Lava – Online

Lighting Design Credits: Fix (Pleasance Islington), The Man who wanted to be a Penguin (Stuff and Nonsense), Mother of Him (Park 200), For Services Rendered, The Play About my Dad, Woman before a Glass, (Jermyn Street), Cash Cow (Hampstead), Muckers (The Egg, Conde Duque, Oxford Playhouse), Soft Animals (Soho), Sugar, Don’t Forget the Birds, Rattlesnake (Open Clasp), Benched, The Quake Within, Deuce, Happy Fathers’ Day (The Place), Clear White Light (Live Theatre Newcastle), Treemonisha, The Boatswain’s Mate (Arcola), Fairytale Revolution, Out of Sorts, Isaac Came Home from the Mountain, Cinderella and the Beanstalk (Theatre 503), Gracie, The Biograph Girl (Finborough), Tenderly (New Wimbledon Studio), Katzenmusik (Royal Court), Foreign Body (Southbank Centre for WOW).As Associate Lighting Designer: Hot Mess for Candoco Dance, The Half God of Rainfall (Birmingham Rep and Kiln) Lighting Designer: Jackie Shemesh.

Ali was the Young Associate Lighting Designer for Matthew Bourne’s Romeo and Juliet in 2019.

Anthony Simpson-Pike is a director, dramaturg and writer. He was Deputy Artistic Director at the Yard Theatre, Resident Director at Theatre Peckham and Associate Director at the Gate Theatre. Recent directorial work includes Samuel Takes a Break… at The Yard Theatre, Beautiful Thing at Stratford East, Grenfell: In the Words of Survivors at the National Theatre (which is transferring to St Ann’s Warehouse in New York in April 2024), and, at the Bush, Olivier Award winning The P Word and Lava (nominated for Best Director at the Black British Theatre Awards); and An Octoroon at the Abbey, Dublin (nominated for Best Production at the Irish Times Theatre Awards).

Recent dramaturgical credits include Now, I See at Stratford East, Much Ado About Nothing for the RSC; Samskara at the Yard Theatre; Hotline with Produced Moon at the Tron; Dear Young Monster by Pete McHale for The Queer House; and Coup de Grace at the Royal Court.

Benedict Lombe is a Congolese-British writer and theatre-maker based in London.

She has been on attachment at the Bush Theatre and has been on a residency at Theatre503 as one of their five writers for 2019/2020. She has produced digital work for the Bush as part of Protest: Black lives Matter, Papatango Theatre Company as part of their Isolated But Open series, and a site-specific piece as part of Damsel Productions’ Outdoors season. She has been part of the BBC Writersroom cohort, has been shortlisted for the Papatango Playwriting Award and the Royal Court & Kudos TV Fellowship, amongst others.

She is currently working on developing original TV projects, with a focus on boldly reclaiming diasporic stories that were never allowed to be told, with the full shades of nuance and truth they always deserved.

Chandra Ruegg started working in the industry as a child actress. After more than twenty years, she decided to move into the world of casting. Her first stint was assisting Amy Ball on Dance Nation at the Almeida Theatre. From there she assisted Charlotte Sutton at Chichester Festival Theatre, for two seasons. For the screen, she has worked in the Casting offices of Nanw Rowlands assisting on Outside The Wire (Netflix) Voyagers (Lionsgate) and Censor (BFI), Andy Pryor, Lauren Evans and Olivia Scott Webb. As of Jan 2021 she became an associate for Sophie Holland Casting working on the Amazon Series The Peripheral and Netflix/MGM Series Wednesday. Chandra has cast various short films over the years. Lava is her first credit as a Casting Director for theatre.

Crystal’s theatre credits include Snow Queen (New Wolsey Theatre), Overflow (Bush Theatre), The High Table (Bush Theatre), Cinderella (New Wolsey – Art Deport), We Anchor in Hope (Bunker Theatre), As You Like It (Queen Theatre Hornchurch), End of History (The Royal Court), Inside Bitch (Clean Break), Snow White And Seven Dwarfs (Regent Theatre), Mysterious Gentleman (Courtyard Theatre), Treasure Island, Mr Tod, Richard The Third (Red Rose Chain- The Avenue), Fallen in Love (Red Rose Chain – The Tower of London), The Tempest, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Comedy Of Errors, (Red Rose Chain – Theatre in the Forest), Betty Blue Eyes (Mercury Theatre), Zatopek (Second Movement), Commencing (Joined At the Hip – Etcetera Theatre), A Face In A Jar (Inside Job Theatre Projects), Buried Child (Ovation Theatre Limited), Gambling (Elanor Lloyd in association with Soho Theatre), A View From A Bridge (Mercury Theatre).

DK Fashola is an award-winning multidisciplinary performer and theatre maker who specialises in multi-form storytelling; fusing poetic multi-layered text & movement in unexpected ways. She has worked with Royal Shakespeare Company, Royal Exchange Manchester, National Youth Theatre, GDIFestival, Theatre 503, & Orange Tree Theatre. Artistic Director of Initiative.dkf – Albany Theatre’s 2021 Artists of change, Eclipse Award Winners 2020, and creators of Melanin Box Festival. Other Work includes Music Video choreography for Grammy Award Winning artist Wizkid and international superstars DJ Spinall & Tiwa Savage.

