They all agreed: every year they will throw the same party in the same place. What else can they do?
Determined to remember their friend, a group of classmates commit to throwing an annual party in her honour. It’s what she would have wanted. And year after year, they stuck to the tradition.
Now in their twenties, another party is about to start. The cake has arrived safely, the buffet is all set, and the aux cable is finally working – but something doesn’t feel right.
As We Face The Sun is a stark and tender story about growing up, the pleasures of friendship, why we hold onto things and how we might start to let go. The world premiere of a new play written by Kit Withington (Living Newspaper, Royal Court).
Maymuna Abdi (she/her)
Bashiie (she/they)
Maryse Baya (she/her)
Sara Dawood (she/her)
Kane Feagan (she/her)
Maryam Garad (she/her)
Kc Gardiner (she/her)
Edith Geenty (they/them)
Jordan Haynes (he/him)
Kerrica Kendall (she/her)
Louis Nicholson (he/him)
Tia Vinette Scarlett (she/her)
James Walsh (he/him)
Coral Wylie (they/them)
Chloe Stally-Gibson (she/her) is a freelance production manager. She is also the technical manager for ChewBoy Productions and is an associate of Zoo Co Theatre Company.
Her recent work includes: Pass It On and As We Face The Sun (Bush); Perfect Show For Rachel (Barbican); Welcome Home (Soho); The Secretaries (Young Vic); Caligari (ChewBoy Productions, winner of the 2022 Untapped Award); Space to Be (Oily Cart).
Hazel Low (they/them) is a performance designer working across theatre, live art and spatial design. They are particularly interested in work that is multidisciplinary, challenges form, and inherently collaborative.
Recent credits include: Splintered (Soho); Brilliant Jerks (Southwark Playhouse); Paradise Now! (co-designed with Rosie Elnile, Bush Theatre); Bogeyman (Pleasance, Edinburgh Fringe); The Blue House (Blue Elephant); Who Killed my Father (co-designed with Blythe Brett, Tron); The Magic Flute (co-designed with Rosie Elnile, Royal College of Music); A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Latimer Estate).
As well as design for Live Performance, Hazel also took part in the Prayer Workshops led by Rosie Elnile and the Gate Theatre where they conceptualised ‘Myth of Binary and Body’, a digital installation exploring how we costume trans bodies, a piece of work they are still developing. Hazel was also design associate on NDT Broadgate in 2020, where they helped conceptualise and action the ideals and aesthetics of the space, and were one of Broadgate’s resident designers when it was open.
Honor Klein trained at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama. Since graduating she has worked as a freelance stage manager in theatre, opera and immersive theatre in London. This Autumn she will be going on her first tour with England Touring Opera.
Theatre Credits include: Barnum’s Bird, Triple Bill, The Magic Flute (Royal College of Music); Labs (Lyric, Hammersmith); 2:22 A Ghost Story (Criterion); Ava: The Secret Conversations (Riverside Studios); Curious (Soho); The Tide (Talawa); 2021 & 2020 Summer Theatre Festival (Roman Theatre); Peter Pan (Alban Arena).
Honor Klein trained at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama. Since graduating she has worked as a freelance stage manager in theatre, opera and immersive theatre in London. This Autumn she will be going on her first tour with England Touring Opera.
Theatre Credits include: Barnum’s Bird, Triple Bill, The Magic Flute (Royal College of Music); Labs (Lyric, Hammersmith); 2:22 A Ghost Story (Criterion); Ava: The Secret Conversations (Riverside Studios); Curious (Soho); The Tide (Talawa); 2021 & 2020 Summer Theatre Festival (Roman Theatre); Peter Pan (Alban Arena).
Katie Greenall (she/they) is a director, theatre maker & writer living in London. Katie specialises in making theatre that is inspired by people’s own experiences, and has worked with organisations such as the Donmar Warehouse and NYT of GB, across the UK and internationally.
She currently directs the 14-17 & 18-25 Young Companies at the Bush Theatre – previously directing Back Up! and ANTHEM – and the Young Company at Theatre Royal Stratford East.
Katie also makes autobiographical work, that often explores fatness, queerness and community. They are the writer & performer of award winning autobiographical solo show Fatty Fat Fat and is currently developing their new show Blubber.
