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Home , Brockley Jack Theatre, Calamity Jane (musical), Howard Goodall, Leeds Playhouse, Melvyn Bragg, The Broadway (theatre)

A Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch and Hull Truck Theatre production in association with Oldham Coliseum Theatre

BOOK BY MUSIC AND LYRICS BY A SERIOUS MUSICAL ABOUT ORDINARY PEOPLE HOW A YOUNG COMPOSER AND A TV PRODUCER CREATED The Hired Man first night after-show party, AN ENTIRELY NEW SOUND FOR BRITISH MUSICALS November 1984 (l-r , Howard Goodall and Melvyn Bragg) Alan Davidson/Rex/Shutterstock

y the time The Hired Man closed in the “He was as thoughtful, talented and sensitive chorales, duets and ensemble numbers, the score Salisbury in 2004 - for which Goodall wrote a new West End in 1985, after five months, it had as any of those who wore fine clothes and sounds like the musical love child of Tallis and song, ‘Day Follows Day’ - to a nationwide tour by already inspired great devotion among its dominated fiction,” Bragg said in an interview Vaughan Williams - with Goodall’s acute ear for New Perspectives in 2008 that journeyed as far as Bfans. Many remember it as the greatest at the time. “Naively, I thought the novel could beautiful melody lines laid on top. New York. British musical of the last half century, and ‘show them’.” audiences are struck by its epic scope and serious Goodall nervously played some songs to Bragg in The next few years saw revivals in Bolton, tone - especially since it predated Les Misérables That was exactly the same impulse that fired a vast empty ballroom at the Edinburgh Festival. Colchester, Leicester and , cementing the by two years. Howard Goodall to adapt the book in musical form. Bragg loved them, and so the show eventually show’s reputation as one of the country’s best He wanted to avoid the “superficial, artificial, unreal” came together. and most beloved home-grown musicals. In 2012 Melvyn Bragg had written the first part of his quality of so many other shows and to create “a The Hired Man had a homecoming of sorts, with Cumbrian Trilogy - an epic tale of love and loss, serious musical about ordinary people…, who are Anxious about putting The Hired Man straight into a run at the Old Laundry Theatre in Bowness-on- community and survival, hardship and pleasure - poor and whose lives have real ups and downs”. the West End, the duo decided to try it out first at Windermere, just a few miles down the road from more than 20 years earlier. He wanted to fill his Together, they created something that, today, is the Southampton Nuffield, which had a reputation where it’s set in Bragg’s home county of . novel with ordinary, working people, recreating seen as a keystone in British . for strong new work, and then in Leicester. Finally, the world of his grandfather: born into a family of on 31 October 1984, The Hired Man opened at the He and Goodall have remained deeply attached 16, a farm labourer at 14, a coal miner, a soldier in In 1983, Bragg was well known as the presenter Astoria in London. It set a new idiom for British to the show, too. Bragg played the role of the the First World War. of , as head of arts musicals, completely unlike the pop and rock- narrator in a concert version in 2016, while programmes for LWT and as an acclaimed influenced Andrew Lloyd Webber megahits such Goodall attends most of the revivals, even amateur novelist. He even had a West End musical already as Starlight Express (which had opened just a few ones, or sends letters of goodwill like this to a high under his belt, Mardi Gras (1976). months earlier in the West End). school in America in 2014:

Goodall was excited to write his first musical. Barely Ironically, while The Hired Man deliberately “If you had told me that this show, rather unusual in his 20s, he was already a successful composer, avoided the high concepts, lavish sets and big for the time, would one day be performed in a with music for ’s fringe shows and solo numbers of the Lloyd Webber world, it was high school in Westchester, New York, by young the theme tune for Not the Nine O’Clock News on he who produced the show’s West End run. After people as yet unborn I would have laughed in his CV. After these initial successes, Goodall’s agent he pulled out as producer, and despite efforts by disbelief. And yet this is where we are today, by suggested he change direction and write a musical, Bragg to save it with his own money, the show some strange and delightful miracle.” “but he was surprised,” Goodall recalled in 1993, closed after 164 performances at the Astoria. A “when instead of the glitzy money-spinner he had few days later, it won a prestigious Novello Award Nothing existed before that was quite like it, envisaged I came up with a musical based on a for the year’s Best Musical. and nothing really since. And so, sparked by the Melvyn Bragg novel”. humble life of a farmhand in Cumbria more than a Four years later, it made the journey to America, to century ago, The Hired Man is sure to remain one As Bragg remembers it: “This bloody stick-insect an off-, where a glowing review of the most important markers in the history of came to me and said, ‘I want to do a musical from The New York Times kept it afloat for a few musical theatre in this country. and I want you to write it.’” Goodall wanted it to weeks despite its strongly British subject matter sound unlike any other musical. At the heart of and musical style. Tim Bano © John Good it there was to be choral music blended with an inheritance of the English folk tradition. From the And what about Bragg and Goodall’s creation all The Hired Man original West End production at the Astoria Theatre, 1984 ever-flowing piano line, as restless and pastoral those years ago? Well, it’s been regularly revived Conrad Blakemore/ArenaPAL as a Cumbrian brook, to the mixture of anthemic across the country, from a major version in CUMBRIA IS THE OLD REGIONAL NAME FOR THAT PART OUT OF THE OF NORTH-WEST WHICH INCLUDES THE HIGHLAND HEART OF THE AND ALSO THE SURROUNDING LOWLANDS WHICH BORDER THE SOLWAY FIRTH AND MORECAMBE BAY, AS WELL AS THE EDEN ROCK VALLEY AND THE CROSS FELL ESCARPMENT.

