Company

Jessie Baek
Kazego Puppeteer

Jasmine Bayes
Swing Kazego Puppeteer

Boaz Chad
Swing Kazego Puppeteer

Ka Long Kelvin Chan
Kanta/Kazego Puppeteer

Jasmine Chiu
Kazego Puppeteer

Elizabeth Chu
Kazego Puppeteer

Andrew Futaishi
Hiroshi/Kazego Puppeteer

Yojiro Ichikawa
Kazego Principal Puppeteer

Arina Ii
Miss Hara/Kazego Principal Puppeteer

Anna Kato
Kazego Puppeteer

Heather Lai
Swing Kazego Puppeteer

Matthew Leonhart
Kazego Principal Puppeteer

Mei Mac
Mei

Amanda Maud
Nurse Emiko/Kazego Puppeteer

Ai Ninomiya
Kaze no koe / Singer

Yuki Nitta
Kazego Puppeteer

Ami Okumura Jones
Satsuki

Bright Ong
Kazego Puppeteer

Mark Takeshi Ota
Kazego Puppeteer

Daniel Phung
Swing Kazego Puppeteer

Emily Piggford
Yasuko/Kazego Puppeteer

Si Rawlinson
Kazego Puppeteer

Gun Suen
Kazego Puppeteer

Dai Tabuchi
Tatsuo/Kazego Puppeteer

Jacqueline Tate
Granny Ogaki/Kazego Puppeteer

Shaofan Wilson
Kazego Puppeteer

Naomi Yang
Tsukiko/Kazego Puppeteer

Jessie Baek
Kazego Puppeteer
RSC DEBUT SEASON: My Neighbour Totoro.
TRAINED: Rose Bruford College.
THEATRE INCLUDES: The Apology (Arcola); The Visit (National Theatre); Wild Goose Dreams (Theatre Royal Bath/Ustinov Theatre); One Day Maybe (Hull City of Culture/dreamthinkspeak).
TELEVISION INCLUDES: Bridgerton (Netflix); Secret Life of Boys (CBBC).

Jasmine Bayes
Swing Kazego Puppeteer
RSC DEBUT SEASON: My Neighbour Totoro.
TRAINED: Guildford School of Acting.
THEATRE INCLUDES: In-Nocentes by Michael Keegan-Dolan, Tarantiseismic by Damien Jalet, Used to Be Blonde by Sharon Eyal (Sadler’s Wells NYDC).
TELEVISION INCLUDES: Platform 7 (Dancing Ledge Productions ITV/ITVx); Father Brown (BBC).
VOICE WORK: Gina Chen’s Violet Made of Thorns (audiobook).

Boaz Chad
Swing Kazego Puppeteer
RSC: My Neighbour Totoro (original production 2022/2023).
TRAINED: Guildford School of Acting.
THEATRE INCLUDES: Death Note (Lyric Theatre); The Land of Might Have Been (Buxton International Festival/Norwich Theatre); Fiddler on the Roof, La Cage aux Folles (HK Repertory); Fame, Melodía (HKYAF); La Bayadère (Bavarian State Ballet); Otello, The Land of Smiles, Faust (Opera HK); The Tsar’s Bride (Bolshoi Opera).

Ka Long Kelvin Chan
Kanta/Kazego Puppeteer
RSC DEBUT SEASON: My Neighbour Totoro.
TRAINED: East 15 Acting School.
THEATRE INCLUDES: Atom Boi (Ensemble Not Found/VAULT Festival); Choking Game (Bloomsbury Festival).

Jasmine Chiu
Kazego Puppeteer
RSC: My Neighbour Totoro (original production 2022/2023).
UNDERSTUDY: Nurse Emiko/Miss Hara.
THEATRE INCLUDES: Dragon Spring Phoenix Rise (The Shed New York); Hairy (Spymonkey); Wild (How It Ended/Unicorn Theatre); At Broken Bridge (Ellandar Productions).
SCREEN INCLUDES: Jurassic World Dominion (Universal Pictures); Father Brown (BBC); Knuckles (Paramount).
DANCE/MOVEMENT INCLUDES: Company Wayne McGregor, Akram Khan Company, The Squash (Anthea Hamilton/Tate Britain); Primetime (Southbank Centre); Untold (Julia Cheng and Alex Ho/Muziektheater Transparant); VORTEX (Ulf Langheinrich/Epidemic Paris).

Elizabeth Chu
Kazego Puppeteer
RSC DEBUT SEASON: My Neighbour Totoro.
UNDERSTUDY: Mei.
TRAINED: Originally from Hong Kong, Elizabeth graduated with first-class honours from the Guildford School of Acting.
THEATRE INCLUDES: 4000 Miles (Chichester Festival Theatre); Lesbian Space Crime (Soho Theatre); Much Ado About Nothing (UK tour).
TELEVISION INCLUDES: Holby City (BBC), BAFTA-winning short-form programme How to Be a Person (The Cornershop/E4).

Andrew Futaishi
Hiroshi/Kazego Puppeteer
RSC: My Neighbour Totoro (original production 2022/2023).
THEATRE INCLUDES: Kensuke's Kingdom (The Hawth); Onigoro Valley (Royal Court); Immersive Dracula (The Metal Works); Love Suicides of Sonezaki (Wilton’s Music Hall).
FILM INCLUDES: Safeguard, Les Flaneuses, All That Remains.
VIDEOGAMES INCLUDE: Baldur's Gate 3, Rise of the Ronin, The New World, Assassin’s Creed, Fable Legends, Zombies Run.

Yojiro Ichikawa
Kazego Principal Puppeteer
RSC: My Neighbour Totoro (original production 2022/2023).
TRAINED: Yojiro trained in a number of institutions in the UK, US and Japan including Arts Educational Schools London, Drama Centre London, Complicité, National Theatre Studio, Lincoln Center Theater, New York Theatre Workshop and HB Studio.
THEATRE INCLUDES: As Performer: Death Note – The Musical (London Palladium/Lyric Theatre); Not Yet Midnight (Royal Court); Marco Polo - A New Musical (Shaw); The Red Candle - Mermaids in the East (Brunel Museum). As Director: Galaxy Train, Pearl and Dagger (The Other Palace); Urinetown (Bridewell); Ordinary Days (The Access Theater NY/Bridewell); Tell Me on a Sunday (New National Theatre Tokyo, Yomiuri Drama Award); Letter from the Sea (Polish Theatre Bydgoszcz/New National Theatre Tokyo); John & Jen (Yomiuri Otemachi Hall Tokyo); The View Upstairs (Nihon Seinenkan Hall Tokyo); Ondine (Clifftown). As Translator/Adaptor: The View Upstairs (Nihon Seinenkan Hall Tokyo, Odajima Drama Translation Award); Pacific Overtures (Nissei Theatre Tokyo); Titanic (Theatre Cocoon Tokyo); Tell Me on a Sunday (New National Theatre Tokyo); Yojiro is Artistic Director of Théatre Lapis.
VOCAL COACHING: Yojiro works internationally as a vocal coach and vocal supervisor and his clients range from young artists to established pop singers and actors in musical theatre. Theatre as Vocal Supervisor includes: Titanic (Theatre Cocoon Tokyo); Tell Me on a Sunday (New National Theatre Tokyo); Tinkerbell in Shoji-land (Tokyo Metropolitan Theatre); The Red Candle (Brunel Museum); Letter from the Sea (Polish Theatre Bydgoszcz/New National Theatre Tokyo).
CULTURAL CONSULTATION: Yojiro was Japanese Vocal Consultant on the original production of My Neighbour Totoro (RSC/Barbican), Japanese Language Consultant in George Takei’s Allegiance (Charing Cross), and Japanese Cultural Consultant in Death Note – The Musical (London Palladium/Lyric).
TELEVISION INCLUDES: Giri/Haji (BBC/Netflix); Invasion (Apple TV); Fugitive: The Curious Case of Carlos Ghosn (Netflix).
FILM INCLUDES: The Masterpiece of Tamagata, Zansho, Mr. Holmes, 47 Ronin.

Arina Ii
Miss Hara/Kazego Principal Puppeteer
RSC: My Neighbour Totoro (original production 2022/2023).
UNDERSTUDY: Tsukiko.
THEATRE INCLUDES: Spitting Image Live (Phoenix Theatre); Avenue Q (UK tour); The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee (UK tour); Lakme (Opera Holland Park); The Importance of Being Earnest (European tour).
SCREEN INCLUDES: Puppeteer for: The Little Mermaid, Snow White (Disney live action); Ghostbusters Afterlife Sequel (Columbia Pictures); Wicked (Universal). Voice artist for: Ron’s Gone Wrong (Locksmith Animation); Dragon Striker (Disney+).
AUDIO INCLUDES: Jenny the Doctor’s Daughter. Audiobooks: Dark Tales, Before the Coffee Gets Cold, The Accidental Inheritance, Star Wars Hunters: Battle for the Arena.
VIDEO GAMES INCLUDE: Dead Island II, Xenoblade Chronicles II, Lego Marvel Super Heroes 2, Star Wars: Hunters, Steep, Cyberpunk.

