OLADIPO AGBOLUAJE

OLADIPO AGBOLUAJE

Black British Theatre (Course Director)
Oladipo Agboluaje is the author of several plays including, Early Morning, The Christ of Coldharbour Lane, The Estate, Iyale - The First Wife, New Nigerians, Immune, The Hounding of David Oluwale and Here's What She Said To Me. Awards include the Alfred Fagon Award, The Pearson Award, the Peggy Ramsey Award and an International Research Centre Fellowship, Berlin. He is a fellow of the Royal Literary Fund and Treasurer of the African Theatre Association (AfTA). Oladipo has been writer in residence at The New Wolsey Theatre Ipswich and the National Theatre. He is a member of The Fence, an international group of directors, dramaturgs and playwrights. Oladipo has taught African Theatre, Post-Colonial Theatre, Black British Playwriting and Creative Writing at Goldsmiths University of London, City University and University of Greenwich.

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GERALDINE ALEXANDER

GERALDINE ALEXANDER

London Theatre Program, Midsummer in Oxford Program
Geraldine has worked in various productions on stage, television and film. Recently on stage she played Queen Elizabeth 1st in Shakespeare in Love on tour and Draw Me Close at the Young Vic, and Marianne Heiberg/Tori Grandal in Oslo at the National Theatre. Other stage credits include Persuasion and Breaking the Code at Royal Exchange and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time with National Theatre. She also was in Titus Andronicus, Midsummer Night’s Dream and Holy Warriors at Globe Theatre.  Her extensive television credits include The Child in Time, Any Human Heart, Shetland, Coronation Street, Taggart and Extras. She is currently in Bridgerton for Netflix and The One and Oslo for HBO. She writes for film and stage and is currently directing the Lodger by Robert Holman at the Coronet theatre.

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MICK BARNFATHER

MICK BARNFATHER

London Theatre Program, Midsummer in Oxford Program, Midsummer Conservatory Program
Mick Barnfather has been working in theatre as an actor, director and teacher for more than 40 years. Amongst other acting work he has been a member of the internationally acclaimed touring company Complicité since 1986, appearing in six of their shows: Food Stuff, Please Please Please, The Visit, The Three Lives Of Lucie Cabrol, The Chairs and Light. He has also worked as an actor in television, radio and short films and directed a number of devised physical theatre and comedy shows. During his career as an actor and director, he has always continued to teach theatre. He worked at the Commedia School in Copenhagen where he taught Melodrama and Neutral Mask. He also taught Clown at the Central School of Speech and Drama and Devising Theatre at both Rose Bruford Drama School and the Manchester Metropolitan University where he  teaches Improvisation at present. He was a teacher at the Philippe Gaulier School where he taught Bouffon, Clown and Neutral Mask. He is a regular teacher at the National Centre for Circus Arts in London, where he teaches Theatre Studies on the three year degree program, at the London School of Musical Theatre where he teaches improvisation and at the Florida State University London program where he teaches physical theatre . He has also taught Physical Theatre for over twenty five years for the British American Drama Academy and at RADA for ten years where he taught Clown, Mask, Ensemble and Physicality in Performance. During this time he also taught on the open Complicité workshop programs and has given classes and courses in Hong Kong, Berlin, Hamburg, Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Switzerland and America. He also runs his own open courses. For more details about him: www.mickbarnfather.com

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HANNAH BARRIE

HANNAH BARRIE

London Theatre Program
Hannah Barrie trained at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and has worked extensively in theatre and television. Credits include three years at the RSC on their Olivier Award winning The Histories, Shakespeare's Globe, Northern Broadsides, AFTLS, Opera North and for the BBC and ITV. She is an associate artist of Out of Chaos, working as head of puppetry on Crossing the Sea, and performing in Unmythable (winning Best Newcomer Award at the Brighton Fringe in 2019) and their two-person A Midsummer Night’s Dream. She trained in puppetry at The Curious School of Puppetry, and is a founding member of Flock Theatre Makers, a company that creates innovative, multi-sensory theatre for children, families and communities. Hannah is an experienced teacher and workshop leader and facilitates play reading groups for The Playground Theatre. She has taught acting classes and Shakespearean technique at several universities in the US, including Notre Dame, the University of Texas at Austin, Wellesley and Boise State. She has also led puppetry workshops for schools across the UK and with the refugee group Voices In Exile.

