Christmas Day

Sam’s debut play Boys on the Verge of Tears was produced at Soho Theatre in 2024. He was the 2024-2025 Writer-in-Residence at the National Theatre and Christmas Day is his second play.

Theatre includes: Boys on the Verge of Tears (Soho Theatre, Verity Bargate Award, The Stage Debut Award for Best Writer and Olivier Award for Best Production in an Affiliate Theatre).

For the Almeida: Bakkhai; A Delicate Balance; Judgment Day; The Triumph of Love.

James is a director of new plays. He was an Associate at the Royal Court for 14 years, and has directed 28 world premiere productions there. He has worked for almost all of the other major new writing theatres in London and New York. A number of these productions have transferred to the West End and Broadway, where he has also directed classic plays by Edward Albee, Tennessee Williams, Sam Shepard – and recently Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot. He has collaborated most frequently with the playwrights Caryl Churchill, Sarah Kane, Annie Baker, Mike Bartlett, Lucy Kirkwood and Martin Crimp. This is his second play with Sam Grabiner, after the Olivier Award-winning Boys on the Verge of Tears at Soho Theatre.

For the Almeida: Women, Beware the Devil; Patriots (also West End/ Broadway); Spring Awakening; Hymn; Albion; Shipwreck; Machinal; Boy; Game; When the Rain Stops Falling; Judgement Day.

Theatre includes: The Hunger Games: On Stage (Troubadour Canary Wharf Theatre); Inter Alia; Land of the Living; Earthquakes in London; The Effect (National Theatre); Unicorn (West End); Kyoto (RSC/ West End/ Lincoln Center); The Fear of 13 (Donmar Warehouse); Stranger Things: The First Shadow (Tony, Olivier, Drama Desk and Outer Critics’ Circle Awards for Best Set Design); Prima Facie (West End/ Broadway); The Jungle (Young Vic/ West End/ St Ann’s Warehouse, New York, Evening Standard Theatre Award for Best Design); The 47th (The Old Vic); The Cherry Orchard (Internationaal Theatre Amsterdam); Sunny Afternoon; Chariots of Fire (Hampstead Theatre/ West End); Wild Swans (Critics’ Circle Theatre Award for Best Designer); The Trial (Young Vic); What If If Only; Sucker Punch (Evening Standard Theatre Award for Best Design); Love and Information (Royal Court); Three Tall Women; King Lear; A Doll’s House, Part 2; The Children (Broadway); To Kill a Mockingbird (Broadway/ West End); Glass. Kill. What If If Only. Imp (Public Theater, New York).

Opera includes: Wozzeck (Aix-En-Provence Festival, France); Festen; Aida; Anna Nicole (Royal Opera House).

Dance includes: Jungle Book reimagined (Akram Khan Company).

For the Almeida: Cold War; Portia Coughlan; Women, Beware the Devil; The Hunt.

Theatre includes: Dear England (National Theatre/ West End); The Grapes of Wrath; Antony & Cleopatra; Much Ado About Nothing (National Theatre); Hamlet (RSC); Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812 (Donmar Warehouse); The Vortex (Chichester Festival Theatre); The 47^th (The Old Vic); The Seagull (Dramaten, Stockholm); Much Ado About Nothing (Shakespeare Theatre Company, Washington DC).

Opera includes: Lear (Staatsoper Hannover); Carmen (Glyndebourne); Dead Man Walking (ENO).

Jon is an Olivier Award and two-time Tony Award-winning lighting designer.

For the Almeida: Richard III; American Psycho; King Charles III (also West End/ Broadway); King Lear; The House of Bernarda Alba.

Theatre includes: Waiting for Godot (Broadway); The Maids; The Fear of 13 (Donmar Warehouse); Evita; Mrs. Warren’s Profession; Much Ado About Nothing; The Tempest; Hello, Dolly!; Romeo & Juliet (West End); Cyrano de Bergerac (West End/ BAM, New York); Stranger Things: The First Shadow; Betrayal (Broadway/ West End); The Inheritance (Young Vic/ West End/ Broadway); The Jungle (Young Vic/ West End/ St  Ann’s Warehouse, New York); The Importance of Being Earnest; Dear England; The Motive and the Cue (National Theatre/ West End); The Effect (The Shed, New York/ National Theatre); The Lehman Trilogy (National Theatre/ Broadway/ West End/ International tour); Amadeus; As You Like It; The Beaux’ Stratagem; Hamlet; Othello; The Effect; The Cat in the Hat (National Theatre).

