Rodgers & Hammerstein’s
OKLAHOMA! Music by Richard Rodgers Book & Lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II Based on the play Green Grow the Lilacs by Lynn Riggs Original choreography by Agnes de Mille
DANIEL EVANS AND KATHY BOURNE PHOTOGRAPH BY JOHAN PERSSON
WELCOME
It is well-known that Oklahoma! is the musical that changed the face of musical theatre as we currently know it. Its combination of infectious, soaring melodies and a witty, integrated and dramatic libretto has arguably never been surpassed. Therefore, it is with great joy that we welcome you to this new production of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s masterpiece on the Festival Theatre stage. Movingly, in his programme essay, Todd Purdum recounts the story of a battle-scarred GI singing ‘Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin’; and we’re sure we’ll be hearing it being hummed around Chichester in the coming weeks. Equally adept at directing, writing, translating and composing, director Jeremy Sams is the only person to have had a production he’d co-written – A Damsel in Distress – playing in the Festival Theatre, while directing another production – The Rehearsal, which he’d also translated – in the Minerva.
We’re thrilled that he is at the helm of this brand new staging, along with an outstanding creative team including set designer Robert Jones, costume designer Brigitte Reiffenstuel, choreographer Matt Cole and, in charge of all the music, Nigel Lilley. We are also delighted to welcome Josie Lawrence who is making a long overdue Chichester debut as Aunt Eller. Around her, Jeremy has assembled an extraordinary young cast, many of whom are very recent graduates, including Hyoie O’Grady and Amara Okereke who play Curly and Laurey respectively. Remember their names: we feel sure that they, and many of their fellow company members, are the stars of the future. As we enter the season of sunshine and picnics, do join us on 20 July when our community singers will lead a choral celebration of Rodgers and Hammerstein, Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin’, and on 15 August for a Hoedown Hop and Oklahoma!-themed picnic for all ages. We hope you enjoy this performance.
Executive Director Kathy Bourne
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Artistic Director Daniel Evans
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John Simm Dervla Kirwan
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THE BUTTERFLY LION By Michael Morpurgo In a new adaptation by Anna Ledwich Director Dale Rooks combines music, design and puppetry to bring Michael Morpurgo’s magical adventure to life: celebrating friendship and the triumph of love. Ages 7+
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Rodgers & Hammerstein’s
OKLAHOMA! Music by Richard Rodgers Book & Lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II Based on the play Green Grow the Lilacs by Lynn Riggs Original choreography by Agnes de Mille
INVISIBLE VOICES The Oklahomans of Oklahoma!
GERONIMO’S LAST BUFFALO. GERONIMO STANDING OVER DEAD BUFFALO, WITH NATIVE MEN AND BOYS IN CEREMONIAL DRESS FORT SILL, OKLAHOMA, c1906 IMAGE COURTESY OF EVERETT COLLECTION / BRIDGEMAN IMAGES
Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II’s Oklahoma! opened on Broadway on 31 March 1943, enjoying wide critical acclaim and more than 2,000 performances. Based on playwright Lynn Riggs’s 1931 play, Green Grow the Lilacs (after the American folk song of the same name), the Theatre Guild commissioned the duo to create what American critic Lewis Nichols called a ‘folk opera’, with a cohesive book and score in which the songs arose from the plot, and with artful ballets choreographed by Agnes de Mille.
Rodgers and Hammerstein’s first collaboration established a sense of what the American Frontier looked and sounded like for millions of people around the world. Set in Oklahoma Territory (then known as Indian Country) and evoking images of wide open spaces and grazing cattle, Rodgers and Hammerstein’s first collaboration established a sense of what the American frontier looked and sounded like for millions of people around the world. Oklahoma! toured the globe, but one of the most publicised stops was a visit to Oklahoma State on 25 November 1946. Governor Robert S. Kerr declared a state holiday, closing schools and businesses. Big oilmen, cattle farmers and around 3,000 Native Americans from various tribes were invited to participate in the ceremony. Unfortunately, it reportedly came to a halt due to unforeseen rain. The hype generated ahead of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s visit did, however, demonstrate the emotional and commercial significance the production held for the people of Oklahoma. The title number was adopted as the official state song in 1953.
The original production of Oklahoma! also has particular significance for British musical theatre. Despite its unabashedly American theme, when it opened at London’s Theatre Royal Drury Lane in 1947, war-weary London audiences were fascinated by a musical play that presented narratives of cultural assimilation in the American Southwest amidst the tumultuous landscape of Oklahoma Territory. In Oklahoma! both Rodgers and Hammerstein agreed upon the fundamental principle that drama dictated lyric and musical choices. Rodgers’s musical style was never intended to be ‘authentic,’ nor did it have to be, thus giving audiences the feeling that Oklahoma! exists in a self-contained world. Rodgers avoided using the western American folksongs that might have been expected, and instead allowed each character to have their own musical style woven tightly together with sounds that evoked the rhythms of the frontier, such as the rousing chorus in ‘The Farmer
and The Cowman’. His musical language weaves together lush harmonies, soaring melodies and distinct rhythms in order to accentuate the characters onstage. Nowhere is this seen more clearly than in the opening number, ‘Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin’ which invites the audience on a journey to see the ‘bright, golden haze on the meadow’ and the corn ‘as high as a elephant’s eye’. Oklahoma! embraces what academic Tim Carter calls, ‘That set of political, social and cultural beliefs and practices known as the American Way’. This American way of life is seen in the conquering of new territories as part of the so-called ‘Manifest Destiny,’ which compelled pioneers to seek prosperity west of the Mississippi River. The thirst for new lands, the frontier life and the ever-growing immigrant population are colourfully portrayed in the musical. The production also establishes the institutions of burgeoning statehood, focusing on the ‘brand new state’ and ‘brand new wife’. These themes of assimilation and belonging,
LAYING OUT LOTS IN GUTHRIE, OKLAHOMA TERRITORY, ON THE FIRST DAY OF THE OKLAHOMA LAND RUSH, 22 APRIL 1889. IMAGE COURTESY OF ALAMY
although compelling, ignore the lived narratives of the people who originally inhabited Oklahoma Territory. Western perceptions of Native life were largely formed from accounts of scholars and Hollywood stereotypes. Travelling spectacles, such as Buffalo Bill’s ‘Wild West Show’, contributed to mainstream cultural perceptions of Native life, often in negative ways. Oklahoma Territory was formed in 1890 as a means of defining land ownership for white settlers – it became a state in 1907. The Territory divided the land known as ‘Indian Country’ into settlements for white Americans and the mostly European immigrant pioneers who also settled out West. Today the state of Oklahoma contains roughly 40 Native American tribes of the approximately 567 tribes and nations recognised by the US government. Many of the tribes that inhabit Oklahoma today were forced to leave their homeland in the eastern and south-eastern United States during a government relocation effort known as the
‘Trail of Tears’. This relocation – the Indian Removal Act of 1830 – forced around 16,000 members of the Cherokee, Muscogee, Seminole, Chickasaw and Choctaw tribes to undertake a long journey on foot. It’s estimated that between 2,000 and 6,000 Native Americans perished along the way. Those who remained were later tallied by a government census, known as the Dawes Act of 1887, which was eventually expanded to negate tribal agreements among those who had formed alliances and territory boundaries in Oklahoma. What resulted was the loss of land and tribal independence. Around the time the musical was written, several tribes reorganised and were granted a measure of sovereignty over their daily lives in the form of constitutions – for example, the Iowa and Pawnee Tribes in 1937 and 1938 respectively. These treaties granted the tribes a degree of independence, allowing them to dictate legal battles, adjudicate domestic disputes and keep the peace in accordance with their own beliefs and customs.
The Native American peoples of Oklahoma represent a diverse group with many unique characteristics that mark the beauty of their culture, beliefs and ritual life. During the 1920s, many white scholars from Europe and the US studied Native life, writing accounts of dances, rituals and aspects of daily life, such as agriculture, hunting, fishing and weaving. Although the accounts are useful, they largely ignore the larger cultural significance of music and dance. In many tribes, ritual dances and songs are intertwined elements that represent the sanctity of the land and its inhabitants. Song and dance can be performed in sacred, secular, public or private contexts. In some Plains tribes (a term given to the indigenous peoples of North America from the Great Plains region), songs and dances are thought to be gifts from the supernatural. Song texts hold meaning for individuals as well as society as a whole, and may focus
on a historical event, a personal narrative or communication with the spirits. Because songs are considered to be ‘made’, ‘owned’ and ‘given’ (not composed), they’re not to be taken lightly. Dance, in particular, is a form of communication and affirmation; some are public and still performed today at powwows, while others are only intended for members of a certain tribe. The term ‘powwow’ refers to a large gathering or dance that contains both secular and sacred dances and songs. As scholar Clyde Ellis points out, the US government was deeply suspicious of the powwow and other dance rituals because of an assumed pagan and anarchist element. The government Bureau of Indian Affairs sought to eliminate these dances in the 1920s through whatever means necessary, often withholding rations. At one point they threatened members of the Omaha tribe with starvation if they didn’t stop meeting at night to perform their ritual dances. The tribe replied, ‘We don’t want your rations, we want this dance’. It demonstrates the importance of ritual dance in Native life and the intricate connections between a reverence for nature and ritual. The powwow developed out of the Ghost Dance ritual of the Sioux nation in the late 19th century, which was performed as a means of stemming-off white influence and reaffirming cultural beliefs. The act of dancing in a
HOMESTEAD CLAIMANTS RUSHING INTO THE CHEROKEE STRIP ON 16 SEPTEMBER 1893 IMAGE COURTESY OF ALAMY
powwow, despite its public nature is nevertheless viewed as a ritual act. Particularly this century, the powwow has become an affirmation of culture – dances are performed as a means of passing traditions down to younger generations. Many powwows across North America take place with just a specific tribe, while others involve larger groups, such as the annual national powwow in Oklahoma, or the annual Gathering of Nations in Albuquerque, New Mexico (the largest dance in North America). The dances may involve ritual elements, but they’re held in a public forum: an important distinction between types of rituals for Native Americans. The dances serve many purposes: representing nature, specific deities or marking cultural events. And each – such as the Bear Dance, Grass Dance, Stomp Dance or Gourd Dance – has a unique title, step pattern and associated text that holds meaning for the tribe as a whole. Despite marginalisation by the US government and mainstream American culture, the fascination with Native American life and culture still remains and fuels the Wild West stories so often found in films and television of the 1940s and 50s. Most of these stories
OKLAHOMA GAS STATION WITH INDIAN STATUE, 1920s IMAGE COURTESY OF GRAPHICARTIS / BRIDGEMAN IMAGES
contain generalisations about different tribal groups – pictures of tepees, feathered headdresses and basket weaving abound. Although the diverse music and culture of Native Americans isn’t visibly present in Oklahoma!, these unspoken voices left an indelible mark on life in the western United States and our enduring fascination with this ‘brand new state’. The vibrancy and resilience of Native traditions also contributed to the vast cultural landscape of the state of Oklahoma and sparked popular notions of life in the Wild West. However, the Native American peoples of Oklahoma represent a diverse group with many unique characteristics that mark the beauty of their culture, beliefs and ritual life. It’s vital that we remember their stories and find new cultural networks. After all, to paraphrase Oscar Hammerstein, these invisible voices too, belong to the land. DR ARIANNE JOHNSON QUINN University Honors Program Florida State University
Rodgers and Hammerstein
SOMETHING WONDERFUL
RICHARD RODGERS AND OSCAR HAMMERSTEIN II, c1957 IMAGE COURTESY OF ALAMY
Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II were the dominant forces on Broadway when Broadway was among the dominant forces in American popular culture, and between them they knew almost everything there was to know about show business. At the peak of their power, in the late 1950s, their influence was such that when they produced an original musical for television, Cinderella starring Julie Andrews, the live programme was seen by 107 million people at a time when the population of the United States was roughly 172 million. It was the most-watched event in the history of the planet to that point. The two men had much in common. Both were born at the turn of the 20th century, in the same swathe of what was then upper middleclass Harlem in New York City. Both attended Columbia University, where they fell under the spell of the annual Varsity Show, the studentproduced musical comedy. Hammerstein, seven years older, was born into the theatre, the son and grandson of producers and impresarios. He worked as an office boy, stage manager, director and eventually became a master lyricist and librettist, arguably the most innovative and influential of his generation. Together with the composer Jerome Kern, he pioneered the serious musical play with Show Boat in 1927, using integrated song and dance to tell the realistic saga of three generations of a Mississippi riverboat family. But in the 1930s he suffered a string of disappointing flops in New York and London, and an unhappy sojourn in Hollywood’s studio system. As the 1940s dawned he was facing an uncertain future. For his part, Rodgers, the son of a doctor, was a natural musician who was composing by the age of nine. After Columbia, he studied at what is now the Juilliard School. Beginning in the mid-1920s, he enjoyed nearly two decades of unbroken success with his lyricist partner, Lorenz Hart, writing such indelible Jazz Age standards as ‘Mountain Greenery’ and ‘My Heart Stood Still’, and some of the most sophisticated love songs ever composed. Rodgers and Hart experimented with ballet on Broadway in On Your Toes, and tackled gritty, unsavoury characters in Pal Joey. But by 1942, Hart’s incapacitating alcoholism left him unable to function, so Rodgers sought out Hammerstein
to team up on his next project: a musical adaptation of a not-too-successful 1931 play called Green Grow the Lilacs. The surface plot turned on nothing more substantial than which of two suitors, a cocky cowboy or a surly farmhand, would take a lissom farm girl to a party in the Indian Territory of Oklahoma on the eve of statehood in 1907. But in Rodgers and Hammerstein’s experienced hands, Oklahoma! sparked a revolution.