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JONNIE BROADBENT

JONNIE BROADBENT

London Theatre Program
Jonathan is an actor, director and writer. He is an Associate Artist of Filter Theatre for whom he has collaborated for over 16 years, and is a member of Council at Shakespeare’s Globe. In 2016 Jonathan received the Clarence Derwent Award for his performance as Guy in the Donmar’s production of My Night with Reg. More recently he played Felix Humble in Humble Boy by Charlotte Jones at the Orange Tree (winning an OFFIE for Best Actor), Reg in Alan Ayckbourn’s The Norman Conquests at Chichester, and the Cowardly Lion in The Wizard of Oz for Sheffield Theatres for which he has been nominated for Best Supporting Actor at the UK Theatre Awards 2018. Having joined the RSC in 1999, he returned to the company in 2016 to play Tattle in Congreve’s Love for Love and Robert Harley in Queen Anne by Helen Edmundson. He played Antonio in Greg Doran’s VR-inspired The Tempest, and more recently led the company of The Comedy of Errors. In 2019 Jonathan was a core member of the first resident acting ensemble at Shakespeare’s Globe, participating in their History Cycle, and taking on the roles of Henry 6th and Mistress Quickly. Stints in the West End include Ghost Stories with Andy Nyman and A Midsummer Night’s Dream with Dawn French as Bottom, as well as the critically acclaimed 25th Anniversary production of My Night with Reg.  Jonathan is developing Black Dog by Levi Pinfold with Sheffield Theatres and the RSC. He has also directed for many drama schools, including The School for Scandal at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama and The Comedy of Errors for BADA.

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JAMES BUNDY

JAMES BUNDY

Midsummer in Oxford Program
Dean of the Yale School of Drama and Artistic Director of the Yale Repertory Theatre. Formerly Artistic Director of Great Lakes Theatre Festival, Associate Producing Director of The Acting Company and Managing Director of Cornerstone Theatre Company. He directs at Yale and many of the leading Shakespeare Festivals, recently directing Paul Giamatti in the title role of Hamlet.

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SARAH CROMPTON

SARAH CROMPTON

London Theatre Program
Sarah Crompton is one of Britain’s most respected writers and broadcasters, commentating on all aspects of culture and the arts.  Her work appears in The Guardian, The Sunday Times, The Times, The Observer, British and American Vogue, The Spectator, The Economist magazine and The Evening Standard among others.  She reviews theatre for Whatsonstage and dance for the Observer.  She is a regular contributor to the BBC’s Front Row. She was previously the Arts Editor in Chief of The Daily Telegraph, and a contributor to BBC2’s The Review Show and Saturday Review.  She also wrote a sports column for many years.  Her first book was Sadler’s Wells: Dance House, a study of the recent creative history of Sadler’s Wells.  Her second was a collaboration on the autobiography of the ballerina Leanne Benjamin, published October 2021.  She was a long-serving judge on the South Bank Show awards and has also been on the panel to choose the Art Fund Museum of the Year.  She was a trustee of the Dulwich Picture Gallery for nine years and was previously co-chair of the WOW Creative Industries awards. Born in Manchester, she was educated at Hertford College, Oxford, and University College, Cardiff, before beginning her career on The Coventry Evening Telegraph.  She worked for women’s magazines and The Telegraph Magazine before taking up the post of Arts Editor.  She has been a freelance writer since 2014.

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PHILIP D’ORLEANS

PHILIP D’ORLEANS

London Theatre Program, Midsummer Conservatory Program
Has spent many years teaching stage combat at RADA and the Drama Studio in London.  He has conducted stage combat workshops in locations as diverse as Germany, Spain, Finland, and the United States.  He has worked as the fight director for over three hundred professional productions, including Oleanna on the West End, Twelfth Night at Shakespeare’s Globe, Shakespeare in Love with the National Theatre of Norway and Simon Boccanegra at the Royal Opera House.  He is currently working as sword master for a new Netflix series, Lockwood & Co.  Philip is a fight examiner for the British Academy of Stage and Screen Combat, Stage Combat Deutschland, and the Irish Dramatic Combat Academy.

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ANDREW DICKSON

ANDREW DICKSON

London Theatre Program
Andrew Dickson is a freelance critic, journalist and broadcaster. He writes about theatre and culture for the New York Times, the Financial Times, the Guardian and the New Yorker, and makes arts documentaries for the BBC. The Guardian's former theatre editor, his latest book is Worlds Elsewhere: Journeys Around Shakespeare's Globe (Vintage), and he's also the author of the play-by-play The Globe Guide to Shakespeare (Profile). His website is andrewjdickson.com.

