The Writers

You can count Mark Burton and Pete Sinclair’s chart hits on the fingers of Def Leppard’s drummer’s missing hand. But they do have a long and successful track record in the world of comedy and comic songs. Between them, Mark and Pete have written for Have I Got News For You, Never Mind The Buzzcocks, Jack Dee, They Think It’s All Over, 2DTV, Spitting Image, Room 101, Rory Bremner, Mark Steel and Clive Anderson, to name but a lot. Mark has also written for Dreamworks and Universal Pictures including Madagascar and the soon-to-be released film version of Wallace And Gromit.

Mark and Pete wrote the lyrics for many of Spitting Image’s songs - and they also wrote the music and lyrics for their award winning Radio 4 series A Look Back At The Future (British Comedy Award), and its predecessor A Look Back At The Nineties (Sony Best Comedy Show and Premios Ondas). They have also co-written the current ITV series Mike Bassett: Manager starring Ricky Tomlinson.

The Director

Clive Paget is currently the Musical Theatre advisor to the National Theatre where he is responsible for the development of new musical projects. Also he is the Artistic Advisor for the English Theatre Frankfurt and lectures on the Musical Theatre course at Goldsmiths University. From 2000 until 2002 Clive was the Artistic Director of the Bridewell Theatre where his creative input was at the core of the development of the Bridewell’s reputation for mounting innovative and successful musical theatre, which includes, in particular, his co-direction of the world premiere of Stephen Sondheim’s first musical, Saturday Night.

Directing credits at the English Theatre Frankfurt include Jesus Christ Superstar and Closer. Other directing credits at the Bridewell include the European premieres of Adam Guetell’s Floyd Collins, Michael John Lachuisa’s Hello Again and Jason Robert Brown’s Songs for a New World, devising and directing two new Sondheim review shows, There’s Always a Woman and The Road You Didn’t Take as well as the world premiere of Higher Than Babel.

The Musical Supervisor & Arranger

Willie Dowling has written the theme music for numerous TV shows, notably Human Remains, 2DTV, Catterick, I’m Not An Animal, Lenny Henry In Pieces and Armstrong and Miller.  He has also composed the original score for forthcoming feature film Snow White - The Sequel.

Willie is very much involved in the world of contemporary pop, writing, performing and producing both on his own projects and for other acts. He has worked with a diverse mix of major artists from The Wildhearts to Midge Ure and has been a founding member of several groups including The Grip, Honeycrack and The Sugar Plum Fairies. Willie's current band Jackdaw 4 released a highly-acclaimed new album, Gramophone Logic earlier this year. http://www.jackdaw4.com

The Musical Director

John Maher was one of Australia’s busiest and most successful Musical Directors for fifteen years, and has been carving out an equally impressive resume since moving to the UK in 2002. In Australia John was Musical Director of Rent, The Rocky Horror Show (8 times!), Return To The Forbidden Planet, Oh! What A Night, The Complete Millennium Musical, Chair In the Landscape, Lipstick Dreams, Songs From Side Show Alley and many other shows. He also played in numerous rock groups, including Isadora Brodsky and Meatballs – Fat Out Of Hell.

John directed productions of Miracle City, Angry Penguins, Up The Shops, Meet You At The Mona Lisa and Long Gone Lonesome Cowgirls.  He composed music for Steven Berkoff’s acclaimed production of Coriolanus, The Bell Shakespeare Company’s Much Ado About Nothing, The Tempest, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and many other plays including Paradise, Animalia, Telling Tales, Then The Mountain Comes and Faust’s House, as well as various ballets and short films.