Esi trained in Voice Studies at Royal Central School of Speech and Drama.

Credits and experience include: Sex Education (Season Three), Punk Rock (Stratford Circus), Pigeon English (Tobacco Factory), The High Table (Bush Theatre). 

As a singer, Esi has a depth of experience including: Cirque du Soleil – Totem (World Tour), Rafiki – Lion King (Disneyland Resort, Paris).

Gino Ricardo Green is a director and video/projection designer. He is co-founder of Black Apron Entertainment.

Credits as Video/Projection Designer include: Othello (National Theatre, Co-Video Designer) The Ballad of St Johns Carpark (Icon Theatre), Treason: The Musical in Concert (West End), That is Not Who I Am (Royal Court Theatre), Kabul Goes Pop: Music Television Afghanistan (Brixton House & Hightide), Edge (NYT), Lava (Bush Theatre), Children’s Children (Director of Photography/Editor – English Touring Theatre), Beyond The Canon and Poor Connection (RADA), Sweat (Donmar Warehouse & West End), Passages: A Windrush Celebration (Black Apron at the Royal Court), Hashtag Lightie (Arcola Theatre), Lightie (Projection Designer – Gate Theatre).

Credits as Associate Video/Projection Designer include: Small Island (National Theatre), Get Up Stand Up! The Bob Marley Musical (West End) and Be More Chill (The Other Palace & West End).

Jasmine trained at Liverpool Insititute for Performing Arts, receiving the Ede & Ravenscroft Prize for Creative & Technical Excellence (2016). She was a Linbury Prize finalist in 2017, and has been nominated for The Stage Debut Awards ​2018 & OffWestEnd Awards. She was the Laboratory Associate Designer for Nuffield Southampton Theatres in 2017/18.

Credits include: Animal Farm (Royal & Derngate, National Youth Theatre), Lady Chatterley’s Lover (Shaftesbury Theatre), Earthquakes in London & Little Shop of Horrors (LAMDA), Shook (Southwark Playhouse), Armadillo (The Yard), Women In Power (Nuffield Southampton Theatres & Oxford Playhouse), Eden (Hampstead Theatre), The Tide Jetty (Eastern Angles Touring Theatre), Sex Sex Men Men (Pecs Drag Kings), Sonny (Arts Educational Schools), Son Of Rambow (The Other Palace), Chutney (The Bunker), i (Theatre503).

Jerome began his career as a technician at The Albany, Deptford, before later becoming the Chief of Electrics.

Jerome holds a bachelor’s degree in technical theatre arts, from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.

Credits include: Harm (Bush Theatre), 2036 (Bush Theatre), Alyssa: Memoirs of a Queen (Vaudeville Theatre) and Legends of Lockdown Live (Vaudeville Theatre).

Josh mainly works in the medium of sound, but also includes other new media practices as well as arts facilitation ideas into his projects.

In 2008 he completed a Drama, Theatre and Performance degree at Roehampton University of Surrey.

Theatre credits include: Faith, Hope & Charity (National Theatre, European Tour), The End of Eddy (Unicorn), The Unknown Island (Gate), Basic Tension (ICA London), Oliver Twist (Regent’s Park Open Air), Love (National Theatre, Birmingham Rep), Beyond Caring (National Theatre, Yard Theatre, UK Tour, Chicago), Dirty Crusty, The Crucible, A New & Better You, This Beautiful Future, Removal Men, Made Visible, Lines, Mikvah Project (The Yard), Parallel Macbeth (Young Vic), F*ck the Polar Bears (Bush Theatre).

Sarah trained at Liverpool Community College. Credits include: Invisible Cities (Manchester International Festival and Brisbane Festival), Twelfth Night (Octagon Theatre, Bolton), Pomona (Royal Exchange Theatre), The Tale of Mr Tumble (Opera House, Manchester), The Last Testament of Lillian Bilocca (Hull Capital of Culture), Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (Northern Stage and Royal & Derngate), Mother Courage and Her Children (Headlong, Royal Exchange Theatre), There Has Possibly Been an Incident (Soho Theatre), How to Fly Like a Reindeer (Hull Truck Theatre), Too Clever by Half (Told by an Idiot, Royal Exchange Theatre), The Last Days of Troy (Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre).

Wabriya King is the Associate Dramatherapist at the Bush Theatre. Wabriya’s practice is to create a space and a format to hold people safely while they navigate their experiences in relation to the theatre’s work. Wabriya has previously worked on productions at Soho Theatre, Theatre Roayl Stratford East, Hampstead Theatre, Royal Court, National Theatre and Paines Plough.

Credits for the Bush include: Paradise Now!; The P Word; House of Ife; Red Pitch; Overflow; Lava; The High Table.