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WILLIAM DONALDSON

WILLIAM DONALDSON

London Theatre Program
William trained at LAMDA. As a theatre practitioner and director he has worked with The Royal National Theatre, The Young Shakespeare Company, The Shakespeare Schools Festival and The Arcola Theatre. He is an artistic associate of Tucked In Productions (young people’s theatre and puppetry), Beautiful Creatures Theatre Co. (site specific theatre) and Actors From The London Stage (Shakespeare). RuPaul Charles in the Edinburgh Festival Award winning production of Prom Kween (Dir. Rebecca Humphries), The Diva in the award winning international production Testosterone (Rhum & Clay Theatre Co.), Boris in Boris Got Bu**ered (Dir. Scott Le Crass), Stephano in The Tempest, and Friar Lawrence in Romeo & Juliet (AFTLS, US Tour), and The Wicked Queen in Snow White (Old Vic Theatre).

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SARAH HEMMING

SARAH HEMMING

London Theatre Program
Sarah Hemming writes and broadcasts about theatre. She has written features, columns and reviews for nearly all the major national newspapers in the UK and is currently theatre critic for the Financial Times. She was a founding editor of Scottish entertainment magazine The List. She wrote the official guide to The National Theatre, a handbook taking the reader backstage to eavesdrop on all the work that goes into creating a show in this flagship building, with interviews with playwrights, directors, actors and the vast army of skilled technical staff who make the sets, costumes, props and wigs.

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JESSICA HIGGS

JESSICA HIGGS

London Theatre Program
Jessica began life as an actor, singer and musical director working in the West End, Off West End, Rep theatre and national touring.  She retrained at Central School of Speech and Drama (CSSD) on their specialist Voice Studies course and for the last 30 years her work has focused on voice coaching and teaching. Jessica has worked widely in actor training at CSSD, Rose Bruford College, Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts, Poor School, City Lit, Northampton University, British-American Drama Academy (BADA), Syracuse University London Centre and the Actors Centre. Theatre includes work with the Royal Court, Prince Edward Theatre, Salisbury Playhouse, Bolton Octagon, Nottingham Playhouse, Barbican, Arcola, Old Red Lion and Soho Theatre. She has also worked extensively in Disability Arts with Graeae, Ramps on the Moon, Extant and Deafinitely Theatre.  Jessica is also a director whose work is made in collaboration with artists who are culturally different to herself and is co-founder of Unfinished Histories, a major oral history project documenting British Alternative theatre, 1968-88.

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LIZZIE HOPLEY

LIZZIE HOPLEY

London Theatre Program
Lizzie Hopley was born in Liverpool and trained at Manchester University and RADA. As a writer, her sitcom pilot Green, won Pozzitive Television’s’ Funny Dot Comp 2021 and her TV series Bloody Betty is currently in development with Showem Entertainment. Her radio plays include Salome (Drama on 3), The Elizabethan Beauty Law (Radio 4) and The Cenci Family (starring Sally Hawkins, nominated for a Sony Academy Award & a Richard Imerson 1st play award). Her debut theatre play Pramface was awarded the Plat de Jour at Edinburgh Festival 2005. She took a year out in 2017 to work full time as a comedian to create a blog: Diary of a Stand Up Virgin. As an actress, her notable TV and film work includes S3 of Brassic, Little Boy Blue (ITV), Luther (BBC), Cary Fukunaga’s Jane Eyre, Pierrepoint with Timothy Spall, The Thirteenth Tale with Vanessa Redgrave, The Day of the Triffids (with Dougray Scott & Eddie Izzard) and Randall & Hopkirk Deceased II. Recent theatre work includes an international tour of Tis Pity She’s a Whore with Cheek by Jowl and the RSC’s Roaring Girls Season.

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DAVID KENWORTHY

DAVID KENWORTHY

Midsummer Conservatory Program
Currently director of drama for Marlborough College and artistic director of Neutral Space Theatre Company which specialises in multi-lingual performance.  As a freelance director credits include The Country (Library Theatre Company);  The Possibilities (LTC) Macbeth (KESS company) and Damages (National Theatre Studio).  For Neutral Space The Piano Man; Romeo and Juliet; Folkestone and To See a Lamb.

