COLLABORATORS
Our collaborators are an inclusive group of actors, dancers, choreographers, singers, musicians, writers, directors, designers, editors, filmmakers & producers from around the world.
Levi Payne
Levi Payne is an actor based in Doncaster, South Yorkshire, he trained at the university of central Lancashire (2010-2013) and is a member of the regional young actors ensemble with Hull truck Theatre (2017-2018). Since his training Levi has worked for various theatre companies such as Red Ladder, Freedom Studios, M6 and Hive Theatre Company, and has worked in collaboration with Leeds Playhouse and CAST Doncaster.
Theatre credits include: A walk in the park (new live theatre) Scuttlers (CAST Doncaster), Of Mice and Men(CAST Doncaster),Hench (M6 Theatre), without borders(Hull Truck), When We Were Brothers(Freedom Studios) Mother Courage and Her Children (Red Ladder), Jock Night, Outstage us (Hive)
TV credits Include: coronation street (2013 & 2017)
Film credits include: pond life(Open palm Films)
Florence Oliveira
Florence began her journey studying Theatre and Performance at the Guildford School of Acting. After graduating, the London born actress and model has performed in a variety of shows and festivals including intimate theatre performances, voice acted for the Ragged Foils podcast, and created and performed her own immersive characters at large festivals including Boomtown Fair and The Legitimate Peaky Blinders Festival with Dank Parish. She has also modelled for up and coming clothing brands in London and Bristol.
Currently, Florence is studying to recieve her Level 3 personal training certificate in order to teach mindfulness and martial arts for performers with Heartcore. She aims to take her Muay Thai and stage combat experience to the silver screen.
Jackie Whall
Jackie Whall is a self-taught artist who specialises in painting and drawing the human form. Although training as a telecommunications engineer and working in IT for 26 years, art has been a part of her life for as long as she can remember. In 2011 the lure of the paint was too strong and she now prefers to be in front of an easel rather than computer.
Portraying the human body has always held a fascination for Jackie - the methods and mediums have changed but the subject has remained the same. She now works in pencil or oil paints – two very different mediums in effect and use but equally enjoyable. Areas of a figure that many find daunting are seen as a challenge and Jackie relishes the depiction of items such as hands, which she never tucks away to avoid painting.
In her quieter moments Jackie enjoys working with pencil, although the mood can be very dramatic with high contrast between light and dark. Working over the paper in layers, increasing the intensity of tone is a satisfying process, watching the subject take shape under the pencil.
Oils, on the other hand, enable the exploration of the many colours found in skin, combined with the paint’s beautiful ability to blend. Jackie has a particular fascination with colour, and skin tones provide the perfect way to indulge her interest. She prefers to concentrate on the elements of her subject that attract her most, working primarily on the skin tone and the accurate portrayal of the face/figure which emerges from a minimal background. Thin glazes are applied in layers over an under painting, allowing the optical mixing of the pigments, giving the skin a translucency.
Jackie takes inspiration from many sources but she particularly admires work of the Renaissance, Baroque, Pre-Raphaelite for the beautiful depiction of the human figure.
Dean Hutchinson
Living and working with his wife in Doncaster, South Yorkshire, Dean is an experienced Company Director with a wide range of practical business skills and knowledge. In addition to business specific problem solving, he is a certified Master Practionner of NLP, which has provided him with tools to help others overcome their own internal limitations.
Dean has a keen interest in theatre and film, is a follower of Doncaster Knights RFU and presents a weekly radio show, online and on radio, Sine FM.
Rasha Kotaiche
Rasha Kotaiche is a British-Lebanese photographer based in South Yorkshire.
Rasha has been freelancing as a photographer for many years, and has recently started to work more with video and content creation. She specialises in portrait and events photography, but has worked across many genres including documentary and conceptual art during her photography degree.
Aside from digital arts, Rasha is also a co-founder and project manager of art organisation, True Tone. She believes in providing equal opportunity to help young creatives achieve their goal and develop their interests.
Will Gillham
Will trained as an actor at Drama Studio London and has specialised in outdoor touring and children’s theatre.
He took advantage of the quiet period during the pandemic to move more into voice acting and photography to add more strings to his self-employed bow.
When Will is not acting or photographing rehearsals/shows he enjoys tour-guiding in London, cycling, and walking his parents energetic dachshund wherever his feet can take him.
