring nationally and internationally.

Eight of its productions transferred to London and the West End in 2019, with The Worst Witch winning the 2020 Olivier Award for Best Family Show and Our Lady of Kibeho being nominated for the 2020 Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement in an Affiliate Theatre and named by The Guardian as one of the 20 Best Shows of the 21st Century. Meanwhile, recently artists have won The Stage Ensemble Award, The Stage Debut Award and the Ian Charleson Award for their work on Made in Northampton productions and the adapted screenplay from Royal & Derngate’s original play commission of The Pope was nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay at the Academy Awards as Netflix’s The Two Popes.

The 2021 Made in Northampton season includes Ralph Fiennes in the world premiere stage adaptation of T.S. Eliot’s Four Quartets, touring co-productions of

Animal Farm and Othello with the National Youth Theatre, a brand new musical Gin Craze! by April de Angelis and Lucy Rivers, and a radical touring revival of Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None.

The venue also presents a diverse range of visiting productions on both the Derngate and Royal stages, featuring musicals, dance, comedy and music, and its two-screen cinema presents the best in world, independent, British and mainstream film. Over recent years the theatre has hosted the UK Musical Theatre Conference, Devoted & Disgruntled 14 and the International Teach First conference.

Royal & Derngate’s nationally recognised Creative Learning programme engages with schools, families and communities in Northamptonshire and beyond, and its Generate artistic development programme regularly supports hundreds of local artists each year.

www.royalandderngate.co.uk

China PlateEstablished in 2006, China Plate is an independent producer of contemporary theatre that engages around 35,000 live audience members annually. The company’s central mission is to ‘challenge the way performance is made, who it’s made by and who gets to experience it.’ China Plate is currently making work with Caroline Horton, Inspector Sands, David Edgar, Chris Thorpe, Rachel Chavkin, Rachel Bagshaw, Urielle Klein-Mekongo, Roy Williams, Chris Haydon and Tim Sutton. They are Resident Producers at Warwick Arts Centre, partners in the Rural Touring Dance Initiative (RTDI) founded to bring contemporary dance to rural venues around the UK, partners in the ACE Ambition for Excellence funded Musical Theatre Development Consortium led by Royal & Derngate, Northampton and Derby CAN, Derby Theatre’s Arts Council England Producing Hub.

https://chinaplatetheatre.com

Trying It On, written and performed by David Edgar. Photographer credit Lara Cappelli.

English Touring TheatreETT (English Touring Theatre) are a UK based international touring company which creates productions of outstanding quality, imagination and ambition; work which interrogates and celebrates contemporary England and reflects the diversity of our nation. ETT make theatre and digital work that is imaginative, responsive and alive: sparking dialogue and fostering connectivity. We are proud to tour shows that reach the widest possible range of audiences across the UK and beyond, engaging in a national and global conversation. ETT won the UK Theatre Awards Best Touring Production in 2014, 2015, 2016 and Best Play Revival in 2019.

“ENGLISH TOURING THEATRE IS SURELY THE NATIONAL THEATRE OF TOURING” Sir Ian McKellen

ETT is a registered charity and we need your help in order to keep making ground-breaking work like Gin Craze for audiences across the country.

Visit ett.org.uk to find out how to play your part or contact us at supportus@ett.org.uk

Two Trains Running by August Wilson. Photographer Manuel Harlan

INCIDENTAL: Music For The Stage Royal & Derngate and Atlantic Screen Music are releasing a new charity compilation album. Over the past decade, Royal & Derngate has commissioned some of the most influential composers working today to write original music and this album presents their original compositions, inspired by some of the most famous plays and novels in the English Language, featuring spoken performances by many of the stage’s most acclaimed actors.

It raises vital funds to support Royal & Derngate as it recovers from the devastating impact of a year of enforced closure and enabling us to continue to produce our ground-breaking Made In Northampton productions.

Composers include White Lies, Guy Chambers and These New Puritans; award-winning film composers Rachel Portman OBE and Anne Dudley; opera composer Orlando Gough, British Bhangra pioneer Kuljit Bhamra MBE and ground-breaking classical and electronic composers Isobel Waller-Bridge, James Johnston, Valgeir Sigurðsson and Ivor Novello Award-winner Renell Shaw.

Follow the link below to find out more: www.incidentalmusicforthestage.com

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