The Key Workers Cycle

Kate is a director & dramaturg specialising in new musicals and making work with/ for young people. She is a recipient of Arts Council England support from the Develop Your Creative Practice fund and is currently developing an adaptation of Michael Morpurgo’s Mudpuddle Farm.

Theatre includes:

As Director: Jack & The Beanstalk; Aladdin (New Wolsey); Errol’s Garden; Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus (UK tour); Midnight (Union Theatre/ Korea); Jerry’s Girls (The Other Palace/ Jermyn Street Theatre); Stroke of Luck (Park Theatre); Don’t Tell Me Not To Fly (Underbelly); Passport to Pimlico (SouthWestFest); Newsrevue (Canal Café); Be The Star You Are (Young Vic, 2 Boroughs Project); Henrietta; Legend Trippers; Billy the Kid; The Battle of Boat & Prodigy (National Youth Music Theatre).

As Associate Artist: The Gingerbread Man; Nursery Crimes; Chicken Little; Charlotte’s Web; Treasure Island; Nightingale; Red Riding Hood; Fantastic Mr Fox (Singapore Repertory Theatre).

As Associate/ Resident Director: Impossible (World tour/ West End); The Wizard of Oz (West End); Sweet Charity; Educating Rita / Shirley Valentine (Menier Chocolate Factory/ West End).

Film includes: Born Yesterday.

Josh Elliott is a London-born, Indian/Irish Writer and Dramaturg. He has written for Rachael Young's Stomach Full, a zine celebrating QTIPOC. Josh took part in the Royal Court's Long-Form Writer's Group. He is the Literary Coordinator at Graeae Theatre Company.

Theatre includes: Living Newspaper (Royal Court).

Emily was previously a Resident Director at the Almeida Theatre, Jerwood Assistant Director at the Young Vic and Trainee Director at Paines Plough.

Theatre includes:

As Director: text me when you’re home, 5 Plays (Young Vic); Swallow and 16 (Lemon House Theatre); Lucky Cigarette (New Earth Theatre); GYSB; Tuesday at the Library; A Perpetual State of Happiness; Good Trouble (Moongate Productions); Before You Go (NT Studio - rehearsed reading); Appropriate (RWCMD); Miss Julie (LAMDA); Buried Kingdom (New Earth Theatre - rehearsed reading); Preach (Rose Bruford); Turbines (Paines Plough/ RWCMD/ Gate Theatre).

As Assistant Director: Blood Wedding (Young Vic); The Meeting; The Chalk Garden (Chichester Festival Theatre); Black Mountain; Out Of Love; How To Be A Kid (Paines Plough/ Theatr Clwyd/ Orange Tree Theatre); The Island Nation (Arcola Theatre).

Francesca Beard is a spoken word artist and facilitator who makes interactive and transformational work, for live audiences, often in collaboration. She has worked with audiences and artists in over 23 countries through her work with the British Council. She’s written commissions for institutions such as The Barbican, The Tower of London and The Royal Court Theatre. As a facilitator, she’s worked with institutions such as BBC Radio 3, The Young Vic and All Change Arts to create ambitious, public facing, participatory shows by and with communities.

She has been artist in residence at The Banff Centre, Canada and The Mixed Reality Lab, Nottingham University. Her solo shows, such as Chinese Whispers, How to Survive A Post-Truth Apocalypse and Confabulation, were made in conversation with scientists and researchers, supported by Arts Council England. She comes from Malaysia and lives in London.

Emma is a theatre director originally from Wales and now based in London. She trained at Goldsmiths and at the Young Vic. Emma believes she has a responsibility to contribute to the world she inhabits and address the state of society she occupies.

Emma is an associate artist at National Youth Theatre and a mentor director for National Theatre Connections. She is a guest director at LAMDA, RWCMD and Theatre Academy London, and facilitates regular workshops for organisations such as the National Theatre, Young Vic Theatre, RTYDS, NYT, Arts Ed, University of Kent, Goldsmiths College, and Theatre Academy London. Emma taught and directed at The Brit School for six years, she teaches because she is passionate about empowering artists from all walks of life to find and hone their voice.

Theatre Includes:

As Director: Mr Burns; X; The Christians (LAMDA); Neville’s Island; Misfits; Stiletto Beach (Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch); Lightning in May (Mercury Theatre); Leaving; How To Kill Your Mother; Copper & Steel (The Bunker Theatre); She is Fierce (RSC); The Interview (The Biscuit Factory); Normal (Styx); The H Word (Shoreditch Arts Club); Scan Artists (The Yard); Balloons (Redbridge Drama Centre).

