Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992

Anna Deavere Smith is currently a University Professor at New York University where she teaches at the Tisch School of the Arts. She is the founding director of the Institute on the Arts and Civic Dialogue, dedicated to supporting artists whose works address social issues and engender civic engagement. She is perhaps best known to television audiences as Nancy McNally on The West Wing and Gloria Akalitus on Nurse Jackie.

In addition to her work in television and film, Anna is said to have created a new form of theatre. Following her interviews with scores of individuals, usually on a topic of civic and political interest, she creates theater works in which she plays many characters – as many as 52 in one production – representing multiple points of view. When granted the prestigious MacArthur Award, her work was described as “a blend of theatrical art, social commentary, journalism, and intimate reverie.” Her work has been celebrated simultaneously for its journalistic detail as well as its empathic treatment of the people she portrays. David Richard wrote in the New York Times that Anna Deavere Smith “is the ultimate impressionist. She does people’s souls.”

Anna is the recipient of numerous awards, among them the National Humanities Medal, presented to her by President Obama in 2013. She has been the recipient of the prestigious MacArthur Award, The Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize, two Tony nominations, and two Obies. She was runner up for the Pulitzer Prize in Drama for her play Fires In the Mirror. Honorary degrees include those from Yale University, Juilliard, Barnard, the University of Pennsylvania, Radcliffe, Wesleyan, Williams College, Northwestern University as well as many others. 

Ola Ince is the 2016 Genesis Future Director Award-winner and Artistic Associate at Lyric Hammersmith and Theatre Royal Stratford East. Her directing credits include Start Swimming (Young Vic & Summerhall), White Sky (RWCMD & Gate Theatre), Broad Shadow (National Theatre), Dutchman (The Clare, Young Vic Theatre) andRachel, The Soft of Her Palm (Finborough Theatre).  As Associate Director, her credits include Bugsy Malone (Lyric Hammersmith), Tipping the Velvet (Lyric Hammersmith & Royal Lyceum Theatre Edinburgh), Fog (UK tour). As Assistant Director her credits include Shakespeare Trilogy (Donmar Warehouse & St. Ann’s Warehouse), Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, Dara, A Taste of Honey (National Theatre) Porgy & Bess (Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre), Josephine & I (Bush Theatre) and Wild Swans (Young Vic Theatre).

Jacob graduated from the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama in 2011 and was a finalist in the Linbury Prize for Stage Design that same year. He has since been nominated for Best Set Designer in the Off West End awards, Wales Theatre awards and has exhibited his work in the Society of British Theatre Designers exhibition Make:Believe. In 2016 Jacob became the National Theatre's first recipient of the Max Rayne Design Bursary Award. Design credits include Broad Shadow at the Dorfman Theatre, National Theatre, Start Swimming at The Young Vic and Treasure Island at Watford Palace.

 

Theatre credits include: Box of Delights (Wilton’s Music Hall); King Lear (Shakespeare’s Globe) Becoming: Part One (Donmar);  Snow in Midsummer (RSC); The Seagull, Shopping and Fucking (Lyric Hammersmith); Dutchman / The Secret Agent / Fireface / Disco Pigs / Sus (Young Vic) You for Me for You / Plaques & Tangles / A Time to Reap (Royal Court) The Chronicles of Kalki (The Gate); The Roaring Girl (RSC); Bank on it (Theatre-Rites / Barbican); ; Salt, Root and Roe (Donmar); On the Record / It felt empty when the heart went at first, but it’s alright now (Arcola); Paradise / Salt (Ruhr Triennale, Germany); Gambling / This Wide Night (Soho Theatre);  Rutherford and Son / Ruby Moon (Northern Stage);  … Sisters (Headlong); King Pelican / Speed Death of the Radiant child (Drum, Plymouth).
 Opera credits include: Don Carlo (Grange Park) Orlando ( WNO and Scottish Opera); Ruddigore (Barbican, Opera North and UK Tour); Critical Mass (Almeida); Songs from a Hotel Bedroom / Tongue Tied (Linbury ROH); The Bartered Bride (Royal College of Music); Against Oblivion (Toynbee Hall)
 Dance credits include: Mothers (The Place); Refugees of a Septic Heart (The Garage); Soul Play (The Place); View from the Shore / Animule Dance (Clore ROH )

Max is a London, U.K. based Composer and Sound Designer.  

Max has composed music  for numerous television commercials. Recent clients include: Nokia, London and Partners, Johnnie Walker, Land Rover, The Singleton, Godiva, The Co-op, Raffles, Volvo, Thomson’s Holidays, Amazon, Magnet Kitchens, GQ, Booking.com, Liverpool One, Continental, Berkley Homes, Jacamo, Barclay’s, Simply Be, Neville Johnson and Zoopla.

He has composed music and sound designed productions at The Young Vic, The Bristol Old Vic, Hampstead Theatre, The Other Palace (formerly St James’ Theatre), The Gate, Southwark Playhouse, Orange Tree Theatre, The Vaults, Hope Mill Theatre, The Bunker, Ovalhouse and Theatre 503. 

He also writes music for contemporary dance and has been the resident composer for Made By Katie Green since 2010.

Max is a founding member of the band Escapists who have played Reading and Leeds Festival as well as supporting Manic Street Preachers and Imagine Dragons on their U.K. tours. 

Rachael graduated from Roehampton University with a BA Honors in Dance Studies and formed Kansaze Dance Theatre in 2011 to create innovative contemporary dance physical theatre that responds to socio- cultural and political themes through collaborating with different art forms. Rachael is currently the movement director on the Old Vic 12 2017.  Forth coming projects include movement directing Twilight at the Gate Theatre Notting Hill directed by Ola Ince (January 2018) and working an associate director on the Public Arts program at the National Theatre.