Anna Kato
Kazego Puppeteer
RSC DEBUT SEASON: My Neighbour Totoro.
UNDERSTUDY: Yasuko.
TRAINED: Masters in Acting at East 15 Acting School, London. Anna was awarded an endorsement by the Arts Council, England in 2020 under the Global Talent Visa Scheme which allows her to work as a professional actor in the UK.
WORK: Anna is a Japanese Actor who was raised in Tokyo, Houston, and Dubai. Her recent credits include the web series DEFY.

Heather Lai
Swing Kazego Puppeteer
RSC DEBUT SEASON: My Neighbour Totoro.
TRAINED: The Curious School of Puppetry.
THEATRE INCLUDES: As Performer/Puppeteer: Would You Bet Against Us? (Birmingham Rep); World Factory (Young Vic/New Wolsey/HOME Manchester/Attenborough Arts Centre/Cambridge Junction); Dr Faustus (St Sepulchre’s Chapel); The Sims Family (Central Town Hall, Hong Kong). As Writer/Performer: Tea Time Story (Camden Solo Festival/Edinburgh Festival/VAULT Festival. Tea Time Story was published in 2014). As Director: Welcome to Nowhere! (Tristan Bates).
TELEVISION: As Performer/Puppeteer: Knuckles (Paramount+).
OTHER: Assistant Director for the Hans Christian Andersen Museum audio tour (Odense Denmark).

Matthew Leonhart
Kazego Principal Puppeteer
RSC: My Neighbour Totoro (original production 2022/2023).
UNDERSTUDY: Tatsuo.
THEATRE INCLUDES: Invisible Cities (59 Productions/RAMBERT/global tour, dir. Leo Warner); Mountains: The Dreams of Lily Kwok (Manchester Royal Exchange, dir. Jennifer Tang); Peach Blossom Fan (REDCAT, Los Angeles, dir. Chen Shi-Zheng).
PUPPETRY INCLUDES: Invisible Glass (REDCAT, Los Angeles); The Lost Dreamachine (HK Fringe Club); Aurora (Greenpeace Project); Sinkin’ Soon (Norah Jones MV); Out of the Rain (The Duhks MV); Protagonist (Sundance Film, dir. Jessica Yu); Too Loud a Solitude (Tuck & Go Films). Puppetry design: Sick To My Bones, May You Never Die.
TELEVISION: Tim Terkel in Berlin Station (season 2).
FILM INCLUDES: An Enemy Within, As I Am, The Accidental Spy. Matthew has performed in many award-winning short films such as May You Never Die and Emily, both directed by Guy Davies.
OTHER: Matthew's voice can be heard in over 20 cartoons and video games including the main villain Yang in the critically acclaimed game Sifu. In 2024, his voice will be heard in two major video game series. He's also a former VJ for the popular Asia music TV show Channel V.

Mei Mac
Mei
RSC: My Neighbour Totoro (original production 2022/2023. Olivier Award nomination for Best Actress and WhatsOnStage nomination for Best Performer).
THEATRE INCUDES: Untitled F*ck M*ss S**gon Play (Young Vic/Royal Exchange); Elizabeth (Gate Theatre); Five Plays – Tongue (Young Vic); The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (Bridge Theatre); A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre); Under the Umbrella (Belgrade/Tamasha/Yellow Earth Theatre); The Hundred and One Dalmatians, The BFG (Birmingham Rep); Jackie the Baboon (Brunskill and Grimes); Romeo and Juliet (Papergang Theatre); Summer Times (West Yorkshire Playhouse); Peter Pan in Scarlett (Oxford Playhouse/New Vic Theatre); Snow Child (York Theatre Royal); If The Lights Are Too Bright (Ovalhouse); Princess Mononoke (AiiA Theater Tokyo/Whole Hog Theatre/Studio Ghibli); Wild Swans (Young Vic/American Repertory Theatre); Backbone Bistro (Bush Theatre).
TELEVISION INCLUDES: The Coronation Concert 2023, Comedy Central’s East Mode, Call The Midwife.
FILM INCLUDES: Sacrifice, My Country.

Amanda Maud
Nurse Emiko/Kazego Puppeteer
RSC DEBUT SEASON: My Neighbour Totoro.
UNDERSTUDY: Granny Ogaki.
TRAINED: New York University.
THEATRE INCLUDES: A Manchester Girlhood, Blueprint Medea, Eleanor Marx: A Life in Movement (Pascal Theatre Co); Dangerous Games (Teatro Vivo); The Creek (Arthouse Ventures); Love’s Labour’s Lost, Becoming Berenice (Theatre Forge); Jane Austen at Prinny’s Palace (Theatre2020/Brooklyn Public Library USA); Asian Pirate Musical (Vault Festival); Tamburlaine, Last Days of Limehouse (New Earth); The Evidence (New Perspectives Theatre UK); Belle of Bonavista Bay (Forest Forge); Macbeth (Chester Gateway); Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, Midsummer, Macbeth, Othello (New Perspectives Theatre USA); The Crow Scarers, Entrenched, Trail of Tears (Twisted Yarn).
FILM: Zack Snyder’s Justice League (Warner Brothers).
RADIO: The Odyssey Project - Telemachus (BBC Radio 4).

Ai Ninomiya
Kaze no koe / Singer
RSC: My Neighbour Totoro (original production 2022/2023).
THEATRE INCLUDES: Les Misérables (Japan tour); CHESS the musical (Japan tour).
TELEVISION INCLUDES: WILD HEROES (Nippon Television Network Corporation); UTAGE! (Tokyo Broadcasting System Television, INC).

Yuki Nitta
Kazego Puppeteer
RSC DEBUT SEASON: My Neighbour Totoro.
TRAINED: United Performers Studio, Japan, and graduating in 2020. He furthered his training at Giles Foreman Centre for Acting.
THEATRE INCLUDES: This is Yuki’s theatrical debut.

Ami Okumura Jones
Satsuki
RSC: My Neighbour Totoro (original production 2022/2023).
TRAINED: East 15 Acting School.
THEATRE INCLUDES: Scandaltown (Lyric Hammersmith); Wendy & Peter Pan (Leeds Playhouse); As You Like It, Hamlet (Watermill Theatre); Treasure Island (Bolton Octagon); WITCH WITCH WITCH (Camden People’s Theatre); FIVE:EIGHT (Bernie Grant Arts Centre).
TELEVISION INCLUDES: Rebus, EastEnders, Midsomer Murders, Kitti Katz.
FILM: Round Round Baby Round Round (short).
RADIO: Fukushima (BBC).

Bright Ong
Kazego Puppeteer
RSC DEBUT SEASON: My Neighbour Totoro.
TRAINED: The Curious School of Puppetry.
THEATRE INCLUDES: Idiots Assemble: Spitting Image The Musical (Avalon Comedy); Macbeth -Shakespeare in the Park, Forbidden City: Portrait of an Empress, The LKY Musical, Pinocchio The Musical (Singapore Repertory Theatre); Urinetown The Musical, The Pillowman (Pangdemonium, Singapore); 2 Houses (Georgetown Festival, Malaysia); Lord of the Flies (Blank Space Theatre/Sight Lines Productions, Singapore); Especially on Birthdays (The Paperboats/Australia tour); BORDERS (+3 Collective/South Korea and Ireland); mOOn ballOOn (Esplanade and Patch Theatre, Australia).
TELEVISION INCLUDES: 7 Penjuru (Suria, Singapore), This Land is Mine (Channel 5, Singapore).
FILM INCLUDES: 2 Boys and a Mermaid (Weiyu Films), Balik Kampung (Independent), Zombies Saved My Cold Dead Heart (We The People), Di Akhir Garisan (Suria, Singapore).

Mark Takeshi Ota
Kazego Puppeteer
RSC: My Neighbour Totoro (original production 2022/2023).
UNDERSTUDY: Hiroshi.
THEATRE INCLUDES: Garden of Words (Park Theatre); How to Hold Your Breath (Royal Court); Amaterasu - Out of the Cave (Arcola); The Art of Gaman (Theatre503); Into the Numbers (Finborough Theatre); Poker Face (King’s Head).
FILM INCLUDES: Little English.
VIDEO GAMES INCLUDE: The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles, Baldurs Gate 3, Dead Island 2, Live a Live, Company of Heroes 3.

