Speed

Mohamed-Zain Dada

Writer

Mohamed-Zain Dada, goes by the name Zain, is a playwright and screenwriter. His first writing credit, Emily (Glitched) In Paris was for the Royal Court Theatre’s Living Newspaper series in March 2021. He is an alumnus of BBC Drama Room’s 2022-23 cohort and NFTS x Left Bank Pictures inaugural Diverse Writer’s Room Programme 2024. Zain’s debut play, Blue Mist premiered at the Jerwood Theatre Upstairs at the Royal Court Theatre in October 2023 to four and five star reviews and was nominated for an Olivier Award. His second play, Dizzy premiered at the Sheffield Playhouse (co-produced by Theatre Centre).

Milli Bhatia

Director

Milli is an award winning stage, screen and radio director, and dramaturg from East London. She is an Associate Artist at Synergy, Creative Advisor at Brixton House, and was Associate Director at The Royal Court.

Before this, she was Trainee Director and then Literary Associate at The Royal Court, Associate Artist at The Bush Theatre, Resident Assistant Director at Birmingham Rep and Creative Associate at The Gate Theatre. Her training includes The National Theatre Director’s Programme, and The Old Vic 12.

She is a two-time Olivier Award nominee, for her productions of seven methods of killing kylie jenner and Blue Mist, both premiered at The Royal Court. She has also been nominated for Off West End Awards, Visionary Arts Awards, EE Awards and Asian Media Awards, and her work has received West End and international transfers, including to The Public Theater NYC, Woolly Mammoth DC, Riksteatern and The Swedish Biennale (Dramaten). Her work in theatre also includes Chasing Hares (Young Vic), King Troll (The Fawn) (New Diorama), My White Best Friend and Other Letters Left Unsaid (Royal Court/Bunker), Macbeth:Something Wicked (Donmar tour), Liberation Squares (Nottingham Playhouse/Brixton House/National tour), Dismantle This Room (Bush Theatre/Royal Court), Maryland and Baghdaddy (both Royal Court).

Tomás Palmer

Set and Costume Designer

Tomás Palmer (he/him) is a Scottish / Brazilian designer who creates work for theatre, new writing, dance, opera, musicals and film. Tomás trained at the Glasgow School of Art and the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama. He is one of the 2021 winners of The Linbury Prize for Stage Design and was the production designer on the BAFTA and BIFA Award winning short film Too Rough in 2022.

Theatre Design credits include: Blue Mist (Royal Court); The Bacchae (Lyric Hammersmith); Julius Caesar (co-costume design with Rosanna Vize, RSC); My Uncle Is Not Pablo Escobar (Brixton House); Sanctuary (Access All Areas); Sophocles’ Oedipus / Silent Practice (LAMDA); The Wellspring (co-design with Rosie Elnile, Royal and Derngate); Time Is Running Out (Gate Theatre, Cardiff); Winning (Glasgow School of Art); Autocue (Centre for Contemporary Art Glasgow).

Associate design credits include: The Cherry Orchard (Yard, ETT, Home Manchester); Sound of The Underground (Royal Court).

Jessica Hung Han Yun

Lighting Designer

Theatre credits include: Dr. Strangelove (Noel Coward Theatre); Fan Girls (Lyric Hammersmith); Alma Mater (Almeida Theatre); With Nail & I (Birmingham Rep); Lyonesse (Harold Pinter Theatre); My Neighbour Totoro (West End / Royal Shakespeare Company / Barbican); Little Shop of Horrors, Miss Saigon, The Good Person of Szechwan, The Band Plays On, She Loves Me, Reasons to Stay Alive (Sheffield Theatres); Wild Rose (Lyceum Edinburgh); Straight Line Crazy (The Shed, New York / The Bridge Theatre); The Enormous Crocodile, Once on This Island (Regents Park); The Glow, Seven Methods of Killing Kylie Jenner (Public Theatre, New York / Wooly Mammoth, Washington DC); Living Newspaper Edition 7, Pah-La (Royal Court); The Mirror and the Light (Gielgud Theatre); Anna X (Lowry / Howard Pinter); Marys Seacole, Blindness (Donmar Warehouse); Out West (Lyric Hammersmith); The Odyssey (Unicorn Theatre); Minority Report (Nottingham Playhouse, Birmingham Rep, Lyric Theatre);  Inside (Orange Tree); Dick Whittington (National Theatre); Rockets and Blue Lights (Royal Exchange); Faces in the Crowd, Mephisto, Dear Elizabeth, The Human Voice (The Gate); Equus (Theatre Royal Stratford East / UK Tour); Armadillo (The Yard); Reasons To Stay Alive (ETT / UK Tour); One (HOME / UK Tour / International Tour); Forgotten (Arcola Theatre /Theatre Royal, Plymouth); Hive City Legacy (Roundhouse); Snowflake (Kiln Theatre / Old Fire Station); Fairview (Young Vic); Cuckoo (Soho Theatre); Nine Foot Nine (The Bunker / Edinburgh Festival Fringe); Becoming Shades (VAULT Festival).