As Associate/Assistant Director: As You Like It (RSC/ Barbican/ UK tour); The Village (Theatre Royal Stratford East); This House (Headlong/ UK tour), Aladdin (Salisbury Playhouse); McQueen (Theatre Royal Haymarket/ St James Theatre); City Stories (St James Theatre Studio); Tangent (New Diorama); The Sound of Yellow; One for the Road/Victoria Station (Young Vic).

Danusia Samal is an actress, writer and jazz singer. In 2018 she wrote and performed Busking It, a gig-theatre show inspired by her experiences as a London Underground busker. Danusia went on to win the 2018 Theatre503 International Playwriting Award, and be shortlisted for 2020 George Devine Award for her play Out of Sorts, exploring a woman’s struggle with dual identity as a second-generation migrant. In 2020, Danusia launched the Virtual Collaborators network to provide support and collaboration for artists in lockdown, culminating in a virtual and outdoor festival. Danusia is an alumnus of the BBC TV Drama Writer’s Programme.

Theatre includes:

As Writer: Bangers (Soho/ Cardboard Citz); Out of Sorts (Theatre503); Conditionally (Oxford School of Drama); Busking It (Soho/ Shoreditch Town Hall/ HighTide).

As an Actor: Peggy For You (Hampstead Theatre); Maryland; B; How to Hold Your Breath (Royal Court); Rutherford & Son (Sheffield Crucible); Two Noble Kinsmen; The Rover (RSC).

Film includes:

As Writer: Birth Right and The State (LAMDA films).

As an Actor: Ghost in the Shell (Paramount).

Television includes:

As Writer: Project IV (Netflix); Gangs of London (Sky).

As an Actor: The Great (Hulu/ Channel 4); Tyrant (FOX)

Radio includes: Shelter (Radio 4).

Rikki Henry is a freelance director and filmmaker. In 2020, he won the Nestroy Award for Best Federal State Performance for his production of Hamlet in Austria. He was the inaugural Associate Director for Project 2036 at the Bush Theatre in 2016/17. He also worked as a trainee associate director at HOME in Manchester, as a recipient of the BBC Performing Arts Fellowship in 2015. In the same year he was also a recipient of the Genesis Future Directors Award at the Young Vic Theatre. He was assistant director to Peter Brook from 2012-2014 on the international production of The Suit.

Rikki’s forthcoming projects are at the Schauspiel Dortmund in Germany and the Burgtheater Vienna

Theatre includes: Othello (Landestheater Niederösterreich, Austria); Hamlet (Bühne Baden); Antigone Lives (Residenz Theater); The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui (Arcola); How it Ended; #Matter; Womb (Bush Theatre); Creditors (Young Vic); Venus/ Mars (Old Red Lion Theatre); From Dover to Calais (Bristol Old Vic).

Nessah is a multi-award-winning, two times Writer’s Guild-nominated, writer for screen and stage. She has written for On The Edge Series III (BlackLight Television/ Channel 4) and her single drama, Cradled, is now available to view on All4. Additionally, Nessah is a member of the Coronation Street writers’ team, having written seventeen episodes to date.

After a critically-acclaimed, sell-out run in London, Nessah’s immersive play for young people, Small Wonders, (co-created with Punchdrunk) transferred to Imaginate’s Edinburgh International Children’s Festival in May 2019. It received five star reviews and was subsequently nominated in the Best Play for Young Audiences category at the Writers’ Guild Awards 2020. Awards include: Edinburgh TV Festival One To Watch, 2021, Adrian Pagan Award, 2018 and the Character 7 Prize, 2017.

Theatre includes: Tapestry (Young Vic); Monuments (Donmar Warehouse); The Host (National Youth Theatre); Heroine (HighTide Festival); Sundowning (Kali Theatre); Rhinoceros: The Red Pill (Gate Theatre/ Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama).

Theatre includes:

As Director: The Strange Undoing of Prudencia Hart (New Vic Theatre); Icarus (Nottingham Playhouse); Faustus: That Damned Woman; Cymbeline; Parliament Square; Constellations; The Heresy of Love (LAMDA); Ballistic (King’s Head Theatre); Tomorrow Creeps (VAULT Festival); Horniman’s Choice (Finborough Theatre); Twelfth Night (Manchester Victoria Baths).

As Associate Director: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (National Theatre UK tour and UK Schools tour).

