Alma Mater

Kendall is a London-based playwright, screenwriter and lyricist from Australia/New Zealand.   

Theatre includes: The Almighty Sometimes (Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester, Judges’ Award for the Bruntwood Prize for Playwriting, UK Theatre Award for Best New Play, NSW and Victorian Premier’s Prizes for Drama); My Brilliant Career (Belvoir St Theatre, Australia); Ballet Shoes (National Theatre). 

Kendall has worked on invited attachments at the National Theatre and Bush Theatre, was awarded the 2019/20 Philip Parsons Fellowship at Belvoir St Theatre, and was part of the inaugural Genesis Almeida New Playwrights, Big Plays Programme in 2019/20. 

Theatre includes: Grayson Perry: A Show All About You; Grayson Perry: A Show For Normal People (UK tour); Assassins (Chichester Festival Theatre); Beginning; Middle; Rutherford and Son; As You Like It; Protest Song; Treasure Island; Antigone; Double Feature (National Theatre); White Noise; A Number (Bridge Theatre); The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie; Limehouse (Donmar Warehouse); Ghosts (HOME, Manchester); The Alchemist; The Merchant of Venice; Arden of Faversham (RSC); Frøken Julie (Aarhus Theatre, Denmark).   

In 2012, she was the joint winner of the Olivier Award for Best Entertainment. She won the JMK Award for Young Directors in 2007, the Bulldog Bursary at the National Theatre and was recently made an honorary fellow of Exeter College, Oxford.    

Polly has just directed her debut feature film, Midwinter Break, for Focus Features and Film4. 

Vicki is an award-winning set and costume designer. She has designed extensively for theatre, opera and dance, including work for the National Theatre, Royal Opera House, the West End, on Broadway and internationally.  

For the Almeida: Oil; Heartbreak House; 1953; The Master Builder. 

Theatre includes: The Budha of Suburbia; The Winter’s Tale (RSC); Nye; Our Generation; Normal Heart; The Visit; When We Have Sufficiently Tortured Each Other; Follies (Critics’ Circle Award for Design, Olivier Award for Best Costume Design); The Plough and the Stars; The Threepenny Opera; The Silver Tassie; Othello; Ivanov;  A Woman Killed With Kindness; Beauty and the Beast; Burnt by the Sun; Pains of Youth (National Theatre); Bluebeard (UK tour/ Battersea Arts Centre); Medea; GOOD; The Glass Menagerie (West End); Wuthering Heights (National Theatre/ UK tour/ North American tour); Bach and Sons (Bridge Theatre); Wise Children (The Old Vic); The Meeting (Chichester Festival Theatre); The Little Match Girl (Sam Wanamaker Playhouse/ Bristol Old Vic/ UK tour); Jumpers (National Theatre/ West End/ Broadway); Fiddler on the Roof (Broadway); The Seagull (Theatre Royal Bath RSC); Uncle Vanya (Young Vic); The Mysteries (Barbican); Nine (Broadway/ Theatre Project Tokyo); The Real Thing (West End/ Broadway). 

Fay trained in fashion design and period costume at London College of Fashion. She joined the Royal Opera House costume department as a costumier in 1977, was promoted to Head of Production Costume in 1999, and then appointed Head of Costume in 2013. 

Theatre includes: Just For One Day (The Old Vic); The Little Big Things (@sohoplace); In Dreams (Leeds Playhouse); Mandela (Young Vic); Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (West End); The Drifters Girl (Newcastle Theatre Royal/ West End/ UK & Ireland tour). 

Dance includes: Elizabeth; Circular Ruins; Two Sides Of; Everyone Keeps Me (Royal Ballet). 

In 2007, Fay won the Kulture2Couture Trailblazer Award, an initiative of the Mayor of London, and in 2008 received an Honorary Fellowship from Exeter University. In 2010, Fay was awarded an MBE for her services to dance and opera.   

Theatre includes: My Neighbour Totoro (RSC/ Barbican, Olivier Award and WhatsOnStage Award for Best Lighting Design); Minority Report (Nottingham Playhouse/ Birmingham Rep/ Lyric Hammersmith); Lyonesse (West End); The Mirror and the Light (RSC/ West End); Once On This Island (Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre); The Good Person of Szechwan; The Band Plays On; She Loves Me (Sheffield Theatres); Straight Line Crazy (The Shed, New York/ Bridge Theatre); The Glow; Pah-La; Living Newspaper (Royal Court); seven methods of killing kylie jenner (Royal Court/ Public Theater, New York/ Wooly Mammoth Theater, Washington); Anna X (West End/ The Lowry); Marys Seacole; Blindness (Donmar Warehouse); Out West (Lyric Hammersmith); The Odyssey (Unicorn Theatre); Inside (Orange Tree Theatre); Dick Whittington (National Theatre); Rockets and Blue Lights (Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester); Faces in the Crowd; Mephisto; Dear Elizabeth; The Human Voice (Gate Theatre, Dublin); Equus (Theatre Royal Stratford East/ ETT/ West End/ UK tour, Knight of Illumination Award for Plays, Offie Award for Best Lighting Design). 