Other credits include: Twice Born (Scottish Ballet); HOME (Rambert2); Guardians of the Galaxy: The Live Immersive Experience (Secret Cinema); Winter Light (commissioned by the Museum of the Home); V&A Divas Exhibition.

Her awards include an Olivier Award and WhatsOnStage Award for Best Lighting Design for My Neighbour Totoro and a Knight of Illumination Award for Plays and Off West End Award for Best Lighting Design for Equus.

XANA

Composer

XANA is a composer, spatial sound artist, music supervisor and a haptic specialist sound designer developing accessible audio systems for theatre and live art spaces. Xana is the music science and technology lead and project mentor supporting Black artists and inventors at audio research label Inventing Waves.

Theatre credits: After Sunday (Belgrade); Alterations (National); Conversations After Sex (Park Theatre); Pig Heart Boy (Unicorn Theatre); Shifters, Barcelona (Duke of York); Dead Girls Rising (Silent Uproar, UK Tour); Not Your Superwoman, Speed, The Real Ones, My Fathers Fable, Elephant, Sleepova, The P Word, Strange Fruit (Bush); The Architect (ATC/GDIF); Beautiful Thing (Stratford East); Imposter 22, Word:Play, Living Newspaper #4 (Royal Court); Rumble In the Jungle (Rematch:Live); Anna Karenina (Edinburgh Lyceum, Bristol Old Vic); Intimate Apparel, The Trials, Marys Seacole (Donmar); Earthworks, Sundown Kiki: Reloaded, The Collaboration, Sundown Kiki, Changing Destiny, Fairview, Ivan and the Dogs (Young Vic); …cake (Theatre Peckham); Who Killed My Father (Tron); as british as a watermelon (Contact); Hyde and Seek (Guildhall); Burgerz (Hackney Showroom); King Troll (The Fawn); Everyday (Deafinitely) (New Diorama); Black Holes (The Place); Hive City Legacy (Roundhouse); Main Character Energy, But Daddy I love her, Glamrou: From Quran to Queen, Curious, Half-Breed (Soho Theatre); Blood Knot, Guards At The Taj (Orange Tree Theatre); Samuel Takes A Break, SEX SEX MEN MEN (Yard); Limp Wrist & Iron Fist, Everything I own, Is Dat Yu Yeah (Brixton House).

Black British Theatre Awards; Best Sound Design 2023 (Win), Best Sound Design 2024 (Win) 

Theatre Awards Offie; King Troll (The Fawn) (Win), Shifters (Win), Guards at The Taj (Win), Sleepova (Nom), The P Word (Nom), Blood Knot (Finalist)

Olivier: Olivier Award for The P Word production award 2023, Olivier Award for Sleepova production award 2024

Theophilus O. Bailey

Movement Director

Theophilus O. Bailey is a multidisciplinary artist based in London, deeply rooted in the fusion of hip-hop and contemporary dance. His work delves into themes of mental health, societal inequities, self-perception, and physical wellness through various mediums, including theatrical performances, filmmaking, and photography.