Opera includes: Pique Dame (Bayerische Staatsoper, Munich); Hamlet (Met Opera/ Glyndebourne); The Exterminating Angel (Saltzburg Festival/ Met Opera/ Royal Opera House); Written on Skin (Aix-en-Provence Festival, France/ Royal Opera House/ International tour); Lucia di Lammermoor (Royal Opera House).

Dance includes: LORE (La Scala, Milan); The Cellist (The Royal Ballet).

Max is Associate Artist of The Faction, Silent Opera, and Orange Tree Theatre.

Theatre includes: Noughts and Crosses; Twelfth Night (Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre); A Raisin in the Sun (Headlong); Cruise; The Night of the Iguana (West End); The Forsyte Saga (Park Theatre/ RSC); Crooked Dances (RSC); Coram Boy; Macbeth (Chichester Festival Theatre); Shed: Exploded View (Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester); A Doll’s House, Part 2; The Way of the World (Donmar Warehouse); The Cardinal; Kiki’s Delivery Service (Southwark Playhouse); The Habits; The Invention of Love; Labyrinth (Hampstead Theatre); The Children (Manhattan Theatre Club/ Royal Court); Village Idiot; One Night in Miami (Nottingham Playhouse); Henry V (Shakespeare’s Globe/ Headlong); Hamlet (Bristol Old Vic); Ophelias Zimmer (Schaubühne/ Royal Court); Old Bridge (Off West End Award for Sound Design); Small Hotel; The Homecoming; My Cousin Rachel (Theatre Royal Bath); Playhouse Creatures; Churchill in Moscow (Orange Tree Theatre); Art; The Syndicate; The Mirror Crack’d (National tour).

Opera includes: Kirsten Flagstad (Bergen International Festival); The Marriage of Figaro (Salzburg Festival); Miranda (Opéra Comique, Paris); SCRAWW (Trebah Gardens).

Dance includes: The Limit (The Royal Ballet).

Online work includes: The System; Barnes’ People; The Haunting of Alice Bowles (Original Theatre); 15 Heroines (Digital Theatre).

For the Almeida: The Secret Life of Bees.

Theatre includes:

As Movement Director: Wendy & Peter Pan; Miss Littlewood (RSC); Inter Alia; Ugly Lies the Bone (National Theatre); The Brightening Air; The Divide (The Old Vic); A Man for All Seasons (Theatre Royal Bath); Waiting for Godot (West End); Girl from the North Country (The Old Vic/ West End/ Broadway/ Australian and US tours); Murder on the Orient Express (Chichester Festival Theatre); Hamlet (Young Vic); The Light in the Piazza (Southbank Centre/ Broad Stage, LA/ Lyric Opera of Chicago); Local Hero (The Lyceum, Edinburgh); The Last Ship (Princess of Wales Theatre, Toronto/ US tour); No’s Knife (The Old Vic/ Abbey Theatre, Dublin); The Effect; Playing for Time; Twelfth Night; This Is My Family (Sheffield Theatres); Multitudes; The House That Will Not Stand (Kiln Theatre).

As Choreographer: 101 Dalmatians (UK tour); Oliver! (Leeds Playhouse); Billy Elliot the Musical (Curve Theatre, Leicester); The Merchant of Venice (Shakespeare’s Globe/ US tour).

As Intimacy Director: A Knight’s Tale (Manchester Opera House); The Fear of 13 (Donmar Warehouse); Hope Has a Happy Meal (Royal Court); Groundhog Day (The Old Vic); Kerry Jackson (National Theatre).

For the Almeida: Romans; 1536; Rhinoceros; Otherland; Look Back in Anger; Roots; The Years (also West End); Alma Mater; Cold War; Portia Coughlan; Women, Beware the Devil; “Daddy” A Melodrama; Albion; The Hunt; Shipwreck; Dance Nation; Boy.

Theatre includes: The Hunger Games On Stage (Troubadour Canary Wharf Theatre); The Weir; Mrs. Warren’s Profession; Dr. Strangelove; Hamnet; Unicorn; Slave Play; Lyonesse; The Hills of California; Jerusalem; Leopoldstadt; Uncle Vanya; Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?; The Night of the 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/ Broadway/ 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).

Sabia studied costume construction and supervision at RADA.

For the Almeida: 1536; Look Back in Anger; Roots.