Daniel Phung
Swing Kazego Puppeteer
RSC DEBUT SEASON: My Neighbour Totoro.
THEATRE INCLUDES: Romeo and Juliet (Rebecca Frecknall/Almeida); Message in a Bottle (Sadler’s Wells/ZooNation/Europe tour); EchoLand (Rich Mix).
FILM INCLUDES: Everybody’s Talking About Jamie (Amazon); Been So Long (Netflix).
TELEVISION: Rain Dogs (HBO/BBC).

Emily Piggford
Yasuko/Kazego Puppeteer
RSC DEBUT SEASON: My Neighbour Totoro.
TRAINED: BFA in Theatre from the University of Victoria; an alum of Norman Jewison’s prestigious Canadian Film Centre’s Actors Conservatory.
THEATRE INCLUDES: Emily is a multidisciplinary theatre artist with a background in movement-based theatre (Impulse Theatre, SNAFU Dance Theatre) and toured internationally with the revolutionary film-noir production, Helen Lawrence (Canadian Stage).
TELEVISION INCLUDES: Robyn Hood (from Director X for Global/StackTV); Davey & Jonesie’s Locker (Amazon/Hulu); The Umbrella Academy, The Midnight Club, Hemlock Grove (Netflix); Malory Towers (CBBC); Silent Witness (BBC). Emily is a Canadian Screen Award-nominated actor.

Si Rawlinson
Kazego Puppeteer
RSC: My Neighbour Totoro (original production 2022/2023).
THEATRE/CHOREOGRAPHY INCLUDES: Saving Face (The Place/Leicester Curve); Hand Me Down (Nottingham Playhouse/The Place/Leicester Curve/Theatre Deli Sheffield); Red Ink (The Place/Sadler’s Wells/Southbank Centre/Rich Mix); Ink (Leicester Curve/Southbank Centre/China Changing Festival); Inherent (Sadler’s Wells/Leicester Curve/Birmingham Rep). As Freelance Movement Artist and Dancer: This Is An Island? (Sage Gateshead/Barbican); Every Dollar is a Soldier/With Money You’re a Dragon (Kakilang); HOME X (Barbican); Wrong (Leicester Curve/Roundhouse/BAC); The Roof (National Theatre’s LIFT Festival); London 2012 Olympic Festival, Consumorphosis (Sadler’s Wells).
OTHER: Si has performed with artists, in advertising and on film, including Marvel Disney, John Lewis, Alesandra Seutin, Marso Riviere, and Gary Clarke. Si is Associate Artistic Director at Kakilang.

Gun Suen
Kazego Puppeteer
RSC DEBUT SEASON: My Neighbour Totoro.
UNDERSTUDY: Kanta.
TRAINED: Gun was born and raised in Hong Kong, and has trained with Gecko Theatre, Frantic Assembly, Mocap Vault and Marcello Magni. Gun specialises in physical theatre, mask work and puppetry. He is a movement choreographer as well as a mocap and combat performer.
THEATRE INCLUDES: NotHK (Untapped Award & Scotsman Fringe First Award Winner); Astra (Brighton Fringe award winner); The Lost Colour (Half a String/UK tour); A Bouffon Play about Hong Kong (Papergang Theatre); Lost Adults, L’Orphelin 2.0, Papa (Théâtre de la Feuille/Asian tour). He was nominated for Best Actor award at The Hong Kong Theatre Libre and Performer of the Year at IATC (HK) Critics Awards in both 2018 and 2019.
DIRECTING AND CHOREOGRAPHY INCLUDES: Walking in the Amazon, The Tale of Robin Hood, Red Boat (Aftec) and Midsummer Madrigals (Singfest).

Dai Tabuchi
Tatsuo/Kazego Puppeteer
RSC: My Neighbour Totoro (original production 2022/2023).
THIS SEASON: My Neighbour Totoro.
THEATRE INCLUDES: Usagi Yojimbo (Southwark Playhouse); The Over Coat (Geck/world tour); Paradise: Ruhr Triennale Project (Theatre Rites); The Over Coat (Gecko/Lyric Hammersmith); Twin Stars (Unicorn Theatre); Tin Tin (West End/tour); The Long and the Short and the Tall (Sheffield Theatres); Our Little Destabilisation (Cabotine Company); Live in Tokyo (Pino e gli Anticrpi); The Suspension of the Drive (Knitting Company); Cymbeline in Closed Up (Shakespeare’s Globe). TELEVISION INCLUDES: Industry (Bad Wolf/HBO/BBC); Invasion (SDTA/Apple TV+); Giri/Haji (Sister Pictures/Netflix); The Crown (Left Bank Pictures/Netflix); Nazi Megastructures (National Geographic); The Feed, Good Omens (Amazon Studios); You, Me & Them (Hat Trick Productions); Cloud Upon the Slope (NHK/Japan); Mr Yamaguchi (BBC); Masamune the Sword Master (One on One TV).
FILM INCLUDES: Blade of the 47th Ronin, The Phantom of the Open, Tomoko, Spectre, The Scopia Effect, All That Remains, The Angel’s Share, 47 Ronin, Shanghai, Basho, Chosyu Five, Munich, Kizuna, Office Party.
VOICE WORK INCLUDES: Hanzo in Chuggington (CBeebies/Disney in UK and US); Hiro and Kenji in Thomas & Friends: All Engines Go - Race for the Sodor Cup (UK).

Jacqueline Tate
Granny Ogaki/Kazego Puppeteer
RSC: My Neighbour Totoro (original production 2022/2023).
THEATRE INCLUDES: Murder on the Orient Express (Chichester Festival Theatre); Les
Misérables (Queen’s); South Pacific in Concert (Cadogan Hall); Allegro (Southwark Playhouse); Avenue Q (national tour/Lyric Hong Kong); South Pacific (Barbican/National tour); Avenue Q (Gielgud/Wyndham’s/national tour); The Phantom of the Opera (Her Majesty’s); My Fair Lady (Esplanade, Singapore); The Pirates of Penzance, The Merry Widow (national/international tours); Bernstein’s Mass (London Symphony Orchestra/Barbican); Evita (Zouk Mikael, Beirut).
TELEVISION INCLUDES: East Mode, EastEnders.

Shaofan Wilson
Kazego Puppeteer
RSC: My Neighbour Totoro (original production 2022/2023).
UNDERSTUDY: Satsuki.
THEATRE INCLUDES: Pool (No Water) (Royal Court); Winter Wonderland (Soho Theatre); The Welkin, All of Us, The Ocean at the End of the Lane (National Theatre); The Secret Love Life of Ophelia (Greenwich Theatre); Oh for F*ck’s Sake (I’m in Love with You) (Nottingham Playhouse); Girls (The Old Market Brighton); Pappyshow Cabaret (Battersea Arts Centre).