ost of those who have lived here for As Melvyn Bragg himself observed in his 1983 the past 7000 years have been farmers, book, Land of the Lakes: despite the poor quality of the land “The miners and their descendants, then as now, Mitself. Although a few farmers were kept hound dogs and whippets, fished, shot, lucky enough to have rich soil passed down in the climbed, walked, went back into from family or to otherwise acquire such an advantage, which their families had stemmed.” for the great majority their working lives were spent on the fells, which need careful tending to Where he begins his drama is in the thick of these provide even decent grazing land. complementary lifestyles, at the turn of the 19th into the 20th century. The 1880s had seen a shift Perhaps less well-known outside Cumbria is the in policy in the miners’ unions. For many years, long history of mining in the area. Celtic tribes dug their wages had been tied to the price of coal but, there for copper, and the Romans were aware of when it fell heavily, the result was disastrous. In copper, lead, zinc, iron and silver deposits. Unlike 1888, a Yorkshire miner rallied unions in several the land, the mineral deposits were of high quality counties and achieved an amazing 10 per cent and, by the end of the 16th century, German miners wage increase, and this led to the foundation were well established at Keswick. And coal, too, of the Miners Federation of Great Britain the was found here - on the western edge of the Lakes following year. Twenty years later, in 1908, they ran rich seams, often running far out under the sea. finally got a statutory eight-hour working day, but it took another four years, and a strike which The opportunities for exporting this natural asset involved a million men, to get legislation assuring turned Whitehaven from a small fishing hamlet a minimum wage on the statute book in 1912. into the earliest post-medieval planned town in England and, at one time, it was ranked the third In 1908, too, the Liberal government - against most important port in Britain, after London bitter Tory opposition - introduced the Old and Liverpool. Age Pensions Act. The state was beginning to take responsibility for the welfare of its ordinary Although there were some immigrant workers people - a responsibility which had previously - from Ireland, and Cornishmen from the been carried by such organisations as the Friendly worked-out tin mines - most of the miners came Societies, voluntary workers’ cooperatives to from Cumbria’s own hinterland, from the hills which people paid a few pence a week to guard and farming communities. Norman Nicholson against sickness, accident or destitution. The described the strong connections between the introduction of the pension was literally a new two in his Portrait of the Lakes in 1972: lease of life for most of Britain’s population: in “For the furnaces used to smelt Lake District ore 1904, out of a population of about 44 million, a with Lake District limestone, and the town itself is mere 1.25 million were seriously wealthy, another built of Lake District slate and Lake District flags. 3.75 million constituted the ‘comfortable’ middle The men of the town, to a large extent, come class, and the remaining overwhelming majority of from the same stock as the men of the dales, and 38 million were desperately poor. they speak the same kind of language. As with the hill-farmer, the shepherd or the quarryman, their Despite the decline in agriculture - in 1800, half life has grown out of the rock.” the population lived in the country and, by 1911, A R Atkinson describes the next break - tea: man’s fox hunting, but without prey; the hounds “Farm tea was early, and, in summer out in the followed a laid trail and first past the post took the fields, a delight. Out came one of the lasses with prize. Hounds were bred for speed rather than a basket of more home-made bread, home- stamina and they were cosseted and pampered by made jam, slabs of fruit cake or gingerbread and, their owners, their diet a jealously guarded secret. invariably, a juicy plate-pasty. Perhaps it was the This sport was open to all kinds of cheating until open air that was conducive to the feeling of well- - and this gives an indication of how seriously the being and harmony…” sport was taken - the Hound Trailing Association was founded in 1906. By 6.30 in the evening in winter, the farm lad might well have finished work for the day and, Finally, possibly the most popular of the Lakeland with none of our modern amusements to distract games, wrestling - but not the sort most people him and an early morning to think of, he would will think of at once. The skill of this kind of not go far and often went early to bed. wrestling depended not on brute strength, but rather on balance and agility. The two contenders If a man had ambition, he might rise to farm ‘tek hod’ (take hold) by clasping their hands behind management, his own smallholding and eventually each other’s backs. Performing a crazy kind of his own farm. The girls, if they were country- dance as they size each other up, suddenly in a bred, rather than from the towns, might become flurry of legs one man is caught off balance so that housekeepers to bachelor or widower farmers or a part of his body other than his feet touches the become mistresses of their own farms through ground and the bout is over. If one of them loses marriage. Those not prepared to take the risks his hold, he forfeits the bout. Farm labourers harvesting bracken on a hill overlooking Lake Windermere, circa 1906 necessary to succeed in this upward mobility Walmsley Brothers/Hulton Archive/Getty Images remained hired men into their old age. There is a particular form of dress to be worn for the wrestling: a sleeveless vest, long johns 80 per cent lived in towns or cities - at the turn looked after. A Royal Commission on Agriculture, Rural workers had their leisure activities too, and velvet trunks, which were often elaborately of the century, there were still seven hiring fairs towards the end of the 19th century, reported that and the absence of any public holidays meant embroidered by mothers, wives and girlfriends in Cumberland. In centuries past, they had been the Westmorland farm labourers were superior to that country fairs were an eagerly anticipated - an art in itself. The sport has an ancient and held all over the country, where children as young those in the south of the country, both physically break from everyday routine. All kinds of skills venerable history, with a record of one William as 10 might offer themselves up as potential farm and in terms of morale, and this could be put could be tested, from the enormously popular of Gospatrick having his shin broken by David de workers. The break-up of the feudal system had down to the good food and the close working gurning contests, which involved grinning and Brugings in 1256 and, in the mid 19th century, given workers the freedom to barter for their relationship between the farmer and his men. grimacing - traditionally through a horse collar it became so popular that, in 1851, a contest to wages, and the hiring fairs were a ritualised way - and required long hours of practice (with and decide the Championship of England attracted a of safeguarding the interest of both master and without dentures!) to hound trailing and Cumbrian staggering 10,000 spectators. man. Traditionally held twice a year, at Whitsun wrestling. Hound trailing was a kind of poor As Dickinson wrote in Cumbriana: Elaine Peake © John Good (June) and Martinmas (November), the heyday of these hiring fairs was in the 19th century. Many a “O’fare’t alike, beath measter young lad around the age of 14 would leave home to earn his living, wearing a brand-new suit and and man, In eatin, and drinkin, tie provided by his parents. After walking to the or wark; They turned out at nearest market town, he advertised his availability for hire by standing in the marketplace with a straw morn and togidder began in his mouth. A yeoman farmer down from the And left off togidder at dark.” dales looking for workers might offer him £4 for the six-month term. To seal the verbal agreement between them, the farmer would give a shilling to In a typical day, a farm lad might come in from his new worker, and would also be responsible for morning milking to a breakfast of home-cured paying the lad’s fare to his new home. ham, eggs and home-baked bread. Back to work, and at mid-morning came elevenses, quite likely If the boy liked his ‘place’, he might stay two or the farmer’s own cheese. At noon came dinner, three years and become a good all-round worker. the most sociable of the day’s meals, where the By then, he could go to the hiring fair and ask £12 farmer at the head of the table carved the meat or £14 a year. Although much of the work was and the girls loaded up the plates with vegetables. humdrum, both boys and girls, who did the indoor This and the pudding would take about 20 and dairy work, would be welcomed as part of minutes and out they would go again to get on the farmer’s family, and generally well fed and with the day’s work.