Ian has extensive sound design credits to his name both domestically in the UK and internationally. He was the recipient of both Olivier and Drama Desk awards for The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, which played at National Theatre and subsequently toured venues worldwide. He has also received numerous Olivier and Tony nominations for his work in London and on Broadway, most notably for Company, Angels in America, Rock & Roll, 2:22 A Ghost Story and Jerusalem. He was also nominated for the LA Drama Critics Circle Award for his work on 2:22: A Ghost Story. 

Theatre includes: The Witches; Translations; Small Island; Husbands and Sons (National Theatre); Boys on the Verge of Tears (Soho Theatre); 42nd Street (UK tour); The Pillowman; Shirley Valentine; Cock; Uncle Vanya (West End); 2:22 A Ghost Story (West End/ Ahmanson Theatre, Los Angeles/ UK tour); Rock Follies (Chichester Festival Theatre); The Ocean at the End of the Lane (UK tour/ West End); A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Shakespeare North Playhouse); Angels in America (Broadway); Company; Hangmen (Broadway/ West End). 

Alev is a singer, songwriter, composer and producer based between London and Germany.

Film includes: Downhill; All About Me; A Year Ago in Winter; The Lost Girls; Against the Ice; Stowaway; The Old Guard. 

Television includes: Dark; Black Mirror; Whitstable Pearl; Funeral For A Dog; The Rain; Room 104. 

Music includes: Alev Lenz (Kings Place/ Kaufmann Music Center, New York); Roomful of Teeth (Barbican/ The Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art); Anoushka Shankar (Southbank Centre/ Elbphilharmonie Hamburg); Brooklyn Youth Chorus (Lincoln Center, New York); Albums: Storytelling Piano Playing Fraeulein (2009); Two-Headed Girl (2016); 3 (2020).

She is currently one of the first-ever composers in residency for the Brooklyn Youth Chorus’ 2023/24 season. Her previous commissioned pieces for the chorus have seen performances, among others, at the New York Philharmonic Open Weekend and the United Nations. Alev has contributed to several Grammy-nominated records in her role as producer, songwriter and singer. 

Toby trained at Trinity College of Music and Royal Academy of Music (DipRAM). He is also an Associate of the Royal Academy of Music. 

For the Almeida: The Secret Life of Bees. 

Theatre includes: 

As Musical Supervisor: Oliver! (Leeds Playhouse); Clueless: The Musical (as associate) (Churchill Theatre); Tina: The Musical (UK tour). 

As Musical Director:  Rock Follies (Chichester Festival Theatre); The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe; Tina: The Tina Turner Musical; Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (West End); Clueless: The Musical (Churchill Theatre); Oliver! (West End); Calendar Girls; Avenue Q (UK tour); Sunshine On Leith (West Yorkshire Playhouse); The Wind in the Willows (West End/ UK tour); The Wizard of Oz (Sheffield Theatres); Little Shop of Horrors (Menier Chocolate Factory/ UK tour); The Braille Legacy (Charing Cross Theatre). 

As Associate Musical Director: Little Shop Of Horrors (West End). 

As Assistant Musical Director: Les Misérables (West End); This Is My Family (Sheffield Theatres); Mamma Mia! (International tour); Tracy Beaker Gets Real (UK tour). 

Other work includes: Cover conductor/ Keys 4 for Mamma Mia! (West End); A series of symphonic concerts with Joss Stone. 

For the Almeida: The Secret Life of Bees. 

Theatre includes: Love’s Labour’s Lost; Tartuffe (RSC); Starter For Ten (Bristol Old Vic); Shifters; August in England (Bush Theatre); Macbeth (Donmar Warehouse);  Best of Enemies (Young Vic/ West End); The Time Traveller’s Wife: The Musical (Storyhouse/ West End); Milma’s Tale (Kiln Theatre); Untitled F*ck M*ss S**gon Play (Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester/ Young Vic); Get Up, Stand Up! The Bob Marley Musical (West End); J’Ouvert (Theatre503/ West End); After Life; Hansard; Antony and Cleopatra; Twelfth Night (National Theatre); Nine Night (National Theatre/ West End); Equus (Theatre Royal Stratford East /West End);  Macbeth (Shakespeare’s Globe); Faustus (Headlong/ Lyric Hammersmith); Cinderella (Lyric Hammersmith); Grey (Ovalhouse); King Hedley II (Theatre Royal Stratford East); Cougar; Dealing with Clair (Orange Tree Theatre); Winter; Why It’s Kicking Off Everywhere; Beneatha’s Place (Young Vic);  Cuttin’It (Young Vic/ Royal Court); A Streetcar Named Desire (Nuffield Southampton Theatre/ Theatr Clwyd/ ETT); Rules for Living (Royal & Derngate, Northampton/ Rose Theatre, Kingston/ ETT); Apologia (English Theatre Frankfurt).  