Naomi Yang
Tsukiko/Kazego Puppeteer
RSC DEBUT SEASON: My Neighbour Totoro.
THEATRE INCLUDES: Top Girls (National Theatre); World Factory (Young Vic); The Sugar-Coated Bullets of the Bourgeoisie (Arcola).
FILM & TELEVISION INCLUDE: Naomi has recently finished filming season two of DI Ray (ITVX) and Nightsleeper (BBC). Prior to this she could be seen as Dr Mae Zhang in Maternal (ITV1). Other credits include: Wolfe, Brassic (Sky); Peaky Blinders, The Salisbury Poisonings, New Blood (BBC); Brave New World (Peacock); Chimerica (Channel 4); A Confession, Deep Water, Endeavour, DCI Banks (ITV). Naomi first appeared on film in the BAFTA-nominated feature Lilting (directed by Hong Khaou).
Creative Team
STEVEN ATKINSON
Associate sound designer
AILIN CONANT
Associate director
NICOLA T. CHANG
Sound effects & soundscape designer
DAVID GALLAGHER
Orchestral manager
TONY GAYLE
Sound designer
PIPPA HILL
Dramaturg
JOE HISAISHI
Executive Producer & Composer
JESSICA HUNG HAN YUN
Lighting Designer
PHELIM McDERMOTT
Director
MERVYN MILLAR
Puppetry Associate
HANNAH MILLER
Casting Director
GRISELDA YORKE
Executive Producer
TOM MORTON-SMITH
Adaptor/English Lyrics
KIMIE NAKANO
Costume Designer
ISOBEL NICOLSON
Associate Set Designer
BRUCE O’NEIL
Music Supervisor
TAMYKHA PATTERSON
Associate Lighting Designer & Lighting Programmer
TOM PYE
Production Designer
FINN ROSS
Video Designer
ANDREA SCOTT
Video Designer
ISKANDAR R. SHARAZUDDIN
Resident Director
MATT SMITH
Music Director
WILL STUART
Orchestrator & Arranger
BASIL TWIST
Puppetry Designer and Director
YOU-RI YAMANAKA
Movement Director
KENICHI YODA
Producer
IMPROBABLE
NIPPON TV
STUDIO GHIBLI
ROYAL SHAKESPEARE COMPANY (RSC)
STEVEN ATKINSON
Associate sound designer
RSC: As Sound Designer: Henry VI: Rebellion, Wars of the Roses, Measure for Measure (Stratford/UK tour/Barbican, London), Maydays, Myth, The Earthworks, Fall of the Kingdom Rise of the Foot Soldier, Always Orange. As Associate Sound Designer: My Neighbour Totoro (original production 2022/2023), King Lear (Barbican, London/BAM, New York).
ART EXHIBITIONS AS SOUND DESIGNER: Interview Prototype (The Lightbox/Ingram Collection) Purchase Prize Winner 2017; Defence Cascade (Compton Verney); Maladapted (Baert Gallery); A Tea Journey (Compton Verney); Absolute Pressure (Ribot Gallery).
FILM: As Sound Supervisor: Henry VI: Part One.
AILIN CONANT
Associate director
RSC: My Neighbour Totoro (original production 2022/2023). Ailin is a Japanese-American director based in the UK. She is founding Artistic Director of Theatre Témoin, through which she’s directed commissions for the Lowry, Everyman Cheltenham, Without Walls, and others; and has directed productions in Rwanda, Israel, Kashmir, Lebanon, France, and the USA. She has directed freelance for companies including the Royal Court, Bush Theatre, New Earth, Theater503, Kansas City Rep (USA), Ayyam Al-Masrah (Gaza), Clown Me In (Lebanon), The Catalyst (Switzerland), and Satellite Théâtre (Montreal). Ailin is passionate about working for a more inclusive future for our industry, and is on the board of Stage Directors UK and Directors’ Charitable Foundation, and is a member of Migrants in Theatre.
NICOLA T. CHANG
Sound effects & soundscape designer
RSC: My Neighbour Totoro (original production 2022/23), All Mirth and No Matter. Nicola T. Chang is a composer/sound designer for stage and screen. She was the Composer/Sound Designer on the 2020/21 Old Vic 12 cohort and a current BAFTA Connect Member (Film Composer). She was a co-winner of the Evening Standard Future Theatre Fund (Audio Design) in 2021.
THEATRE INCLUDES: As Performer: Fantastically Great Women Who Changed the World (Assistant MD/Keys 2/Percussion); Six the Musical (Deputy MD/Keys 1); STOMP (West End/world tour). She has performed with the Chinese orchestra, the Women of the World Orchestra and the London Film Music Orchestra, and at venues such as the Royal Albert Hall, the Royal Festival Hall and Shakespeare’s Globe. She currently works with companies including National Youth Theatre, Rambert, British Youth Musical Theatre, National Youth Ballet and House of Absolute. Other theatre credits include: For Black Boys Who Have Considered Suicide When the Hue Gets Too Heavy (Apollo West End/Royal Court/New Diorama); Kerry Jackson (National Theatre); The Real and Imagined History of the Elephant Man (Nottingham Playhouse/Blackpool Grand/Coventry Belgrade); TRIBE (Young Vic); Of the Cut (Young Vic); The Ministry of Lesbian Affairs (Soho); The Swell (Orange Tree); Little Baby Jesus (Orange Tree/JMK 2019); Feral Monsters (National Theatre of Wales/UK tour); Top Girls (Liverpool Everyman); NEST (LEEDS 2023); Macbeth (Leeds Playhouse); Derren Brown's Unbelievable (Criterion West End/Mercury Colchester/Manchester Palace); Dizidax (Almeida); White Pearl (Royal Court); Miss Julie (Chester Storyhouse); The Death of Ophelia (Shakespeare’s Globe).
DAVID GALLAGHER
Orchestral manager
RSC: My Neighbour Totoro (original production 2022/2023), Matilda The Musical (West End/tour).
THEATRE INCLUDES: Oklahoma (Wyndham’s Theatre/Young Vic); Dr Semmelweis (Harold Pinter Theatre); The Secret Life of Bees (Tamy Faye, Spring Awakening (Almeida); Local Hero (Chichester Festival Theatre/Edinburgh Lyceum); Girl from the North Country (UK and Ireland tour/Noël Coward Theatre/Gielgud Theatre/Old Vic); Identical (Nottingham Playhouse/The Lowry); Come From Away (Phoenix Theatre); 42nd Street (Theatre Royal Drury Lane); Queen Anne (Theatre Royal Haymarket); From Here to Eternity (Shaftesbury Theatre); A Christmas Carol, Groundhog Day, The American Clock, Sylvia, Fanny and Alexander, The Divide, The Lorax, Future Conditional, The Bridge Project, Cinderella (Old Vic); Miss Saigon, She Loves Me, Guys and Dolls (Sheffield Crucible); NHS The Musical (Plymouth Theatre Royal); The Wizard of Oz (Leeds Playhouse); The King and I, Jackie the Musical, Bernadette Peters, Crush, Play Without Words (UK tours).
David was Music Manager at the National Theatre from 2000-2010, and Music Manager at the RSC from 2010-2011.
OTHER: Wolf Hall recordings (Broadway); vario
TONY GAYLE
Sound designer
RSC: My Neighbour Totoro (original production 2022/2023).
THEATRE INCLUDES: For Sound Design: Two Strangers (Kiln); High Times, Dirty Monsters (Liverpool Playhouse); Sizwe Banze Is Dead (Mayflower); Next to Normal (Donmar Warehouse); Pygmalion, Sylvia, The 47th (The Old Vic); Beneatha’s Place (Young Vic); School Girls; Or, The African Mean Girls Play, Get Up, Stand Up! The Bob Marley Musical (Lyric, Hammersmith); Greatest Days, Beautiful: The Carole King Musical, Salad Days, American Idiot (UK tour); Disney’s Aida (Holland); Newsies (Troubadour/Wembley Park Theatre); Kinky Boots (New Wolsey); Playboy of the West Indies (Birmingham Rep); Legally Blonde (Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre); Running with Lions (Talawa/Lyric, Hammersmith); Spring Awakening, And Breathe... (Almeida); The Wiz (Hope Mill); A Place for We (Talawa/Park); Bye/Orange (Theatre Royal Bath); Gin Craze (Royal & Derngate); The Living Newspaper, Shoe Lady (Royal Court); Poet in da Corner (Royal Court/UK tour) Songs For Nobodies (Wilton’s Music Hall/West End); Floyd Collins (Winton’s Music Hall); The Wild Party (The Other Palace); Lazarus (King’s Cross).
AWARDS: Olivier Award for Best Sound Design 2023 for My Neighbour Totoro (RSC); Best Sound at the 23rd Annual WhatsOnStage Awards for My Neighbour Totoro (RSC); Black British Theatre Awards (BBTA) Light and Sound Recognition Award 2019 and 2021.
OTHER: Wise Children Trustee, Stage Sight Co-Director, Founder of The Audio Cartel.
PIPPA HILL
Dramaturg
RSC: Pippa is the Head of New Work and oversees the commissioning and development of all of the Company’s new plays, adaptations and translations. As Senior Dramaturg she works across all the Company’s rehearsal rooms, supporting the creative process of each creative team. As Senior Dramaturg: Hamnet (Stratford/West End), My Neighbour Totoro (original production 2022/2023), Dream Online, The Boy in the Dress, A Museum in Baghdad, The Whip, Crooked Dances, Maydays, Miss Littlewood, The Fantastic Follies of Mrs Rich, A Christmas Carol, Kingdom Come, The Earthworks, Vice Versa, The Hypocrite, The Seven Acts of Mercy, Fall of the Kingdom, Always Orange, Queen Anne, Don Quixote, Hecuba, Oppenheimer, The Christmas Truce, The Roaring Girl, The Ant and the Cicada, I Can Hear You, Wendy & Peter Pan, The Empress.
Pippa was previously the Literary Manager at Paines Plough running three nationwide writing initiatives designed to identify and develop new playwrights. She co-wrote the adaption of Can Dundar’s book #WeAreArrested which was produced by the RSC at The Other Place in Stratford-upon- Avon in 2018 and transferred to the Arcola, London in 2019. Pippa worked as Dramaturg and Writer in collaboration with Marshmallow Laser Feast, Philharmonia and Manchester International