Oklahoma! blended music, dance and drama in a way that had never before been achieved in a musical... Broadway theatre would never be the same. The show’s secret was its quiet naturalism. It blended music, dance and drama in the service of realistic character development, in a shattering way that had never before been achieved in a Broadway musical – and that quickly became the accepted template for generations of competitors and imitators down to the present day. Gone were the silly plotlines of musical beds, mistaken identity and madcap heiresses. Oklahoma! eschewed the usual opening number of comely chorus girls and began the way Green Grow the Lilacs had, with a solitary older woman churning butter on an empty stage and a cowboy singing in the wings. ‘There’s a bright, golden haze on the meadow’, were the first words Hammerstein ever wrote for Rodgers to set to music. Broadway theatre would never be the same. In Agnes de Mille’s dream ballet, the heroine, Laurey Williams, is torn between her two would-be lovers, the cowboy Curly and the farmhand Jud, in an exploration of sexual desire that was frank in its day and retains its power in ours. Oklahoma! has always contained unexpectedly dark depths, balancing good
and evil, the age-old American tension between the individual and the community and the gulf between order and lawlessness.
For 18 years’ unbroken allegiance, the partners produced a new show for Broadway roughly every two years. Before Oklahoma!, Rodgers and Hammerstein had spent years honing and refining their craft, and when they finally came together, the reaction was chemical, as if they had been fated to collaborate all along. Yet they were not especially close, personally, and each went to his grave telling friends he was unsure the other had really liked him. They seldom worked in the same room, Hammerstein preferring to write at his farm in Bucks County, Pennsylvania or his Manhattan townhouse,
and Rodgers composing in his New York apartment or Connecticut country estate. The words almost always came first – just the opposite of the way both men had worked with their previous collaborators, and a reflection of their remarkable versatility. For 18 years’ unbroken allegiance, the partners produced a new show for Broadway roughly every two years, tackling such thenunheard of topics as suicide (in Carousel ), interracial romance (in South Pacific), crosscultural conflict and unspoken love (in The King and I ) before culminating in their last blockbuster hit, The Sound of Music, in 1959. Beginning in the 1950s, film versions of their works would find an even bigger worldwide audience. But it all began with Oklahoma! which opened in New York on 31 March 1943. It was received by audiences in the midst of World War II as a meditation on the suffering, sacrifice and, yes, ghastly violence that would be required for Allied Forces to win the war and establish a new post-war world order. Its sold-out audiences invariably included ranks of servicemen preparing to ship out for Europe or the Pacific, and its homespun songs
‘THE SURREY WITH THE FRINGE ON TOP’, OKLAHOMA! ON BROADWAY, 1943 IMAGE COURTESY OF ALAMY
touched far-flung troops in much the same way that Irving Berlin’s ‘White Christmas’ had the year before. Years later, the writer John Hersey told Rodgers that on a gritty battlefield in Sicily, a GI had awakened one morning and poured some cold water in his helmet to shave. Suddenly he began singing ‘Oh, what a beautiful morning’. ‘A pretty good voice,’ Hersey recalled. ‘There was a fair amount of irony in his singing, and his pals laughed. All the same, it was a beautiful morning, and all of a sudden there was an almost unbearable intensity in the way the men looked around at the view.’ The original New York production of Oklahoma! ran for 2,212 performances – five years and nine weeks – a record in an era when no musical play had ever lasted more than 1,400 performances, much of the time with a touring national company playing to packed houses across the country. Oklahoma! has also long held a special place in the hearts of Britons. It was the first American musical to transfer from Broadway to the West End after the war – the production, starring Howard Keel and Betty Jane Watson, ran for 1,548 performances. The show opened on 30 April 1947 at the Theatre Royal Drury
Lane, prompting 14 encores and an hour of curtain calls. The guests of honour were the royal family, King George VI and his wife and daughters, and one standout song quickly became the favourite of Princess Elizabeth: ‘People Will Say We’re in Love’. It’s a song about a couple trying – and failing – to conceal their feelings for each other from the rest of the world, and the princess’s nanny, Marion Crawford, would later recall that it reflected the situation of Princess Elizabeth and Prince Philip, who were trying to keep their budding romance a secret from the British press. ‘It was a song that “sung” to them – their song, if you will,’ the royal biographer Christopher Warwick told Time magazine. And so Oklahoma! and its timeless music and story still sing today to audiences the world over. You’re doin’ fine, Oklahoma! Oklahoma!, OK! TODD S. PURDUM
Todd S. Purdum is the author of Something Wonderful: Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Broadway Revolution.
POSTERS OF THE SOUND OF THE MUSIC, SOUTH PACIFIC AND CAROUSEL IMAGES COURTESY OF ALAMY
SHARP SHOOTERS In the late 19th century, studio portraits helped to glamourise gun ownership by illustrating tough guys and girls bearing arms with self-confidence and swagger. Pioneering women were keen to emulate the portraits they’d seen of celebrities – like Annie Oakley and Martha Cannary (Calamity Jane) – in the popular dime novels and magazines of the time. Getting dressed up for a portrait with your favourite firearm was a statement of strength and independence.
‘You cain’t deserve the sweet and tender in life less’n you’re tough.’ Aunt Eller in Oklahoma!
PORTRAITS OF 19TH CENTURY SHARP SHOOTERS INCLUDING ANNIE OAKLEY, CALAMITY JANE AND THE MOONSHINER’S DAUGHTER, 1890 – 1901
Rodgers & Hammerstein’s
OKLAHOMA! Music by Richard Rodgers Book & Lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II Based on the play Green Grow the Lilacs by Lynn Riggs Original choreography by Agnes de Mille
CAST (in order of appearance) Curly Aunt Eller Laurey Will Parker Jud Fry Ado Annie Carnes Ali Hakim Gertie Cummings Andrew Carnes Cord Elam
Hyoie O’Grady Josie Lawrence Amara Okereke Isaac Gryn Emmanuel Kojo Bronté Barbé Scott Karim Emily Langham Nicolas Colicos Christopher Dickins
Vivian Ellen Kate Virginia Dorothy Armina Sylvie Ike Fred Slim Sam Joe Mike Tom
Bethany Huckle Georgie Ashford Imogen Bailey Lindsay Atherton Michelle Andrews Paige Fenlon Anna Woodside Alyn Hawke Jak Skelly Jeremy Batt Alex Christian Michael Lin Rory Shafford Rhys West
The action takes place in the early 1900s in “Indian Territory”, later known as Oklahoma. There will be one interval of 20 minutes. Oklahoma! was first performed at the St. James Theatre, New York on 31 March, 1943. First performance of this new production at Chichester Festival Theatre, 15 July 2019. Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Oklahoma! is presented through special arrangement with R&H Theatricals Europe. For more information, visit rnh.com
Director Set Designer Costume Designer Choreographer Musical Supervisor, Musical Director and Dance Arrangements Orchestrator Lighting Designer Sound Designer Casting Director Voice and Dialect Coach Costume Supervisor Props Supervisors Hair, Wigs and Make-up Associate Musical Director Associate Set Designer Associate Choreographer Assistant Director Fight Director Production Manager Company Manager Stage Manager Deputy Stage Manager Assistant Stage Manager Assistant Stage Manager
Jeremy Sams Robert Jones Brigitte Reiffenstuel Matt Cole Nigel Lilley David Cullen Mark Henderson Paul Groothuis Charlotte Sutton CDG Helen Ashton Debbie Bennett Lisa Buckley and Mary Halliday Campbell Young Associates Jo Cichonska Ben Davies Jane McMurtrie David Grewcock Terry King Paul Hennessy Suzi Blakey Daniel Gammon Fi Mott Phil Gleaden Kimberley Towler
ORCHESTRA Musical Director Keyboard Keyboard Drums / Percussion Double Bass Violin Viola / Violin Cello Flute / Piccolo Oboe / Cor Anglais Clarinet / Flute Bassoon French Horn Trumpet Trombone Orchestral Management Music Technology Copyist
Nigel Lilley Jo Cichonska Jill Farrow Matt French Rory Dempsey Charlie Brown Becky Hopkin Dom Pecheur Mike Davis Alasdair Hill Jennie Chilton Julia Staniforth Ruth O’Reilly Owain Harries James Adams Andy Barnwell for Musical Coordination Services Ltd Phij Adams James Humphreys
Production credits: Set built and painted Set-up (Scenery) and by Bower Woods Production Services; Stage engineering by Weld-Fab Stage Engineering; Special Effects by Howard Eaton Lighting; Automation by Automation Motion Control; Lighting hires PRG; Sound hire Stage Sound Services; Rigging supplied by Mech Stage; Weaponry hire by History in the Making; Production Carpenters John Burrows, Mickey Fernandez and Jon Barnes; Production Rigger Nick Campbell; Automation Programmer Jamie Lawrence; Costume Assistants Gemma Atkinson and Florence Dempster; Costume makers Roxy Cressy, Sue Smith, Phil Reynolds, Karen Crichton, Jay Francois-Campbell, Madeleine Fry, David Plunkett, Naomi Isaacs and Liz Poole; Hats by Sean Barratt; Shoes by La Duca; Props thanks to Ryan O’Conner; Transport by Paul Mathew Transport and Chichester Car & Van; Rehearsal rooms Jerwood Space. Thanks to Jimmy Johnston and Zoe Thomas-Webb. Rehearsal and production photographs Johan Persson Programme design by Davina Chung Programme Associate Fiona Richards
MUSICAL NUMBERS ACT ONE Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin’ Curly The Surrey with the Fringe on Top Curly, Laurey, Aunt Eller Kansas City Will, Aunt Eller, Boys I Cain’t Say No Ado Annie Many a New Day Laurey, Girls It’s a Scandal! It’s a Outrage Ali Hakim, Boys People Will Say We’re in Love Curly, Laurey Pore Jud is Daid Curly, Jud Lonely Room Jud Dream Ballet Company ACT TWO The Farmer and The Cowman Carnes, Aunt Eller, Company All Er Nothin’ Ado Annie, Will People Will Say We’re in Love - Reprise Curly, Laurey Oklahoma Company
Supported by Oklahoma! Commissioning and Patrons Circles: Paul and Sanda Belcher, Ben-Levi Family, CS and M Chadha, Karen Coburn, Val and Richard Evans, Themy Hamilton, Anne and Eddie Hazel, Jammy Hoare, Roger Keyworth, Mrs Elaine Leaver, Mrs Jo Lewis, Jeremy and Caroline Marriage, William and Penny Plant, Dr Jeremy Shaw and Dr Linda Shaw OBE, Howard M Thompson, Ernest Yelf and all those who wish to remain anonymous.