Projects this year include movement directing Cover My Tracks directed by Max Webster at the Old Vic, assistant directing on Caroline or Change at Chichester Festival Theatre and The Step Mother by Githa Sowerby directed by Richard Eyre at the Chichester Festival Theatre  2017 summer season.   She works as a choreographer, lecturer, movement director and assistant director. Rachael has worked with the Young Vic, National Theatre, East London Dance, Wayne McGregor | Random Dance, Big Dance, BBC (working titles films), Roehampton University, Sky Arts, Batalo East (Uganda) and has worked as a visiting lecturer teaching choreography at Middlesex University. Rachel gained a Masters in choreography from Middlesex University 2012, and is a 2015 British Council and Arts Council England international development fund recipient to undertake a research, development and documentation project with Ugandan-based Tabu Flo Dance Company. Rachael is a One Dance UK (ADAD) Trailblazer Fellow 2015-2016.

Commissions include Dance East HOST Festival 2016, Ballet Boys Ignition Festival 2014 & Roehampton University Third Row Dance Company 2013. Achievements include a recipient of Dance UK’s Mentoring Programme 2013/14 & London Hub’s ‘Pitch It!’ bursary 2013.

Shortlists include: Matthew Bourne’s New Adventures Choreographic Award & Choreographic Captures (2011).

Hazel completed her MA in Voice at Royal Central School of Speech & Drama.
 
As a performer her theatre includes: Here We Go, As You Like It (choir), Medea and Death and the King’s Horseman at The National; Here All Night and Zero for Clod Ensemble; The Bakkhai at The Almeida; The Tempest at the RSC; Journey to Freedom for Marginal Voices; Dart’s Love at Tete-aTete Opera Festival; Cave of Wonders and Tamba Tamba for Tiata Fahodzi; White Suit, Dalston Songs (also ROH) and Songs of Exile (also ROH) for Helen Chadwick Song Theatre; The Bacchae at the Royal Exchange, Manchester; Six Characters in Search of an Author for Headlong; The Bacchae for National Theatre of Scotland and the Lincoln Center, Broadway; Fingerprint (ROH2), Critical Mass and Lip for The Shout; Myths and Hymns at the Finborough; Captain Oates’ Left Sock for the Royal Court 50th Anniversary; Mercy Fine for Clean Break; The Lion and the Jewel and Trojan Women – Women of Owu for Collective Artistes; The Sleeping Beauty for the Young Vic, the Barbican and on Broadway; Mourning Song for Black Mime; Maskarade for Talawa; and Carmen Jones and Ain’t Misbehavin’ in the West End.
TV: includes EastEnders, Judge John Deed, Doctors, The Cambridge Spies and The Bill. Films: The Followed. Radio: Something Understood, Death and the King’s Horseman, The Ern & Vern Show, Roots, Solomon Child and Telephone in the Deep Freeze.
Hazel is lead vocalist with jazz band The Rag’n’Bone Club and also a member of a cappella group The Helen Chadwick Group.

As a Voice, Accent & Dialect Coach:
Barber Shop Chronicles, Angels in America, Les Blancs and Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom for the National; Guys & Dolls for Talawa Theatre Company & The Royal Exchange; Caroline, or Change for Chichester Festival Theatre; The Mountaintop and The Emperor for The Young Vic; Half Breed and Girls for Talawa Theatre Company & Soho Theatre; Grimly Handsome, Bodies, Pigs & Dogs and Father Comes Home from the Wars for the Royal Court; Cuttin’ It for Young Vic and The Royal Court; Soul for Royal & Derngate and Hackney Empire; The Rolling Stone for The Orange Tree Theatre and The Royal Exchange Theatre; F*ck The Polar Bears for The Bush; Misanthropes for Old Vic New Voices Festival; Eclipsed and The Rise & Shine of Comrade Fiasco for The Gate; The Initiate for Paines Plough; Hatch, Soap Box and Lie With Me for Talawa Young Peoples Theatre; HAMBA and The Epic Adventure of Nhamo for Tiata Fahodzi.  Guildhall School of Music & Drama, RADA, ALRA, Arts Ed, Royal Central School of Speech & Drama; NT Education Dept.
 
Dialect work for TV: In The Long Run; Poldark; No Offence; Broken; Dr Pepper.
 
Hazel was Resident Director for the premier London production of Dreamgirls 2016-2017
 
Hazel volunteers with Marginal Voices, a charity that helps trafficked women dramatise their experiences.

Heather is a freelance production manager. Pasts show include: Diary of a Madman (Gate Theatre); Carmen (Blackheath Halls); No Villain (Trafalgar Studios and Old Red Lion); Radiant Vermin (59E59, New York, Soho Theatre, London, and Tobacco Factory, Bristol); Iphigenia Quartet (The Gate Theatre); All or Nothing (The Vaults); Firebird (Hampstead Theatre Downstairs & Trafalgar Studios); Giving, The Argument, The Meeting, 36 Phone Calls, Sunspots, Deluge, Deposit, Elephants and State Red (Hampstead Theatre Downstairs); 4000 Days and Grounded (Park Theatre);  Four Minutes Twelve Seconds (Trafalgar Studios); The Session (Soho Theatre); Octagon (Arcola Theatre); And Then Came the Nightjars (Bristol Old Vic Studio and Theatre 503); Valhalla,  Animals & Cinderella and the Beanstalk  (Theatre 503); Women Centre Stage Festival (NT Temporary space). She assisted on Bull (Young Vic).