Festival to create the RSC’s live, interactive digital production of Dream in 2021.
Pippa commissioned and developed the RSC/NTV/Improbable production of My Neighbour Totoro.
JOE HISAISHI
Executive Producer & Composer
RSC: My Neighbour Totoro (original production 2022/2023).
Joe Hisaishi first became interested in minimal music when he was a student at Kunitachi College of Music, Japan and started his career as a contemporary music composer. His work with MKWAJU in 1981 and the release of his first album Information in the following year kicked off his career as a solo artist.
From Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind (1984) through to The Boy and the Heron (2023), Hisaishi has produced music for 11 Hayao Miyazaki films. He also composed the music for HANA-BI directed by Takeshi Kitano, Departures directed by Yojiro Takita, Villain directed by Sang-il Lee, The Tale of The Princess Kaguya directed by Isao Takahata, and What A Wonderful Family! series directed by Yoji Yamada.
Joe Hisaishi is a renowned and skilled performer, ranging from piano soloist to orchestra conductor. Alongside major Japanese orchestras, he has conducted the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, American Symphony Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra, Singapore Symphony Orchestra and many more. In 2017, he also began a world tour of Joe Hisaishi’s Symphonic Concert: Music from the Studio Ghibli Films of Hayao Miyazaki (visiting London, Paris, Melbourne, San Jose, Los Angeles, New York, Prague, Brussels and Lyon). The success of the tour is unparalleled.
In recent years, he has actively worked as a classical music conductor and composed new works in a contemporary music style, including TRI-AD for Large Orchestra (2016), The East Land Symphony (2016), ad Universum (2019), Border Concerto for 3 Horns and Orchestra (2020), and Viola Saga (2023). Hisaishi has collaborated with a wide range of artists including Philip Glass, David Lang, Mischa Maisky, and Terry Riley.
Since 2014, he has been working as a producer and conductor, and holding contemporary music concerts with his JOE HISAISHI presents MUSIC FUTURE (also recorded as a live album).
In 2019, he also lead a concert series Future Orchestra Classics (FOC) and released a Beethoven Symphony recording that was given a Special Prize from 57th Record Academy Award Japan 2019. He has been appointed to two new positions: Composer in Residence and Music Partner with New Japan Philharmonic Orchestra from September 2020, and Principal Guest Conductor with Japan Century Orchestra from April 2021. In 2023, the Deutsche Grammophon released their first Joe Hisaishi album, A Symphonic Celebration: Music from the Studio Ghibli films of Hayao Miyazaki, which reached No.1 on the Billboard chart. His unique input as a contemporary musical composer is highly appreciated, and his continuous enthusiasm for musical activities that go beyond ordinary creative work is appreciated worldwide.
JESSICA HUNG HAN YUN
Lighting Designer
RSC: My Neighbour Totoro (original production 2022/2023); The Mirror and the Light (Playful Productions/West End).
THEATRE INCLUDES: Lyonesse (Harold Pinter Theatre); Once on This Island (Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre); The Good Person of Szechwan (Sheffield Crucible); Straight Line Crazy (The Shed, New York/The Bridge Theatre); The Glow, Seven Methods of Killing Kylie Jenner (also Public Theater, New York/Woolly Mammoth, Washington DC), Living Newspaper Edition 7, Pah-La (Royal Court); Anna X (Lowry/West End); Marys Seacole, Blindness (Donmar Warehouse); Out West (Lyric Hammersmith); Inside (Orange Tree); The Band Plays On, She Loves Me (Sheffield Theatres); Dick Whittington (National Theatre); Rockets and Blue Lights (Royal Exchange Manchester); Faces in the Crowd, Mephisto, Dear Elizabeth and The Human Voice (The Gate); Equus (Theatre Royal, Stratford East/ETT/Trafalgar Studios/UK tour); Armadillo (The Yard); Reasons To Stay Alive (Sheffield Theatres/ETT/UK tour); One (Home/UK tour/international tour); Forgotten (Moongate/New Earth/Arcola/Theatre Royal, Plymouth); Hive City Legacy (Hot Brown Honey/Roundhouse); Snowflake (Kiln/from Fire Station Oxford); Fairview (Young Vic); Cuckoo (Soho Theatre); Nine foot nine (Bunker/Edinburgh Festival Fringe); Becoming Shades (VAULT Festival).
DANCE INCLUDES: HOME (Rambert2); Twice-Born (Scottish Ballet).
OTHER EVENTS INCLUDE: DIVA Exhibition (V&A); Guardians of the Galaxy: The Live Immersive Experience (Secret Cinema); Winter Light (commissioned by the Museum of the Home).
Awards: Olivier Award and WhatsOnStage Award for Best Lighting Design for My Neighbour Totoro, Knight of Illumination Award for Plays and Off West End Award for Best Lighting Design for Equus.
PHELIM McDERMOTT
Director
RSC: My Neighbour Totoro (original production 2022/2023).
Phelim is a founder member of Improbable and the company's co-artistic director.
THEATRE INCLUDES: 70 Hill Lane, Lifegame, Animo, Coma, Spirit, Sticky, Cinderella, The Hanging Man, Theatre of Blood (in collaboration with the National Theatre); Panic, Beauty and the Beast
(in co-production with ONEOFUS); The Tempest (a co-production with Northern Stage and Oxford
Playhouse); Opening Skinner's Box (a co-production with Northern Stage and West Yorkshire Playhouse); Lost Without Words (a co-production with the National Theatre); Tao of Glass (co-production with Manchester International Festival). Other credits as Director: the Olivier Award-winning Shockheaded Peter; Alex (Arts); The Ghost Downstairs (Leicester Haymarket); Dr Faustus, Improbable Tales (Nottingham Playhouse); The Servant of Two Masters, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, The Government Inspector (West Yorkshire Playhouse); Artistic Collaborator on She's Leaving Home (produced by 20 Stories High).
OPERA INCLUDES: Philip Glass's Satyagraha (English National Opera/LA Opera); The Perfect American, the Olivier Award-winning Akhnaten, Mozart's Cosi fan tutte (Emglish National Opera/Metropolitan Opera, NY); Aida (Emglish National Opera);
BambinO (an opera for babies, co-produced with Manchester International Festival and Scottish Opera); The Hours (Metropolitan Opera, NY).
AWARDS: Phelim is a recipient of the International Society for the Performing Arts’ Distinguished Artist Award.
MERVYN MILLAR
Puppetry Associate
RSC: My Neighbour Totoro (original production 2022/2023), The Magician's Elephant, As You Like It, Great Expectations, The Comedy of Errors. Mervyn Millar is a distinguished director and puppetry specialist, known for his original creative team work on the National Theatre’s War Horse and his direction of casts in London, New York, Toronto, and Berlin. His expertise in puppet design and direction is showcased in productions like The Hatchling, Aida, and Die Walküre. He has also authored books on puppetry, including Puppetry: How to Do It, The Horse’s Mouth, and The Journey of The Tall Horse, and has been recognized with an Arts Foundation Fellowship for his work in puppetry.
HANNAH MILLER
Casting Director
RSC: My Neighbour Totoro (original production 2022/2023). Hannah Miller has played a pivotal role as Deputy Head of Casting from 2003-2005 and as Head of Casting from 2008-2022. Her theatre credits include being the Casting Assistant at the National Theatre, Casting Director for the Birmingham Rep, and freelance Casting Director for productions like Great Expectations and Brief Encounter. She has also directed the 2023 ArtsEd Actors final year showcase and continues her collaboration with the RSC's Learning and National Partnerships team as a practitioner. Hannah is also a Trustee of both Northampton Theatres Trust and Tamasha, and a member of the Casting Directors' Guild and an RSC Associate Artist.
GRISELDA YORKE
Executive Producer
Griselda Yorke is Executive Producer at the Royal Shakespeare Company where she has oversight of all staged productions. She works alongside Denise Wood as Executive Producer of Matilda The Musical. Shows she has produced while at the RSC include Gregory Doran’s international tour of King and Country and the musical of The Boy in the Dress.
Before joining the RSC Griselda was Executive Producer for the pioneering immersive theatre company, Punchdrunk. Previously Griselda was Executive Director at Cheek by Jowl, producing and touring productions in three languages in the UK and around the world. Prior to that she was a Producer at the Barbican Theatre where projects included Robert Wilson and Tom Waits’ The Black Rider and Merce Cunningham’s Events. She has worked in New York, with Pomegranate Arts. Griselda sits on the Board of Improbable.
TOM MORTON-SMITH
Adaptor/English Lyrics