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BIOGRAPHIES
JOSIE LAWRENCE
MICHELLE ANDREWS Dorothy Theatre includes Allison/Havana Dancer in Guys and Dolls (Mill at Sonning); Dancer in Kiss Me, Kate (Opera North); Pippin (Southwark Playhouse); On the Town (Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre); Ensemble/Dance Captain in Sweet Charity (Royal Exchange Theatre); Consuela in West Side Story (Kilworth House Theatre); Rebecca/Dance Captain in Miss Atomic Bomb (St James Theatre); Cinderella (Cambridge Arts Theatre); Reno Angel in Anything Goes (UK tour); Hairspray and Chicago (Curve Theatre Leicester); Top Hat (Aldwych Theatre); Betty in Babes in Arms (Union Theatre); Crazy For You (Novello Theatre). Television and film includes The Universe, Royal Variety Performance, Byker Grove, The Saturday Morning Show, The Olympic Opening Ceremony, Ant & Dec. Trained at Laine Theatre Arts. GEORGIE ASHFORD Ellen Previously at Chichester Singin’ in the Rain (Festival Theatre). Theatre credits include Cinderella in Cinderella (Theatre Royal Wakefield); Amber in 57th Annual Mathlete Sum-It (Stockwell Playhouse); Nell Freeman in Godiva Rocks (Belgrade Theatre); The Queen’s Nose (The Other Palace); Oklahoma! and My Fair Lady (BBC Proms/Royal Albert Hall); Beautiful: The Carole King Musical (Aldwych Theatre); Show Boat (New London Theatre); A Chorus Line (London Palladium); Legally Blonde and Our House 10th Anniversary Concert (Savoy Theatre); Barnum (UK tour); Oliver! (Sheffield Crucible); Christmas in New York (Lyric Theatre); Broadway to West End and Olivier Awards (Theatre Royal Drury Lane); Luna Park (Tristan Bates Theatre). Television includes BBC Proms: Oklahoma!, BBC Proms: Kiss Me Kate. YouTube: Georgie Ashford LINDSAY ATHERTON Virginia Theatre includes Young Carlotta in Follies (National Theatre); Flashdance (international tour); Tammy in Hairspray (UK tour); Starlight
Express (Bochum Germany); Cats (London Palladium/Blackpool Winter Gardens); Zelda Zanders in Singin’ in the Rain (Upstairs At The Gatehouse); Golda Linska in Korczak (Rose Theatre Kingston); The Olivier Awards (Theatre Royal Drury Lane); Kerry Ellis In Concert (London Palladium). Radio includes Friday Night Is Music Night. Films include the short Post H. Trained at Dance School of Scotland and the Arts Educational Schools London. IMOGEN BAILEY Kate Theatre includes Mimi Schwinne/Dance Captain in A New Brain, Alice/Dance Captain in The Secret Garden (Urdang Academy); Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty, The Nutcracker, Giselle (English Youth Ballet); Move It (Chandelier). She also appeared in the music video for Will Young’s ‘Brave Man’. Trained at the Urdang Academy. BRONTÉ BARBÉ Ado Annie Carnes Theatre includes Carole King in Beautiful and Princess Fiona and Red Riding Hood/Blind Mouse in Shrek (UK tours); Light Bulb Seller/The Little Match Girl in Striking 12 (Union Theatre); Nadine in The Wild Party (The Other Palace); Jest End (Waterloo East); Helen/Vinnie in The Donkey Show (Proud London); Sharon in Cool Rider (Lyric Theatre West End); Penny Pingleton in Hairspray (Bronowski Productions); Odette in Carnival of the Animals (Riverside Studios). Television includes Years and Years, Call the Midwife, Nosen Lawen, Over the Rainbow. Films include the shorts The Angel of Hull and 7.2. Trained at Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts. JEREMY BATT Slim Theatre includes Young Theodore/Chorus Boy in Follies (National Theatre); Will Parker in Oklahoma! (Gordon Craig Theatre); Chess (ENO); Mary Poppins (international tour); Angel in Kinky Boots (Adelphi Theatre); Joly in Les Misérables (Queens Theatre); Candide (Menier Chocolate Factory); Top Hat (Aldwych Theatre); Jeffrey
in Godspell (Union Theatre). Recordings include Kinky Boots and Top Hat (original London cast recordings), Follies (National Theatre cast recording). Trained at The Urdang Academy. ALEX CHRISTIAN Sam / Dance Captain Theatre includes Scranton Slim/Dance Captain in Guys and Dolls (The Mill at Sonning); Joe/ Jimmy/Dance Captain in Flashdance (UK and international tour); The Mountbatten Festival of Music (Royal Albert Hall); Kiss Me, Kate (Welsh National Opera UK tour); Mike Costa in A Chorus Line (Studio House Productions). Television and film includes X-Factor The Live Auditions, and Young Officer in Kingsman 3: The Great Game. Trained at Bird College. NICOLAS COLICOS Andrew Carnes Previously at Chichester Rhino in Just So, Jupiter in Out of This World, Warren in Born Again (Festival Theatre). Theatre in the UK includes Buffalo Bill in Annie Get Your Gun (Sheffield Crucible); I’m Getting My Act Together, Sick Dictators HYOIE O’GRADY
(Jermyn Street Theatre); The Boy Who Fell Into a Book, Honk! (Stephen Joseph Theatre Scarborough); Tony in The Bodyguard (original cast, Adelphi Theatre); Bones in Sister Act (original cast, London Palladium); Franz Liebkind in The Producers (original cast, Drury Lane); Trestle at Pope Lick Green (Southwark Playhouse); Harrison Howell in Kiss Me, Kate (Victoria Palace); Bill Austin in Mamma Mia! (original cast, Prince Edward); Darryl in Whistle Down the Wind (original cast, Aldwych); Clark Gable in Frankly Scarlett (King’s Head); Cyrus Budge III in By Jeeves (Stephen Joseph Theatre, West End and Kennedy Center Washington); Manfred in Sunset Boulevard (original cast, Adelphi); Reuben in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (original cast, Palladium); Sunday in the Park with George (National Theatre); A Streetcar Named Desire (Bristol Old Vic); Curly in Oklahoma! (national tour); Wonderful Town (Queen’s Theatre). Theatre in Canada and the USA includes Cyrano de Bergerac, The Boy Friend, Li’l Abner, Man of La Mancha, Roberta, 1984 (Shaw Festival Theatre); Julius Caesar, Arms and the Man, The Tempest, The Merry Wives of Windsor, Richard II, Macbeth, Tartuffe, As You Like It (Stratford Shakespearean Festival); Dr Selavy’s
Magic Theatre, Up from Paradise (New York). Television and film includes Kingsman 2, Rudeboy, Hot Metal, The New Statesman, The Detectives, Wodehouse on Broadway, Not a Penny More Not a Penny Less, Bomb Story, That’s Love, Young Indiana Jones Chronicles, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Superman IV, Iron Eagle II. CHRISTOPHER DICKINS Cord Elam Previously at Chichester Pops in Kiss Me, Kate (Festival Theatre and Old Vic). Theatre includes Dr Matthews in Harold and Maude and Harry Houdini in Ragtime (Charing Cross Theatre); Hunt Stromberg in Judy (Arts Theatre); Sgt Fine/Strauss in War Horse, Filch in The Threepenny Opera (National Theatre); Priest in Bare (Greenwich Theatre); Archibald Craven in The Secret Garden (Birmingham Rep); Mr Lyons in Blood Brothers, Monsieur André in The Phantom of the Opera, The Sound of Music, Roberts in The Far Pavilions (West End); Mary Poppins (UK tour); Wilfred Owen in Not About Heroes (Courtyard Hereford); Oisin in The Lost Warrior (Duke’s Playhouse Lancaster); Aramis in The Three Musketeers (Basingstoke Haymarket); Sonny Hale in Over My Shoulder AMARA OKEREKE
(Mill at Sonning); Perchik in Fiddler on the Roof and Claude in A Star Danced (Watermill Theatre Newbury); Marco in The Gondoliers (Apollo Theatre); Dionysos in The Bacchae (Nuffield Theatre Southampton); Cyril/Jerry in Moll Flanders (Salisbury Playhouse); Paganini/ Farinelli in William Tell/Scarlatti’s Revenge (Natural Theatre Company); Henry in Outward Bound (Palace Theatre Watford); Salad Days (Vaudeville); Under Their Hats (Northcott Theatre Exeter); Sebastian in Twelfth Night (Theatre Royal York). Television includes Doctors. Films include A Dark Reflection, Retribution. Trained at Guildford School of Acting and University of Cambridge. PAIGE FENLON Armina Professional credits include Rafaela/Alma in Elegies for Punks, Angels and Raging Queens (The Union Theatre). Credits while training include Cry Baby, Behind the Burlesque, Sweet Charity, Oh Darling You Were Marvellous (Doreen Bird Foundation Theatre); Destinations and Retro (Orchard Theatre Dartford); Move It (London Excel). Paige was a finalist in the Sondheim Society
BRONTÉ BARBÉ ISAAC GRYN SCOTT KARIM EMMANUEL KOJO
Student Performer of the Year Award. Trained at Bird College. ISAAC GRYN Will Parker Theatre includes Cry Baby (ArtsEd); Bugsy Malone (Lyric Hammersmith). Trained at Arts Educational Schools London (graduating September 2019). ALYN HAWKE Ike Theatre includes Follies (National Theatre); 42nd Street (Theatre Royal Drury Lane); An American in Paris (Dominion); 42nd Street (Théâtre du Châtelet Paris); Jonah in Miss Atomic Bomb (St James Theatre); Top Hat (Aldwych Theatre & UK tour); Dance Captain in Evita (UK tour); Tybalt in Romeo and Juliet The Rock Opera, Warm Up Man/Satan in Jerry Springer The Opera (Arts Educational). Television includes Strictly Come Dancing, Stars In Their Eyes. Films include Very Annie Mary, An American in Paris, 42nd Street. Recordings include Jason and the Argonauts, Top Hat, Maria Friedman Celebrates the Great British Songbook. Trained at Arts Educational Schools London. BETHANY HUCKLE Vivian Previously at Chichester Flo in Half a Sixpence (Festival Theatre and Noël Coward Theatre). Theatre includes 42nd Street (Theatre Royal Drury Lane); Barnum (Menier Chocolate Factory); Alice in Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre and 2016 Olivier Awards/Royal Opera House); Cinderella (Theatre Royal Plymouth). Television includes Live at the Palladium, The One Show, BBC Children in Need, Strictly Come Dancing Launch. Trained at the Urdang Academy. SCOTT KARIM Ali Hakim Previously at Chichester Sparkish in The Country Wife (Minerva Theatre). Theatre includes Farooq in The Village (Theatre Royal Stratford East); Grabiner/Sing
in Young Marx (Bridge Theatre); Hakan in Food (Finborough Theatre); Guiderius in Imogen, Prince of Morocco in The Merchant of Venice (Shakespeare’s Globe); Edmund in King Lear, Helmholtz in Brave New World (Royal & Derngate); Ryan/Riz in The Invisible (Bush Theatre); Fariq in Dara, Othello (National Theatre); Marcus in Great Britain (National Theatre and Theatre Royal Haymarket); Demetrie in Grand Budapest Hotel (Secret Cinema). Television includes Crazy Diamond, The World of Philip K Dick, Britannia, Holby City. Films include the short White Girl. Trained at RADA. EMMANUEL KOJO Jud Fry Theatre includes Murdo in Local Hero (Royal Lyceum Edinburgh); Joe Scott in Girl from the North Country (Noël Coward Theatre); Clarence in The Scottsboro Boys (Young Vic and Garrick Theatre); Sir Lionel in Camelot In Concert (London Palladium); Curio/Drag in Twelfth Night (National Theatre); Joe in Show Boat (Sheffield Crucible and West End); Gremio in Kiss Me, Kate (Opera North); Tunde in Child Soldiers in Africa (Manchester Arts Education Initiative). Television includes Enterprice, BBC Proms: Oklahoma!, Walliams and Friends. Radio includes Tommies. EMILY LANGHAM Gertie Cummings Previously at Chichester Mack and Mabel (Festival Theatre and UK tour). Theatre includes Anybodys in West Side Story (Royal Exchange Theatre); Lillian Gish in The Biograph Girl (Finborough Theatre); Young Carlotta in Follies (National Theatre); Windmill Girl in Mrs Henderson Presents (Royal Alexandra Theatre Toronto); Rumpelteazer in Cats (UK and European tour); Young Cosette in Les Misérables (West End). Television includes Help, Stupid, Dead Ringers. Radio includes Friday Night is Music Night. Trained at Arts Educational Schools London.
