The Chairs

Marcello Magni is an Actor, Director and Movement Director hailing originally from Bergamo, Italy. He graduated from Ecole Jacques Lecoq, leads workshops internationally, and has studied with Pierre Byland, Philippe Gaulier and Monika Pagneux. Marcello is a founding member of Theatre de Complicité.

Over the last fifteen years Marcello has worked extensively in Paris and worldwide on productions directed by Peter Brook and Marie-Hélène Estienne.

Theatre includes:

As an Actor: A Minute Too Late; Help I’m Alive; The Visit; The Winter’s Tale; Street of Crocodiles; A Dog’s Heart (Complicité); Happy Days; The Tempest; WHY; Marcel; The Valley of Astonishment; Fragments; The Magic Flute (Bouffes du Nord/ World Tour); Merchant of Venice; Comedy of Errors; Pericles (The Globe) Red Demon (Noda Map/ Young Vic); King Lear (Leicester Haymarket); The Rose Tattoo (Theatr Clwyd); Mother Courage (Shared Experience); The Game of Love and Chance (Cambridge); The Birds (National Theatre)

As Movement Director: Trelawny of the Wells (Donmar Warehouse); Cyrano De Bergerac (Southwark Playhouse).

As an Actor and Director: Tell Them I am Young and Beautiful (Arcola Theatre); Arlecchino (Italy/ BAC London); Everyman (RSC).

Films includes: Nine; The Adventures of Pinocchio; Mr Turner; The Bee.

Television includes: Doctor Who; Pingu.

Toby trained at the Jacques Lecoq School in Paris, where he founded The Moving Picture Mime Show which established itself as one of the innovators of physical theatre throughout the world.

Toby won the 2008 Olivier Award as Director of Movement and Horse Choreography for War Horse, playing Ted Narracott in the original production. He has worked internationally and extensively in UK theatres foremost as an actor, including the RSC, Chichester Festival Theatre, the Royal Exchange and the National Theatre. He has also performed and co-devised productions with Complicité.

Toby collaborated with Danny Boyle on the London 2012 Olympic Opening Ceremony as Director of Movement and Choreographer of the ‘Industrial Revolution’ and ‘The Green and Pleasant Land’. He was recently the Movement Coach on Pistol, directed by Danny Boyle, set in the 1970s about the punk band the Sex Pistols, which is due to be released later this year.

Theatre includes:

As an Actor: War Horse (National Theatre/ West End); Animal Crackers (West End); The Play What I Wrote (UK Tour); Master and Margarita; Out of a House; Help I’m Alive; Light; Noise of Time (Complicité); The Government Inspector (Chichester Festival Theatre); The Tempest; The Taming of the Shrew (Royal Exchange Theatre).

As Director of Movement: The 39 Steps (West End/ Broadway); War Horse Productions (Global); A Dog's Heart (De Nederlandse Opera); Il Barbiere di Siviglia (Glyndebourne); The Mill (Ockham’s Razor, ROH/ UK tour); Frankenstein (National Theatre).

Film includes: Vacuums; Laissez Passer; The Last Planet; Nanny McPhee and the Big Bang; Stan and Ollie; Pistol; 28 Days Later.

Omar Elerian is a freelance director, dramaturg and theatre-maker.

Italian of Palestinian descent, Omar trained in Italy and then graduated from Lecoq International Theatre School in Paris in 2005.

He was the resident Associate Director at the Bush Theatre from 2012 to 2019, where he commissioned and directed some of the theatre’s most successful shows. 

Omar is currently developing projects with Manchester International Festival, National Theatre, Royal Court, Collective Malouba and The Shed in New York.

Theatre includes: 

As Director: Misty (Bush Theatre/ West End); NASSIM (Bush Theatre/ Traverse Theatre/ World Tour); Going Through; Islands; You’re Not Like The Other Girls Chrissy (Bush Theatre); The Return of Danton (Munchner Kammerspiele); The Mill: City of Dreams (Freedom Studios). 

As Associate Director: The Royale; Leave Taking; Perseverance Drive (Bush Theatre).

Cécile is a French-British award-winning set and costume designer. She trained at Wimbledon College of Arts (London), graduating with a first-class degree in 2013.

