Creative Team
JOHN RETALLACK – Director and Adaptor
John is the director of Company of Angels which produces new and experimental work for young audiences. He has written a number of plays in recent years including Arlo (2010), Risk (2007), Virgins (2006) and Hannah and Hanna (2001). His plays have been translated into several languages. John was formerly director of Oxford Stage Company (1989 – 1999) and he was the founding director of Actors Touring Company (ATC) (1977 – 85). His work has been awarded a number of prizes and he has toured and worked in many countries including Europe, India, Japan and America.
VERITY QUINN – Designer
Verity trained at Nottingham Trent where she received a First Class Honours in Theatre Design. Since graduating she has worked across design, devising and making on both site specific and touring productions, often with puppetry and mask. Verity has worked with Punchdrunk, WildWorks, Magnetic Events and Culture10, Vamos Theatre and The Empty Space. Verity is also co-artistic director of Left Luggage Theatre.
MARK CALVERT – Associate Director
Mark’s acting credits include An Oak Tree, Great Expectations, 1984, Dumb Waiter, Glengarry Glen Ross, Romeo and Juliet, A Clockwork Orange and Son of Man. His TV credits include Lawless, Steel River Blues and Medics. Mark made his professional directorial debut in 2008 with The Goblin Who Saved Christmas. He has since directed Happiness, This Sceptred Isle and the sell out show, The Prince and The Penguin. Mark is excited about being involved in Apples because it is the best piece of writing he has heard, seen or read about the North East for a long time.
GRAHAM WILSON – Lighting Design
Graham was born in Eastbourne, East Sussex. He moved to the North East in 2006 to study Technical Theatre. After finishing his degree, he joined Northern Stage as a Lighting Technician in 2008. Apples is Graham’s first professional lighting design for Northern Stage. He also does occasional freelance lighting design and programming for local theatre companies.
ROB BROWN – Sound design
After beginning his career as commissioning electrical engineer at various power stations around the UK, Rob took his voluntary redundancy cheque to a drum shop in 1979 and began a twenty-year adventure playing music and managing bands around Europe. He then toured the rest of the world as a street theatre performer. In 2001 he joined Northern Stage as Head of Sound and A/V and has designed sound for most of Northern Stage’s Productions including: Ruby Moon, Our Friends in the North, A Doll’s House and Oh What A Lovely War. He also makes Northern Stage’s promotional films and his freelance career includes composing music for television and local performers.
HARRIET PLEWIS – Movement
Harriet Plewis is a performance artist, movement director and co-founder of experimental theatre collective, The Awkwards. She trained at Ecole Jacques Lecoq, Paris and frequently performs with companies including Zephyr in Zanussi Dance Collectif and Factory Party Productions. Her work, often comic, is concerned with the representation of authenticity and modern approaches to protest and has been presented at NRLA, Northern Stage and Dance City. She was recently choreographer on APPLES, and is currently devising a new show for presentation in 2011 with dUCKIE.
RICHARD MILWARD – Scenic Artist
Richard Milward was born in Middlesbrough in 1984. To date, he has published two novels, Apples (2007) and Ten Storey Love Song (2009), both by Faber&Faber. In 2008, Richard was nominated for the South Bank Show/Times Breakthrough Award, and in 2009 was picked as one of Waterstone’s New Voices. Richard has exhibited his psychedelic, slapdash artwork at Waterstone’s bookshops across the UK, as well as galleries in London and The Hague, Netherlands. He is currently working on his third novel, a gargantuan surrealistic death comedy.
JO CUNDALL – Associate Producer
Jo graduated with a degree in English and Film Studies from Sheffield Hallam University in 2002. She then embarked on a career in the arts (via a stint in an NPower call centre)! She started as a temporary Administration Assistant at Northern Stage in 2003. In 2006 she was made Participation and Programming Co-ordinator, a new role created as the company moved back into the theatre after a two year refurbishment. She has managed numerous projects at Northern Stage, with a variety of partners and participants including the annual summer school, an international theatre exchange with Groningen, Netherlands and the Northern Stage Performance Group. Apples is her first professional producing credit and she is excited about bringing Richard’s gorgeous, humorous and poetic language to a wider audience.
LEYLA ASADI – Associate Producer
Leyla is a freelance producer currently based in the North East. She has a degree in Cultural Studies and has worked for a range of theatre and dance companies since graduating in 2003 including Red Ladder, Northern Stage, Dance City, ZENDEH & Unfolding Theatre. After reading the novel a few years back, Leyla was extremely excited about producing the first stage adaptation with her colleagues at Northern Stage. As Middlesbrough is her hometown Apples is a show she will always hold close to her heart.
VIRGINIA LEAVER – Associate Producer
Virginia trained in stage management at Rose Bruford College. She worked as a stage manager in London, throughout the UK and in Europe (companies included Almeida Theatre, Leicester Haymarket, Liverpool Playhouse). She then became a Company Manager, working on large scale productions in the West End, on UK tours and on Broadway. After 6 years in stage management, Virginia moved into arts administration, working for the Ambassador Theatre Group. During the following 4 years she was production administrator on numerous shows in the West End, UK and international tours. Virginia then chose to pursue a freelance career and joined Company of Angels in March 2008 and has enjoyed leading on productions including; Invasion! at Soho Theatre, Tattoo and Colors at Tristan Bates Theatre, Iphigenia and This Child at ALRA and Tara Arts. She has been working on Apples alongside John Retallack since he first read the novel and is delighted to see the production come to fruition after nearly 2 years of preparation.
KATIE WARWICK – Music Coordinator
Katie Warwick is a Contemporary Music Coordinator. In 2007, she completed a degree in Anthropology at the University of Sussex. Soon after, she gained a diploma in Music Technology and Sound Engineering at the Islington Music Workshop. As well as her recent work on APPLES, she has also done some sound for up and coming bands in South East London. She is currently working on her second project for Company of Angels, as well as working part-time at London’s Shepherd’s Bush Empire, which makes for a valuable contribution to her musical research.
ON TOUR
CHRIS SLATER – Production Manager
COLIN HOLMAN – Company Manager
CRAIG DAVIDSON – Stage Manager (Re-lighter)
ANDREW STEPHENSON – Stage Manager (Sound)
RACHEL ROWLINSON – Assistant Stage Manager