RSC: My Neighbour Totoro (original production 2022/2023). Tom Morton-Smith is well-regarded for writing the 2015 play Oppenheimer, detailing the life of J Robert Oppenheimer. His work The Earthworks was part of the Royal Shakespeare Company’s Mischief Festival. Other plays by Tom include Ravens, Salt Meets Wound, and Everyday Maps for Everyday Use.
KIMIE NAKANO
Costume Designer
RSC: My Neighbour Totoro (original production 2022/2023. Winner of the Olivier Award for Best Costume Design).
TRAINED: Kimie is an international costume and set designer who works across theatre, opera and dance. She studied theatre costume design at the École Nationale Supérieure des Arts et Techniques du Théâtre in Paris, and theatre design at Wimbledon College of Arts.
Kimie has worked extensively with the Akram Khan Company, including Vertical Road, Dust, iTMOi, TOROBAKA, Gnosis, Kaash, The Rashomon Effect, techne (for Sylvie Guillem, Life in Progress), XENOS, Chotto Xenos and Outwitting the Devil. She has worked internationally with many choreographers including Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, David Nixon, José Agudo and Didy Veldman, and companies including Ballet Vlaanderen, Rambert, Les Grands Ballets Canadiens de Montréal, English National Ballet, Northern Ballet, Lithuanian National Opera and Ballet, Royal Danish Ballet, Companhia Nacional de Bailado, Van Huynh Company and Yabin Studio.
THEATRE INCLUDES: Death Note (West End. Musical by Nick Winston); Rough Girls (by Kimberley Sykes. Lyric Belfast); Pas, Pas Moi, Va et Vient (TNP Beckett Festival).
OPERA INCLUDES: Turandot (by Daniel Kramer for Grand Théâtre de Genève/Tokyo Bunka Kaikan); The Return of Ulysses ( John Fulljames. Royal Opera); Tristan und Isolde (dir. Carmen Jakobi/Longborough Festival Opera).
Film Includes: Basho and Macbeth.
Kimie’s work has also been exhibited, including at the 2015 Prague Quadrennial and the V&A.
ISOBEL NICOLSON
Associate Set Designer
RSC: My Neighbour Totoro (original production 2022/2023). Isobel made the model box of My Neighbour Totoro currently displayed in the Japan: Myths to Manga exhibition (Young V&A).
As Design Assistant: The Winter’s Tale, The Magician’s Elephant.
TRAINED: Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama.
THEATRE INCLUDES: Winner’s Curse (Park); The Return of Benjamin Lay (Finborough); Lone Flyer (Hull Truck/Jermyn Street/The Watermill); Queen Mab (Iris); Errol’s Garden (UK tour); Dream (The Other Place/New Vic Staffordshire); Old Friends (Cambridge Junction/Cockpit Theatre); Tis Pity She’s a Whore (Sherman Studio); D-Day75 (101 Outdoor Arts); Jessie’s Tattoo Club (Bristol Old Vic Ferment); The Witches (Watford Palace); Jabberwocky (The Other Palace/Theatre Royal Margate); Die Fledermaus (DEPOT/Spit and Sawdust Skatepark); Bright. Young. Things. Stay Brave Brian Gravy (Theatre Royal Bury St Edmunds). As an Associate Artist at the Watermill Theatre: Rapunzel, Camp Albion, A Christmas Carol, Moonfleet, Digging for Victory, and The Miller’s Child. Other credits include: Associate Designer for Island Nation (Arcola); Assistant Designer and Puppet Maker for The Velveteen Rabbit and The Old Curiosity Shop (UK tour); Puppet Maker for Cinderella (Glasgow Citizens); Puppet Designer & Maker for Just Add Water (Prague Quadrennial).
BRUCE O’NEIL
Music Supervisor
RSC: My Neighbour Totoro (original production 2022/2023). Bruce is Head of Music for the RSC and has been Music Director and Supervisor for 50 RSC productions including the global hit Matilda the Musical, the Guy Chambers and Robbie Williams musical of David Walliams’ book The Boy in the Dress, and Shakespeare Live, a BBC TV live broadcast from the Royal Shakespeare Theatre marking the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death in 2016 which was nominated for a BAFTA Television award.
TRAINED: Birmingham Conservatoire, Guildhall School of Music and Drama, and the National Opera Studio.
Since 2013, Bruce has supervised an RSC project releasing studio recordings of music commissioned for every Shakespeare play, which also include scores composed for previous Stratford productions throughout the twentieth century. The completed series will be a unique double survey of scores composed for the Shakespeare canon spanning 120 years, highlighting the significant longstanding and continuing contribution by the RSC to the commissioning of new music for the theatre.
TAMYKHA PATTERSON
Associate Lighting Designer & Lighting Programmer
RSC: My Neighbour Totoro (original production 2022/2023).
THEATRE INCLUDES: As Associate Lighting Designer and Lighting Programmer: Sunset Boulevard (Savoy); Sam and Her Amazing Book of Dinosaurs (Hong Kong Cultural Centre). As Associate Lighting Designer: Matthew Bourne’s Romeo + Juliet (Curve); Disney’s Aida (Circustheater Netherlands); Cock (Ambassadors); Get Up Stand Up! The Bob Marley Musical (Lyric Hammersmith); Dear Evan Hansen (Noël Coward); Anna X (The Lowry). As Assistant Lighting Designer: Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (London Palladium/Regent-Melbourne); Evita (Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre); A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Bridge); Tina – The Tina Turner Musical (Aldwych). As Lighting Programmer: A Strange Loop (Barbican); Patriots NT Live: Best of Enemies (Noël Coward); Tina - Das Tina Turner Musical (Stage Apollo Stuttgart); Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead (Theatre Royal Plymouth/Bristol Old Vic); NT Live: Vanya, The Glass Menagerie (Duke of York’s); Oklahoma! (Young Vic); Cyrano de Bergerac (Harold Pinter/Theatre Royal Glasgow/Brooklyn Academy of Music); Matthew Bourne’s Nutcracker! (Theatre Royal Plymouth/The Lowry/Sadler’sWells); Lyonesse, J’Ouvert, Anna X (Harold Pinter); Once On This Island, Carousel (Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre); A Christmas Carol, The Bridge After Dark (Bridge); The Darkest Part of the Night, Black Love, Reasons You Should(n’t) Love Me, Snowflake (Kiln); The Intelligence Park (Linbury Royal Opera House); Nine Night (Trafalgar Studios); Frankenstein (Perth); seven methods of killing kylie jenner, Midnight Movies, two Palestinians go dogging (Royal Court).
AWARDS: Tamykha was the 2020 recipient of the Worshipful Company of Lightmongers Award for New Talent in Entertainment Lighting in conjunction with the Association of Lighting Production and Design (ALPD).
TOM PYE
Production Designer
RSC: My Neighbour Totoro (original production 2022/2023).
Tom has worked with a diverse range of directors around the world in theatre, TV, film, opera and dance. Collaborations include Peter Brook, Sally Wainwright, Phelim McDermott, Simon McBurney, Jonathan Kent, Diane Paulus, Chen Shi-Zheng, Yuri Possokhov, James McDonald, Simon Godwin, Maria Friedman, David Leveaux, Deborah Warner, Phyllida Lloyd, Tom Morris, Fiona Shaw, Nicholas Hytner and Pierre Audi.
THEATRE INCLUDES: Broadway: Long Day’s Journey into Night (starring Jessica Lange); The Testament of Mary (Fiona Shaw); All My Sons (starring John Lithgow and Dianne Wiest); The Glass Menagerie (starring Jessica Lange); Fiddler on the Roof (starring Alfred Molina, TONY nomination); Cyrano de Bergerac (starring Kevin Kline); Medea (starring Fiona Shaw). West End: Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (starring Imelda Staunton); A Christmas Carol (starring Jim Broadbent); Sinatra (musical).
Ballet & OPERA INCLUDES: Cinderella (The Royal Ballet); The Hours (Metropolitan Opera); The Nutcracker (Atlanta Ballet); Anna Karenina (Joffrey Ballet); Cosi Fan Tutte, The Death of Klinghoffer, Eugene Onegin (ENO/Metropolitan Opera co-productions); Akhnaten (ENO/LA and Met Opera); Aida (ENO/Geneva/Houston Grand Opera); Riders to the Sea, St John Passion (English National Opera); Thebans (ENO/Theater Bonn); Messiah (ENO/Opera Lyon).
Screen Includes: The upcoming series Renegade Nell (Disney +); Gentleman Jack (HBO/BBC. RTS nominations for Best Costume Design for both seasons); To Walk Invisible (BBC); Gloriana, A Feast at Midnight, Christie Malry’s Own Double Entry, Richard II, Twelfth Night, Just William, The Helen West Casebook, The Late Michael Clark, and several years of Production Design for MTV Europe.
FINN ROSS
Video Designer
RSC: My Neighbour Totoro (original production 2022/2023); The Tempest (RSC/Barbican)
THEATRE INCLUDES: Tammy Fey, Spring Awakening (Almeida); Dancin, Mean Girls, Betrayal (Broadway); Back to the Future, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child (West End/Broadway); Frozen, Les Miserables (International); Sweet Charity (Donmar/Broadway); Bat out of Hell (West End/International); Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (Broadway/West End/Tour); Jagged Little Pill, In the Body of the World (American Reparatory Theatre/Broadway); American Psycho (Broadway/Almedia); (Broadway); Chimerica (Almeida/est End); Master and Margarita, All My Sons, Shunkin (Complicite).