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CAST PRODUCTION TEAM Pennington / Blacklock / The Head of Production Christine Piper Recruiting Officer / The Vicar Costume Supervisor Lydia Hardiman Jon Bonner Technical Manager Lee Rook Jackson Lloyd Gorman Workshop Manager Gillian Dessent John Oliver Hembrough Company Stage Manager Seth TJ Holmes Lauren Harvey Sally Lucy Keirl Company Stage Manager (tour) May Lara Lewis Daniel Haynes The Landlady Sufia Manya Deputy Stage Manager Sarah Jenkins Isaac Samuel Martin BOOK BY MELVYN BRAGG, MUSIC Assistant Stage Manager Emily Lauryn Redding Christina Leach The Union Chairman / Show MD Assistant Stage Manager Tom Self AND LYRICS BY HOWARD GOODALL (work placement) Nicky Bathgate Harry / Joe Sharp Sound No 1 Michael Bennett James William-Pattison By arrangement with The Ltd. Sound No 2 Al Twist All other parts are played by the company Lighting Programmer & Re-Lighter Jess Addinall CREATIVES Lighting Operator Stephen Pemble Flyman Ed Guest Director Douglas Rintoul Costumes by Queen’s Theatre Designer Jean Chan Wardrobe department Musical Director Ben Goddard Dresser Nicola Place Movement Director Jane Gibson Set built by Lighting Designer Prema Mehta Queen’s Theatre Workshop Sound Designer Chris Murray Carpenter Hannah Smith Fight Director Bethan Clark Scenic Artists Christina Cammarota, Dialect Coach Louise Jones Rhiannan Howell, David Thomas Casting Director Matthew Dewsbury Cover Design Michael Cranston Assistant Director Kara M Tyler Programme Design John Good Casting Assistant Tom Hurley Programme Co-ordinator Rachel Pottle Programme Assistant Grace Coppin

THANKS Josh Wakley on behalf of SLX The Mercury Theatre Colchester Wiltshire Creative

There will be one interval of twenty minutes. Films: Welcome to England (Artswork media); The Road to Krichevna (HTV), Relive Parables, Relive Christmas (BTL Productions). Radio: Parson Skinner of Camerto (BBC Radio 4); The Night House (BBC Radio 4). Jon Bonner Training: Oliver Hembrough TJ Holmes Lucy Keirl Sufia Manya Pennington / Blacklock / The Theatre School. John Seth Sally The Landlady Recruiting Officer / The Vicar Double Bass Cello & Accordion Flute & Keyboard Oboe & Clarinet Trumpet & Guitar Theatre: Superblackman Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch: Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch: Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch: Theatre: The Wizard of Oz (); Boots Love, Lies and Lust. The Crucible (UK Tour). Love, Lies and Lust. (Blackpool Opera House/ on the Ground (Tangled Feet); Theatre: Two Gentlemen of Other Theatre: The Tempest, Other Theatre: The Wonderful Selladoor Family); Son of a Insignificance (Arcola); Wasted Verona (Shakespeare’s Globe Much Ado About Nothing, Wizard of Oz (Bolton Octagon Preacher Man (UK & Ireland (West Yorkshire Playhouse); and Liverpool Everyman); La Swallows & Amazons Theatre); Miss Littlewood Tour directed by Craig Revel Echo’s End (Salisbury Playhouse); Strada and Cinderella (Sally (Storyhouse/Grosvenor Park (Royal Shakespeare Company); Horwood); The Commitments A Further Education, Seminar Cookson); Hansel and Gretel Open Air Chester); A Little Night 101 Dalmatians (Birmingham (Phil McIntyre Ents - UK & (); Inherit The (Kneehigh); Mother Courage Music, Frankenstein, Juliet Repertory Theatre); Ragtime Ireland tour); The Glenn Miller Wind (New Vic); We Have Fallen Lloyd Gorman (Red Ladder); The BFG and I Was In Romeo & Juliet (Watermill (Tarento Productions/Charing Story (Bill Kenwright - UK & (Underbelly, Edinburgh Festival); Jackson A Rat (Birmingham Rep); The Theatre). Cross Theatre); Venice Preserv’d Ireland tour); Oh What a Lovely War (Theatre Double Bass Jungle Book (Max Webster); The (The Spectator’s Guild); The (Watermill Theatre/Jamie Wilson Royal, Stratford East); Friday Night Training: Rose Bruford College. Threepenny Opera (Graeae); Smartest Giant In Town (Folksy UK & Ireland tour); Return to Sex (Royal Court); No Wit Like a Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch: Spend Spend Spend! and Some Theatre UK Tour); Consider This the Forbidden Planet (no.1 Woman’s (Shakespeare’s Globe); Once (New Wolsey Theatre Like It Hotter (Watermill); As You (Guildford Electric Theatre); Tour); Into the Woods (York Titanic (); Ipswich); Worst Wedding Ever Like It (Curve Theatre); Cider Who’s Afraid Of Virginia Woolf? Theatre Royal); Blood Brothers The Only True History Of Lizzie (Salisbury Playhouse/New with Rosie and Merchant of (Artix Theatre, Bromsgrove); Les (English Theatre, Frankfurt); Finn (Southwark Playhouse); Wind Wolsey Theatre Ipswich). Venice (Theatre Royal, Bury St Mains Sales (Crescent Theatre, Bugle Boy - The Glenn Miller in the Willows (Birmingham Rep); Edmunds); Beauty and the Beast Birmingham); The Wizard Of Oz (UK Tour & ); Other Theatre: The Snow Queen Where Have I Been All My Life?, (NIE) and What To Do When (Stafford Gatehouse Theatre); The Firework Maker’s Daughter (Liverpool Everyman); The Jungle Far from the Madding Crowd, You Find A Dinosaur (Oxford Urinetown (Derby Guildhall (, Keswick); Book (Royal and Derngate The Rivals, Spring and Port Wine, Playhouse). Theatre); The Dark Entry The Adventures of Huckleberry Northampton/UK Tour); Sunny The Admirable Crichton (The (Canterbury Festival); No Exit Finn (Tobacco Factory); Henry Afternoon ( New Vic); Through the Door Television: Doc Martin (ITV); A Lara Lewis (Hexagon