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EVELYN MILLER

EVELYN MILLER

London Theatre Program
Evelyn trained at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. She is a member of the RSC education department and has led workshops and acting classes at universities and colleges including Wellesley, Vassar, Notre Dame, UCLA and UT Austin. With the Playground Theatre she facilitates writing and play reading groups with service users at the mental health ward at St. Charles hospital, as well as with the charities Age UK and Open age. Theatre includes: Deep Night Dark Night,The Taming of the Shrew (Sam Wannnamaker Playhouse); Pericles, The Comedy of Errors, Twelfth Night, (Shakespeare's Globe); A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Sheffield Crucible); Jane Eyre (National Theatre/ U.K Tour); Richard II, Henry IV Parts 1 and 2, Henry V, The Famous Victories of Henry V (RSC); The Taming of the Shrew, Richard III(AFTLS);Swallows and Amazons (Bristol Old Vic); Romeo and Juliet (Orange Tree Theatre) and The Little Prince (Royal Opera House). Television includes: Flowers in the Attic - The Origins, Holby City, Doctors

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BEN NAYLOR

BEN NAYLOR

Dean of BADA

After studying at Durham University and Magdalen College Oxford, Ben trained as a director with Sir Peter Hall at the National Theatre, John Caird at the Caird Company, and David Lan at the Young Vic; and as an actor at Drama Centre London under Reuven Adiv.

From 2006-2023 he taught at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, where he was Senior Lecturer in Acting and Course Leader of MA Classical Acting. From 2008-2021 he was also Shakespeare Tutor for Florida State University’s Theatre Academy London, and he has also taught at Shakespeare's Globe, the Shakespeare Centre, LAMDA, Cambridge University, Kingston University, and in Italy, Spain, Germany, Greece, Israel and the USA.

Directing work in the UK includes his own translations of Lorca’s Blood Wedding, In Hell (collaboratively adapted from Gorky’s The Lower Depths), Mary Stuart (Schiller) and The Suicide (Erdman); as well as productions of The Devils (Whiting),The Rover (Behn), The Broken Heart (Ford), Three Sisters/Swan Song (Chekhov), Britannicus (Racine), and Shakespeare’s Hamlet (filmed with Illuminations Media), Cymbeline, As You Like It, Antony & Cleopatra, The Winter’s Tale, Much Ado About Nothing, The Merchant of Venice, Henry IV and Julius Caesar. International directing includes Othello and Romeo and Juliet for the award-winning Pop-up Globe in Aotearoa/New Zealand and Australia, and Brecht’s Terrore e Miseria del Terzo Reich in Milan.

Ben has contributed as a script consultant on projects as varied as Robert Icke’s Almeida/West End production of The Doctor and Shakespeare animations for 2-6 year olds on Hopster TV. He also publishes (including in The Routledge Companion to Actors’ Shakespeare) and lectures in scholarly contexts.

www.bennaylor.me

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PAUL O’MAHONY

PAUL O’MAHONY

Greek Theatre (Course Director), London Theatre Program, Midsummer in Oxford Program
Paul is an actor, writer, director and producer. He is the artistic director of Out of Chaos with whom he has devised, written, and performed Out of Chaos, UNMYTHABLE, and Norsesome. Out of Chaos have toured throughout the world, winning awards in Bilbao, Berlin, and Edinburgh. Their recently premiered two-man production of Macbeth will be touring again in 2017. Theatre credits include several seasons at The Orange Tree; Othello (RSC); The Taming of the Shrew (Plymouth Theatre Royal); Suppliants (BAC); Ice (ETO); Next Door (Out of Balanz); and Under the Hammerbeam Roof (ETO). He has toured the US with Actors From the London Stage, appearing in A Midsummer Night's Dream (2010), Much Ado About Nothing (2014) and Richard III (2016). In 2015, Paul was Eminent Artist in residence at the University of Wyoming, in which capacity he directed Much Ado About Nothing. With Richard Twyman, he translated and adapted three Greek tragedies to create The House of Atreus (Barbican). Paul is associate producer at Jermyn Street Theatre where credits include All That Fall, St John's Night, and Mother Adam. He studied Classics at Oxford, where he was awarded an Ancient History Scholarship, a Cawkwell Scholarship and two Cawkwell Prizes.

