Synopsis

Chris Yarnell is a theatre maker and musician. Since graduating from East 15’s BA Physical Theatre course, Chris has movement directed, devised and performed in a variety of performances. Most recently, he has been on tour with Birmingham Stage’s Horrible Histories as well as directing the arts council funded show ‘Moonshines Entirely Necessary Adventure’ for Roundhouse associate company Magic Maverick.

Chris is also a founding member of The Outbound Project (Ed Fringe 2016) and has worked with companies such as Gecko (The Overcoat), Theatre Temoin and The New Wolsey Theatre’s company ‘People You May Know’ which Chris helped establish and created Party Piece (Ed Fringe 2014). Additionally, Chris has written music for several productions including Peanuts for Poleroid Theatre Company and Modern Day Romance which was part of the Roundhouse accidental festival.

Leah is a recent graduate of East 15 with a BA in World Performance. Her training has enabled her, not only to explore western styles, but also to learn skills that go beyond most western training, like puppetry, world music and various dance styles. She is very used to working with directors and practitioners from around the world and revels in learning and being part of new and intercultural work.

One of Leah’s passions is devising. She started out her professional career with a political theatre show called ‘Humble Pie’. From then on, she went to become a Co Founder of Capataro Theatre Company who were awarded funding from the University of Essex in 2015.

She has a passion for children’s theatre and creating comic characters that bring a story to life. She is extremely excited to work with Pied Piper Theatre Company helping to bring ‘Burglar Bill’ to life.

Among her theatre credits Leah has performed with Theatre in Education plays like ‘Chain Reaction’, Greek tragedy’s ‘Hippolytos’, and new political theatre plays like ‘Glaucoma’, touring the UK and performing in many theatres across the country.

Tina Williams is the Artistic Director of Pied Piper Theatre Company, which she set up in 1984 having trained as both an actor and a teacher. Tina has written, adapted, directed and produced over twenty five plays for the company including a large scale national tour of Anne Fine's "The Book of the Banshee", a community tour of "A Little Princess" involving eight actors and eight young people and her recent new plays "The Big ENORMOUS Present" and "Robin's Winter Adventure".

In 1994 Tina set up the Education Department at the Yvonne Arnaud Theatre Guildford, which ran until 2008. As well as directing several co-productions with the Yvonne Arnaud she wrote and directed ‘Flash! Bang! Rabbit! for the youth theatre as a creative and cultural exchange with the Sherman Theatre in Cardiff.

Tina has been engaged as Artistic Director for several co-productions throughout the UK and internationally in Singapore. She also directed several seasons at The Fortune Theatre in London’s West End.

This is Julian's forth show for Pied Piper Theatre Company. He has composed music for lots of theatre shows for children and young people, including Charlie and Lola's Best Bestest Play, Charlie and Lola's Extremely New Play and Gorilla (Polka Theatre, directed by Roman Stefanski), Up and Down (GaGa Theatre Company), The Paper Washi Wish and Little Sunshine, Little Rainfall (A Thousand Cranes Theatre), and A Christmas Carol (Lakeside Arts, Nottingham). He has written several musicals for young people including Beauty and the Beast, Red Riding Hood and Flat Stanley (with Mike Kenny, Engine House Theatre) and Run! A Sports Day Musical (with Lisa Evans, Polka Theatre).

Roman completed a postgraduate course at the Drama Studio London and entered into the world of professional acting in 1977. His forté has always been visual and physical theatre with a strong understanding of the technical aspects as well.

He joined Polka Theatre as an actor in 1980 and has mostly worked with Polka now for more than 31 years, first as staff and now as a freelance director, producing over 55 shows, helping it to become one of Britain's leading theatre companies for children along with international recognition. Over these years he developed his puppetry skills and with the experience of many years of directing and performing has been able to help and teach actors how to lose their doubts and inhibitions of puppetry, developing their own skills in object manipulation.

Roman is a qualified PTLLS teacher and has been coaching students in acting, and teaching/directing students at drama colleges in England (The Academy of Live and Recorded Art, East 15, Drama Studio London) as well as giving various master classes in puppetry /design for puppetry (Central School of Speech and Drama, Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, Little Angle Theatre). He is a puppetry consultant for various theatre companies as well as Pied Piper, (Watershed productions, Birmingham Stage Co, Mid Wales Opera, Pied Piper Productions, Thousand Cranes Co, All Aboard Productions, Polka Theatre - guest directors)

Having directed a very successful production of Lauren Child's characters Charlie and Lola in "Charlie and Lola's Best Bestest Play" for Polka Theatre, Roman is now BBC Worldwide exclusive director for this play which is now touring Britain as well as having played in Singapore, Hong Kong and Australia including the Sydney Opera House. In Sao Paulo, it was performed in Portuguese and also played in Rio de Janeiro before touring major cities in Brazil. 

Roman has received "members award" for his years of work in children's theatre by Action for Children's Art.

Catherine trained in Theatre Design at Nottingham Trent University.

Current design work includes: Princess and Pea (tutti Frutti), Wind In The Willows (York Theatre Royal), Burglar Bill (Pied Piper theatre Company).

Theatre production designs include: Robin’s Winter Adventure (Pied Piper theatre Company), The Fever Chart (Pilot Theatre), The Diver (Soho Theatre and Setagaya Public Theatre, Tokyo), Fly in the Ointment, Cover her Feet (Stephen Joseph Theatre), King Arthur, As You Like It, The Crucible (costume design), Wind In The Willows, Coram Boy, 1984, Keys to the Kingdom, Bouncers, September in the Rain, The Trial, The Hunchback of Notre Dame(York Theatre Royal), Rapunzel, Hare and Tortoise, The Girl who Lost her Smile (Tutti Frutti), The Feathered Ogre, Jack and the Beanstalk, Madame Butterfly (English Touring Opera Education).

Film work includes: The Knife that Killed Me.

Catherine works extensively with young people including youth theatre, community projects and working as an artist in schools.