Theatre, Birmingham); IV parts 1 & 2 (Bristol Old Vic); Theatre, West End); Nicobobinus (Trafalgar Studios); Mamma Mia Rogue & A Patriot (Channel 5); May Return to the Forbidden Planet, Macbeth, Tears of a Clown, (Dumbwise/UK Tour); Saturday (Prince of Wales, West End); and Harry Hill’s Christmas Burp Violin & Cello Lights Up! (Lytton Theatre – Return to the Forbidden Planet, Night (, West End); Macbeth, The Deep Blue Sea, (). He also works as a Musical Director); Honk! The Alice (Harrogate Theatre); From Our House (New Wolsey Theatre, Twelfth Night (Northcott); Motel costumed historical interpreter Theatre: Daisy Pulls it Off Musical (Gordon Craig Theatre a Jack to a King (Harrogate/ Ipswich/UK Tour); The Story Chronicles (Theatre 503); Twelfth with Past Pleasures. (); The SDA Musical Director); Summer New Victoria Theatre, Stoke); Giant (Shanty Theatre Company/ Night (Bristol Old Vic); Company White Feather /Y Bluen Wen Training: Central School of Holiday, Their Scarves Were Dick Turpin (Riding Lights UK Tour); Faust (Greenwich (BOVTS). (Theatr Na Nog). Speech and Drama. Red & Cruisin (Highbury Youth Theatre Co); A Street Car Named Theatre); Anyone Can Whistle Television: The White Princess Training: Guildford School Theatre - Musical Director). Desire (A.D.G.E); Murder at (Jermyn Street Theatre); (Starz), Criminal Justice, of Acting. the Vicarage (Windsor Theatre Pinocchio (Tolmen Centre, Workshops: The Wicker Husband Casualty, Northanger Abbey, Royal); The Wizard of Oz, Forty Cornwall); The Wonderful Wizard (); Verbatim (Key Junk (BBC), City of Vice (C4). Years On (Palace Theatre, of Oz, Sweeney Todd, Romeo Theatre; Peterborough). Westcliff); Cinderella (Exeter and Juliet, David Copperfield, Film: Eunice (Garro-Bancilhon), Training: Drama Studio Corn Exchange); Aladdin, Mother White Nights and The Nose and Franklin’s Brain (BFI), Spring London & Royal Birmingham Goose, Jack & the Beanstalk Harmless (Octagon Theatre, in June (Through the Looking Conservatoire. (Everyman Theatre, Cheltenham); Bolton); Fewer Emergencies Glass); Shine (New Line Cinema), Robin Hood (Queen’s Theatre, ( Albany); Grimethorpe The Joy of 8ml, Really Lost Barnstaple). Race (Arcola) and Treasure Island (Gauntlett and Son), Ethics (UK Tour). (Pukka Films). Television: Grandpa in my Pocket (BBC). Training: Rose Bruford College. Training: Bristol Old Vic Theatre School. Melvyn Bragg , Remember Me, Now the presence of heads of state Writer Is The Time (Parliamentary Book of all combatant nations. He Award 2016) - and most recently conducted the première of his Melvyn Bragg was born in Love Without End. oratorio Every Purpose Under Wigton, Cumbria, and was The Heaven, commissioned He is an Honorary Fellow educated there and at Wadham to mark the 400th anniversary of the Royal Society and of College, Oxford. of the publication of the King The . He was James Bible, in Westminster His broadcasting career began given a Peerage in 1998 and a Abbey in November 2011. His at the BBC in 1961 and soon Companion of Honour in 2017. Samuel Martin Lauryn Redding Tom Self recent Invictus: A Passion was afterwards he published his first He is a member of Chelsea Arts Isaac Emily The Union Chairman / Show MD commissioned by and premièred novel. He worked on the arts Club and The Garrick. Violin & Viola Clarinet Keyboard at St Luke’s Methodist Church programme Monitor with Huw Houston in March 2018, followed Wheldon in the mid-1960s; Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch: Theatre: Oliver Twist (Hull Truck); Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch: Howard Goodall by a European and broadcast during this time he began writing Once (New Wolsey Ipswich). Educating Rita (New Vic Theatre/ Priscilla, Queen of the Desert Composer première in London, and The Dukes, Lancaster/Stephen (nominated as a 2019 Offie novels, set mostly in his native Other Theatre: An Ideal released on CD. Joseph Theatre); Twelfth Night Finalist for Best Musical Director) Cumbria. He collaborated with Howard Goodall CBE is one of Husband (- (Wilton’s Music Hall), Bread And and wrote the 1970 Britain’s best-known composers Howard’s first West End musical Westend); Threepenny Opera, Other Theatre: Sweet Charity Roses, Up ‘n’ Under, Oh What A film about Tchaikovsky, The of choral music, stage musicals, The Hired Man, opened in 1984 A Christmas Carol (Bolton (Watermill Theatre); Associate Lovely War, Dreamers (Oldham Music Lovers. He also wrote TV and film scores. He is also a and has since been performed Octagon); The Taming Of The Musical Director, Murder For Two Coliseum); The Comedy Of Isadora, directed by , distinguished music historian and all over the world, winning many Shrew (Shakespeare’s Globe); A (UK Tour / ); Errors (Shakespeare’s Globe Play Dirty starring , broadcaster. international awards. Other Better Man (); Rebecca Salad Days (Theatre Royal Bath / and UK/European Tour); Romeo Union Theatre); A Naughty Night worked with , and West End musicals include (Kneehigh UK Tour); Birdsong His choral music has been and Juliet, Twelfth Night (The With Noel Coward (Old Red Lion with Howard Goodall wrote Girlfriends, The Kissing-Dance, (Original Theatre UK Tour); commissioned to mark many Watermill Theatre); Horrible Theatre); & The the musical version of his novel the dreaming, Love Story and Dandy Dick (ATG UK Tour); A national ceremonies and Histories- Horrible Christmas Great British Musical (London The Hired Man which was first which is Man Of No Importance, The memorials; his settings of (The Lowry); Frankenstein Hippodrome). As Musical published in 1969. due to tour India, the USA and Recruiting Officer, Jack And The Psalm 23 and Love divine are (Salisbury Playhouse); Treasure Director / Supervisor for Aladdin, Canada in 2019-20. Love Story Beanstalk (Salisbury Playhouse); In 1977 Melvyn Bragg started amongst the most performed Island, Peter Pan in Scarlet (New Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty & has also been premièred in the Electra (Dumbwise); The Kissing LWT’s long-running Arts of all sacred music, featuring on Vic Theatre/Oxford Playhouse); Peter Pan (Parkwood Theatres). USA, The Russian Federation, Dance (Jermyn Street); Puss In programme, the multiple award- several platinum-selling CDs. An August Bank Holiday Lark/ Italy, Belgium, The Netherlands, Boots (Derby Theatre Guidhall); Workshops: The Tailor Made Man winning South Bank Show, Eternal Light: A Requiem has She Stoops to Conquer/ Germany, South Africa, South St Finnegens Elbow, Dial M For and Tickledom (Perfect Pitch). making about 800 editions as had over 550 live performances The Winter’s Tale (Northern Korea and Brazil, where it was Murgatroyd (Eastern Angles); A well as other documentaries. throughout the world since Broadsides); Alice’s Adventures Training: Trinity Laban produced in Rio de Janeiro Rats Tale, The Story Giant, Salty The programme was de- its première in 2008 and won Underground (Waterloo Vaults); Conservatoire of Music & Dance. during the 2016 Olympiad. Socks Of Dunkirk (Shanty Theatre commissioned in 2010, when he him a Classical BRIT Award for Horrible Histories - Barmy Company); The Snow Queen took the programme across to Composer of the Year. His 2009 As well as writing musicals, Britain & Barmy Britain Part Two (Strike A Light); Kicking (New . ‘The South Bank Show Enchanted Voices, a setting Howard has composed some (Garrick Theatre, West End/UK Wimbledon Theatre); Macbeth, lives again’, he said at the time. of the Beatitudes, was no.1 of the best-known British TV Tour and Australian Tour); Wind Beauty And The Beast (Fairgame As well as The South Bank Show, in the Specialist Classical CD theme tunes of the last 40 years, In The Willows (West Yorkshire Theatre Company); Bully for you Sky Arts now does 30 editions chart for six months, winning including Mr Bean, , Playhouse); King Lear/Different (Black Cat Theatre); When The a year of The South Bank Show him a Gramophone award. , Q.I. and The Vicar of Buttons (Red Rose Chain); The Lights Went Out (Stroud Theatre Originals. In June 2012 his Rigaudon Dibley. The animated Mr Bean Enough Project (The Lowry); accompanied Queen Elizabeth series, for which he writes all Company). In the meantime Melvyn Shhh (Theatre 503); Numb II on her Diamond Jubilee the music, is the most followed Bragg has expanded his range, Training: Rose Bruford College. (); Tall Tales Regatta and he was musically entertainment product on earth, James William-Pattison presenting arts and science (Theatr Clywd). Harry / Joe Sharp responsible for Rowan Atkinson’s with over 80 million Facebook programmes and marshalling Guitar & Double Bass memorable performance at followers and 10 million YouTube Television: Eastenders (BBC); discussion shows on BBC Radio the Opening Ceremony of the subscribers. His score for the Emmerdale (ITV); Lee Nelson’s (on In Our Time), and writing Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch: 2012 London Olympics. On 4th 2011 HBO film Into the Storm Well Good Show (BBC Three); non-fiction books including The Jack and the Beanstalk; Once. August 2014 his anthem Sure won him a Primetime EMMY Regulars (Channel 4); T Mobile Adventure of English and The of the Sky-Des Himmels sicher, for Original Dramatic Score advert. Theatre: The Last Ship (UK Tour Impact of The King James Bible especially commissioned for and newly released in 2018 was and the Princess Wales Theatre, as well as On Giants’ Shoulders, Training: Rose Bruford College. Toronto); My Fair Lady (The Mill the occasion, was performed Strikes Back a series about the history of at Sonning) and The State of at the St Symphorien Military which Howard composed both science. He has also written Things ( Jack Theatre). Cemetery, Mons, to mark the theme and score has scored. several award-winning novels – start of the First World War, in Training: Mountview Academy The Soldier’s Return, The Maid of of Theatre Arts. For the past 30 years he has Hornchurch); Dardanus (English Designs include: Dick productions including Once, Jane Gibson Spider-Man, Pride and Prejudice, written and presented his own Touring Opera); The Deep Blue Whittington (Lyric Our Blue Heaven, Mods and Rox, Movement Director Atonement, Elizabeth the Golden TV documentary series on the Sea, All My Sons and Of Mice Hammersmith); Knight’s Tale Little Shop of Horrors, Made in Age, A Little Chaos, Mansfield theory and history of music. His and Men (Watermill Theatre); (Imperial Theatre, Tokyo); , Oxy and the Morons Jane Gibson trained at The Park, Sense and Sensibility, Bel books, Big Bangs: The Story of Elegy, As You Like It, Invisible and Jack and the Beanstalk (Lyric and 16 rock ‘n’ roll pantos, Central School of Speech Ami, My Week with Marilyn, Five Discoveries That Changed The Edge (Transport); State Red Hammersmith); Les Liaisons including Red Riding