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MADELEINE POTTER

MADELEINE POTTER

London Theatre Program, Midsummer in Oxford Program
Madeleine Potter is an actress and director residing in London. She has dual Irish and American citizenship. Her recent London theatre credits include True West (Vaudeville Theatre) and The Kid Stays in the Picture (Royal Court). Pre pandemic recent US credits include the Shakespeare Theatre Company’s production of Hamlet (2019, 2017) in Washington DC and The Glass Menagerie (Fords Theatre, 2016). Other London credits include Electra and The Internationalist (Gate Theatre),  4:48 Psychosis (Royal Court), After Mrs Rochester, Madame Melville, An Ideal Husband (West End), All My Sons, Southwark Fair (National Theatre), Broken Glass (Tricycle), The Water’s Edge (Arcola). Her Broadway credits include Plenty, Slab Boys, Metamorphoses, Coastal Disturbances, The Master Builder, The Crucible, A Little Hotel On the Side, Getting Married. Other NY credits include Pygmalion (Roundabout), Richard III (NYSF), Playboy of the Western World (Irish Rep), The Plough and the Stars and many more. Madeleine’s film credits include The Bostonians, Slaves of New York, The Golden Bowl and The White Countess, all for Merchant Ivory; recent television includes Cobra, Foyles War, Houdini and Mr Selfridge in which she played Elizabeth Arden. She has done numerous radio plays and other voice work. She has taught for BADA, FSU, Manchester School of Theatre (MST) and she has directed for MST, Rose Bruford and Synergy Theatre Project. Madeleine is a member of the Actors Studio.

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ROBERT PRICE

ROBERT PRICE

Midsummer in Oxford Program
A former Senior Voice and Classical Text Tutor at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art.  He has also taught and directed at RCSSD, The Lir, BADA, Arts Ed and East 15. Prior to becoming a teacher Robert had a worked as an actor in Ireland performing regularly at the Abbey and Gate Theatres and for many of Dublin's independent Theatre companies. He is the artistic director of Lubkinfinds Theatre Company for whom he directed Elizabeth Kuti’s plays Fishskin Trousers and The Broken Token. He currently works as a voice and text teacher at Lamda.

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BRIAN RIDGERS

BRIAN RIDGERS

London Theatre Program, Midsummer Conservatory Program
Brian Ridgers has worked with American study abroad students for over fifteen years teaching courses in Modern Drama and Performance, Theatre History, Shakespeare and Elizabethan Literature as well as Creative Writing. He has also taught at Queen Mary's College (University of London), St Mary's University and is currently teaching at Plymouth University. His interests include Shakespeare and contemporary performance, biography and literature, women's writing in the nineteenth century as well as psychoanalytic critical theory. The courses he has taught offer students a chance to apply a range of critical perspectives including Gender theory, Psychoanalytic, post-colonial and New Historicist analysis to texts.

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EUNICE ROBERTS

EUNICE ROBERTS

Midsummer Conservatory Program

Trained at Bristol Old Vic Theatre School and has a wide professional acting experience in theatre, television, and film. One of her first jobs was the Old Vic World Tour of Hamlet with Sir Derek Jacobi – who was BADA’s Patron for many years. For most of her professional life she has combined acting with teaching and has had the good fortune to tour American universities many times with Actors From The London Stage in Shakespeare plays. She has returned to work at various campuses, including for a year being the Visiting Director of Theatre at Vassar College. Eunice has written & produced her own one woman show; Wonderful Women on the Victorian actress Ellen Terry, as well as a devised piece …one, two, three… based on Twelfth Night. She was Producer for the new Norton online edition of the Complete Works of Shakespeare – 69 scenes, from 23 plays with 26 actors.

The Dean of BADA from 2016 to 2023, Eunice has worked for BADA since 2006 and is currently the Course Director for the Midsummer Conservatory Program.

Eunice recently filmed parts in the TV series This England with Sir Kenneth Branagh as Boris Johnson, in which she plays Jenny Harries for Sky TV, The Sister Boniface Mysteries for the BBC, and the film Living written by Kazuo Ishiguro and starring Bill Nighy.

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DAVID RUBIN

DAVID RUBIN

London Theatre Program
David is an actor who has worked extensively in British Theatre and Television. Fifteen productions with The Royal Shakespeare Company, eight with The National Theatre and many, many more in the country’s regional theatres, too…as well as productions in London’s West End. On TV he has appeared on soaps, dramas and sitcoms, having started out (whilst still at drama college), presenting kids' TV. David has always taught alongside his work, reaching hundreds of theatres, schools, colleges and universities across the UK and North America with his practical. actor focussed workshops. David’s last theatre job was a North American tour of ‘The Tempest’, playing Prospero and teaching alongside the production. He is an Associate Practitioner with the RSC and has recently been teaching at LAMDA. David has been enjoying a move towards more TV and film since lockdown. He has just finished filming a role for ‘Midsomer Murders’, and prior to that a role for a forthcoming Hollywood movie ‘The Statistical Probability Of Love At First Sight’, due out at the end of 2021. He is a very proud father to two fabulous 20 something daughters, Molly and Maya.