Khalil Madovi is a 25-year-old music artist, composer, writer, actor and filmmaker. He emerged in 2012 with a hit TV series and has since embarked on a diversified career in arts and entertainment, working with the likes of Channel 4, Amazon Studios, Warner Bros. and more. After composing for and featuring in ‘Can I Live?’, a new piece of experimental theatre in collaboration with Complicité and The Barbican, in 2021, he went on to design for Bush Theatre’s critically acclaimed ‘Red Pitch’, for which he received an Offie nomination. Other credits include Jermyn Street Theatre’s ‘The Poison Belt’, The Old Vic’s ‘This Is What The Journey Does’ and Bola Agbaje’s ‘Gone Too Far!’ with the National Youth Theatre. The BAFTA winning south London native is currently shooting his self-written and directed visual album, ‘A COLD HEARTED SUMMER’, which is due for release in 2024. @KhalilMadovi Khalilmadovi.co
Kit Withington is a playwright from Manchester. Her debut play The View From Down Here was on at Ovalhouse in 2015. Kit was a member of the Soho Theatre Writers’ Lab in 2018 and her play Scrap was shortlisted for the Tony Craze Award.
Kit has written several community theatre plays including Streets for Theatre Royal Stratford East’s Young Company. In 2021 Kit was part of the Emerging Writers’ Group at the Bush Theatre. Kit has been part of both an Intro group and an invitational group at the Royal Court Theatre and in 2021 she wrote for Edition 6 of their Living Newspaper.
Lynette Linton has been Artistic Director of the Bush Theatre since 2019. Her first season was a series of ground-breaking debuts from UK and Irish writers. She was previously Resident Assistant Director at the Donmar Warehouse and Associate Director at the Gate Theatre.
Lynette directed the UK premiere of Lynn Nottage’s Pulitzer Prize-w inning play Sweat (Donmar Warehouse, Gielgud Theatre) for which she won ‘Best Director’ at the inaugural Black British Theatre awards. Sweat also won the Evening Standard award for ‘Best Play’ and was nominated for an Oliver award for ‘Best New Play’.
Her production of Richard II (Shakespeare’s Globe) which she directed with Adjoa Andoh, marked the first ever company of women of colour in a
Shakespeare play on a major UK stage. Lynette recently made her National
Theatre debut directing a new production of American writer Pearl Cleage’s Blues for an Alabama Sky.
Additional directing credits include: Lenny Henry’s August in England, Beru Tessema’s House of Ife and Jackie Kay’s Chiaroscuro (all Bush Theatre); Assata Taught Me (Gate); Function (National Youth Theatre); This Is (ArtsEd); Naked (VAULT Festival); This Wide Night (Albany). She was also co-director on Chicken Palace (Stratford East). TV credits include: My Name is Leon (BBC), for which she was nominated for a BAFTA.
Theatre writing credits include: Hashtag Lightie (Arcola); Chicken Palace and Step (Stratford East). TV writing credits include: Look at Me (ITV).
She is co-founder of theatre and film production company Black Apron
Entertainment who produced Passages: A Windrush Celebration with the Royal Court, a project she also curated.
Mateus Daniel (he/him) is a Movement director, dancer and actor from south London. He has built a love and curiosity for telling stories physically that express themes of culture, race, change and transitions, and has used his experiences within dance and theatre to influence his current lyrical style.
Alongside performing he has been able to facilitate and lead various masterclasses in movement for companies such as Talawa Theatre company, The Pappy Show, The Almeida Theatre, The Young Vic and The BBTA’s (The Black British Theatre Awards). In addition Mateus is a 2022 nominee for Best Choreographer or Movement Director at The BBTA’s for his work on Passion Fruit at New Diorama Theatre.
Movement Director credits: Passion Fruit (New Diorama); Dull Thuds of Love (Curve); Human Nurture (Theatre Centre); Chicken Burger and Chips (Brixton House); The Boys Are Kissing (Theatre503); Vardy v Rooney The Wagatha Christie Trial (Ambassador Theatre).
Simeon Miller (he/him) has worked as a Lighting Designer since he graduated from Mountview Academy in 2010. He works across theatre, dance, musicals, ‘gig theatre’ and devised work. He enjoys contributing to new writing, especially socially and politically conscious work which amplifies oppressed and radical voices.
Selected recent credits include: Alice In Wonderland (Liverpool Everyman / Plymouth Theatre Royal); The Sun Shines For Everyone (Lyric Hammersmith); The Book of Will (Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch / Bolton Octagon / Shakespeare North Playhouse); Ruckus (Southwark Playhouse / Summerhall, Edinburgh); Jekyll and Hyde (Derby Theatre / Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch); Christmas in the Sunshine (Unicorn); Follow the Signs (Soho); The Poison Belt (Jermyn Street); Project Dictator (New Diorama); An Adventure (Bolton Octagon); Metamorphoses (Globe); The Mob Reformers (Lyric Hammersmith); Subject Mater (Edinburgh Fringe); Black Holes (International Tour); and High Rise eState of Mind (UK Tour).