Hood. and Drama and with Jacques Becoming Jane, The Girl with Musical History and Howard (Hampstead Theatre); Touched Dangereuses (Bunkamura Lecoq in Paris. She was head of the Pearl Earring, Nanny McPhee, Composer credits: Midsummer Goodall’s Story of Music have (Trafalgar Studios); 1001 Nights, Theatre Tokyo); Working movement at the National for ten Death Defying Acts and Perfume. Songs (NWT); a musical version been translated and published The Summer Book and ‘Twas (Southwark Playhouse); Plastic years and is an associate director of The Two Gentlemen of in over 20 countries. His The Night Before Christmas (Theatre Royal Bath); Ticking with Cheek by Jowl. Verona (Seoul); an original score Prema Mehta most recent TV film, Sergeant (Unicorn Theatre); East London (Trafalgar Studios, London); The for Macbeth (Barbados) and Theatre includes: Stories, Lighting Designer Pepper’s Musical Revolution Lecture (Shoreditch Town Hall); Witches, James and the Giant endless music for corporations Hamlet, Richard 111, The Wind was shown on BBC2 and PBS, Europe (Barbican/Dundee Rep Peach, The BFG (Dundee Rep); Theatre credits include: Richard worldwide. He has previously in the Willows, Arcadia, Angels and simultaneously worldwide Theatre); Copenhagen, Much Jumpy, Hedda Gabler (The II (Shakespeare’s Globe); musically supervised the shows in America, Mother Clap’s Molly on June 3rd 2017 to mark the Ado About Nothing, The Taming Royal Lyceum, Edinburgh); The Superhoe (Royal Court); Things Jackie – the Musical and That’s House, Pygmalion, Enemy of the 50th anniversary of the release of the Shrew, Second From Season Ticket (Pilot Theatre of Dry Hours (Young Vic); East is Alright Mama (number one People, A Midsummer Night’s of the iconic Beatles album. Last in the Sack Race, Fen, and Northern Stage); Cyrano East (Northern Stage/Nottingham tours) and arranged music for Dream, Peter Pan, Ghetto, For his TV series he has been Sharp Relief, Noël and Gertie De Bergerac (The Royal & Playhouse); A Passage to India the national tour of Tom: a Story Fuentes Ovejuna and Yerma honoured with a BAFTA, an RTS and The Shakespeare Revue Derngate and Northern Stage); (Royal and Derngate/UK Tour); of Tom Jones - the Musical. He at the National; ‘Tis Pity She’s Judges’ Prize for Outstanding (Salisbury Playhouse); Private Mother Courage, Bordergames, Hercules and Holes (Nottingham is also the musical director at a Whore, The Winter’s Tale, Contribution to Education in Lives and Travels With My Aunt Tonypandemonium (National Playhouse); Mighty Atoms (Hull EastEnders for the BBC. , Macbeth and Much Broadcasting and over a dozen (New Wolsey Theatre); King Lear Theatre Wales); Much Ado Truck); Everything is Possible: Ado About Nothing for Cheek other international broadcast (Creation); Closer and Design for about Nothing (Queen’s Acting credits: Jerry Lee Lewis The York Suffragettes and By Jowl; Adromache, Le Cid awards. He was England’s first Living (Les Théâtres de la Ville de Theatre Hornchurch); This Land in Million Dollar Quartet (the US Murder, Margaret & Me (Theatre and Ubu Roi at the Bouffe Du ever National Ambassador Luxembourg). He has taught and (Pentabus Theatre and Salisbury national tour of Royal, York); Talking Heads Nord, Paris; A Tender Thing, for Singing and Classic fm’s directed for LAMDA, Guildhall Playhouse); The Husbands, For production, a part which he ( Playhouse); Love Lies & A Plain Dealer and Troilus and Composer-in-Residence for School of Music & Drama, Royal Once, Mayfair (Kali Theatre and created for the West End Taxidermy, Growth and I Got Cressida (in collaboration with many years. He was appointed Central School of Speech and Pentabus Theatre); The Hairy production); Sunset Boulevard, Superpowers for My Birthday the Wooster Group) for the RSC; CBE in the 2011 New Year Drama and Royal Welsh College Ape, The Irish Giant; The Seagull Martin Guerre, Jesus Christ (Paines Plough); Coming Up, The Grinning Man at the Bristol Honours for services to music of Music and Drama. (Southwark Playhouse); Hamlet Superstar, The Beautiful Game, Jefferson’s Garden and Fourteen Old Vic and Trafalgar Studios; education. Young People’s Shakespeare The Mousetrap, Two Cities, (Watford Palace); Wipers (UK As an associate director: Oedipus Rex at Epidaurus, (Royal Shakespeare Company); Murderous Instincts, Old Big Tour); Lady Anna: All at Sea Testosterone (Rhum and Greece; Shakespeare in Love at The Garbage King (The Unicorn ‘Ead in the Spirit of the Man, (Theatre Royal, Bath/UK Tour); Douglas Rintoul Clay); A Disappearing Number, the Noel Coward and Stratford Theatre). The Good Intent and The Glass Made in India (UK Tour); Red Director Endgame and Measure for Ontario, Canada; and Frau Velt at Menagerie (both at Queen’s Snapper (Belgrade, Coventry); Measure (Complicite); Julius Costume Designs include: The Hackney Showroom. Douglas is the Artistic Director Theatre Hornchurch); Over My The Electric Hills (Liverpool Caesar (directed by Deborah Grinning Man (Bristol Old Vic); of the Queen’s Theatre Shoulder, Romeo and Juliet, Opera includes: La Traviata, Everyman); The Great Extension Warner - Barbican) and Fidelio Aladdin (Lyric Hammersmith); Hornchurch. He read Drama and Oh What a Lovely War, As You Gawain and Julius Caesar at the (Theatre Royal Stratford East); (directed by Deborah Warner - Lionboy (Complicite). Theatre Arts at the University Like It, Hamlet, Much Ado About ; The Rake’s The Snow Queen (Derby Glyndebourne). of Birmingham, trained at Associate Designs include: The Nothing, The Good Companions, Progress at the Welsh National Theatre); Jack & the Beanstalk, Salisbury Playhouse on the James Plays (National Theatre Cinderella and Kiss the Sky. Opera; Mahagonny and The Beauty & the Beast (Queen’s Regional Theatre Young Director Jean Chan Scotland and Great Britain); Force of Destiny at the English Theatre Hornchurch); Huddle Television and film credits: Scheme and on the Royal Designer Lionboy (Complicite); Five Guys National Opera; La Clemenza Di (Unicorn); Of Kith & Kin (Bush/ ’s Sweeney Todd: the National Theatre Studio Young Named Moe (Underbelly and Tito at Glyndebourne; Falstaff in Sheffield Crucible) and Chicken Jean Chan studied at the Royal Demon Barber of Fleet Street; Directors’ Programme. He is also Theatre Royal Stratford East); Salzburg; and Le Noce Di Figaro Soup (Sheffield Crucible). Welsh College of Music and Lt Walton in The Somme: From a playwright and his play Elegy Monsters (Arcola Theatre). at Aix en Provence. Drama. Graduating in 2008 with Defeat to Victory (BBC); Crispin Musical credits include: Fame won a a BA Hons Degree in Theatre Yates in Trial & Retribution (BBC); Television: Pride and Prejudice (Selladoor/UK Tour); The Foundation Playwright Award. Design. She went on to work as Ben Goddard Neville in London Bridge (Carlton (Emmy nomination for Wizard of Oz (Storyhouse); Direction includes: In Basildon, a resident designer, part of the Musical Director Television); Guy in Bugs (BBC) Outstanding Choreography), A Midsummer Night’s Dream DNA, Sparky the Elf and the Royal Shakespeare Company’s and Demon in Gulliver’s Travels Cranford, Daniel Deronda, (Leicester Curve); With A Little Ben has musically directed Secret Toyshop, Abigail’s Party, Trainee Design Programme with Jack Black. Madame Bovary, Emma and Bit of Luck (Latitude Festival) countless shows in the UK Priscilla Queen of the Desert, 2008-09. In 2009 she won the Wives and Daughters. and Spring Awakening (National and around the world. For Rope, ‘Twas the Night Before Linbury Biennial Prize for Stage Youth Music Theatre). the last 16 years, he has been Film includes: The Favourite, Christmas, The Crucible, Made Design. working as MD for the New Jungle Cruise, Oz the Great Dance credits include: Bells in Dagenham and Much Ado Wolsey Theatre, Ipswich, on and Powerful, The Amazing (Showtime Festival, Mayor of About Nothing (Queen’s Theatre London 2012); The Puppini Sisters (Bloomsbury); Penguin Invisible Man (Queen’s Theatre Matthew Dewsbury Café (Cochrane/London College Hornchurch); The Picture Casting Director of Fashion); Spill (Düsseldorf); Of Dorian Gray (Tilted Wig Sufi Zen (Royal Festival Hall); Productions); The Last Ship Matthew is the Assistant Dhamaka (O2 Arena) and Maaya (Northern Stage & Princess Casting Director at the Royal (Westminster Hall). of Wales Theatre, Toronto); Shakespeare Company. Prior Oldham Coliseum Theatre is one Hansel And Gretel (Rose Theatre to that he was the Casting and of the most established venues in Other credits include: A-List Kingston); Thick As Thieves Producing Assistant at The the North West with a rich history Party Area (Madame Tussauds, (Clean Break & Theatr Clwyd); Watermill Theatre, Newbury. Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch is Hull Truck Theatre is a pioneering in Greater Manchester dating London). Dwyn I Gof (Theatr Bara Caws); a vibrant regional theatre with a theatre with a unique northern back to 1885. Over 130 years At Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch: Lord Of The Flies (Theatr Clwyd rich heritage, working in Outer voice, locally rooted, global after opening, Oldham Coliseum In Basildon, Kiss Me Quickstep, Chris Murray & Sherman Theatre); Othello East London, Essex and beyond, in outlook, inspiring artists, is one of the oldest theatres still Jack and the Beanstalk, Haunting Sound Designer (Liverpool Everyman); Legacy which celebrated its 65th audiences and communities to operating in Britain today. Julia, Abigail’s Party, Priscilla (York Theatre Royal Youth birthday in 2018. As the cultural reach their greatest potential. Recent design credits include: Queen of the Desert, Rope, The Coliseum produces original Theatre); Othello (Eton College); hub of the region, over 220,000 Swallows & Amazons, American Beauty and the Beast, The We produce and present productions which are presented Bad Girls & Sister Act (Edge Hill people enjoy the programme Idiot (Mountview); Romeo & Invisible Man, Educating Rita, inspiring theatre that reflects at home and on tour. The University); Beweep, Outcast each year, including the best in Juliet - Associate Designer Cinderella, Partners in Crime, the diversity of a modern Britain. repertoire is drawn mainly from & The Devils (RCSSD); Boom home grown theatre, visiting (China Plate Theatre); The A Month of Sundays, Made in We provide the resources, space plays written in the 20th and 21st (); Richard III (Antic live entertainment and inspiring Witches (Watford Palace Dagenham and Much Ado About and support to grow people and centuries and new commissions, Disposition); The Borrowers Learning and Participation Theatre); Dishoom (Rifco & Nothing (Casting Advisor). ideas, are an ambassador for our offering a platform for writers from (Polka Theatre); Everything Is projects. Behind the scenes, Watford