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SIMON SCARDIFIELD

SIMON SCARDIFIELD

London Theatre Program
Simon studied languages at Cambridge before training as an actor at Guildhall and with Philippe Gaulier. His first job, while still at drama school, was Romeo at the Contact Theatre in Manchester. He has performed lead roles at the Royal Shakespeare Company on the main stage and at the Swan, and with Ed Hall’s Propeller (Puck, Hermione, Kate, Aguecheek) in the West End and on tour around the world. He has also worked as an actor at the Globe. He has taught at many drama schools in London and abroad. Most recently he directed Pericles for graduating MA Classical theatre students at Central, but he has also directed new writing, Restoration, High Comedy and physical theatre. He translates from French, German and Spanish (Royal Court, Young Vic) and has written several plays and adaptations for BBC Radio.  

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JACKIE SNOW

JACKIE SNOW

London Theatre Program, Midsummer in Oxford Program
Jackie has been training actors in movement for over 30 years. After training as a dancer and teacher at the London College of Dance and Drama, she joined the Gymnastic Dance Theatre Company. She began teaching at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, where she met Trish Arnold and Sue Lefton. It was with was with these women , that she trained to be a movement for actors teacher. She continued teaching at Guildhall for the next 20 years, before moving on to be Head of Movement at RADA . She was a visiting tutor at LAMDA, Drama Centre, Rose Bruford and Mountview, London and at Regents University, Virginia, USA . She was Master of Movement at the Globe Theatre under Mark Rylance for 3 seasons, as well as movement directing at West End theatres including the Regents Park Open Air Theatre, Wyndhams, the Old Vic, the RSC, and the National as well as the Nottingham Playhouse, and the Nothcott Theatre, Devon She shared her practice in China, with the teachers of the Central Academy of Drama and the Military academy of Drama in Beijing. Film and TV include The Lost Prince (Stephen Poliakov), The New World (Terence Malik), Quills, Marie Antoinette, and All Forgotten. She is presently training new teachers in London and is Senior Lecturer in Movement at Manchester School of Theatre (MMU). Her book Movement Training for Actors, Methuen Drama, was published in 2012.

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CHRISTOPHER STAINES

CHRISTOPHER STAINES

London Theatre Program
Christopher is an actor, teacher and director. He has performed at the National Theatre – playing Marlow in She Stoops to Conquer, and creating the role of Toby Cole alongside Judi Dench in David Hare's Amy’s View. Further theatre performances include appearances at the Almeida in David Cromer’s production of Our Town first seen in New York, in the West End with Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde, directed by Moisés Kaufmann, and in productions at the RSC, the Abbey in Dublin, on tour around the world, and at theatres across the UK. Recent roles include: Laurence in Abigail’s Party; Dr Paramore in Shaw’s The Philanderer; Tony Blair in a re-imagining of the run-up to the Iraq war; Dr Faustus in a one-man version on the site of the original Rose theatre. He has extensive experience of performing Shakespeare, including both Caliban and Ariel in a production of The Tempest, Cassius in Julius Caesar, Edgar in King Lear, Antipholus of Syracuse in The Comedy of Errors, Puck in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. He has toured America with a National Theatre production of Hamlet including performances at Brooklyn Academy of Music, the Shubert in Boston, and at the Guthrie in Minneapolis. Christopher has also performed A Midsummer Night’s Dream and The Merchant of Venice, and taught classes on performance and classical texts, for Actors from the London Stage at American universities including Notre Dame, UT Austin and San Antonio and UC Santa Barbara and Duke, and has been an associate of the company. Christopher studied English Language and Literature at Oxford University. He has led a range of classes and workshops linked to productions he has performed in and has taught acting students at Rose Bruford College, Bristol Old Vic Theatre School and University of the Arts London. He has also appeared on TV and film, notably in period dramas such as Wolf Hall, Pride and Prejudice and Mrs Dalloway, and works regularly as a voiceover artist.