JOSIE LAWRENCE Aunt Eller Theatre includes Edmond de Bergerac, Amedee, Madame Ranevskaya in The Cherry Orchard, Hapgood in Hapgood (Birmingham Rep); Helen of Troy in Faust, Dunyasha in The Cherry Orchard, Kate in The Taming of The Shrew (Dame Peggy Ashcroft Award for Best Actress) (RSC); Agnetha in Frozen, Doll Common in The Alchemist (National Theatre); Loves-LiesBleeding (Coronet Printroom); title role in Mother Courage (Southwark Playhouse); Anna in The King and I (London Palladium); Bonnie in Acorn Antiques The Musical (Theatre Royal Haymarket); Alarms and Excursions (Gielgud); Beatrice in Much Ado About Nothing (Royal Exchange, Manchester Evening News Best Actress Award); Benedick in Much Ado About Nothing (Shakespeare’s Globe); Eliza Doolittle in Pygmalion, Tatyanna in Tatyanna (Nottingham Playhouse); Moll in Moll Flanders (Lyric Hammersmith); Valued Friends (Hampstead); Passionaria (Newcastle Playhouse); Carmen in Carmen (Octogon Bolton); Whose Line Is It Anyway? (Adelphi and London Palladium). NICOLAS COLICOS
EMILY LANGHAM
Television includes Good Omens, Stella, Humans, You Have Been Watching with Meera Syal, The Kennedys, Jonathan Creek, Robin Hood, EastEnders, Minder, Skins, Doctors, The Old Curiosity Shop, Casualty, Holby City, Wizards and Aliens, The Last Detective, Josie, A Many Splintered Thing, Keen Eddie, Outside Edge, Fat Friends, The Flint Street Nativity, SWALK, Lunch in the Park with Paul Merton, Whose Line Is It Anyway?, Downwardly Mobile, Bill’s New Frock, Absolutely Fabulous, The Green Man, Miss Marple, Poirot, Not With A Bang, Friday Night Live, The Complete Guide to Parenting. Films include Finding Your Feet, Enchanted April, The American Way, The Sin Eater, Round Ireland with a Fridge, Bonobo. Josie is a member of the improvisation group The Comedy Store Players, and created the all female impro group The Glenda J Collective. She is also a regular guest on Radio 4’s Just A Minute. Trained at Dartington College of Arts (BA Hons and later Honorary Doctor of Arts).
MICHAEL LIN Joe Previously at Chichester Crabtree in Forty Years On (Festival Theatre). Theatre includes Baby John/Dance Captain in West Side Story (Royal Exchange Theatre); Aki in Aladdin (Hackney Empire); Lucky in The Rink (Southwark Playhouse); Pinocchio (National Theatre); Grease (Leicester Curve); Ching Ho in Thoroughly Modern Millie (Kilworth House); Ensemble/Assistant Dance Captain in Annie (UK tour); Anything Goes (Sheffield Crucible and UK tour); Ensemble/Dance Captain in Thriller Live (UK & European tour). Trained at Laine Theatre Arts.
Theatre includes Munkustrap in Cats (European tour); Guys and Dolls In Concert (Royal Albert Hall); Tony in West Side Story (Buxton Opera House); The Addams Family: A Musical Comedy (Singapore, UK and Ireland tour); Annie Get Your Gun (Sheffield Crucible); Thoroughly Modern Millie and Diesel in West Side Story (Kilworth House); WhatsOnStage Awards (Prince of Wales Theatre); Hey, Old Friends! (Theatre Royal Drury Lane); The Olivier Awards 2015 (Royal Albert Hall). Television includes Tonight at the London Palladium, Shakespeare Live. Radio includes Friday Night is Music Night. Trained at Arts Educational Schools London.
HYOIE O’GRADY Curly Theatre includes Enjolras in Les Misérables (Queen’s Theatre West End). Trained at Mountview Academy of Arts. Instagram and Twitter: @hyoie
RHYS WEST Tom Theatre includes Mary Poppins (German tour); Dance Captain in Dick Whittington (First Family Entertainment); The Wizard of Oz (Enchanted Entertainment); Nigel in Snow White and Dance Captain in Aladdin (Qdos Entertainment). Trained at Laine Theatre Arts.
AMARA OKEREKE Laurey Theatre includes Cosette in Les Misérables (Queen’s Theatre, Stage Debut Award for Best Actress in a Musical); Diva in Priscilla: Queen of the Desert, Dance Captain/Ensemble in Bullets Over Broadway, Nellie Lovett in Sweeney Todd, Amy Winehouse in Amy and Sybil in Private Lives (ArtsEd); Emily Tallentire in The Hired Man, Cassie in 13 The Musical and Maria in West Side Story (National Youth Music Theatre). Trained at Arts Educational Schools London and National Youth Music Theatre. RORY SHAFFORD Mike Credits include Glen Guglia in The Wedding Singer, Billy Flynn in Chicago (both whilst training), Finch in Newsies, The Urdang Academy Summer Show 2018 (Urdang Academy); West End Does Christmas and West End Does Halloween (West End Does). Trained at the Urdang Academy. JAK SKELLY Fred Previously at Chichester Charles the Butler in Me and My Girl (Festival Theatre).
ANNA WOODSIDE Sylvie Theatre includes Man of La Mancha (London Coliseum); Dick Whittington (London Palladium); Arminy in Carousel and Hedda Hopper in Sunset Boulevard (ENO, London Coliseum); lead female vocalist in The Last Tango (Phoenix Theatre); Demeter in Cats and The Wizard of Oz (London Palladium); Dance Till Dawn (Aldwych Theatre and UK tour); My Fair Lady (Sheffield Crucible); Candide (ENO, Japan); Adam Cooper’s Shall We Dance (Sadler’s Wells); Never Forget (original cast, UK tour); Guys and Dolls (Piccadilly Theatre); Tinkerbell in Peter Pan (Birmingham Hippodrome); Fame The Musical (Edinburgh Playhouse); We Will Rock You (original cast, Dominion Theatre); Doreen in Saturday Night Fever (Apollo Victoria and UK tour); Starlight Express (Apollo Victoria;); Saturday Night Fever (original German cast, The Dom Cologne). Cast recordings Saturday Night Fever, We Will Rock You, Never Forget, The Wizard of Oz. Films include Artemis Fowl, Goodbye Girl. Trained at the London Studio Centre.