Palace Theatre); The city, a flagship for our region the North West and further afield, Possible (York Theatre Royal & At the RSC: As lead Casting sets and costumes are lovingly Strange Death Of John Doe and a welcoming home for our and encouraging a flourishing Pilot Theatre); Out There On Director: Maydays, A Christmas created on-site by a highly (Hampstead Theatre); Associate communities. community of new writers. Fried Meat Ridge Road (White Carol, Miss Littlewood, skilled carpentry workshop, designer for Macbeth (Icarus Bear and transfer to Trafalgar #WeAreArrested, Day of the scenic artists, prop makers and Through our work with schools “For an example of a vibrant Theatre). Studios London); Spring Living, Always Orange, Fall of the wardrobe team. Audiences are and local communities we regional theatre punching above Chris was previously Head of Offensive (Omnibus, Clapham); Kingdom, Rise of the Footsoldier, guaranteed a warm welcome engage with thousands of young its weight, you need look no Sound at the Theatre Royal Hamlet (ALRA South). Revolt. She Said. Revolt Again, A from a three year winner of people, disabled groups and further” - Stratford East, where design Mad World My Masters (RSC/ETT UK Theatre’s Most Welcoming adults, offering opportunities to Intrinsic to the town’s on-going credits include Rapunzel, tour) and as Co-Casting Director, Theatre (2016 – 2018). participate in the arts, whether regeneration, the Coliseum Louise Jones Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth, as the first step into a career, Summer In London, Counting Since the 2016 appointment develops creative programmes to Dialect Coach The Merry Wives of Windsor, a way to build confidence and Stars, Love ‘n’ Stuff. Prior to that, of Douglas Rintoul as Artistic facilitate learning, engagement he was at the Mercury Theatre in Twelfth Night, A Christmas Carol, meet new people, or as part of a Theatre includes: Pinter at The Director, productions have and community cohesion, Colchester where he designed Kingdom Come, Vice Versa, rounded education. Pinter (); included the record breaking providing a wide variety of Wretch, Stockholm, Cider With Salome, The Hypocrite (Hull Jekyll and Hyde (National regional premiere of Priscilla, “We tell inspiring stories dug theatre performances and Rosie, The Caucasian Chalk Truck/RSC). Youth Theatre); Peoples, Places Queen of the Desert, and from the heart of our city, participatory activities for people Circle, The Kitchen, Nora - A & Things (NT Tour); The Kite Other credits include: Ramona critically acclaimed regional alongside tales from the wider from all communities in Oldham, Doll’s House. Runner (The ); Tells Jim (); premieres of musicals Made world, that reflect the diverse Greater Manchester and beyond. Chris graduated from the East Is East (Northern Stage); Everything Between Us in Dagenham and Once, both range of communities and Oldham Coliseum Theatre University of Derby in ‘Sound, Stepping Out (Theatre Royal (); Scarlett co-produced with the New creative voices that populate our is supported by Arts Council Light and Live Event Technology’ Bath); Pests (Clean Break/ Royal (Hampstead Theatre Downstairs); Wolsey Ipswich. Queen’s Theatre nation. We produce exceptional England, Oldham Council and in 2009. Court); My Mother Said I Never We Wait in Joyful Hope, And Hornchurch has commissioned drama made here in Hull, often Greater Manchester Combined Should (St James’s Theatre); Then Come the Nightjars; and world premiered an showcasing new talent, and Future productions include: Authority (GMCA). The theatre Casa Valentina (Southwark Valhalla, Animals and A Handful adaptation of The Invisible Man continuing the momentum of The Lost Love Speakeasy (The receives corporate sponsorship Playhouse). of Stars (Trafalgar Studios – West by Clem Garritty and Abi by Hull UK City of Culture 2017. Lost Estate). from local business interested End Transfer to Theatre 503); Atiha Sen Gupta, co-produced Television: Pennyworth (FX); We are ambitious and bold, in helping to promote the arts Little Malcolm and his Struggle with Derby Theatre. New site Deep Water (ITV); Call the committed to our core values in the area and supporting the Bethan Clark Against the Eunuchs (Soggy specific work has been created Midwife 7 (BBC); Diana & I (BBC); of Inclusion, Innovation and regeneration of Oldham. A Fight Director Arts at Southwark Playhouse); for families - Twas the Night Little Boy Blue (ITV). Integrity.” Mark Babych, Artistic much-loved venue that is held The Late Henry Moss (W14 for Christmas being performed Bethan Clark is an Emerging Director in great affection in the town, Film: Mr. Jones, 6 from 8, King Productions at Southwark at the ’s Rainham Fight Director for Rc-Annie Ltd. the Coliseum also has a growing of Thieves, Hatton Garden (ITV); Playhouse); Much Ado About Hall and Sparky the Elf and the Registered Charity No 269645 network of supporters who want Theatre credits include: Kes City Of Tiny Lights. Her latest Nothing (Reading Between Secret Toyshop in Romford Mall hulltruck.co.uk to become a part of the theatre’s (Leeds Playhouse); In Basildon, feature Mr Jones has just been the Lines); Ragnorak (Eastern Shopping Centre. exciting story. Angles). Abigail’s Party, Priscilla, Queen released. Registered Charity No 248680 of The Desert, Rope and The Registered Charity No 508829 queens-theatre.co.uk coliseum.org.uk