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ADRIENNE THOMAS

ADRIENNE THOMAS

London Theatre Program
Adrienne Thomas read Modern History at Oxford University and then trained as an actor at The Central School of Speech and Drama.  She has appeared in a wide variety of modern and classical plays in the West End and throughout the UK, including Stephen Daldry’s production of ‘Search and Destroy’ at the Royal Court Theatre, and she was also in Charlton Heston’s film of ‘A Man for All Seasons’ for US Television. She returned to The Central School of Speech and Drama to study on their postgraduate voice course, and now teaches mainly at The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, and The British American Drama Academy.  She has worked in the U.S., most recently as an artist in residence at Wellesley College, Massachusetts. She loves inviting students to explore the relationship between practical voice work and their imaginations, to see how language reveals character and emotion. She also gives private coaching to actors and works with corporate clients on presentation skills and accent softening. She is a Kristin Linklater designated teacher and is proud to be one of the few practitioners of this work in the UK.

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KAREN TOMLIN

KAREN TOMLIN

London Theatre Program
Karen Tomlin has worked as a Theatre Practitioner and Artist for over twenty  five years. She initially trained as an actor, studying at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. Working  for theatre companies such as The Globe and The National Theatre. As a theatre director making work for theatre companies such as Paines Plough, Clean Break, The Gate, and Ovalhouse Theatre and the Theatre Royal Stratford East. She has extensive experience working within actor training conservatoires these include Royal Central school of Speech and Drama, Arts Educational, Rose Bruford, RADA. She recently directed a production of Emilia at Guildhall Drama School and is currently an Acting Tutor at LAMDA. She is a qualified teacher in Post Compulsory Education ( University College London, Institute of Education) and has a Masters in Applied Theatre from ( Royal Central School of Speech and Drama). She is currently in her final year of her doctoral studies at Queen Mary University of London. Her research area is on Black British Female Theatre Directors, intitled, The Black Female Masculine.

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JOHN TUCKER

JOHN TUCKER

London Theatre Program, Midsummer in Oxford Program

John Tucker is a Voice Tutor at the British American Drama Academy (BADA). He has been on BADA's faculty since 2008 teaching on both the London and Oxford programs. John is also an Associate Voice Tutor at Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) where he has been teaching since 2010. John trained as a speech and voice teacher at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama (CSSD) and as a classical singer at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama (GSMD).

John’s professional teaching interests span the full range of voice teaching disciplines ranging from voice technique and practice through to speech, accents and text work, all explored through an understanding of the physical voice.

John started his professional career as a classical singer performing in opera houses including Glyndebourne, Scottish Opera, the English National Opera and the Royal Opera House. As a recital and concert artist, John sang through-out Britain, Europe and America performing in venues including the Royal Festival Hall, Konzerthaus Berlin and Carnegie Hall. John was a member and performer with the The Songmakers' Almanac.

Today John runs a private voice studio (www.john-tucker.com) coaching professional actors and singers including Emily Bruni, Edward Holcroft, William Huston, Alex Jennings, Katherine Kingsley, Elliot Levey, Sophie Okonedo, Beth Orton, Diana Quick, Rupert Simonian, Andrew Simpson, Jeany Spark, Toby Stephens, Hannah Tointon, Indira Varma, Daisy Waterstone and Molly Windsor.

John maintains an active profile as a coach in the entertainment profession. His credits include the Bush Theatre, English Touring Theatre, Gate Theatre, Headlong Theatre, National Theatre, The Actors Center in New York and the Old Vic. John recently coached on the TV series Industry for HBO/BBC. John was appointed Voice Associate at HightTide where he coached every production between 2007 and 2012.

John's business clients include The British Council, Christie’s Auction House, Facebook, Al Jazeera English TV Station in Doha and individuals such as the Reverend Richard Coles and Shami Chakrabarti.