TOP LEFT: JEREMY BATT ALYN HAWKE RHYS WEST CHRISTOPHER DICKINS BOTTOM: THE COMPANY
MICHAEL LIN ALEX CHRISTIAN
RORY SHAFFORD
JAK SKELLY
TOP RIGHT: GEORGIE ASHFORD MICHELLE ANDREWS IMOGEN BAILEY BETHANY HUCKLE PAIGE FENLON ANNA WOODSIDE
LINDSAY ATHERTON AMARA OKEREKE
C R E AT I V E T E A M
HELEN ASHTON Voice and Dialect Coach Recent theatre includes The Last Ship (Northern Stage & UK tour); WIT and The Skriker (Manchester Royal Exchange); Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, The Go-Between (West Yorkshire Playhouse); Barbarians (Young Vic); Matilda (RSC/Cambridge Theatre); You For Me For You, Lela and Co, Teh Internet is Serious Business (Royal Court); Medea (Almeida); Coming Up, Jefferson’s Garden, Love Me Do (Watford Palace); Shiv (Curve Theatre Leicester); Incognito (The Bush/High Tide); Good People (English Theatre Frankfurt); Arsenic and Old Lace (Mercury Theatre Colchester); Thrill Me (Charing Cross Theatre); Drowning On Dry Land (Soho Theatre); Wicked (Apollo Victoria). Recent television and film includes Mulan, Sanditon, Colette, White Lines, The Friend, Murder On the Orient Express, The Meg, The Crown, The Halcyon, Broadchurch III, Poldark II, Their Finest, Mr Holmes, Trespass Against Us, Race. She has taught at several leading drama schools including The Royal Academy of JEREMY SAMS
Dramatic Art, Drama Centre (2008-2013) and The Central School of Speech and Drama (2007-2012). Books include Work On Your Accent (HarperCollins 2012). Trained at The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama (MA in Voice Studies) and studied History at the University of Edinburgh (First Class Hons). ANDY BARNWELL Orchestral Manager Previously at Chichester Babes in Arms, Funny Girl, The Music Man, Oklahoma!, Love Story, 42nd Street, She Loves Me, Singin’ in the Rain, Sweeney Todd, Kiss Me, Kate, The Pajama Game, Barnum, Guys and Dolls, Gypsy, A Damsel in Distress, Oklahoma!, Mack and Mabel, Travels with My Aunt, Half A Sixpence, Caroline, Or Change, Fiddler on the Roof, Me and My Girl, Flowers for Mrs Harris, This Is My Family. Current/past London productions include Evita, Jesus Christ Superstar, Hamilton, Aladdin, Tina - The Tina Turner Musical, Sweet Charity,
Caroline, Or Change, Little Shop of Horrors, Strictly Ballroom, Lady Day, Wind in the Willows, An American in Paris, On The Town, Half A Sixpence, Love’s Labour’s Lost/Much Ado About Nothing, In the Heights, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Bugsy Malone, Show Boat, Guys and Dolls (and tour), Gypsy, Memphis, Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, City of Angels, Porgy and Bess, Monty Python Live (mostly) (O2 Arena), A Chorus Line, Kiss Me, Kate, Sweeney Todd, Love Story, Into the Woods, Sister Act (and tour). Current/past regional/UK tours include The King and I, Motown The Musical, The Rocky Horror Show, Shrek, Hairspray The Musical, Funny Girl, The Commitments, Billy Elliot, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Dirty Dancing, Singin’ in the Rain, Spamalot, West Side Story (all also in London); Dusty, Sunshine on Leith, Addams Family, One Love The Bob Marley Musical, Anything Goes, Oliver!, Legally Blonde, South Pacific. JO CICHONSKA Associate Musical Director Also for Festival 2019 This Is My Family (Minerva Theatre). Credits as Musical Director include The Producers (Manchester Royal Exchange); A Little Princess (National Youth Music Theatre of Great Britain: The Other Palace); Spring Awakening (LAMDA); Side Show and Victor/ Victoria (Southwark Playhouse); Titanic (Charing Cross Theatre); The Grand Tour (Finborough Theatre); Oklahoma! (Mountview); The World Goes Round and Closer Than Ever (Urdang Academy). As Assistant Musical Director, Fun Home (Young Vic); Oliver! (Curve Theatre Leicester). Keyboard credits An American In Paris (Dominion Theatre). MATT COLE Choreographer Current and forthcoming credits include Fiddler On the Roof (Menier Chocolate Factory/ Playhouse Theatre West End); Parade (NYMT); Lovesick (Theatre J, Washington DC). As Choreographer credits include Amour (Charing Cross Theatre); The Return of the Soldier (Hope Mill Theatre and Jermyn Street
Theatre); Flashdance, Little Shop of Horrors, Little Baby Bum and The Night Pirates (UK tours); The Beautiful Game (NYMT); The Sweet Smell of Success and Amour (Royal Academy of Music); Love Sick (Berkeley Rep, California); The Producers and Footloose (international tours); EM (Royal Central School of Speech and Drama); Side Show (Southwark Playhouse); Aladdin (Theatr Clwyd); Rags The Musical (Theatre Royal Stratford East); Pure Imagination (St James’ Theatre); Jerry’s Girls (St James’ and Jermyn Street Theatre); Bette Midler & Me (Edinburgh Festival and UK tour); The Road to Qatar (Edinburgh Festival and Landor Theatre); Angelina Ballerina The Musical (UK and Australian tour); Vampirette: A New Musical (Manchester Opera House); The Pam Ann Show (Palladium, Apollo Hammersmith and UK/international tour); Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Jack and the Beanstalk and Aladdin (Qdos Entertainment). As Director credits include Sweet Charity and The Secret Garden (and Choreographer, Urdang Academy); Carmen La Cubana (Co-director, Théâtre du Châtelet Paris and international tour); The MGM Story (and Choreographer, Upstairs at the Gatehouse and UK tour); as Resident Director The Railway Children (King’s Cross Theatre), West Side Story, Never Forget (UK tours). Television includes Assistant Choreographer on Strictly Come Dancing. mattcolechoreography.com DAVID CULLEN Orchestrator David Cullen studied composition at the Royal Academy of Music in the 1960s with Richard Rodney Bennett. Subsequently he has worked as a keyboard player, composer, record producer and arranger. He is best known as the orchestrator of musicals in London and New York, particularly those of Andrew Lloyd Webber including Cats, Starlight Express, Song and Dance, Aspects of Love, Sunset Boulevard, By Jeeves, Whistle Down the Wind, Beautiful Game, The Phantom of the Opera, The Woman in White and Love Never Dies. He received the New York Drama Desk Award for his orchestrations of The Phantom of the Opera, and was Tonynominated for Aspects of Love and for
re-orchestrations of Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake. Other orchestrations include Abbacadabra, Children of Eden, Shogun the Musical, Stepping Out, Edna – The Spectacle, Schikaneder; the London revivals of Can-Can, The Baker’s Wife, Carmen Jones, Parade; The Wizard of Oz; the Disney productions of Geppetto and Cinderella; and the recent London production of Company. He has composed music for several UK television series including Relative Strangers, Surgical Spirit and The Bretts, and provided orchestrations for the films of The Phantom of the Opera and Cats. BEN DAVIES Associate Set Designer Theatre as Associate Designer includes The Book of Mormon (UK tour); Matilda the Musical (UK and international tours); Art, Electra, A Christmas Carol and The Lorax (Old Vic and US/Toronto); Beautiful (West End); The Ferryman and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (West End and Broadway); Long Day’s Journey into Night and Venus in Fur (West End); The Red Lion, Three Days in the Country and King Lear (National Theatre). As Assistant Designer Groundhog Day (Old Vic and Broadway); Sweeney Todd, Oliver!, The Audience, The Wizard of Oz, Hamlet, Betty Blue Eyes, The Children’s Hour, Shrek The Musical NIGEL LILLEY AND COMPANY
and Gypsy (West End); God of Carnage (West End and Broadway); Bombay Dreams (Broadway); An American in Paris (Broadway and Paris); The Trojans (Metropolitan Opera New York). DAVID GREWCOCK Assistant Director Theatre includes Assistant to the Director on John (National Theatre and European tour); Co-Director on Sex, Tents and Sea Creatures (Hackney Empire) and Larkin’ About II (Ham Common); Associate Director on Relish (Tramshed) and Silence (UK tour); Resident Director on Iolanthe (Union Theatre), Depth Charge (Lyric Hammersmith) and Silence (UK tour); Assistant Director on Ignition (Lyric Hammersmith), Bells Are Ringing (Union Theatre) and Grand Hotel (ArtsEd). Credits as a performer include John (UK/ European tour); London 2012 Olympics Opening Ceremony (Olympic Arena); War Horse (New London Theatre); Ben Hur Live (world tour); The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (Birmingham Rep); The Mikado (Union Theatre); Savages (Royal Court); A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Hoxton Square/Tate Modern). He is an Associate Artist with the National Youth Theatre. Trained at Arts Educational Schools London.
PAUL GROOTHUIS Sound Designer Previously at Chichester Amadeus, Guys and Dolls, Gypsy, Neville’s Island, The Pajama Game, Private Lives, Kiss Me, Kate, Sweeney Todd (Olivier nomination), Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (all also West End), A Damsel in Distress, Mack & Mabel, Young Chekhov Trilogy, Travels with My Aunt, Ross, Sweet Bird of Youth. Paul trained as a Stage Manager at Central School of Speech and Drama. He was awarded Live magazine’s Sound Designer of the Year Award for Oklahoma! and Oh! What a Lovely War at the National Theatre, where he was a member of the Sound Department from 1984 – 2003. He is Creative Associate at Matthew Bourne’s New Adventures Company. His designs include The Silver Tassie, Filthy Business, Chariots of Fire, Rabbit Hole, Romeo and Juliet, Bent, Everybody’s Talking About Jamie, Show Boat, The King and I, Anything Goes, His Dark Materials, The Coast of Utopia, My Fair Lady (NT and Drury Lane), Guys and Dolls, Sunday in the Park with George, Candide and The Wind in the Willows. Recent sound designs include Matthew Bourne’s Nutcracker!, Dorian Gray, The Car Man, Edward Scissorhands, Highland Fling, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty and The Red Shoes; Oliver! (London Palladium, Theatre Royal Drury Lane and UK tour); and Mary Poppins (UK and North American tours, Holland and Germany). MARK HENDERSON Lighting Designer Previously at Chichester Flowers for Mrs Harris, Present Laughter, Sweet Bird of Youth, Forty Years On, An Enemy of the People, Young Chekhov, Gypsy (and West End), Sweeney Todd (and West End), The Scarlet Pimpernel, A Patriot for Me, Valmouth, The Mitford Girls, Feasting with Panthers, The Cherry Orchard (Festival Theatre); Copenhagen, For Services Rendered, Private Lives (and West End), ENRON (and Royal Court, West End and Broadway) (Minerva Theatre). Mark Henderson was an Associate and Lighting Consultant to the National Theatre and Lighting Adviser to the Almeida. He was the recipient of the 1992, 1995, 2000, 2002, 2010
and 2016 Laurence Olivier Awards for Lighting Design, was awarded a Tony Award in 2006 and has also received a Welsh BAFTA. He has lit extensively for all the major theatre, opera and dance companies in the UK and over 50 West End productions, notably Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, The Iceman Cometh, Copenhagen, Democracy, Hamlet, The Real Thing (all also on Broadway), The Bodyguard, The Sound of Music, Grease, Spend Spend Spend, Neville’s Island, Follies, All My Sons, American Buffalo, Funny Girl, Girl from the North Country, Imperium. Mark has lit over 80 productions for the National Theatre including Racing Demon, Les Parents Terribles, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (all also on Broadway), All My Sons, Mourning Becomes Electra, The History Boys, The Habit of Art, One Man Two Guvnors. Opera and dance includes productions for ENO, the Royal Opera, WNO, Opera North and Glyndebourne Festival Opera, LCDT, Rambert Dance Company, the Royal Ballet, Scottish Ballet, Northern Ballet and Birmingham Royal Ballet. Mark designed the lighting for the Kate Bush ‘Before the Dawn’ shows at Hammersmith Apollo. ROBERT JONES Set Designer Previously at Chichester Strife, Someone Who’ll Watch Over Me, Mack and Mabel, Taken at Midnight (and Haymarket), Kiss Me, Kate (and Old Vic), Cyrano de Bergerac, Calendar Girls (and UK tour, West End, Canada, Australia), The Music Man, Hay Fever, Water Babies, Saturday Sunday... and Monday, When We Are Married (and West End), Quiz (and West End). Over thirty West End productions include The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, Ragtime, The Sound of Music (and Toronto, Paris, UK tour, Tokyo, China, South Africa, New Zealand, Australia); Much Ado About Nothing, The Dance of Death, The Girls, Benefactors, Heroes (and Los Angeles); Cyrano de Bergerac, The Wizard of Oz (and Toronto, US and Australia); The Girls, Rock and Roll (and Broadway). As an Associate Artist of the RSC Pentecost, Othello, Jubilee, Romeo and Juliet, The Merchant of Venice, Eastward Ho!, The Herbal
Bed, Venus and Adonis, Twelfth Night, Hamlet, Henry VIII (and New York), The Winter’s Tale. Other theatre includes The Light in the Piazza (Southbank Centre); Fiddler on the Roof (Menier & Playhouse Theatre); Look Back In Anger, Noises Off (West End, Broadway); The Playboy of the Western World, The Motherf***er with the Hat, Tartuffe (National Theatre); Lobby Hero, The Physicists, A Voyage Round My Father, City of Angels, Black Comedy, The Vote, One Night in Miami, Saint Joan, Committee, Sweet Charity (Donmar); The Mercy Seat, Filumena, Ruined, There Came a Gypsy Riding, The Late Henry Moss (Almeida); Pericles (New York); Fabulation, Greta Garbo Came to Donegal (Tricycle); The Full Monty (West End, tour). Also numerous opera productions for The Met, Glyndebourne, Chicago, Vienna, Tokyo, Sydney, Paris and Berlin.