OPERA INCLUDES:The Hours (The Met);The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny (Royal Opera House); Missa Solemnis (LA Phil); Benvenuto Cellini, Death of Klinghoffer, Death in Venice, Damnation of Faust, Don Giovanni, (English National Opera); Hänsel und Gretel, Zäuberflote, A Dog’s Heart (DNO, Amsterdam); La clemenza di Tito, Mr Brouček (Opera North); Les Pêcheurs de Perles, Béatrice et Bénédict, Turn of the Screw (Theatre an der Wien); Rinaldo, (Glyndebourne).
DANCE INCLUDES: Cinderella (The Royal Ballet); Anna Karenina (The Joffrey Ballet); The Nutcracker (Atlanta Ballet); The Feeling of Going (Skånes Dansteater/Malmö Opera)
MUSIC INCLUDES: Declan Mckena (Reading/Leads, 2023); Lewis Capaldi (2022 Tour); Azimuth (Al Ula); Music of the Spheres (Cold Play); 17 Going Under (Sam Fender); Life is Yours (Foals); Herbert Grönemayer (20th Anniversary Concert); Midnight Feeling (Mark Ronson); Fortnight (J Balvin, Fornightmares), W Hotel Instillation (Guangzhou, China): Rolling Stones Exhibitionism (International).
OTHER: Finn has won two Olivier’s, a Tony, three Drama Desk’s and four What’s on Stage Awards. He is an Honourary Fellow of The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama.
ANDREA SCOTT
Video Designer
RSC: My Neighbour Totoro (original production 2022/2023).
TRAINED: Andrea holds a BA (Hons) Business with Psychology (2017, Dublin Business School), an MSc International Marketing (2018, King’s College London), and a BA (Hons) in Technical Theatre and Stage Management, specialising in Video (RADA, 2021).
THEATRE INCLUDES: For Tonight (Adelphi); Chess (The Muny, USA); Bob Fosse’s Dancin’ (San Diego, USA); Spring Awakening (Almeida); Beauty and the Beast (Disney, UK/Ireland tour).
Ballet: Cinderella (Royal Opera House, London).
OPERA: Magic Flute (Bergen National Opera, Norway).
LIVE MUSIC INCLUDES: Mariah Carey (LA & Las Vegas, USA), Liam Gallagher (Knebworth, 2022), Becky Hill (Summertime Ball 2022), Foals (Life is Yours, 2022), Years & Years (2022), Sam Fender (17 Going Under, 2022)
OTHER: Andrea is an award-winning Video and Projection Designer based in London. Her work as a designer and animator spans across theatre, opera, live music and dance in Europe and overseas. With a hands-on approach and keen interest in cinematography and directing, Andrea revels in creating content that is captivating as well as story driven.
ISKANDAR R. SHARAZUDDIN
Resident Director
Iskandar is an Associate at Headlong Theatre and the Joint Artistic Director of British East and Southeast Asian theatre company, Ellandar Productions. He is an award-winning playwright-director and movement artist and a former actor-performer. He has taught at Arts Educational Schools London, Guildhall School of Music & Drama, and the Oxford School of Drama.
THEATRE INCLUDES: As a Movement Director and Puppeteer: The Garden of Words (Park); harmony. 天人合一 (The Pleasance); Worth (Arcola/Chester Storyhouse/New Earth); A Play for the Living in a Time of Extinction (Headlong/Barbican); Blackout Songs (OlvHampstead Theatre, Olivier Award Nomination, Affiliate Theatre); Satyagraha, Così fan tutte (English National Opera/Improbable/West End); Gnomus (BBC Proms); Citizen Squid (Lyric, Hammersmith/Watford Palace/GDIF). As Movement Associate: The Climbers (Theatre by the Lake). Iskandar was the Dance Captain/Resident on How To Train Your Dragon: Live (Dreamworks SKG/Global Creatures, US/international tour).
OTHER: In 2023 Iskandar was the director-dramaturg of Turandot (Arcola Theatre/Grimeborn Opera Festival) with the first all ESEA company in the UK. As a Dance-Dramaturg and Puppetry Director his work (un)written • (un)heard, co-conceived with Iona Kirk, was awarded the International Dance and Physical Theatre Award at Fringe World Festival Western Australia 2020. As a playwright Iskandar was awarded the Soho Theatre Tony Craze Playwriting Award and has been long and short listed for the Bruntwood Playwriting Prize, Off West End Adopt a Playwright, and Old Vic 12.
MATT SMITH
Music Director
RSC: My Neighbour Totoro (original production 2022/2023).
TRAINED: The Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts.
THEATRE INCLUDES: As Musical Director: Dear Evan Hansen (Noël Coward Theatre); School of Rock (Gillian Lynne Theatre); Beautiful – The Carole King Musical (Aldwych Theatre). As Musical Supervisor: School of Rock (UK tour 2021/22); Beautiful (UK tours); The Last Tango (Phoenix Theatre/UK tour); Love Me Tender (UK tour).
Other WORK INCLUDES: Cilla (ITV drama); The Infidel (Theatre Royal Stratford East); Taboo (Brixton Club House); Taboo 20th Anniversary concert (London Palladium); The Music of Andrew Lloyd Webber, Water Babies (Leicester Curve); Unmasked (The Other Palace); Never Forget (Savoy Theatre/UK tours); We Will Rock You (North American tour/Stuttgart/Berline); Some Girl I Used To Know (Arts Theatre); The Prodigals (Coventry Belgrade); Footloose (UK/European tours); Rocky Horror Show (European tour); Thriller Live (Lyric Theatre); Cinderella (New Wimbledon Theatre); Bohemian Rhapsody (tour); This Is Elvis (UK tour); Dancing in the Streets (UK tour); Vampirette (Manchester Opera House). Matt is a patron of NK Theatre Arts in Manchester.
WILL STUART
Orchestrator & Arranger
RSC: My Neighbour Totoro (original production 2022/2023).
Will is an Olivier nominated Orchestrator, Arranger and Composer.
THEATRE INCLUDES: As Composer: Pygmalion (Old Vic); Noises Off (Haymarket); GOOD (Pinter); The Corn is Green (National Theatre). As Arranger or Orchestrator includes: The Drifters Girl (Garrick, vocal arrangements); Wicked (Hamburg); Amélie (Munich); The Band Plays On, Guys and Dolls (Sheffield Crucible); Committee (Donmar Warehouse); West End Men (Vaudeville); From Here to Eternity (USA). As Music Supervisor includes: The Drifters Girl (UK tour); The Secret Life of Bees (Almeida); Guys and Dolls, The Band Plays On (Sheffield Crucible); From Here to Eternity (USA); A Christmas Carol (Associate, Broadway). As Musical Director includes: The Drifters Girl (Garrick); Standing at the Sky’s Edge (Sheffield Crucible); A Christmas Carol, Mood Music, The Divide (Old Vic).
OTHER ARRANGER/ORCHESTRATOR CREDITS INCLUDE: Dame Shirley Bassey, Paloma Faith, Cerys Matthews, Bryn Terfel, Stella McCartney (Paris Fashion Week), Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, BBC Concert Orchestra, BBC Big Band, Hamburg Symphoniker, Stockholm Sinfonietta.
BASIL TWIST
Puppetry Designer and Director
TRAINED: École Nationale Supérieure des Arts de la Marionnette (ESNAM) in Charleville-Mézières, France.
Basil is a third-generation puppeteer who creates iconic, visionary puppetry worlds with a remarkable range of style and scope appearing in intimate nightclubs to large orchestra halls. He is a sought-after collaborator for theatre, ballet, opera, dance and film. His unique approaches have been recognised with multiple awards and fellowships and have furthered contemporary artistry and the technical craft of puppetry. Basil is known for revitalising puppetry as a serious and sophisticated art form through his experiments with materials, techniques and uses in both narrative and abstract works. Basil’s shows range from productions of classic stories to abstract visualisations of orchestral music and are informed by puppetry traditions from around the world.
ORIGINAL WORK INCLUDES: Symphonie Fantastique (1998) which featured abstract materials in a tank of water to simulate imagery and characters to music, Petrushka, Doguagaeshi, Rite of Spring, Hansel & Gretel, Arias with a Twist, La Bella Dormente nel Bosco, Sisters Follies, A Streetcar named Desire (La Comédie Française, also co-director), and most recently Jean-Joseph Cassanéa de Mondonville’s Titon et l›Aurore at the Opera Comique and The Book of Mountains and Seas by composer Huang Ruo in Copenhagen, New York City and soon to be at Koorbiennale Amsterdam. He contributed to the magic of Alfonso Cuarón’s Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, creating the Dementors. Basil’s honours include Obie, Henry Hewes and Doris Duke Performing awards, multiple UNIMA and Bessie Awards, a Guggenheim fellowship and a MacArthur Fellowship.
Since 1999 he has served as Artistic Director of the Dream Music Puppetry Program in New York City.
YOU-RI YAMANAKA
Movement Director
RSC: My Neighbour Totoro (original production 2022/2023).
TRAINED: You-Ri is a Japanese actress, movement director, voiceover and acting teacher. She TRAINED in Kabuki dance and Butoh in Japan, and also TRAINED at LAMDA, Le Coq and Michael Chekhov in the UK, Europe and US. She explores the meeting points between the East and West.