As Resident/Assistant Director: Driving Miss Daisy (Theatre Royal Bath/ Tour); The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (West End); The White Devil; The Roaring Girl (RSC); Hope Light and Nowhere (Edinburgh Underbelly); A Christmas Carol (New Vic Theatre); Lady Windermere’s Fan; Miss Julie; The Gatekeeper; Beautiful Thing; Good (Royal Exchange); Othello (Rose Bankside).

Annie’s first play, In Lipstick, received readings at the Arcola and with Druid Theatre Company as part of the Galway International Arts Festival, as well as being shortlisted for the 2016 Theatre503 Award. It received a full production on the main stage at the Pleasance Theatre in 2019, co-produced by Up in Arms and Ellie Keel, directed by Alice Hamilton and published by Faber. Staying at Stacey’s was shortlisted for the 2020 George Devine Award and longlisted for the 2019 Bruntwood Prize for Playwriting. Karaoke Play ran at the Bunker in Autumn 2019, directed by Lucy McCann. It received an OffCom Short Run Commendation Award from the Off West End Awards. Annie was part of Theatre503’s 503Five for 2019/20 and a recipient of an MGCFutures bursary for her play the celebrity in the white bikini + how I accidentally looked. Most recently she wrote Birds, a short film set in a women’s prison, created with director Tyro Heath.

Other work includes: Under My Barbie Duvet (Young Vic); VOID (VAULT Festival - VAULT Innovation Award winner); TINDER471 (Theatre503); Funemployed (London Short Film Festival).

Jack is a director and theatre-maker. He co-founded Glasgow-based theatre company Wonder Fools in 2014. Currently, he is an Origins Artist with Headlong, Creative Engagement Director at the Ayr Gaiety, Artist in Residence (Creative Development) at the Traverse Theatre and artistic lead of the international participatory project Positive Stories for Negative Times.

Theatre includes:

As Director/Writer: 549: Scots of the Spanish Civil War; The Coolidge Effect (Wonder Fools); When the Sun Meets the Sky (Traverse Theatre/ Capital Theatres)

As Director: And Then Come the Nightjars (Wonder Fools); Lampedusa (Citizens Theatre/ Wonder Fools); Meet Jan Black (Wonder Fools/ Ayr Gaiety); Larchview (National Theatre of Scotland); The Lost Elves (Citizens Theatre/ RCS); The Mack; The Storm (Play, Pie, Pint/ Traverse Theatre).

As Associate/Assistant Director: Red Dust Road (National Theatre of Scotland/ HOME); The Broons (Sell A Door); Dr Dolittle (Music & Lyrics); Oresteia: This Restless House (Citizens Theatre/ National Theatre of Scotland); Blackbird (Citizens Theatre); The Winter’s Tale (Royal Lyceum); Hay Fever (Royal Lyceum/ Citizens Theatre).

Eno Mfon is an award-winning Writer, Performer and Director. Her debut one-woman show Check the Label had sell-out performances at Bristol Old Vic and was made into a short film for Channel 4's Random Acts in 2016. Directed by Eno, the film won Best Short Film at the 2018 Royal Television Society Awards. Following her success in Bristol, Eno had her plays staged in major theatres across London, including the Young Vic, the Bush Theatre and Kiln Theatre. As well as writing for the stage, Eno has also written audio dramas for Audible, BBC Sounds and English Touring Theatre. Her spoken word poetry has seen her perform on major platforms such as TedxTalk and screens around London such as Piccadilly Circus. Eno’s works have been featured in major publications such as the Independent, Dazed, Vogue, Crack and Huck Magazine.

Eva trained on the National Theatre Studio Directors’ Course and at the University of Birmingham. She is the Co-Artistic Director of How It Ended theatre company and is an Associate of NYT.

Theatre includes:

As Director: Maryland; Meet Mo; Ribena; Jack and the Beanstalk (Theatre Royal Stratford East); Heart of Hammersmith (Lyric Hammersmith); The Little Gardener (Kew Gardens); Last Nine Months (Vaults); Sticky (Southwark Playhouse); The Tide (Young Vic); The Scarecrows’ Wedding (Watford Palace Theatre); A Peter Rabbit Tale (Singapore Repertory) Rudolf (Leeds Playhouse); Decades (Brixton House); At the Statue of Venus (Royal Opera House).

As Associate/ Assistant Director: Four Quartets (West End); Noye’s Fludde (Theatre Royal Stratford East/ ENO); Twelfth Night (Young Vic); Father Christmas (Lyric Hammersmith); Unprecedented (Headlong and Century Films/ BBC Four).

As Resident Assistant Director: This is My Family; 8 Hotels (Chichester Festival Theatre).