The Set and Costume Designer

Louise Belson started working in Scotland in 1976 in Glasgow designing productions to tour all over the remote Scottish Highlands and inner cities and in London as assistant designer on musical theatre. She became Associate Designer at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield in 1979 where she designed new plays and musicals for five years including Final Wave, Strange Fruit, The Alchemist, Psy-Warriors, Black Ball Game, Sweet Charity, Absent Friends and many more new plays for the Soho Poly Theatre  in London. She has designed numerous regional theatre productions including She Stoops to Conquer, Blithe Spirit, Plaza Suite (Bristol Old Vic), Indian Queen (Citzens Theatre, Glasgow), La Balthasara (Tramway, Glasgow) and has designed costume for film and TV, community arts and contemporary dance. Designs for dance include Treading the Night Plain (Ricochet Dance Company); Haughmond Dances (Rosemary Lee); Charged (Balanescu Quartet); Passage (Royal Festival Hall) Green Man, Boy and Infanta (Dance for the Camera, films by Rosemary Lee and Peter Anderson).

Theatre designs include: Oedipus, Hello and Goodbye, Keeping Tom Nice, Tobias and the Angel (Almeida Theatre, London); A Dream Play, The Rover, Three Sisters, Peer Gynt, Cain and The Hollow Crown (Royal Shakespeare Company); By Jeeves (Duke of York, London; Los Angeles, Washington, New York), Olivier Award Nomination - Costume. She designed Eyam, Floyd Collins, Higher than Babel and Hello Again at the Bridewell Theatre, London.

 

The Choreographer

Jenny Arnold choreographed the soon to be released feature film Confetti starring Martin Freeman and Jessica Stevens. She choreographed Most Mysterious Murders for Television and Vagabond Shoes a short film starring Iain Glen. In July she staged The Likes of US Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice’ first musical for this years Sydmonton Festival starring Stephen Fry and Tim Rice. She was nominated for the Olivier Award and the What’s on Stage Award for her choreography of the Royal National Theatre’s sell out production of Jerry Springer the Opera which transferred to the Cambridge Theatre and will tour early next year.  Jenny has choreographed all the Tweenies Arena tours including Tweenies – No Sleep ‘Till Bedtime.   She directed Noddy Arena Tour to be restaged in Portugal later this year.  This Christmas she will also be choreographing The Wizard of Oz at Birmingham Rep.

TV and Film credits include Sherlock Holmes starring Rupert Everett, An Audience with Harry Hill, The All New Harry Hill Show, Our Friends in the North, Fun Song Factory. Other recent theatre work includes Salad Days (National Tour) The Witches (Birmingham Rep, West End & Tour)  Arcadia (Bristol Old Vic), Ben Elton’s Popcorn (Apollo, Shaftesbury Avenue) Maddie (Lyric, Shaftesbury Avenue) Masterpieces (Birmingham Rep) Guys and Dolls and Chicago (director & choreographer) City Hall, Bermuda, The Shakespeare Revue (RSC) Barbican, Vaudeville and two national tours.

 

The Lighting Director

Hansjorg Schmidt is a freelance lighting designer. He lives in London, and lights for theatre, music and architecture. Some projects this year: The Death of Gogol and the 1969 Eurovision Song Contest, directed by Tim Luscombe at the Drill Hall. Children of Hercules, directed by Phil Willmott at the Scoop, More London Riverside. Jessica Ogden Collection SS06, for London Fashion Week at Sunbeam Studios. Hospitalworks, devised by theatre-rites at Mayday Hospital Croydon and Theater der Welt, Stuttgart. Misery, directed by Alan Cohen at the Kings Head Theatre. The Egg Launch Project, directed by David Harradine at Theatre Royal Bath. Hansjorg teaches lighting design at Goldsmiths College, University of London. www.hansjorgschmidt.com

 

The Sound Designer

Gareth Owen has an honors degree in Underwater Science from Plymouth University and is a full-time Sound Designer for London’s Orbital Sound. Gareth’s current and most recent sound designs include : Thoroughly Modern Millie (UK Tour), The Big Life (Apollo), Annie Get Your Gun (UK Tour), Bashment (Stratford East), High Society (Shaftsbury), Fame (Aldwych), Tick Tick BOOM! (The Menier Chocolate Factory), and Epitaph For George Dillon (Comedy). Current associate designs include: Beauty & The Beast (UK Tour).

