Ripples

Cast & Creatives

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  Tafadzwa Muchenje

  Co-Writer & Performer

  Tafadzwa Muchenje is a bold and dynamic new voice in British theatre. A writer, actor, and multidisciplinary artist, his work explores identity, migration, masculinity, and belonging with raw honesty and…

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  Tafadzwa Muchenje

  Co-Writer & Performer

  Tafadzwa Muchenje is a bold and dynamic new voice in British theatre.

  A writer, actor, and multidisciplinary artist, his work explores identity, migration, masculinity, and belonging with raw honesty and energy. He began his creative journey with Stand & Be Counted Theatre in 2017, starring in the national tour of Where We Began. He gained a social media apprenticeship at Channel 4 in 2019, progressing to become a senior marketing executive leading on a range of campaigns across multiple genres, and shows such as Taskmaster, Married at First Sight UK & Australia, Alone UK, Tempting Fortune, Election 2024. Whilst building his career behind the scenes, he continued telling stories – starring in The Calling, a campaign with the Department for Education and SBTV, and appearing in a Guardian Labs short film in which Jamal Edwards explored Taf’s life and rise through apprenticeships.

  As Associate Artist, Taf has continued collaborating with Stand & Be Counted on a wide range of projects including the documentary Where We Are, winner of the New York City IO Film Festival ‘Civil Rights Award’ in 2020. He contributed to Not A Chance Encounter (2022) an outdoor exhibition commissioned by ArtReach for the Liberty EU programme, exploring the role of artists in working with immigration stories, weaving together their lived experience with those of young refugees and asylum seekers across Europe and the UK. Taf is passionate about developing socially charged, thought-provoking work.

• Rosie MacPherson 

  Co-Writer & Director

  
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  Rosie MacPherson 

  Co-Writer & Director

  Rosie MacPherson is a writer, director and activist. She is Artistic Director and joint CEO of Stand & Be Counted; the UK’s first Theatre Company of Sanctuary, committed to making work with and for people seeking sanctuary (asylum seekers, refugees and migrants). Her writing was nominated for a Fringe First, Bobby Award and Carol Tambor Best of Edinburgh Award, super shortlisted for BBC Comedy Room, a finalist of Box of Tricks and Sky Studios Screen/Play Award, and longlisted for the Women’s Prize for Playwriting.

  She is the winner of the British Independent Film Festival’s Best Actress Award and New York City IO Film
  festival ‘Civil Rights Award’. Rosie wrote Stand & Be Counted’s groundbreaking production Tanja led by Emily Ntshangase. The show enjoyed two sold-out national tours and was presented at The Houses of Parliament to hundreds of cross-party MPs and campaigners. She co-wrote and directed Have Your Passport Ready, a gaming adventure navigating the UK’s hostile environment led by Syrian brothers Khaled and Mohammad Aljawad. Have Your Passport Ready was named ‘Game of the Week’ by The Observer. It has been played in 97 countries.

  Further credits include:

  Writer: For Stand & Be Counted – Where We Began (national tour); Posta Aerea (Paines Plough, Elsinore Theatre Milan); Inside (Gilded Balloon Edinburgh Fringe, national tour); Century (Sheffield Theatres) and Mother of the Revolution, Santa Must Die, An Act of Care (for archipelago arts collective)

  Director: For Stand & Be Counted – Secret Summer (The Space, Theatre in the Mill); Where
  We Are (documentary); Can You Hear Me Now? (Coventry UK City of Culture 2021).

• Lee Affen

  Composer & Sound Designer

  
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  Lee Affen

  Composer & Sound Designer

• Tom Robbins

  Technical Director

  
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  Tom Robbins

  Technical Director

• Zoe Katsilerou

  Movement Director

  
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  Zoe Katsilerou

  Movement Director

• Matt Powell

  Video Designer

  
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  Matt Powell

  Video Designer

  Matt Powell (they/she/he) is a non-binary, Offie-finalist video designer, musical theatre creative and queer practitioner based in the East Midlands. They are a PhD candidate exploring LGBTQ+ representation in musical theatre at the University of Wolverhampton.

  Video Design and Digital credits include: New Year (Birmingham Opera); Marie Curie – A New Musical, Rebecca (Charing Cross); Laughing Boy (Jermyn Street / Theatre Royal Bath); Sherlock Holmes and the Poison Wood (Watermill); EXhibitionists (King’s Head); I Really Do Think That This Will Change Your Life (Mercury Theatre / Colchester – Finalist The Stage Award for Innovation): Gypsy in Concert (Manchester Opera House for Hope Mill Theatre); Ride (The Old Globe / Curve / Southwark); Animal (Hope Mill / Park – Offie Finalist); Accidental Death of an Anarchist (Theatre Royal Haymarket / Sheffield / Lyric Hammersmith); Blow Down (Leeds Playhouse); Rumi: The Musical (D’asha Performing Arts Festival / London Coliseum); How A City Can Save the World (Sheffield); A-Typical Rainbow (Turbine); Flight (RCM); But What If You Die (Camden People’s Theatre); Old Friends (Digital); Bloody Difficult Women (Riverside); Santa Must Die (Alphabetti); Magdalene (Arcola Outside); Snowflake (Lowry); 34 (Aria Entertainment / Lowry); Public Domain (Vaudeville / Southwark); The Blazing World (University of the Arts, Philadelphia); On Hope: A Digital Song Cycle (Other Palace); Plaza (Royal Central School of Speech and Drama); American Idiot (Derby).

  Directing credits include: Rent (May Hall); Santa Must Die (Leeds Playhouse / Red Ladder); Nativity: The Musical, Crazy for You (Derby); The Unconventionals (VAULT); Is He Musical (Curve / Other Palace).

• Charly Dunford

  Lighting Designer

  
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  Charly Dunford

  Lighting Designer

• Joe Bunce

  Technical Stage Manager

  
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  Joe Bunce

  Technical Stage Manager

• Stand & Be Counted

  Producer

  
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  Stand & Be Counted

  Producer

  Stand & Be Counted is the UK’s first Theatre Company of Sanctuary, and arts charity, committed to making work with and for people seeking sanctuary (refugees, asylum seekers and migrants). They proudly sit at the intersection of arts, culture & social activism. Through a rigorous and adventurous co-creation programme, they provide thousands of people seeking sanctuary with regular, long-term creative and career development opportunities to celebrate, platform, and ensure equality of opportunity.

  They make live & digital works to instigate change with a proud record for platforming new artists and welcoming new audiences. Founded in 2010, their work is innovative, adventurous and political, merging lived experience with new ideas. 

  Producer – John Tomlinson
  Associate Producer – Muetesim Abdel