THE COMPANY
TERRY KING Fight Director Previously at Chichester Me and My Girl, Neville’s Island, Kiss Me, Kate, Goodnight Mister Tom, The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby Parts I&II, Pravda, Carousel (Festival Theatre), The Country Wife, The Country Girls, For Services Rendered, Taken at Midnight, The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui, Canvas, South Downs/The Browning Version, Wallenstein, The Last Cigarette, Macbeth (Minerva Theatre). Terry King has worked extensively as a fight arranger at all the major theatre companies in Britain as well as many operas, musicals, West End shows and television. For the RSC Coriolanus, Julius Caesar, Macbeth, Othello, Romeo and Juliet, As You Like It, Henry VI Parts 1,2&3, Henry IV Parts 1&2, Hamlet, Pericles, Dunsinane, Cymbeline, Richard II, Richard III. For the National Theatre His Dark Materials,
The Murderers, Fool For Love, Edmond, The Duchess of Malfi, King Lear, Elmina’s Kitchen, Scenes From the Big Picture, The White Guard, Three Winters, Henry V. Other theatre includes Porgy and Bess (Glyndebourne); Othello (WNO); Carmen (ENO); Don Carlos (ROH); Billy Elliot The Musical, Oliver, Jerry Springer The Opera, Lord of the Rings The Musical, Spend Spend Spend, Martin Guerre, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Zorro The Musical, Dirty Dancing The Musical, Sunny Afternoon, Shakespeare in Love, Fifteen Streets, An Inspector Calls, Festen, On an Average Day, Of Mice and Men, Private Lives, A View from the Bridge. Television includes The Bill, EastEnders, Casualty, Fell Tiger, A Kind of Innocence, Fatal Inversion, Broken Glass, Scolds Bridal, The Mayor of Casterbridge, Rock Face, Blue Dove, The Widowing of Mrs Holroyd.
NIGEL LILLEY Musical Supervisor, Musical Director, Dance Arrangements Previously at Chichester Musical Director for Caroline, Or Change (Minerva Theatre, also Hampstead Theatre and West End). Musical Director credits include Follies (National Theatre, including revival); Fun Home (Young Vic); The Go-Between (West End); Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (Theatre Royal Drury Lane); My Fair Lady, Company (Sheffield Crucible); Ragtime (Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre); Spring Awakening (European premiere, Lyric & Novello); La Cage Aux Folles (Menier Chocolate Factory & Playhouse); Piaf (Donmar Warehouse & Vaudeville); Lauren Kennedy in Concert (Menier Chocolate Factory); Les Misérables (conducting the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra); The Bacchae (National Theatre of Scotland & Edinburgh International Festival); Acorn Antiques (UK tour); The Last
Session (UK premiere, Hackney Empire Studio); Putting It Together (Harrogate Theatre). Music Supervisor credits include Romantics Anonymous (Shakespeare’s Globe); Guys and Dolls, Sweet Charity (Royal Exchange); Chaplin The Musical (European tour); Bend It Like Beckham (Phoenix Theatre); A Wolf in Snakeskin Shoes (Tricycle Theatre); Anything Goes (Sheffield Crucible & UK tour); That Day We Sang (Manchester Royal Exchange & Manchester International Festival); Paper Dolls (Tricycle Theatre); The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (Curve Leicester & West End); Sweet Charity (Menier Chocolate Factory & Theatre Royal Haymarket); Talent (Menier Chocolate Factory). Other credits include Sinatra at the London Palladium, Les Misérables (Denmark); Maury Yeston’s December Songs (UK premiere, Greenwich Theatre); Philip Quast at the Donmar (Divas season); Pacific Overtures (Donmar). Television includes Gentleman Jack, Victoria, That Day We Sang, Victoria Wood’s Christmas Special, Up The Women, 2008 Royal Variety Performance (conducting La Cage aux Folles), Musicality. MATT COLE
JANE McMURTRIE Associate Choreographer Previously at Chichester Resident Choreographer and Children’s Director for Gypsy (Festival Theatre and Savoy Theatre). Theatre includes, as Associate Choreographer: Fiddler on the Roof (Menier Chocolate Factory & Playhouse Theatre), The Bodyguard (Stuttgart, South Korea & Vienna), The Producers (international tour), Legally Blonde (Sydney Lyric Australia), Groundhog Day (Old Vic), Pure Imagination (St James Theatre). As Choreographer: Spring Awakening (Edinburgh Fringe), Pop Icons and Soul Show (Marella Cruises), The Wedding Singer, Spring Awakening, 9 to 5 and Violet (Bernie Grant Arts Centre), Carrie (The Ivy Arts Centre), Snow White and Peter Pan (De Montfort Hall, Leicester), Guy Fawkes The Musical (London workshop). As Creative Director, MyFaceMyBody Awards. As Children’s Regional Casting Choreographer, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (UK tour). Television includes Associate Choreographer The Tracey Ullman Show and The Voice. As a performer, Gypsy (Chichester), Charlie
and the Chocolate Factory (Theatre Royal Drury Lane), Legally Blonde and Carousel (Savoy Theatre), Mary Poppins (Prince Edward Theatre), Footloose (Novello Theatre), On the Town (ENO/ London Coliseum), Tonight’s the Night (Victoria Palace), The Wedding Singer, Annie Get Your Gun, Grease and Oh! What a Night (UK tours). Cast recordings Charlie and The Chocolate Factory, Legally Blonde, Tonight’s The Night. Trained at Dance School of Scotland and Laine Theatre Arts. BRIGITTE REIFFENSTUEL Costume Designer Brigitte has designed extensively for the Royal Opera House, English National Opera and the Metropolitan Opera; many of these productions have toured internationally including Falstaff (ROH, Canadian Opera, La Scala, Metropolitan Opera, Dutch National Opera); Peter Grimes (ENO, Oviedo, De Vlaamse Opera and Deutsche Oper, Berlin); Faust (ROH, Opera de Lille, Monte Carlo, Trieste, Valencia, Australia); and Giulio Cesare (Glyndebourne, Metropolitan Opera, Chicago Lyric Opera and Opera de Lille). NIGEL LILLEY
JO CICHONSKA
Other credits include Twelfth Night (Young Vic); Kiss Me, Kate (Les Théâtres de la Ville de Luxembourg, Graz Opera and Théâtre du Châtelet Paris) and Kate Bush’s tour Before the Dawn. Awards include the 2015 Dora Mavor Moore Award for outstanding costume design (Falstaff, Canadian Opera Company) and the 2013 Oscar della Lirica Award for achievement in costume design. Brigitte Reiffenstuel was born in Munich and studied at the London College of Fashion and Central St Martins College of Art and Design. RODGERS AND HAMMERSTEIN Music, Book & Lyrics After long and highly distinguished careers with other collaborators, Richard Rodgers (composer) and Oscar Hammerstein II (librettist/lyricist) joined forces to create the most consistently fruitful and successful partnership in the American musical theatre. Prior to his work with Hammerstein, Richard Rodgers (1902-1979) collaborated with lyricist
Lorenz Hart on a series of musical comedies. Prolific on Broadway, in London and in Hollywood from the 1920s into the early 1940s, Rodgers & Hart wrote more than 40 shows and film scores, including On Your Toes, Babes in Arms, The Boys from Syracuse, I Married An Angel and Pal Joey. Throughout the same era Oscar Hammerstein II (1895-1960) collaborated with composers such as Rudolf Friml, Sigmund Romberg and Vincent Youmans on operetta classics including The Desert Song, Rose-Marie and The New Moon. With Jerome Kern he wrote Show Boat, the 1927 operetta that changed the course of modern musical theatre. His last musical before embarking on an exclusive partnership with Richard Rodgers was Carmen Jones in 1943. Oklahoma!, the first Rodgers & Hammerstein musical, represented a unique fusion of Rodgers’ musical comedy and Hammerstein’s operetta. It was followed by Carousel, Allegro, South Pacific, The King and I, JANE MCMURTRIE AND COMPANY
Me and Juliet, Pipe Dream, Flower Drum Song and The Sound of Music. Rodgers & Hammerstein wrote one musical specifically for the big screen, State Fair, and one for television, Cinderella. Collectively, their musicals earned 42 Tony Awards, 15 Academy Awards, two Pulitzer Prizes, two Grammy Awards and two Emmy Awards. After Hammerstein’s death in 1960, Rodgers continued to write for the Broadway stage; No Strings earned him two Tony Awards for music and lyrics, and was followed by Do I Hear A Waltz?, Two By Two, Rex and I Remember Mama. He died on 30 December 1979, less than eight months after his last musical opened on Broadway. In 1990, Broadway’s 46th Street Theatre was renamed ‘The Richard Rodgers Theatre’ in his honour. In 1998 Rodgers & Hammerstein were cited by Time Magazine and CBS News as among the 20 most influential artists of the 20th century. Their Centennials, in 1995 and 2002 respectively, were celebrated worldwide.
JEREMY SAMS Director Previously at Chichester directed The Rehearsal (which he also translated) and The Water Babies; composed music for Talking Heads and The Scarlet Pimpernel (also West End); translated The Coffee House, Scapino, Saturday, Sunday... and Monday and Seven Doors; and co-wrote the book for A Damsel in Distress. Directing includes Peter Grimes (Grange Park Opera); The Wizard of Oz (West End, Toronto, US tour; WhatsOnStage Award for Best Musical Revival); La Perichole (Garsington Opera); Educating Rita (Menier Chocolate Factory/Trafalgar Studios); The King and I (Royal Albert Hall); The Sound of Music (West End, UK tour, Toronto; Dora Mavor Award for Outstanding Musical Production); 13 (Broadway); Donkey’s Years (West End and UK tour); Little Britain (London and UK tour); Noises Off (National Theatre, West End and Broadway); Passion (West End); Wild Oats, Marat/Sade (National Theatre); The Wind in the Willows (Old Vic and CHRISTOPHER DICKINS
JEREMY SAMS
DAVID GREWCOCK
Tokyo); Two Pianos Four Hands, Neville’s Island, Spend Spend Spend (West End); What the Butler Saw (Theatre Royal Bath and tour); Benefactors (West End and UK tour); Die Fledermaus (also translator, Metropolitan Opera). Translations include Edmond de Bergerac (Birmingham Rep and tour); The Rehearsal (Almeida and West End); The Miser, Mary Stuart (National Theatre); Die Schöne Müllerin, Winterreise, Schanengesang (Ryedale Festival and Wigmore Hall); The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny, The Merry Widow (Royal Opera House); Figaro’s Wedding, La bohème, The Magic Flute, Wagner’s Ring Cycle (ENO). He has composed for film and television including Le Weekend, Hyde Park on Hudson, Enduring Love (Ivor Novello Award), The Mother, Persuasion (BAFTA Award); The Wind in the Willows and Arcadia (National Theatre); and many plays for the RSC. His adaptations include Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (London and New York); and he created The Enchanted Island for the Metropolitan Opera.