TV/Radio includes: That’s How It Feels; REED TVC Campaign (MYNT and Kingdom Creative); Keep the Home Fires Burning (The Culture Trust Luton).

Award-winning Yomi Ṣode is a Nigerian British writer, performer, and facilitator. He is a recipient of the Jerwood Compton Poetry fellowship 2019 and has read his poems internationally at various festivals, as well as performed his debut solo show Coat, to sold-out audiences. Yomi has been published in Rialto Magazine, The Poetry Review, Bare Lit and 10: Poets of the New Generation, as well as a contribution in SAFE: On Black British Men Reclaiming Space. Yomi is a member of Malika’s Poetry Kitchen and a Complete Works Alumni. His debut poetry collection, Manorism will be published in 2022 by Penguin Press.

For the Almeida: and breathe…

Theatre includes:

As Movement and Choreography: Trouble In Mind (National Theatre); Purple Snowflakes & Titty Wanks (Royal Court/ The Abbey Dublin); Love Reign; Changing Destiny; In a Word; American Dream (Young Vic); Death of a Black Man; Either (Hampstead Theatre); Cinderella (Nottingham Playhouse); Spine (UK tour); Great Expectations (National Youth Theatre at Southwark Playhouse); Two Trains Running (ETT – Royal & Derngate); Does My Bomb Look Big In This (Soho Theatre, Tara Arts); Babylon Beyond Borders (The Bush Theatre); Macbeth (Orange Tree); Misty (Trafalgar Studios); The Jumper Factory (Young Vic/ Bristol Old Vic); Sleeping Beauty (Theatre Royal Stratford East) Shebeen (Nottingham Playhouse/ Theatre Royal Stratford East); Bernstein’s Mass (Royal Festival Hall/ Southbank Centre); Twilight (Gate Theatre); The Divide; Cover My Tracks (Old Vic).

As Director: (45 North & Ellie Keel Productions); ; (Young Vic); (Old Vic Monologues); (National Theatre); (Kansaze Dance Theatre at Rich Mix).

As Associate/Assistant Director: Moonlight/ Night School (West End); The Step Mother; Caroline Or Change (Chichester Festival Theatre); Kayla (Young Vic).

Film includes: The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight; Pirates; Amazina.

Television includes: Cbeebies: Christmas In Storyland (BBC).

Molly Taylor is a playwright and theatre-maker from Liverpool.

She is currently under commission for NT Connections and the Liverpool Everyman.

For the Almeida: The Wave; Cacophony (Almeida/ The Yard).

Theatre includes: What Was Left (Southwark Playhouse); Extinguished Things (Edinburgh Fringe 2018/ Adelaide Fringe 2019); See Me Now (Young Vic); Philoxenia (Bush Theatre); Me for the World (Young Vic Taking Part); Shell and Davey at the Start and the End (VAULT Festival); Love Letters to the Public Transport System (National Theatre of Scotland).

Jenny Sealey has been Graeae’s Artistic Director since 1997. Kate Lovell is a new trainee Associate Artist who directs and leads on new writing by disabled writers.

Graeae is UK flagship disabled led theatre company placing Deaf, disabled and neuro-divergent artists centre stage. The company has pioneered a new theatrical language, the ‘aesthetics access’, embedding sign language, creative captions and audio description into the heart of productions.

Kate Lovell is a Goldsmiths-trained director, dramaturg and playwright who proudly identifies as neurodivergent and disabled. Kate is currently Associate Artist at Graeae Theatre, leading on new writing and artist development. Kate lectures and delivers workshops on accessible theatre-making in a wide range of settings, including universities such as York, Goldsmiths, Canterbury Christ Church, Hull and Rose Bruford. Kate sits on the board for Vital Xposure.

Kate writes and directs site-specific work for non-theatre spaces including the basement of Shoreditch Town Hall, railway arches in Brixton, King’s Cross and St Pancras stations, Scarborough seafront, and on estates in Camden. Kate also makes work in theatre spaces, including Wales Millennium Centre, the Young Vic, Holbeck Underground Ballroom in Leeds, Southwark Playhouse and Camden People’s Theatre.

As well as site-specific work, Kate has written for Crips with Chips for Graeae, for Arts Council funded Define Your Journey, a digital sonic saga, for Theatre Uncut at the Young Vic, and was a recipient of a Testing Ground commission from the New Wolsey Theatre in 2020 for her play Zero.

Kate makes work with, for and about marginalised groups and has a passion for artistic work that explores human rights and themes of social justice.