Past theatre highlights include : The Olivier Awards (Park Lane Hilton), RSC Winter Season (Geilgud), Fame (UK Tour), The Rocky Horror Show (UK Tour & Queens), Miss Saigon (UK Tour), Noise Ensemble (Edinburgh Festival), GodSpell (UK Tour), Barbara Cookes Broadway (Lyric), Burlesque (Arts), Guys & Dolls (European Tour), Calamity Jane (UK Tour), Summer Holiday (UK Tour), Lily Savage’s Snow White & The Seven Dwarfs (Victoria Palace), Evita (Beirut), Secret Rapture (Geilgud), Bombshell (Arts), Blues Brothers (Whitehall), Fully Committed (Arts), Jesus Christ Superstar (Porchester Castle), Grease (Cyprus), Romeo & Juliet (Playhouse), Slamdunk (UK & German Tour), Double Cross (Apollo), Jesus Christ Superstar (Danish Tour), Stones in their Pockets (UK Tour), Merce Cunningham (Tate Modern), Murderer (The Menier Chocolate Factory), Hedwig and the Angry Inch (Heaven), Red Priest (Hackney), Joseph and his Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (Kidz R Us), Camelot (Regents Park), Battle of Green Lanes (Stratford) and over twenty QDos and Paul Elliott Pantomimes. Recent Theatre Workshops include: Badgirls (ATG), Seagulls Dance (Andrew Fell) and Porgy & Bess (Trevor Nunn).

Gareth began his career in the rock & roll world and has been lucky enough to work with artistes from Anastasia to The Zutons. Highlights along the way have included Elton John, The Stereophonics, Paul Young, and B B King. Gareth’s written work is regularly published worldwide in AudioMedia magazine. Every year he teaches the National Sound Design course for the National Theatre.

 

The Dramaturge

Carol Metcalfe was the Founder of the Bridewell Theatre and its Artistic Director for nine of its eleven year history. Her directing credits include plays by Bennet, Brecht, Stoppard and Shakespeare; Nyman’s opera The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and many musicals including Pacific Overtures, Damn Yankees, On The Twentieth Century, On A Clear Day You Can See For Ever, Passion, the co-direction of the world premiere of Sondheim’s Saturday Night and new works: The Ballad of Little Jo and Re:Love. Carol is currently directing Stiles and Drew’s Honk! for Mountview Theatre Academy and is leading the Bridewell Theatre Company, now a production company, working primarily to present new musical theatre. BTC’s plans for 2006 include productions of work by UK writers Osnat Schmool and Conor Mitchell.

 

The Production Company

P & S Productions began in 1998, founded by Clive Paget and Tim Sawers.  Clive and Tim have been working together on theatrical projects since they met at university in 1981.  Ranging from college to professional productions, in differing roles including those of director, actor, singer or producer, the partnership has always delivered high quality, accessible and innovative work. Amongst their most notable achievements to date has been their involvement in the development of the sadly missed Bridewell Theatre, where Clive was the Artistic Director and Tim the Executive Director.  They, along with Carol Metcalfe, were pivotal to the outstanding success that the theatre achieved.  Clive’s creative input was at the core of the development of the Bridewell’s reputation for mounting successful music theatre, which includes, in particular, his co-direction of the world premiere of Stephen Sondheim’s first musical, Saturday Night.  At the same time, Tim’s business skills, gained from the management of many multi-million pound projects in an international commercial environment, has helped to guide the theatre through the many challenges that success brings. 

P&S Production produced the West End, Edinburgh and international tours of Nixon’s Nixon as well the UK premiere of Floyd Collins, the world premiere of Higher Than Babel and the European premieres of Hello Again and Songs for a New World.  P&S Productions were also Associate Producers of the highly acclaimed production of Sweeney Todd at the Bridewell in July 2000. As well as being the Artistic Advisors and the London representatives for the English Theatre Frankfurt, both Clive and Tim now lecture on the Musical Theatre Masters course at Goldsmiths College, University of London.  Clive is also the Musical Theatre advisor to the National Theatre in London, whilst Tim is on the board of YMT:UK, a charity that provides innovative musical theatre experiences for young people.