People Involved
Becca Cox - Managing Director
Becca worked in an extremely wide range of business arenas in project management and marketing roles before training as an actress at East 15 Acting School. She has managed numerous projects from organising biochemical testing programmes for a new drug to making sure that London’s firemen have enough socks. Becca will be taking care of the day to day running of the business, including working with Islington LEA and leading CTC’s quest for funding. She will also co-ordinate the activities of other members of the team and produce the final Chekov at the Chapel show.
Tom Cornford - Director of The Faerie Queen
Tom is a theatre director and teacher. He read English at Selwyn College, Cambridge and trained as an actor at LAMDA but gave up acting to direct, which he learned to do from brilliant guides like Katie Mitchell and Mike Alfreds, who still inspire a lot of his work. He also regularly borrows from a large variety of dancers, musicians, painters, sculptors and performance artists.
This year, he has directed a version of Christopher Marlowe’s Dr Faustus on three trapeze-frames, a new play about an atheist priest in 18th century France and a dramatisation of the Italian story which inspired Shakespeare’s Othello. He has also worked as a trainee director at The Gate Theatre in 2003 and an assistant director at Shakespeare’s Globe in 2004.
Tom teaches regularly at The Actors’ Centre, The Tyrone Guthrie Theater/University of Minneapolis and Shakespeare’s Globe. He is also a Theatre Research Consultant at Shakespeare’s Globe.
Katie Green - Associate Artist
Katie trained at the London Contemporary Dance School, graduating in 2006 and winning the Pyramid Award for Contemporary Dance.
Since graduating, she has been working as a performer with dance and puppetry company Abalino Dance Theatre and has choreographed work for her own company, green bean dance, for Ignite 2006 (Derby) and Resolution! 2007 (London). Further choreography projects for 2007 include The Open Space at the Siobhan Davies Studios in February, and a duet for Sprung! 2007 in Cambridge.
This year Katie will be giving lecture demonstrations at The Place (London), will teach professional classes for Lincolnshire Dance and will be coordinating and leading residencies at schools near Peterborough with her company, green bean dance.
Iestyn Evans - Associate Artist
Iestyn Evans and Andy Heath set up Talk to the Hand Productions in 2005 as a platform for the creation and performance of puppet characters for T.V., theatre and film.
The creative team at Talk to the Hand started working together in 1998 when they met on Doctor Dolittle the stage musical at the Hammersmith Apollo. After a three year run with the show, both in London and on tour around the UK, they individually pursued other puppeteering opportunities, often re-uniting on projects. Some of the many projects they have worked on include: The Fimbles (CBBC), Scissor Sisters performance at BRITS 2005, The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy (Jim Henson Creature shop) and with Gorillaz on their 2005 live concerts.
Talk to the Hand will create and animate some of the creatures that inhabit the world of The Faerie Queen.
James Perkins - Designer
James studied Theatre Design at Wimbledon School of Art. Since graduating in 2004 he has become co-producer and designer for The Other Theatre Company, co-founder of Blank Designs (a collaborative design co-operative) and resident designer for Charles Court Opera. He has just finished Sitting Pretty for Leicester Little Theatre and last worked with Tom Cornford on The Last Priest at The King’s Head.
James and the design team will create the world of The Faerie Queen using entirely unused and unwanted objects, something that he describes as “both daunting and incredibly exciting”.
Frances Beckerleg - Podcast Producer
Frances Beckerleg is a radio journalist, working predominately for the Naked Scientists show on BBC Radio Cambridgeshire. After a degree in Biology at Manchester University she developed a passion for radio whilst studying for her Masters in Science Communication at Imperial College, and was part of an award-winning team on IC Radio. She worked in the communications department of a medical research charity for three years, then started working in radio on a freelance basis, where she has been ever since. She will be producing a series of podcasts about Cilgwyn Theatre Company and Chekhov at the Chapel.
Bronwen Wilson - Artistic Director
Bronwen Wilson has worked extensively in devised theatre, the latest production being Wink The Other Eye at Wilton's Music Hall. Bronwen trained in Contemporary Dance at the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts, Acting at East 15 Acting School and Social Anthropology whilst at Cambridge University. Between 1999 and 2002 she choreographed and directed five sell out shows at the ADC theatre. Despite a brief flirtation with journalism, Bronwen has almost exclusively worked in the public sector and the arts. Her role in CTC is to work alongside Becca and to provide direction for the artistic content of CTC's shows.