She is, with director Gerard Jones, the winner of the 10th European Opera Directing Prize in 2018. She was a Linbury Finalist (2013) and a Jerwood Young Designer (2017).

Cécile’s work was exhibited at the World Stage Design exhibition 2017 in Taipei, the Prague Quadrennial 2015 as part of the British Pavilion, and at the V&A exhibition Make/Believe: UK Design for Performance 2011-2015.

Theatre includes: Wuthering Heights (Royal Exchange Theatre); Midnight Movie; Hole (Royal Court); The Crucible; This Beautiful Future; Mikvah Project (The Yard); Midsummer (Edinburgh International Festival); Suzy Stork (Gate Theatre).

Opera includes: Edmea (Wexford Opera Festival); La Bohème (Bielefeld Opera House); Manon (Staatstheater Mainz); Code Noir (Opéra de Massy); La Tragédie de Carmen (Royal Opera House Linbury).

Naomi (she/her) is a designer for performance and space.

Theatre includes:

As Designer: Amsterdam (ATC/ Orange Tree Theatre/ Theatre Royal Plymouth); in a word (Young Vic); The Greatest Play in the History of the World (Royal Exchange Theatre/ Traverse Theatre/ Trafalgar Studios); Nightclubbing (The Lowry/ CPT/ New Art Exchange); OUT (Curve/ The Yard/ UK Tour); The Tyler Sisters (Hampstead Theatre); And Yet It Moves (Young Vic Taking Part); Trigger Warning (Tate Modern/ UK Tour); Fuck You Pay Me (The Bunker); Feast (Battersea Arts Centre).

As Co-Designer with Joshua Gadsby: Trainers, or the brutal unpleasant atmosphere of this most disagreeable season (Gate Theatre); There Is A Light That Never Goes Out: Scenes From The Luddite Rebellion (Royal Exchange Theatre); Trap Street (Schaubühne & New Diorama); Dinomania (New Diorama & 59E59 Theaters); dreamplay (The Vaults).

Opera includes: Così fan tutte (Longborough Opera Festival); The Cunning Little Vixen (Royal Northern College of Music).

Other work includes: NDT Broadgate; New Diorama Theatre’s public spaces and cafe.

For the Almeida: Uncle Vanya; Mary Stuart.

Theatre includes: Death of England; Hansard; Death of England; Delroy (National Theatre); Misty; The Beloved; Islands (Bush Theatre) What if Women Ruled the World; Ceremony (MIF); The Seagull (Jamie Lloyd Company); Changing Destiny; In the Penal Colony; Man; Oh My Sweet Land (Young Vic); The Return of Danton (Collective Ma’louba); White Noise (Bridge Theatre).

Dance includes: Heavy handed, we crush the moment (Barbican); Run Mary Run (Sadler’s Wells); Goat (Rambert); The Murmuring; Young Men (Ballet Boyz); Beheld; Hot Mess; Let’s Talk About Dis (Candoco Dance); Girl A (Scottish Dance Theatre); Lunatic (NDC Wells).

Other collaborations include: Recital for Cathy; From Canyons to Stars (Hamburg Symphony Orchestra); TUTBU TV; JRMIP (Hebbel Berlin); Sante (LSO); Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria (Grange Opera).

For the Almeida: Mass Observation.

Theatre includes: Trouble in Mind (National Theatre); Rockets And Blue Lights (National Theatre/ Royal Exchange); Seven Methods of Killing Kylie Jenner; Living Newspaper; Maryland (Royal Court); Reasons (You Shouldn’t Love Me); Snowflake; The Kilburn Passion; Arabian Nights (Kiln Theatre); Misty (Bush Theatre/ West End); The Memory of Water (Nottingham Playhouse); The Remains of the Day (Out of Joint, Royal & Derngate); Autoreverse (BAC); Macbeth; Mountains (Royal Exchange Theatre); Going Through; HIR; Islands; (Bush Theatre); Thick As Thieves (Clean Break); Double Vision (Wales Millenium Centre); The Caretaker (Bristol Old Vic); The Lounge (Soho, Summer Hall, Edinburgh); The Bear/The Proposal; Flashes (Young Vic); Sleepless (Analogue/ Staatstheater Mainz); The Christians (Gate Theatre/ Traverse Theatre); I Call My Brothers; The Iphigenia Quartet; Unbroken (Gate Theatre); Brainstorm (Company3/ National Theatre); Thebes Land; Ant Street; Brimstone & Treacle; Knives in Hens (Arcola).