Theatre includes: Othello; Noises Off (West End); The Parent Agency (Storyhouse, Chester); A Christmas Carol (Northern Stage); Next to Normal (Donmar Warehouse/ West End); The Duchess of Malfi; A Midsummer Night’s Dream; Hakawatis: Women of the Arabian Nights; Midsummer Mechanicals (Shakespeare’s Globe); Ulster American (Riverside Studios); Robin Hood: The Legend. Re-written. (Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre); The Inquiry (Chichester Festival Theatre); Favour (Bush Theatre); Love and Other Acts of Violence (Donmar Warehouse); Whodunnit [Unrehearsed] (Park Theatre); The American Clock (The Old Vic); Twelfth Night (Wilton’s Music Hall); We’re Stuck! (Shoreditch Town Hall).

Opera includes: Don Giovanni (Lithuania National Opera & Ballet); Madame Butterfly; Aleko; Gianni Schicchi; Gods of the Game: a Football Opera;  La Gioconda; The Life and Death of Alexander Litvinenko; Falstaff; Don Carlos (Grange Park Opera); Zauberland (Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord/ Royal Opera House/ La Monnaie / De Munt/ Opéra de Lille/ Lincoln Center, New York/ Opéra de Rouen); The Marriage of Figaro (Royal Academy of Music).

Dance includes: Message In A Bottle (Sadler’s Wells/ UK and International tour); Anne of Green Gables (Sadler’s Wells).

Theatre includes: Stranger Things: The First Shadow; Clueless The Musical; Unicorn; Aspects of Love; An American in Paris; What’s It All About? Bacharach Reimagined; Glengarry Glen Ross; Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (West End); The Hunger Games: On Stage (Troubadour Canary Wharf Theatre); Harry Potter and the Cursed Child (West End/ International tour); Moulin Rouge! The Musical (West End/ Musical Dome, Germany/ UK tour); Cabaret; Kiss Me, Kate (Barbican); Medea; Kyoto (@sohoplace); Fear of 13 (Donmar Warehouse); Anything Goes; South Pacific (Barbican/ UK tour); My Fair Lady (London Coliseum/ UK tour); The King and I; Waitress The Musical; Everybody’s Talking About Jamie; Beautiful – The Carole King Musical; The Book of Mormon (West End/ UK tour); 101 Dalmatians (Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre); Fiddler on the Roof (Menier Chocolate Factory/ West End); Don Quixote (RSC/ West End); Lazarus (Kings Cross Theatre).

For the Almeida: Machinal.

Theatre includes: Wendy & Peter Pan; My Neighbour Totoro; King Lear; Hamlet; As You Like It; Cymbeline; Imperium; Richard II; Henry IV Parts I and II; Two Gentlemen of Verona (RSC); Troilus and Cressida; Ghosts; As You Like It; Julius Caesar; A Midsummer Night’s Dream; The Tempest; Swive (Shakespeare’s Globe); King Lear (The Shed, New York/ West End); The Government Inspector; The Meeting (Chichester Festival Theatre); Abigail’s Party; Gypsy; Twelfth Night (Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester); Word Play; Hang; Routes (Royal Court); Fun Home; The Scottsboro Boys; Wings; Happy Days; Blue Orange; A Season in the Congo; A Doll’s House (Young Vic); The Trials (Donmar Warehouse); Othello (Sheffield Theatres); Two Billion Heartbeats; Blood Knot (Orange Tree Theatre); Fisherman’s Friends: The Musical; Beautiful – The Carole King Musical (International tour); The Winter’s Tale; ‘Tis Pity She’s a Whore; Macbeth (Barbican); Ghost the Musical (West End); Aladdin; Cinderella (Lyric Hammersmith).

Opera includes: The Merry Widow (Scottish Opera); A Quiet Place (Royal Opera House); Love Life; A Little Night Music; Street Scene; Kiss Me, Kate; Carousel (Opera North).

Film includes: Rose of Nevada; Mayday; Widow Clicquot; Cyrano; Darkest Hour.

Television includes: Tiny Tunes; Black Mirror; Christopher and His Kind.

Sophia is a theatre director, writer and actor. She trained on the Theatre Directing MA at Royal Holloway University of London with Katie Mitchell OBE.

In Germany, she was Katie’s intern at Hamburg Schauspielhaus on The House of Bernarda Alba, and Oliver Frljić’s intern on Schlachten at the Maxim Gorki Theater.

Theatre includes:

As Director and Writer: Melting (Old Red Lion Theatre); The Elephant and I (Camden People’s Theatre).

As Director: Brief Play About Rage (The Cockpit, Fringe Theatre Award nominations for Best Play and Best Performance); A Very Clownless Show (Playhouse East); Birthday Party (Tzavta Theatre).

As Assistant Director: The Glass Menagerie (The Yard); Personal Meeting (Tzavta Theatre).

As an Actor: Someone Like Me (Gesher Theatre); Euphoria (Haifa Theatre).