Nell Gwynn

Jessica is a two-time Olivier award winning film maker, writer and director. She trained at Central School of Speech and Drama and Exeter University. Her latest feature, Merv (Amazon), came to screens in 2025 and starred Zooey Deschanel and Charlie Cox. She has also written the book for Paddington the Musical, running at the Savoy Theatre, which won the Olivier Award for Best New Musical in 2026.

She was listed in Variety Magazine’s Top Ten Brits to Watch in 2019 for her forthcoming work in film and inducted into BAFTA.

As a playwright, her first play Blue Stockings (Shakespeare’s Globe) won her an Evening Standard Most Promising Playwright nomination and is now on the GCSE drama syllabus. Her second, Nell Gwynn, transferred from the Globe to the West End starring Gemma Arterton, and won the Olivier for Best New Comedy. She is currently writing the screenplay for Working Title.

Theatre credits include Paddington the Musical (West End – Olivier Award winner for Best New Musical), Nell Gwynn (Shakespeare’s Globe/West End – Olivier Award Winner for Best New Comedy), Blue Stockings (Shakespeare’s Globe – Evening Standard Award for Most Promising Playwright), All’s Will That Ends Will (Bremen Shakespeare Company), Thomas Tallis (Sam Wanamaker Playhouse), The Playhouse Apprentice (for Dulwich College at Shakespeare’s Globe), adaptations of Sense & Sensibility, Far From the Madding Crowd (Watermill), The Secret Garden, Stig of the Dump (Grosvenor Park/Storyhouse), The Jungle Book (UK Tour), The Mission (Arts Ed)

Film credits include Merv – Feature Film – Director (Amazon, MGM, Lightworks) 2025, Summerland – Feature Film – Director/Writer (Lionsgate) 2020, Horrible Histories The Movie – Feature Film – Writer (Altitude/Citrus TV) 2019, Nell Gwynn – In Development – Writer (Working Title).

TV credits include Ten Percent – Director Episodes 3 & 4 (Amazon/Bron/Headline).

Short Films credits include Leading Lady Parts – Writer/Director (Rebel Park/BBC/You Tube) 2018, The Complete Walk – Director - (Shakespeare Shorts for Shakespeare’s Globe) 2016, Much Ado About Nothing (Sicily), The Tempest (Bermuda), Twelfth Night (UK).

Bryony Shanahan is a freelance theatre director and Associate Artist at The Traverse Theatre. Between 2019-2023 she was Joint Artistic Director of the Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester.

Theatre credits include Trans It (Fifth Word), Beauty and the Beast (Northern Stage), Standing in the Shadows of Giants, Enough, Same Team (Traverse Theatre), Bloody Elle (West End, Soho Theatre, Royal Exchange, Traverse Theatre), Keli (National Theatre of Scotland), No Pay? No Way!, Beginning, Let The Right One In, Nora A Doll’s House, Wuthering Heights, Queens Of The Coal Age, Nothing (Royal Exchange Manchester), Trade (Young Vic), Chicken Soup (Sheffield Theatres), Operation Crucible (59E59 NYC, Sheffield Crucible, UK Tour), Bitch Boxer (Soho Theatre, UK Tour).

Awards Genesis Future Directors Award, Holden Street Theatres Award, Fringe First, Manchester Theatre Award.

Jess trained on the Motley Theatre Design course.

Credits include The Comedy of Errors, Loves Labours Lost (Shakespeare North Playhouse and Stephen Joseph Theatre), Brief Encounter, The Blonde Bombshells of 1942 (Theatre by the Lake/Stephen Joseph Theatre /Bolton Octagon), The Whitby Rebels, Murder For Two (Stephen Joseph Theatre), Jekyll And Hyde, Of Mice And Men , A Christmas Carol (Derby Theatre), Frankie and Johnny in the Clare De Lune, Vincent River (The Bridge Theatre, Brussels), A Postcard From Morrocco (Dutch National Opera Academy) The Chester Mystery Cycle 2023 (Chester Cathedral) Tom’s Midnight Garden, (The Minack Theatre), Genesis Inc.(Hampstead Theatre), Loosing Venice (The Orange Tree Theatre), Uncle Vanya (The Almeida), Villette, Dangerous Corner (West Yorkshire Playhouse), One for the Road, Glass Cage, Follies (Royal and Derngate, Northampton), The Holy Rosenbergs (National Theatre), Hotel Cerise (Theatre Royal, Stratford East), Another Door Closed (Theatre Royal Bath), Endgame (Liverpool Everyman), Dangerous Corner (West Yorkshire Playhouse and West End), Frankenstein (Frantic Assembly, Northampton), Burial at Thebes (Nottingham Playhouse/Barbican/US Tour) and Rhapsody, Fantasy (Royal Ballet at the Royal Opera House).

She has also designed the opening season at Storyhouse and the Grosvenor Park Open air shows 2013- 2016/2021, 2025 and bar interiors for Underbelly at the South Bank, Hyde Park and Leicester Square, as contributing to the Theatre Green Book and the SBTD Sustainability working group.

