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 whose work has been staged in theatres including The Gate, The Young Vic and The Royal Court. He is currently Associate Director at The Yard Theatre, was previously the resident director at Theatre Peckham and associate director at The Gate Theatre. Anthony is also a facilitator, working with young people and communities, having worked at The Gate, The Royal Court, The Young Vic and The Globe, and National Theatre in this capacity.

In addition to theatre, Anthony has worked with Tamasha Theatre company to make audio dramas including collaborations with the National Archives on projects such as Loyalty & Dissent and Once British, Always British and enjoys working across different media including film, having worked on ear for eye by debbie tucker green for BBC Films and BFI. He is passionate about international work having received a British Council bursary to visit the Informal European Theatre Meeting in Brussels, as well as being selected by the British Council to attend DirectorsLab North in Toronto. In 2019, he was invited to be a visiting guest artist for the Banff Playwrights Lab. He is also working on the international project for the Royal Court in Jamaica and Barbados.

Recent directorial work includes The Ridiculous Darkness by Wolfram Lotz at The Gate, which received 5-star reviews, “stunning and subversive” (The Stage), “you’d be sorely pressed to find anything more riveting or stupendous” (WhatsOnStage).

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 a multidisciplinary artist who specialises in multi-form storytelling; fusing movement, witty dialogue & poetic multi-layered text in unexpected ways.

Work includes:
Director & Writer – All The Things (Arts Ed), Fragments Of A Complicated Mind (Theatre 503), Scalped (Without Walls National Tour).

Movement Direction – Othello (NYTRep 21), Birds & Bees (Theatre Centre), 846Live (TRSE), Little Baby Jesus (Orange Tree Theatre – Movement Consultant), and Essence Exhibition (Mr Eazi Culture Fest)

Actress – Nadia’s Gift Film (Jack Studio Theatre), Mami Wata – WIP (The Bush), Ilé La Wà (Stratford Circus), Muscovado (Burnt Out Theatre Tour).

Choreography (Music Video) – Dis Love (Wizkid), Rushing (Alicai Harley), Olorun mi (Tiwa Savage), Don’t Bother Me (Shakka), Pour Me Water (Mr Eazi, Official Dance Video)

She is Artistic Director of Initiative.dkf – creators of Melanin Box Festival, Albany Theatre’s 2021 Artists of change and Tamasha Associate artists (‘19-20)

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 is a Director and Video/Projection designer, who co-founded Black Apron Entertainment. Credits Include: Children’s Children (English Touring Theatre), Beyond the Canon (RADA), Be More Chill (The Other Palace), Sweat (West End and Donmar Warehouse), Small Island (National Theatre).

Jai trained at RADA and won the 2016 Association of Lighting Designer’s ETC Award.

Recent designs include Cruise (Duchess Theatre), Pawn/Limbo (Bush Theatre), The Hoes (Hampstead Theatre), My Son’s A Queer (But What Can You Do?) (Turbine Theatre), Hushabye Mountain (Hope Mill), Out of the Dark (Rose Theatre Kingston), Shuck’n’Jive, Whitewash (Soho Theatre), Anansi the Spider, Aesop’s Fables (Unicorn Theatre), World’s End (King’s Head Theatre), I’ll Take You To Mrs. Cole (Complicite), The Actor’s Nightmare (Park Theatre), Mapping Brent (Kiln Theatre), Mary’s Babies (Jermyn Street Theatre), Glory (Duke’s Theatre/Red Ladder), Cuzco (Theatre503),  Losing Venice (Orange Tree Theatre), King Lear, Lorna Doone (Exmoor National Park), Cinderella (Duke’s Lancaster), A Lie of the Mind (Southwark Playhouse), 46 Beacon (Trafalgar Studios), Out There on Fried Meat Ridge Road (White Bear Theatre, Trafalgar Studio 2), Acorn (Courtyard Theatre – Off-West End Award nomination for Best Lighting).

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 as a dramatherapist on The High Table at the Bush Theatre, for shows at Soho Theatre, Stratford East, and is currently working with Hampstead Theatre, The Royal Court, and Paines Plough.