Pierre Flasse is a composer, sound designer, performer and educator based in Manchester. He creates music and sound for theatre and game, and his jazz originals project takes listeners on a dynamic musical journey of cinematic folk jazz. He is a keen collaborator and theatre maker and he acts as the musical director/composer/sound designer for Ordinary Glory - a theatre company for social change. He is the composer's assistant to Sally Potter OBE and as a multi-instrumentalist he performs around the UK in genres spanning jazz to traditional Indian music.
Ellie Whittaker
Ellie Whittaker is an actor and theatre maker from Doncaster. She is currently training at the Jacques Lecoq school of theatre in Paris. Ellie is interested in creating theatre collaboratively; using this process to find moments of joy, surprise and real human connection that challenge both the audience and the artists to push their boundaries. Ellie is a member of The Leeds Playhouse Young Company and has previously performed at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Leeds Playhouse and worked as an Admin and Production Assistant for Third Angel.
Jake Donlan
Jake is a dancer and choreographer from the North of England. He primarily works as a professional Street/Commercial Dancer/ Model
Former band member and choreographer of Yes Lad (2x UK touring band)
Choreographer for multiple fashion runway shows, commercial TV adverts and corporate events across the UK. Worked with clients such as Puma, Adidas and Aldi catalogue.
Sebastian Emmerson
Sebastian trained in drama at Exeter University (graduating in 2020) with an emphasis on movement and physical theatre surrounding trans bodies. He played the lead in the short film 'Birthday Boy' (Channel 4 & Warner Bros) and has since been featured in works at The Leeds Playhouse, HOME, and the Bush Theatre.
Sebastian's ongoing mission is to help normalise and destigmatize trans bodies and queer expression in theatre, film and television.
Morgandy is a stage and production based in Yorkshire. Originally from Montreal, Canada she is a graduate of Concordia University's theatre program. She began her journey as a performer before discovering a passion for the management side of theatre. Never shying away from a challenge, her favourite projects are new works and festivals. She is easily recognizable thanks to her brightly coloured hair which surely doesn't match the picture by now because she changes it so often. Her recent projects include Mayflies (York Theatre Royal) and All Our Goals (Utopia Theatre).
Micheal Lynch
Michael is an actor, mime-artist, physical performer, movement director, filmographer, photographer and artistic director of physical theatre company Project Lockout.
He became a part of Frantic Assembly back in 2015 as part of Frantic Ignition, and now a graduate of East 15 Physical Theatre (2019), Michael has developed particular interest in theatrical cinematics. In combination with electric physicality, Michael endeavours to develop art through live and digital mediums.
Through Project Lockout, Michael began running workshops in 2017 focusing on celebrating movement and empowering individuals through free-writing; including two large workshop events named The Creation Day, which culminated into two half-hour films. He has also led workshops for Oxford University (2018) and headed Movement Direction at Theatre Royal Stratford East (2019) for their National Connections company.
Michael’s most recent directorial work, The Maniac Complex, headlined the Southend Fringe Festival 2019.
He has also recently finished touring On Edge with Justice In Motion, a parkour performance piece highlighting the issue of modern day slavery.
Andrew Lyle Pinnock
Andrew is a Dancer and Actor from Manchester. He trained throughout his youth and eventually went to study dance at The Hammond School in Chester. Since graduating he joined the West End Thiller Live cast of which he also toured internationally. He has also modelled for Armani, Nike, Adidas, Puma, New Look, Regatta, Biome Energy Drinks, Boss and many more.
He has also had the opportunity to work on the 02 Brit awards, X factor and Britains got talent and shared the stage with giant artists such as Kanye West, Robbie Williams, Mable, and Lewis Capaldi. He has also worked for many commercial companies such as Honda & Diet Coke and has recently completed filming for Disney.
Based in the Northwest, Designer, Maker and Scenic artist, Lena Kennard graduated from LIPA with a First Class Honours Degree in Theatre and Performance Design in 2019. She has since been working on various creative projects with a goal of creating a greener practice for herself while working with inspiring and innovative people.
Kate trained at Northern School of Contemporary Dance, and since 2013 has worked as a performer, choreographer, theatre maker, teacher and co-Artistic Director of award-winning dance theatre performance collective Gracefool Collective. The company has been collaboratively devising together for over ten years, touring two professional works nationally and internationally to critical acclaim, and working regularly on choreographic, directing and teaching commissions with professionals, students and non-professionals. Gracefool opened the prestigious National Showcase for Dance in 2019 and was part of BBC’s Dance Passion 2019; their performance of This Is Not A Wedding was voted by the BBC as one of the top 9 amazing moments of the day. Previous work, This Really Is Too Much, toured across the UK and internationally, including a 4 & 5 star run at the Edinburgh Fringe, gaining the Underbelly Untapped Award for ‘innovative new writing.’ In 2018 This Really Is Too Much toured Sweden and won the Stockholm Fringe Grand Prix Award for Excellence in Performance Art. In 2022 the company was invited to participate in a British Council funded residency, Dancing the Horizontal, to research co-creation in public spaces in collaboration with Dance Well/ CSC Dancehouse in Bassano del Grappa. The project also included an artistic research exchange with Italian artist Silvia Gribaudi.