Musical Director credits include Summerfolk (National Theatre), The Little Mermaid (Also orchestrator and additional composition- Watermill Theatre), Elektra (West End), Dr Strangelove (West End), The Hills Of California (Broadway, West End), Fangirls(Lyric Hammersmith), Withnail and I (Birmingham Rep), Enemy Of The People (West End), A Strange Loop (West End/Barbican), To Kill A Mockingbird (Gielgud Theatre), The Lehman Trilogy (Broadway, West End, International Tour, National Theatre & New York), Black Love (Kiln Theatre, Paines Plough), The Wizard of Oz (Musical Supervisor, Leeds Playhouse), King Lear (Duke of York’s Theatre), The Seven Ages of Patience (Kiln Theatre), Carmen – The Gypsy (UK Tour), Peter Pan(Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre), The Little Mermaid (Metta Theatre, UK Tour), The Shadow Factory(Nuffield Southampton), Queen Anne (RSC, Theatre Royal Haymarket), WOYZECK (Old Vic Theatre), Snow White, Beauty and the Beast (Lighthouse Theatre), Beyond The Fence (Sky Arts, Arts Theatre), It’s a Mad World My Masters (English Touring Theatre), Hecuba, The Witch of Edmonton, The Heresy of Love, The Heart of Robin Hood (RSC), Love’s Labour’s Lost (Oxford Shakespeare Company), Galileo (Birmingham Rep).

Composer credits include The Little Prince (Taunton Brewhouse & Metta Theatre), Zeraffa Giraffa (Little Angel & Omnibus), Buckets (Orange Tree Theatre), Little Blue Dot (Discover), 4 Pepys (Wilderness Festival), Hansel and Gretel, Treasure Island, Much Ado About Nothing, Pinocchio, Richard III, Alice in Wonderland, Alice Through the Looking Glass, Romeo and Juliet, Wind in the Willows (Iris Theatre), Macbeth (Shakespeare in Styria), Once Upon A Time (Booktrust Tour), The Tempest, The Hostage (Southwark Playhouse).

Pete is a multi-award winning Sound Designer and a graduate of The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama.

As sound designer, theatre includes It Walks Around the House at Night (Thick Skin), Brighter Still (Bradford City of Culture Closing Ceremony), Otherland (Almeida), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (RSC), Robin/Red/Breast (Factory International), Let the Right One In, There is a Light that Never Goes Out, Death of a Salesman, Queen’s of the Coal Age, Twelfth Night (Royal Exchange), The Ballad of Hattie and James (Kiln Theatre), 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), Am I Dead Yet (Unlimited), Beware of Pity (Complicité at Schaubühne),

As Co-Sound Designer, work includes The Encounter (Tony, Drama Desk, Helpmann and Evening Standard awards for Best Sound Design, alongside Gareth Fry) (Complicité), The Chairs (Almeida), Othello (National Theatre), Death of England The Trilogy (National Theatre/West End)

As Associate Sound Designer, work includes Harry Potter and the Cursed Child (original creative team) for Sonia Friedman Productions, (West End/Broadway/San Francisco/Hamburg/Australia/Japan/North American Tour/Netherlands), 1984 (Headlong), Oresteia (West End), Hamlet (RSC), Lionboy, The Magic Flute and The Master and Margarita (Complicité).

Film includes Death of England Face to Face (Composer and Co-Sound Designer).

Sunny (she/her) is a Movement Director, Choreographer and Intimacy Director with a passion for driving a play’s narrative through physicality.