CHARLOTTE SUTTON CDG Casting Director Previously at Chichester Plenty, Shadowlands, Flowers for Mrs Harris, Me and My Girl, The Chalk Garden, Present Laughter, The Norman Conquests, Fiddler on the Roof, Sweet Bird of Youth, Forty Years On, Mack & Mabel (and UK tour) (Festival Theatre); The Deep Blue Sea, This Is My Family, The Watsons, Cock, Copenhagen, The Meeting, random/generations, Quiz, The Stepmother, The House They Grew Up In, Caroline, Or Change (also Hampstead and West End; CDG Casting Award nomination), Strife (Minerva Theatre). Theatre credits Company (Gielgud); Death of a Salesman, The Convert, Wild East, Winter, trade and Dutchman (Young Vic); Long Day’s Journey into Night (Wyndham’s, BAM & LA); Humble Boy, Sheppey and German Skerries (Orange Tree Theatre); Nell Gwynn (ETT and Globe); The Pitchfork Disney and Killer (Shoreditch Town Hall); My Brilliant Friend (Rose Theatre Kingston); Annie Get Your Gun, Flowers for Mrs Harris, Lady Chatterley’s Lover, Waiting for Godot and Queen Coal (Sheffield Crucible); HYOIE O’GRADY AMARA OKEREKE
Henry V and Twelfth Night Re-Imagined (Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre); Hedda Gabler and Little Shop of Horrors (Salisbury Playhouse); Insignificance, Much Ado About Nothing and Jumpy (Theatr Clwyd); Goodnight Mister Tom (Duke of York’s and tour); A Pacifist’s Guide to the War on Cancer, wonder.land, The Elephantom, Emil and the Detectives and The Light Princess (National Theatre); The Rise and Shine of Comrade Fiasco, I’d Rather Goya Robbed Me... and Gruesome Playground Injuries (Gate Theatre); Albion (Bush); Our Big Land (New Wolsey Theatre, Ipswich and tour); Forever House (Drum Theatre, Plymouth); One Man, Two Guvnors (Theatre Royal Haymarket and international tour); Desire Under the Elms (Lyric Hammersmith); Bunny (Underbelly Edinburgh Festival, Soho and 59E59 New York).
EVENTS
Rodgers & Hammerstein’s
OKLAHOMA! PRE-SHOW TALK
Friday 19 July, 5.45pm Director Jeremy Sams in conversation with Kate Mosse. FREE but booking is essential.
OH WHAT A BEAUTIFUL MORNIN’ Saturday 20 July, 1pm Join us on Oaklands Park as our community singers perform musical favourites from the Rodgers and Hammerstein songbook. Bring a picnic and sing along. FREE
PROLOGUE MEET AND GREET
Tuesday 30 July, Post-Show Meet other Prologue members and some of the cast and creative team after the performance in the Minerva Bar and Grill.
HOEDOWN HOP
Thursday 15 August, 12 noon Yee Ha! Join us for some family line dancing inspired by Oklahoma!. Feel free to dress up in your best cowboy and cowgirl outfits and bring your own hat and a picnic, or pick up some food and drink from The Café. If the rain comes we have an fun indoor option, so please do still come along. FREE but donations are welcome. This event is part of Ageless Week, supporting all our work for people who might struggle to access theatre. cft.org.uk/ageless
POST-SHOW TALK
Monday 19 August Stay after the performance to ask questions, meet company members and discover more about the play. FREE
RELAXED PERFORMANCE FREE but booking is essential.
Thursday 29 August, 2.30pm Our relaxed performance of Oklahoma! welcomes anyone on the autistic spectrum or anyone who would benefit from a more relaxed performance. cft.org.uk/relaxed performance Tickets £15
cft.org.uk/events
S TA F F
TRUSTEES Sir William Castell Mr Nicholas Backhouse Mr Alan Brodie Ms Jill Green Ms Odile Griffith Mrs Shelagh Legrave OBE Rear Admiral John Lippiett CB CBE Mr Mike McCart Mr Harry Matovu QC Mrs Denise Patterson Ms Stephanie Street Mrs Patricia Tull Ms Tina Webster Mrs Susan Wells ASSOCIATES Kate Bassett Charlotte Sutton CDG
Chairman
Literary Associate Casting Associate
BUILDING & SITE SERVICES Chris Edwards Maintenance Engineer Lez Gardiner Duty Engineer Daren Rowland Facilities Manager Graeme Smith Duty Engineer DEVELOPMENT Rachel Billsberry-Grass Interim Development Director Eleanor Blackham Memberships Officer Joseph Fellows-Cameron Development Administrator Julie Field Friends Administrator Rosie Hiles Corporate Development Manager Laura Jackson William Mendelowitz Karen Taylor DIRECTORS Kathy Bourne Daniel Evans Patricia Key Georgina Rae Julia Smith
Head of Individual Giving Head of Major Gifts Memberships Officer
Executive Director Artistic Director PA to the Directors Head of Planning & Projects Board Support
FINANCE Alison Baker Payroll & Pensions Officer Krissie Harte Finance Officer Will Jupp IT Support Katie Palmer Assistant Management Accountant Simon Parsonage Mark Pollard Paul Sturgeon Amanda Trodd Nicole Yu HR Eugenie Konig Emily Oliver Jenefer Pullinger Gillian Watkins
Finance Director & Company Secretary IT Support IT Consultant Management Accountant Finance Assistant (Trainee)
Head of HR Accommodation Administrator HR & Recruitment Officer HR Administrator
LEAP Isilda Almeida Heritage Manager Elspeth Barron LEAP Officer Mia Cunningham-Stockdale Youth Theatre Apprentice Lauren Grant Deputy Director of LEAP Hannah Hogg Youth & Outreach Officer Richard Knowles Education Projects Manager Poppy Marples Senior Youth & Outreach Officer
Louise Rigglesford Community Partnerships Manager Dale Rooks Director of LEAP Fin Ross Russell Education Trainee Beth Sedgwick Community Partnerships Trainee MARKETING, PRESS & SALES Carole Alexandre Distribution Officer Josh Allan Box Office Assistant Caroline Aston Audience Insight Manager Becky Batten Senior Marketing Manager Laura Bern Marketing Manager Jenny Bettger Box Office Supervisor Jessica Blake-Lobb Marketing Manager (Corporate) Harry Boulter Box Office Assistant Fran Boxall Box Office Administrator (Maternity Cover) Helen Campbell Deputy Box Office Manager Lydia Cassidy Director of Marketing & Communications Clare Funnell Marketing Officer Madeleine Harker Box Office Assistant Lorna Holmes Box Office Assistant Helena Jacques-Morton Communications Assistant James Morgan Lucinda Morrison Kirsty Peterson Alice Stride Joshua Vine Claire Walters Joanna Wiege Jane Wolf
Box Office Manager Head of Press Box Office Assistant Box Office Assistant Box Office Supervisor Box Office Assistant Box Office Administrator (Maternity Leave) Box Office Assistant
PRODUCTION Amelia Ferrand-Rook Producer Claire Rundle Production Administrator Eva Sampson Resident Assistant Director Nicky Wingfield Production Administrator Jeremy Woodhouse Producer TECHNICAL Dan Armstrong Transport & Logistics Steph Bartle Deputy Head of Lighting Hope Brennan Sound Technician Jon Carter Stage Crew Amy Clayton Stage Apprentice Leoni Commosioung Stage Crew Sarah Crispin Prop Maker Ben Dalton Stage Crew Lewis Ellingford Stage Technician Ross Gardner Stage Crew Sam Garner-Gibbons Technical Director Abbie Gingell Stage & Automation Technician Fuzz Sound Technician Katie Hennessy Props Store Co-ordinator Laura Howells Senior Lighting Technician Alex Hunt Stage Technician Ian Jarvis Deputy Head of Stage Mike Keniger Head of Sound Andrew Leighton Senior Lighting Technician Karl Meier Head of Stage Charlotte Neville Head of Props Workshop Ryan Pantling Lighting/Sound Apprentice Lewis Ramsay Assistant Lighting Technician Alex Rees Neil Rose Ernesto Ruiz Joe Samuels James Sharples
Lighting Technician Deputy Head of Sound Stage Crew Lighting Technician Stage Crew
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Adam Thomas Steer Mary Stone Graham Taylor Sarah Ware Flynn White
Sound Technician No 1 Sound Technician Head of Lighting Stage Crew Stage Crew
THEATRE MANAGEMENT Janet Bakose Theatre Manager Gill Dixon Front of House Duty Manager Ben Geering House Manager Karen Hamilton Front of House Duty Manager Gabriele Hergert Deputy House Manager Will McGovern Assistant House Manager Sharon Meier PA to Theatre Manager Joshua Vine Front of House Duty Manager WARDROBE Michaela Duffy Ellie Edwards Jessica Griffiths Natasha Hancock Lottie Higlett Gabby Selwyn-Smith Emily Souch Sam Sullivan Loz Tait Colette Tulley Hannah Ward Maisie Wilkins
Dresser Wardrobe Assistant Deputy Head of Wardrobe Deputy Head of Wardrobe Dresser Dresser Dresser Wardrobe Assistant Head of Wardrobe Wardrobe Maintenance Dresser Dresser
WIGS Grace Healy Hayley Kharsa Sonja Mohren Natascha Schnieden Eve Westcott
Wigs Assistant Deputy Head of Wigs Head of Wigs Wigs Assistant Deputy Head of Wigs
Stage Door: Bob Bentley, Janet Bounds, Judith Bruce-Hay, Sarah Hammett, Caroline Hanton, Keiko Iwamoto, Chris Monkton Ushers: Miranda Allemand, Maria Antoniou, Jacob Atkins, Carolyn Atkinson, Brian Baker, Ella Bassett, Bob Bentley, Gloria Boakes, Janet Bounds, Judith Bruce-Hay, Lauren Bunn, Julia Butterworth, Louisa Chandler, Helen Chown, Jo Clark, Sophia Cobby, Gaye Douglas, Stella Dubock, Alisha Dyer-Spence, Clair Edgell, George Edwards, Suzanne Ford, Jessica Frewin-Smith, Nigel Fullbrook, Barry Gamlin, Charlie Gardiner, Luc Gibbons, Anna Grindel, Karen Hamilton, Caroline Hanton, Madeline Harker, Joseph Harrington (Trainee), Gillian Hawkins, Joanne Heather, Lottie Higlett, Stephanie Horn, Keiko Iwamoto, Joan Jenkins, Lucy Jenkinson, Pippa Johnson, Ryan Jones, Jan Jordan, Sally Kingsbury, Alexandra Langrish, Valerie Leggate, Jamie Loake, Emily McAlpine, Janette McAlpine, Chris Monkton, Chloe Mulkern, Susan Mulkern, Georgie Mullen, Isabel Owen, Martyn Pedersen, Susy Peel, Kirsty Peterson, Helen Pinn, Lydia Piper, Barbara Pope, Justine Richardson, Nicholas Southcott, Lorraine Stapley, Sophie Stirzaker, Angela Stodd, Kerry Strong, Christine Tippen, Charlotte Tregear, Andy Trust (Trainee), Joshua Vine, Rosemary Wheeler, Jonathan Wilson (Trainee), James Wisker, Donna Wood, Fleur Wood, Kim Wylam, Jane Yeates We acknowledge the work of those who give so generously of their time as our Volunteer Audio Description Team: Tony Clark, Robert Dunn, Geraldine Firmston, Suzanne France, Sue Hyland, David Phizackerley, Christopher Todd
ACCESS AND CAR PARKING
Wheelchair users 16 wheelchair spaces are available on two levels in the Festival Theatre, with accessible lifts either side of the auditorium. Two wheelchair spaces are available in the Minerva Theatre. Hearing impaired Free Sennheiser listening units are available for all performances or switch your hearing aid to ‘T’ to use the induction loop in both theatres. Signed performances are British Sign Language interpreted for people who are D/deaf or hard of hearing. Stagetext Captioned performances display text on a screen for D/deaf or hearing impaired patrons. Audio-described performances offer live narration over discreet headphones for people who are blind or visually impaired. Touch Tours enable blind or visually impaired people to explore the set before audio described performances. Free but booking is essential. Dementia-Friendly Theatre All Box Office and Front of House staff have attended a Dementia Friends Information Session, and can be identified by the blue pin on their uniform.