Gracefool’s most recent choreographic project, Kick Off, was a large-scale outdoor performance exploring the history of women’s football and activism, featuring a cast of 27 women and girls from across Leeds aged 10-85. The project was co-commissioned by Leeds 2023 and Leeds Dance Partnership and featured original live music and direction from acclaimed composer Beibei Wang.
Kate is a regular collaborator with Liverpool-based Art-Pop band Stealing Sheep. She has choreographed four live shows for them; Luma Disco, (for Manchester International Festival), Suffragette Summer (an outdoor promenade performance for festivals across the UK) WOW Machine (an immersive music and dance experience inspired by electronic music pioneer Delia Derbyshire), and most recently ‘Eurotopia’ - a live show for the 2023 Eurovision Festival opening concert, performed for a crowd of 20,000 at the ‘Eurovision Village’ in Liverpool. She’s worked as a devising performer for companies such as Made by Katie Green and Company of Others and with LA-based performance artist Trulee Hall in a site-specific contemporary opera commissioned by the Zabludowicz Collection in London.
Kate teaches regularly at conservatoire and HE level including as a guest teacher and choreographer at Northern School of Contemporary Dance, Edge Hill University and York St John’s Uni. She teaches choreography masterclasses and movement workshops nationally and internationally including in Sweden (Kulturskolan Örnsköldsvik, Härnösands Folkhögskola) and Colombia (Academia de Ballet Allegro, Cali, Espacio 2ES, Bogota). She also works across community settings, facilitating movement sessions and co-creating performance work with a diverse range of groups. In 2022/23 she was the movement director for Streetwise Opera’s Re:Sound Manchester project, developing movement for 9 micro operas co-created and performed by adults with lived experience of homelessness, performed at The Royal Festival Hall accompanied by the BBC Concert Orchestra. In Autumn 2023 she worked with Commonwealth Theatre as co-choreographer and rehearsal director for their show ‘Fast, Fast, Slow’, a live performance in the style of a fashion show, created with local non-professional performers of all ages from across Blackburn for the Blackburn Textiles Biennale.
Since 2021 Kate has been a lead artist on Yorkshire Dance’s ‘Company of People’, an ongoing project in collaboration with Performing Gender; running regular creative dance groups with communities across Leeds aged 10 - 90 and co-creating work with them as a touring performance company. In 2023 the company toured to Boulevard Festival in The Netherlands and Gender Bender Festival in Bologna.
Hannah Clayton
Hannah Clayton studied Psychology at Manchester Metropolitan University, since graduating she has worked as a medical coordinator and with special educational needs at Loreto College.
Hannah works with a diverse range of needs, including Autism, ADHD, Dyslexia, Physical Disabilities and Social, Emotional and Mental Health needs. Hannah’s dissertation research focused on masculinity, male suicide and mental health, focusing on the stigma associated with males accessing mental health services and the concerning rise in male suicide statistics in the UK.
Hannah has collaborated with The Growth House to share her research findings and introduce and inspire positive masculinity and mental health creatively into the arts.
Tommo Fowler
Tommo is a Sheffield-based dramaturg for text & production.
He’s a Supported Artist at Sheffield Theatres, co-founder of award-winning dramaturgy company RoughHewn, and a Board Member of the Dramaturgs’ Network.
He’s been dramaturg on plays from fringe to West End, taught on the MA Playwriting at City University, and has been a script reader for theatres including the Royal Court, Royal Exchange, Sheffield Theatres & Traverse.
Jonny Wakeford
Jonny trained at The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama. His recent credits include - Jonny in Falling (The Sherlocks - Music Video), Toad in Wind in the Willows (Broadway Theatre, Letchworth), Angus/Lennox in Macbeth (Ductac Theatre, Dubai), John/Starkey in Peter Pan (Arabian Gulf Tour), Gentleman of the Press in The Man of Mode (Derby LIVE!), Ensemble in A Pacifists Guide to the War on Cancer (Complicité for National Theatre Studios).