Television includes: Have Your Circumstances Changed?; Brainstorm; The Astro Science Challenge; Women of Troy.

Dance includes: Patrias; Quimeras (Sadlers Wells/ Paco Peña Flamenco Company).

Other projects include: The Meet Cute; Twelve Years; Duchamps’ Urinal (BBC Radio 4); Rockets and Blue Lights (BBC Radio 3); All Of Me (Caroline Horton); Rockpool (Inspector Sands); Have Your Circumstances Changed? Yes These Eyes Are The Windows (ArtAngel).

Theatre includes: 

As Sound Designer: Death of a Salesman; There is a Light That Never Goes Out; Queens of the Coal Age; Twelfth Night (Royal Exchange Theatre); The Cherry Orchard (Toneelgroep); The Unreturning (Frantic Assembly); Pity; The Kid Stays in the Picture (Royal Court); The Last Testament of Lillian Bilocca (UK City of Culture, Hull); The Seagull (Lyric Hammersmith); Deciphering; Frogman (Curious Directive); The Tempest (Donmar Warehouse); Beware of Pity (Schaubühne); Schism (Park Theatre); Am I Dead Yet? (Bush Theatre); The Commission (Royal Opera House); Farragut North (Southwark Playhouse).

As Co-Sound Designer: The Encounter (Complicité); Death of England: Delroy; Death of England (National Theatre); The Noise (Northern Stage/ Unlimited).

As Associate Sound Designer: Harry Potter and the Cursed Child; Oresteia (West End); 1984 (Headlong); Hamlet (RSC); Lionboy; The Magic Flute; The Master and Margarita (Complicité).

For the Almeida: Summer and Smoke (also West End); Chimerica (also West End).

Theatre includes: The Man in the White Suite; The Importance of Being Earnest; Everybody’s Talking About Jamie; Country Girl; Motown: The Musical; Memphis; Hairspray; Love Never Dies; Butley (West End); Cabaret (West End, Playhouse Theatre); Cabaret (West End, Lyric Theatre); Oslo; The Beaux Stratagem; The History Boys; Market Boy; Caroline or Change; Therese Raquin; The Alchemist; The Rose Tattoo; Playing with Fire (National Theatre); The Hypocrite; Hecuba; Oppenheimer (RSC); Neville’s Island; South Downs/Browning Version (Chichester Festival Theatre/ West End); Orpheus in the Underworld; Pagliacci (ENO); Witness For The Prosecution (County Hall); Things of Dry Hours; The Brothers Size; Vernon God Little; The Glass Menagerie; The Government Inspector; Eurydice (Young Vic); The Crucible (Old Vic); Knives in Hens (Donmar Warehouse); Guys & Dolls; The Last King of Scotland; Steel; The Wizard of Oz; Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf (Sheffield Crucible); A Damsel In Distress; She Loves Me (Chichester Festival Theatre); Adler & Gibb; The Nether; Routes; Truth & Reconciliation; Love Love Love (Royal Court); The Village; The Wolves (Theatre Royal Stratford East).

Television includes: Doctor Who; Grantchester; Midsomer Murders; Odyssey; Millie Inbetween.

Film includes: Everybody’s Talking About Jamie; Cosi; Broken; Omar; Brimstone; Exam.

Originally from Poland, Nastazja is a feminist theatre maker and director. She has worked both in the UK and abroad, Nastazja's work is rooted in eastern European practice through using theatre as the tool of resistance and amplifying underrepresented voices. She holds an MA in Applied Theatre from The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama and teaches at various drama schools in the UK. 

For the Almeida: Dziady/Forefathers' Eve.

Theatre includes: CHAPTER: NOW (Rose Bruford); Scream Fire (For the Revolution) (Stratford East); Dual (Vault Festival 2020); This Kind of Air (The Bunker Theatre); The Death of Ophelia (The Globe); 10 (Vault Festival 2019); Us Against Whatever (Middle Child).