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ANDREW WADE

ANDREW WADE

Midsummer in Oxford Program
Head of Voice at the Royal Shakespeare Company from 1990 – 2003 and Assistant Head of Voice from 1987-90. He directed and devised a number of poetry programs and conferences with the legendary Cecily Berry. Since leaving the RSC in 2003, Andrew works predominately in the US leading Master Classes and Workshops, as well as coaching with theatre companies and actors. He has particular links with the Stella Adler Studio in NYC, Delaware University, the National Theater School in Montreal, The Juilliard School and with the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis, where he has coached Antony and Cleopatra, Comedy of Errors, Othello, As You Like It, Hamlet and Merchant of Venice. Other work includes Verse Consultant on the film Shakespeare in Love and voice coach on A Midsummer Night’s Dream and The Taming of the Shrew (TFANA); Matilda (Broadway); Lord of the Rings (Montreal and London); La Traviata (ENO), A Misummer Night’s Dream and Clay Cart (Oregon Shakespeare Festival) Henry V (Guthrie Theatre) Macbeth and Romeo and Juliet (co-production with The Acting Company). Publications include “Working Shakespeare”, a series on voice and text work with Helen Hunt, Samuel L Jackson, Toby Stevens, Clare Danes, Blythe Danner, Emily Watson and introduced by Jeremy Irons. He is currently working on “Shakespeare Experience”, editions of Shakespearean recordings, plus audio excerpts with contemporary actors.

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ZOË WAITES

ZOË WAITES

London Theatre Program, Midsummer in Oxford Program
Zoë is an actor, theatre maker and teaching artist. She trained at RADA, where she is now an Associate, and has performed in theatres all over the world, as well as throughout the UK. Shortly after graduating Zoë was invited to play Juliet for the Royal Shakespeare Company, for which she was nominated for the Ian Charleson Award for Outstanding Performance in a Classical Role. Multiple leading roles for the company followed, including Desdemona in Othello, Mary in The Family Reunion, and Viola in Twelfth Night (winner of 2nd prize for Ian Charleson) alongside world premieres of new plays The Prisoner’s Dilemma and Night Of The Soul, and latterly Mrs Frail in Love For Love. Other classical roles include Rosalind at STC in Washington DC, Goneril to Jonathan Pryce’s King Lear at the Almeida, and Cassius in Julius Caesar for Sheffield Crucible Theatre. Other new work includes world premieres of Edward Albee’s The Play About The Baby (Almeida), Sir Trevor Nunn’s production of Birdsong (West End), the 24 hour Sixty-Six Books (Bush Theatre) and David Edgar’s ‘Nicholas Nickleby’ (Chichester Festival Theatre, West End, UK tour, Princess of Wales Theatre, Toronto.) Zoë is also the co-founder and joint Artistic Director of two theatre companies - the multi award-nominated Bee Jar Theatre, and ShakespeareMoves, a physical theatre collective. She is a founder member of the Creative Learning Panel for Digital Theatre, and is currently the Associate Lecturer for Acting Shakespeare on the MA/MFA in Actor Performer Training at Rose Bruford, where she also directed Julius Caesar in September 2020. Zoë has performed extensively for BBC radio, and on television has most recently been seen as series regular in Netflix’s Cursed.

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LEO WRINGER

LEO WRINGER

Greek Theatre, London Theatre Program, Midsummer in Oxford Program
Leo went to the Guildhall School of Music and Drama where he was awarded the Shakespeare Prize. His most recent classical role was as the Gravedigger in Hamlet at the Young Vic, starring Cush Jumbo. Other classical work includes Egeus in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Noel Coward Theatre; Fool in King Lear with the late Corin Redgrave as Lear, Prince of Verona in Romeo and Juliet, Duke of Ephesus doubled with Doctor Pinch in Comedy of Errors, and the country squire in The Fantastic Follies of Mrs Rich – all at RSC. For Shakespeare at the Tobacco Factory, Bristol, he played Brutus in Julius Caesar, Petruchio in The Taming of the Shrew, Aaron in Titus Andronicus and the title role in Othello; Camillo in The Winter’s Tale for Complicité; Cinna The Poet in Julius Caesar at the Barbican, King of Athens in Medea starring Fiona Shaw at the Abbey Theatre, Dublin and London West End. Modern work includes: at Theatre Royal Stratford East Stool Pigeon in King Hedley II, and the Bishop in Our Lady of Kibeho. Blackta for Young Vic; Perseverance Drive, Sixty-Six Books and Two Horsemen at Bush Theatre [Time Out Award]; And The Oldest Old Man in Suzan-Lori Park’s Father Comes Home from the Wars at Royal Court. Television & film credits include: Anthony, Sitting in Limbo, Urban Myths – The Trial of Joan Collins, Heirs of the Night, Black Earth Rising, The Moonstone, Gangsta Granny, Silent Witness, Nighthawks, Death in Paradise, The Kitchen Toto, Thomas Peters in Simon Schama’s Rough Crossing.

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