Assistance dogs are welcome; please let us know when booking as space is limited. Parking for disabled patrons Blue Badge holders can park anywhere in Northgate Car Park free of charge. There are 9 non-reservable spaces close to the Theatre entrance. Car Parking Northgate Car Park is an 836-space pay and display car park (free after 8pm). On matinee days it can be very busy; please consider alternative car parks in Chichester. chichester.gov.uk/mipermit If you have access requirements or want to book tickets with an access discount, please join the Access List. For more information and to register, visit cft.org.uk/access, call the Box Office on 01243 781312 or email access@cft.org.uk
Large-print version of this programme available on request from the House Manager or access@cft.org.uk Large-print and audio CD versions of the Festival Season brochure are available on request from access@cft.org.uk For more access information, call 01243 781312 or visit cft.org.uk/access
cft.org.uk/visitus
SUPPORT US
GET INVOLVED As a registered charity, Chichester Festival Theatre needs support from people like you. The generosity and commitment of our members and donors means we can: • Keep creating world-class theatre in the heart of West Sussex • Run our award-winning Youth Theatre and other community projects that inspire and empower • Invest in emerging talent in UK theatre by offering unique career development opportunities There are many ways to support us. Whether you are an individual, a charitable trust or a company, you can get closer to the work we do both on and off the stage. To find out more about opportunities to support CFT, please visit cft.org.uk/supportus, email development.team@cft.org.uk or call 01243 812881.
WAYS OF GIVING If you donate to our Ageless campaign, you will help us bring theatre and live art to the wider community, particularly those at risk of isolation. All donations welcome. As a Friend you will receive priority booking, ticket discounts, Friends events and e-newsletters. Membership £35. Festival Players receive advance priority booking and exclusive events in thanks for your generous support. Membership from £250 (£25 + £225 donation). Benefactors enjoy unique access to CFT, with a bespoke relationship based around the projects you choose to support. Gifts from £3,000. By becoming a Corporate or Principal Partner, businesses can access a host of benefits including advertising, tickets, client entertaining and invitations to exclusive events.
cft.org.uk/supportus
S U P P O R T E R S 2019
INDIVIDUAL SUPPORT BENEFACTORS Deborah Alun-Jones Robin and Joan Alvarez David and Elizabeth Benson Philip Berry Sarah and Tony Bolton George W. Cameron OBE and Madeleine Cameron Wilfred and Jeannette Cass Sir William and Lady Castell CS and M Chadha David and Sonia Churchill John and Pat Clayton Clive and Frances Coward Jim Douglas Mrs Veronica J Dukes Melanie Edge Sir Vernon and Lady Ellis Steve and Sheila Evans Val and Richard Evans Simon and Luci Eyers Angela and Uri Greenwood Themy Hamilton Sir Michael and Lady Heller Basil Hyman Liz Juniper The family of Patricia Kemp Roger Keyworth Jonathan and Clare Lubran Selina and David Marks Mrs Sheila Meadows Jerome and Elizabeth O'Hea Philip and Gail Owen Nick and Jo Pasricha Mrs Denise Patterson Stuart and Carolyn Popham Jans Ondaatje Rolls Dame Patricia Routledge DBE Lady Sainsbury of Turville David and Sophie Shalit Jon and Ann Shapiro Simon and Melanie Shaw Greg and Katherine Slay David and Alexandra Soskin David and Unni Spiller Alan and Jackie Stannah Howard M Thompson Nicholas and Francesca Tingley Peter and Wendy Usborne Bryan Warnett of St. James's Place Ernest Yelf Lord and Lady Young TRUSTS AND FOUNDATIONS Artswork The Arthur Williams Charitable Trust The Bateman Family Charitable Trust The Boltini Trust Elizabeth, Lady Cowdray's Charity Trust The Noël Coward Foundation The Roddick Foundation
FESTIVAL PLAYERS John and Joan Adams Dr Cheryl Adams CBE Charles and Clare Alexander Tom Reid and Lindy Ambrose Paul Arman The Earl and Countess of Balfour Matthew Bannister Mr Laurence Barker Mr James and Lady Emma Barnard (The Barness Charity Trust) Franciska and Geoffrey Bayliss Julian and Elizabeth Bishop Martin Blackburn Mike and Alison Blakely Sarah and Tony Bolton Tim Bouquet and Sarah Mansell Pat Bowman Lucy and Simon Brett Adam and Sarah Broke Bridget Brooks Peter and Pamela Bulfield Jean Campbell Julie Campbell Ian and Jan Carroll Sir Bryan and Lady Carsberg Mike Caspan and Viv Wing Warren and Yvonne Chester Sally Chittleburgh David and Claire Chitty Mr and Mrs Jeremy Chubb Denise Clatworthy Annie Colbourne John and Susan Coldstream David and Julie Coldwell The Colles Trust Mr Charles Collingwood and Miss Judy Bennett Michael and Jill Cook Brian and Claire Cox Susan Cressey Deborah Crockford Rowena and Andrew Daniels Jennie Davies Yvonne and John Dean The de Laszlo Foundation Diana Dent Clive and Kate Dilloway Christopher and Madeline Doman Peter and Ruth Doust Peter and Jill Drummond John and Joanna Dunstan Peter Edgeler and Angela Hirst Glyn Edmunds Betty and Ian Elliot Anthony and Penny Elphick Caroline Elvy Sheila Evans Gary Fairhall Brian and Sonia Fieldhouse Lady Finch Colin and Carole Fisher Beryl Fleming Karin and Jorge Florencio Robert and Pip Foster Jenifer and John Fox Roz Frampton Debbie and Neil Franks Alan and Valerie Frost Terry Frost
Mr Nigel Fullbrook George Galazka Alan and Pat Galer Elizabeth Ganney Robert and Pirjo Gardiner Wendy and John Gehr Jacqueline and Jonathan Gestetner Marion Gibbs CBE Stephen J Gill Dr and Mrs P Golding Julian and Heather Goodhew Robin and Rosemary Gourlay R and R Green Michael and Gillian Greene Reverend David Guest Ros and Alan Haigh Dr Stuart Hall Kathy and Roger Hammond David and Linda Harding David Harrison Dennis and Joan Harrison Roger and Tina Harrison Robert and Suzette Hayes Mrs Joanne Hillier Andrew Hine Christopher Hoare Malcolm and Mary Hogg Michael Holdsworth Dame Denise and Mr David Holt Pauline and Ian Howat Barbara Howden Richards Mike Imms Mrs Raymonde Jay Robert and Sarah Jeans Robert Kaltenborn Nigel Kennedy OBE Anna Christine Kennett Roger Keyworth Jane Kilby James and Clare Kirkman Mrs Rose Law Frank and Freda Letch Mrs Jane Lewis John and Jenny Lippiett Anthony and Fiona Littlejohn Mr Robert Longmore Colin and Jill Loveless Amanda Lunt Jim and Marilyn Lush Dr and Mrs Nick Lutte Robert Macnaughtan Nigel and Julia Maile Jeremy and Caroline Marriage Sue Marsh Charles and Elisabeth Martin Gerard and Elena McCloskey Tim McDonald Jill and Douglas McGregor James and Anne McMeehan Roberts Mrs Michael Melluish Celia Merrick Diana Midmer David and Elizabeth Miles David and Di Mitchell Jenifer and John Mitchell Gerald Monaghan James Morgan Sue and Peter Morgan Roger and Jackie Morris Sara Morton
Terence F Moss Mrs Mary Newby Patricia Newton Lady Nixon Pamela and Bruce Noble Margaret and Martin Overington Mr and Mrs Gordon Owen Mrs Glenys Palmer Richard Parkinson and Hamilton McBrien Mr and Mrs S Parvin Alex and Sheila Paterson Simon and Margaret Payton Jean Plowright John Rank The Rees Family Malcolm and Angela Reid Christopher Marek Rencki Adam Rice Sandi Richmond-Swift John and Betsy Rimmer Robin Roads Philip Robinson John and Valerie Robinson Nigel and Viv Robson Ken and Ros Rokison Graham and Maureen Russell Clare Scherer and Jamie O'Meara Mr Christopher Sedgwick John and Tita Shakeshaft Mrs Dale Sheppard-Floyd Jackie and Alan Sherling The Sidlesham Theatre Group Nick Smedley and Kate Jennings Monique and David Smith Simon Smith Christine and Dave Smithers Mr and Mrs Brian Smouha Mrs Barbara Snowden Brian Spiby David and Unni Spiller Elizabeth Stern Barbara Stewart Judy and David Stewart Peter Stoakley Anne Subba-Row Ms Maura Sullivan The Tansy Trust Professor and Mrs Warwick Targett Brian Tesler CBE Harry and Shane Thuillier Mr Robert Timms Alan Tingle Miss Melanie Tipples Peter and Sioned Vos David Wagstaff and Mark Dune Paul and Caroline Ward Ian and Alison Warren Chris and Dorothy Weller Bowen and Rennie Wells Graham and Sue White Barnaby and Casandra Wiener Judith Williams Nick and Tarnia Williams Lulu Williams Mrs Honor Woods David and Vivienne Woolf Angela Wormald
‘We are lucky to have a world-class theatre in Chichester with its diverse and imaginative programming. We are proud to support the Theatre and the opportunity to meet the casts and crews is an added bonus.’ Jo and Nick Pasricha, Benefactors & Festival Players
cft.org.uk/supportus
S U P P O R T E R S 2019
PRINCIPAL PARTNERS
Diamond Level Prof E.F Juniper and Mrs Jilly Styles
Oldham Seals Group
Gold Level private wealth
HOLIDAY LETS
Silver Level
CORPORATE PARTNERS LEVEL 1 Bishops Printers Chichester College Criterion Ices Jones Avens
Purchases Bar & Restaurant RL Austen Westminster Abbey
LEVEL 2 Addison Law Behrens Sharp FBG Investment Hennings Wine
Richard & Stella Read The Bell Inn The J Leon Group
Chichester Festival Theatre offers a variety of corporate partnership opportunities to meet your business needs. For further information, please contact us at development.team@cft.org.uk
LEVEL 3 European Office Products Russell & Bromley Mrs Joanna Williams
PLAY A PART IN OUR FUTURE Celebrate your love of Chichester Festival Theatre and help ensure that future generations can share your passion. If you are considering leaving us a gift in your Will, please talk to your solicitor or contact our Development Team on 01243 812911. You can also email development.team@cft.org.uk or write to us at Development Team, Chichester Festival Theatre, Oaklands Park, Chichester, West Sussex, PO19 6AP.
AGELESS THEATRE FOR LIFE
Our Ageless campaign aims to ensure that theatre and live art remain at the heart of people’s lives, particularly for older people who are at risk of isolation. Donating to Ageless will help us break down barriers, providing life-changing experiences that benefit mind and body. Help us raise £100,000 in order to continue and expand this work. Donate today at cft.org.uk/ageless or call us on 01243 781312
Supported by Irwin Mitchell