Credits as Movement Director & Choreographer include Caroline a New Musical (East Anglian Touring Consortium), Private Lives (Royal Exchange Theatre), Two (Shakespeare North Playhouse), The Mesmerist (Watford Palace Theatre), Jack and the Beanstalk (Watford Palace Theatre), Period Parrrty! (Soho Theatre), Dancing at Lughnasa (Crucible Theatre / Royal Exchange Theatre), Pop Off, Michaelangelo! (Underbelly Cow, Underbelly Boulevard Soho, Big Yin, The Other Palace), Jackie!!! A New Musical (Gilded Balloon) Bugsy Malone (Watford Palace Theatre), A Tryal of Witches (Theatre Royal, Bury St Edmunds), Escaped Alone & What If If Only (Royal Exchange Theatre), Jungle Book (Octagon Theatre, Bolton), The Elmer Adventure (Soho Theatre Walthamstow/The Lowry/South Bank Centre/Uk Tour), Hound of the Baskervilles (Theatre by the Lake), The Importance of Being Earnest (Royal Exchange Theatre), Beautiful the Carole King Musical (Pitlochry Festival Theatre), Ladies Down Under (New Vic Theatre), The Spongebob Musical (Watford Palace Theatre), Little Shop Of Horrors (UK Tour), Brief Encounter (Royal Exchange Theatre), The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (Theatre Royal Bury St Edmunds), Mind the Monsters (Blenheim Palace/Oxford Playhouse), The Blonde Bombshells of 1943 (Octagon Theatre, Bolton/ Theatre by the Lake/ Stephen Joseph Theatre), The Trial of Josie K (Unicorn Theatre), Ladies Day (New Vic Theatre/Octagon Theatre), Jack Frost and the Search for Winter (UK Tour), Goldilocks and the Three Bears (New Wolsey Theatre), Brown Girls do it Too (Soho Theatre/UK Tour), The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole (Queen's Theatre, Hornchurch), Passion (Hope Mill Theatre), The Princess and the Pea (UK Tour), Aladdin (The Capitol Theatre), Dick Whittington (Watford Palace Theatre), Les Liaisons Dangereuses (The Maltings Theatre), Billy the Kid (National Youth Music Theatre), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (East London Shakespeare Festival), The Comedy of Errors (Roman Theatre of Verulamium), Christmas Allsorts, Robin Hood, Jack and the Beanstalk, Beauty and the Beast (Queens Theatre Hornchurch), Dame Terry’s Very Merry Christmas (Watford Palace Theatre), Squad Goals an Immersive Play (Caspa Arts at Dagenham & Redbridge FC), As You Like It (National Theatre Public Acts Production), Grandma saves the Day (New Wolsey Theatre).

Credits as Intimacy Director include Private Lives (Royal Exchange Theatre), Period Parrrty! (Soho Theatre), Pop Off, Michaelangelo! (Underbelly Cow, Underbelly Boulevard Soho, Big Yin, The Other Palace), Jackie!!! A New Musical (Gilded Balloon), Bugsy Malone (Watford Palace Theatre), A Matter of Life & Death (New Vic Theatre), The Importance of Being Earnest (Royal Exchange Theatre), Little Shop of Horrors (UK Tour), Brief Encounter (Royal Exchange Theatre), Passion (Hope Mill Theatre).

Bronya Arciszewska is a Costume Supervisor working in theatre, television and film. Her History BA from Oxford University and work with The Tudor Tailor initially inspired an enduring love of period costume, and she went on to receive the Vice Chancellor’s Scholarship for MA Costume Design from London College of Fashion. She has lectured in the History of Costume for Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, and Costume Design for the V&A, and her recent projects include Costume Supervisor; Tommy and Tuppence, Miss Austen, and Witchfinder for the BBC, and Fisherman’s Friends: One and All (Fred Films).

Costume Designer; Witches of Essex and the Royal Autopsy Series for Sky History, and The Puppet Asylum (Story Films).

Theatre credits include Assistant Costume PM (The Royal Opera House), Costume Supervisor; Stiletto Beach, Robin Hood, Kiss Me Quickstep and So Here We Are for The Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch and The Crucible and A Little Night Music for Storyhouse Chester.

Olivia (Liv) Barr is a Casting Director based in the Northwest. She is a Casting Director (Consultant) at Royal Exchange Theatre and regularly works with other northern producing theatres. She previously worked in the BBC's casting department.

She won the 2023 CDG Award for Best Casting in the Regional Theatre for her work as Casting Associate for Stuart Burt CDG on East is East (Birmingham Rep, The National Theatre, Chichester Festival Theatre).
Before embarking on a career in casting, she worked in theatre and event production.

Recent theatre includes, Road (Royal Exchange), The Wizard of OZ (TBTL), Di and Viv and Rose (TBTL), Pride and Prejudice (UK Tour), Abigail’s Party, Escaped Alone/What If If Only, The Bruntwood Prize Ceremony (Royal Exchange Theatre), The Red Rogue of Bala (Theatr Clwyd), Period Parrrty (Soho Theatre/Kali Theatre), Macbeth, Peter Pan (The Grange Theatre), Jack and the Beanstalk, Cinderella (Liverpool Everyman), Romeo and Juliet (Shakespeare North and Graeae), Brassed Off (Theatre by the Lake, Stephen Joseph Theatre, Octagon Theatre), Little Shop of Horrors (New Wolsey, Theatre by the Lake, Octagon Theatre, Hull Truck, Theatre Royal Windsor), Animal Farm (Octagon Theatre, Hull Truck, Derby Theatre) A Passionate Woman (Leeds Playhouse), Spring and Port Wine, An Adventure (Octagon Theatre), Oliver Twist, Macbeth, Pinnochio, A Christmas Carol, Pop Music, Mumsy, Teechers Leavers ’22, (Hull Truck), A Little Princess (Theatre by the Lake), Run Rebel (Pilot Theatre and UK Tour) One Man, Two Guvnors (Octagon Theatre, Liverpool Playhouse, Theatre by the Lake), Kabul Goes Pop (Brixton House and UK tour), Kes (Octagon Theatre, Theatre by the Lake).

Television credits include EastEnders, Casualty, Doctors (BBC Studios).