Film includes: The Marvels; Romeo and Juliet.   

Television includes: Ear for Eye; Anansi Boys. 

Shelley won the award for Best Choreographer at the inaugural Black British Theatre Awards in 2019 for her work on Equus. 

For the Almeida: The Years; Alma Mater; Cold War; Portia Coughlan; Women, Beware the Devil; “Daddy” A Melodrama; Albion; The Hunt; Shipwreck; Dance Nation; Boy.  

Theatre includes: Hamnet (RSC); Lyonesse; The Hills of California; Jerusalem; Leopoldstadt; Uncle Vanya; Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf; The Night of Iguana; Rosmersholm; True West; The Goat, or Who is Sylvia?; The Pillowman (West End); The Son (Kiln Theatre/ West End); Sweat (Donmar Warehouse/ West End); The Ferryman (Royal Court/ Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre/ West End); The Moderate Soprano (Hampstead Theatre/ West End); The Birthday Party; Consent (National Theatre/ West End);  Hangmen (Royal Court/ West End/ Atlantic Theater Company); Berberian Sound Studio (Donmar Warehouse); Stories; Exit the King (National Theatre); White Noise; A Very Very Very Dark Matter (Bridge Theatre); The Brothers Size (Young Vic); Maryland; ear for eye; Girls & Boys; Cyprus Avenue (Royal Court).   

Kate has worked in West End theatre for over 25 years.  

Theatre includes: The 24 Hour Musicals Celebrity Gala; The Greatest Wealth; Monstrous Tales; The Divide (The Old Vic); We Will Rock You (Royal Arena, Copenhagen); Mother Christmas; Sea Creatues (Hampstead Theatre); Great Apes (Arcola Theatre); Rosenbaum’s Rescue; Building the Wall (Park Theatre); The Language of Kindness (Shoreditch Town Hall/ UK tour); Happy Days (Riverside Studios); Romeo and Juliet (Shakespeare’s Globe). 

Theatre includes: For Black Boys Who Have Considered Suicide When The Hue Gets Too Heavy; The Old Man and the Pool; A Little Life (West End); 42nd Street (Sadler’s Wells); Black Superhero (Royal Court); Best of Enemies (Young Vic); Moby Dick (Royal & Derngate, Northampton/ UK tour); In Dreams (Leeds Playhouse/ UK tour); The Boy at the Back of the Class; Minority Report; The Two Popes; Girl from the North Country (UK tour). 

Film includes: Silver; A Bit of Light. 

Television includes: Paris Has Fallen; The Mallorca Files; Transatlantic.

Wabriya is a qualified dramatherapist (Roehampton University), actress (The Oxford School of Drama), creative facilitator and Reiki practitioner. She combines her experience to support creatives alongside the rehearsal and performance period.    

For the Almeida: Alma Mater; Romeo and Juliet; The Secret Life of Bees. 

Theatre includes: Shifters; August In England (Bush Theatre); Samuel Takes A Break (The Yard); Beautiful Thing; Tambo & Bones (Theatre Royal Stratford East); A Strange Loop (Barbican); Cowbois; Falkland Sound; The Empress; Julius Caesar (RSC); School Girls; or, The African Mean Girls Play (Lyric Hammersmith); Matthew Bourne’s Romeo & Juliet (International tour); Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead (Complicité); For Black Boys Who Have Considered Suicide When The Hue Gets Too Heavy (New Diorama Theatre/ Royal Court/ West End); Blue (ENO); Further than the Furthest Thing (Young Vic); Family Tree (Actors Touring Company); Bootycandy (Gate Theatre); Blues for an Alabama Sky (National Theatre); Hamilton; Moulin Rouge (West End).    

Connie trained as a director on the MFA at Birkbeck, University of London. Between 2020 and 2024, she was an Associate Artist at the award-winning Good Chance Theatre, where she worked across new productions and large-scale community projects. From 2019 to 2020, she was the Resident Assistant Director at Sheffield Theatres. She holds a Developing Your Creative Practice grant to explore adapting novels and works in translation for the stage and is currently developing a new play with Olivier-nominated playwright Liv Hennessy, exploring care, violence and rural farming. She is also developing new work with novelist, Yara Rodrigues Fowler and artist, Majid Adin.  

Theatre includes: 

As Director: Image of an Unknown Young Woman (Mountview); The Walk with Amal; Conference of the Trees (Good Chance Theatre); Blood Wedding (East 15 Acting School); The Enchanted (The Bunker Theatre).  

As Assistant Director: Henry VIII (Shakespeare’s Globe); Coriolanus; Guys and Dolls (Sheffield Theatres).