THEATRE INCLUDES: As Movement Director/Coach/Choreographer and Director: Dido and Aeneas, Temple Middle Hall (Temple Festival); Magic Flute (New National Theatre, Tokyo); Madam Butterfly (ENO); Pacific Overtures (Menier Chocolate Factory); Illyria (Theatre Royal Bath); Richard III, A Midsummer Night’s Dream (East 15); The Crucible, Our Country’s Good (New National Theatre Tokyo, Drama Studio); A Midsummer Night’s Dream (NAHDA, Cairo, Egypt). You-Ri has worked in theatre, film and TV as an actress in the UK and her unique style, deeply connected with the body, has been much appreciated by many theatre companies such as: Watermill Theatre Newbury, dreamthinkspeak, Volcano Theatre, Theatre503, Southwark Playhouse, New Earth Theatre, StoneCrabsTheatre, Dash Arts, amongst others and beyond the border of culture. As Cultural Consultant: George Takei’s Allegiance (Charing Cross Theatre); Pacific Overtures (Menier Chocolate Factory).
TEACHING INCLUDES: LAMDA, BADA, East 15, ALRA, Rose Bruford, ArtsEd, Fourth Monkey, LDA, New National Theatre Tokyo Drama Studio. You-Ri’s tailor-made workshop, ‘Freeing the Inner Voice – Body and Expression’, has been in constant demand worldwide for many years.
KENICHI YODA
Producer
Kenichi Yoda is Producer at the NIPPON TV’s live entertainimant division. Among other theatre shows and events, his previous work includes Japan’s first major original arena show the DRAGON QUEST Live Spectacle tour and Joe Hisaishi’s concerts. Yoda is also a member of the Studio Ghibli Board of Directors from October 2023.
IMPROBABLE
Led by Phelim McDermott and Lee Simpson, Improbable is an award-winning theatre company that defies categorisation. At the heart of our artistic practice is improvisation. Whether in performance, rehearsal or development, the practice and philosophy of improvisation is at the core of our creation process.
The breadth of Improbable’s experience is unrivalled and we occupy a vital space in the landscape of UK and international theatre, working with a huge range of partners nationally and internationally across sectors and scales. Other recent on-stage collaborations and projects have included: The Hours, Metropolitan Opera; Akhnaten (Olivier Award winner for Best Opera Production, Grammy Award for Best Opera Recording), English National Opera; Perfect Show for Rachel created by Zoo Co at Barbican (winner Off West End Award, Access); An Improbable Musical, Royal & Derngate, Northampton; Tao Of Glass, with Factory International, Perth Festival, Ruhrfestspiele Recklinghausen, Hong Kong New Vision Arts Festival and Carolina Performing Arts – University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in association with Naomi Milgrom AO. We were awarded Producer of the Year at The Stage Awards in 2023.
Beyond our work on stage, we use Open Space Technology to create and hold diverse and deeply democratic spaces that bring communities together to work on urgent issues. We do this for the theatre sector through our Devoted & Disgruntled programme and work with other sectors and organisations through Open Space For Hire and Improbable For Business. Improbable is a core supporter of M/Others Who Make, an international network for women and non-binary people who care about creating, and create whilst caring.
NIPPON TV
Nippon Television Holdings, Inc. is a media and content company whose core operation is broadcasting. At the nucleus of its businesses is the subsidiary Nippon Television Network Corporation, Japan’s first commercial television broadcaster that hit the airwaves in 1953.
Celebrating its 70th anniversary this year, the country’s leading linear platform enjoys widespread support from viewers, propelling it to win the annual Triple Crown Title for the 11th consecutive year in 2021 by ranking No. 1 in individual viewer ratings across all three timeslot categories. In October 2023, NIPPON TV acquired the shares of Studio Ghibli, making it a subsidiary. As part of the same group, NIPPON TV continues to support Studio Ghibli.
STUDIO GHIBLI
Studio Ghibli was founded in 1985 by animated film directors Isao Takahata and Hayao Miyazaki and has produced 25 feature-length films. The Studio’s Spirited Away (2001), Howl’s Moving Castle (2004) and Princess Mononoke (1997) are among Japan’s top 10 grossing films.
Studio Ghibli films have garnered numerous awards and critical acclaim from film critics and animation specialists around the world. Spirited Away was awarded the Golden Bear as the Best Feature Film at the 2002 Berlin International Film Festival and won the 2002 Academy Awards for Best Animated Feature Film. In October 2001, Studio Ghibli, in conjunction with The Tokuma Memorial Cultural Foundation for Animation, founded the Ghibli Museum, Mitaka, designed by Hayao Miyazaki.
The Wind Rises (2013), The Tale of The Princess Kaguya (2013), When Marnie Was There (2014) and The Red Turtle (2016) have earned the studio four consecutive nominations for the Academy Awards for Best Animated Feature Film. Earwig and the Witch (2020) was an official selection for the 2020 Cannes Film Festival. The studio’s latest film, The Boy and the Heron, released in Japan on July 14, 2023.
ROYAL SHAKESPEARE COMPANY (RSC)
The Royal Shakespeare Company is a theatre and learning charity that creates world class theatre, made in Stratford-upon-Avon and shared around the world, performing plays by Shakespeare and his contemporaries, as well as commissioning an exceptionally wide range of original work from contemporary writers. Our purpose is to ensure that Shakespeare is for everyone, and we do by that unlocking the power of his plays and of live performance and out learning and education work throughout the UK and across the world.
We believe everybody’s life is enriched by culture and creativity. We have trained generations of the very best theatre makers and we continue to nurture the talent of the future. Our transformative Learning programmes reach over half a million young people and adults each year, and through our Creative Placemaking and Public Programme we create projects with and for communities who have not historically engaged with our work. We are a leader in creative immersive technologies and digital development.
We have a proud record of innovation, diversity and excellence on stage and are determined to grasp the opportunity to become an even more inclusive, progressive, relevant and ambitious organisation.
We have one of the UK’s largest arts learning programmes, working with over 1,000 schools each year to broaden access to high quality arts learning and transform experiences of Shakespeare in schools. Through our national partnership programme with schools and regional theatres we target areas of structural disadvantage, including 26 areas of multiple deprivation across the country, from Cornwall to Middlesbrough. Research shows that our approaches to teaching Shakespeare support the development of reading and writing skills, accelerate language acquisition and development, raise aspirations and improve student attitudes to school and learning in general. They also foster well-being, self-esteem, empathy, resilience and tolerance and promote critical-thinking, creative, analytical, communication and problem-solving skills.
We are committed to being a teaching and learning theatre and we are the only arts organisation to have been awarded Independent Research Organisation status. We create world class theatre for, with and by audiences and theatre makers of all ages. We provide training for emerging and established theatre makers and arts professionals, for teachers and for young people. We share learning formally and informally. We embed training and research across our company, work and processes.
We recognise the climate emergency and work hard to embed environmental sustainability into our operations, creative work and business practice, making a commitment to continually reduce our carbon footprint.
Keep Your RSC supports our mission to create theatre at its best, unlocking Shakespeare and transforming lives. Thousands of generous audience members, trusts and foundations and partners supported Keep Your RSC since 2020, alongside a £19.4 million loan from the Culture Recovery Fund, we are thrilled to be welcoming audiences back. It will take time to recover, to reopen all our theatres, and many years to repay the loan and the support and generosity of our audiences is more important than ever. Please donate at rsc.org.uk/donate.
The RSC is supported using public funding by Arts Council England
The work of the RSC is supported by the Culture Recovery Fund
Miranda Curtis CMG – Lead Production Supporter of the original production and the 2023 production of My Neighbour Totoro
New Work at the RSC is generously supported by The Drue and H.J. Heinz II Charitable Trust
The RSC Acting Companies are generously supported by The Gatsby Charitable Foundation
TikTok £10 Tickets sponsored by TikTok