Over the years, he has collaborated on numerous acclaimed projects, created his own works, produced events, and performed with Olivier Award-winning Hip Hop theatre choreographers Kenrick Sandy and Ivan Blackstock. He has also worked alongside industry-leading choreographers and directors such as Russell Maliphant, Joseph Toonga, Milli Bhatia, and Ryan Calais Cameron.

In the realm of visual art and poetry, Theophilus has choreographed and performed for artists like Julianknxx, Yomi Sode, Caleb Femi, and Rhael ‘LionHeart’ Cape Hon FRIBA. His recent film work includes appearances in Steven Soderbergh’s ‘Magic Mike’s Last Dance’ and BSL Zone’s ‘Here/Not Here’.

Bret Yount

Fight Director

Theatre/Opera credits include: Festen (ROH); Oliver! (Gielgud); Twelfth Night (RSC); King Lear (The Shed, NYC); Dr Strangelove (Noel Coward); Quiet Songs (Pit, Barbican); 1984 (Theatre Royal, Bath); The Spy Who Came in From the Cold (Minerva, Chichester); Abigail’s Party (Theatre Royal, Stratford East); Carmen (Glyndebourne); Machinal (Old Vic); The Hungry Body (Donmar Warehouse); King Lear (Wyndhams); The Witches (National Theatre); Cruel Intentions (The Other Palace); The Hunt (St Anns, NYC); My Beautiful Laundrette (Leicester Curve); Sleuth, Closure (Theatre Royal, Windsor); Shooting Hedda Gabler (Rose Theatre, Kingston); Macbeth (Shakespeare’s Globe); The Crucible (NT and Gielgud); Mates In Chelsea, Hope Has a Happy Meal, Imposter 22 (Royal Court); Village Idiots (Nottingham Playhouse/Stratford East); The Harmony Test, Between Riverside and Crazy, Akebah (Hampstead Theatre); The Birthday Party, The Deep Blue Sea, A View From the Bridge (West End); Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf (Theatre Royal, Bath); Dirty Dancing (Dominion Theatre/National Tour); A Beautiful Thing (Theatre Royal, Stratford East); Itch (Opera Holland Park); A Little Life (Harold Pinter).

Arthur Carrington

Casting Director

As Casting Director, theatre credits include: The Glass Menagerie (Yard); A Good House, BRACE BRACE, Giant, ECHO, Bluets, Blue Mist, Hope has a Happy Meal, Graceland, Jews. In Their Own Words, A Fight Against…, Maryland, Poet in da Corner (Royal Court); King Troll (The Fawn) (New Diorama); Paradise Lost (lies unopened beside me) (Tour); Little Deaths (Summerhall); Visit from an Unknown Woman (Hampstead); Liberation Squares (Nottingham Playhouse / Brixton House & tour); The Contingency Plan (Sheffield Crucible); Barefoot in the Park (Pitlochry Festival Theatre / Royal Lyceum); Returning to Haifa (Finborough); The Ugly One (Park); The Mountaintop (Young Vic).

As Casting Associate, theatre credits include: Unicorn (Garrick); Dr Strangelove (Noel Coward); Waiting for Godot (Theatre Royal Haymarket); Slave Play (Noel Coward); The Hills of California (Harold Pinter); Macbeth (UK/US Tour); Lyonesse (Harold Pinter); La Cage Aux Folles (Regents Park Open Air); The Pillowman (Duke of York’s); Hamnet (RSC & Garrick); Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead (Complicité – UK & European tour); Jerusalem (Apollo); Leopoldstadt (Wyndham’s); Uncle Vanya (Harold Pinter); The Night of the Iguana (Noel Coward); Rosmersholm (Duke of York’s); True West (Vaudeville); The Ferryman (Royal Court / Gielgud / Bernard B. Jacobs, New York); Shipwreck, Albion
(Almeida); A Very, Very, Very Dark Matter (Bridge); Hangmen (Royal Court / Wyndham’s / Atlantic Theatre Company, New York).

Film credits include: The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry; Maryland; Ballywalter.

Beth Qualter Buncall

Costume Supervisor

Beth Qualter Buncall works as a costume supervisor and maker for film, tv and theatre as well as being a textile artist creating custom and bespoke items such as garments, drapes and sculptural works.

Theatre credits include: Canned Goods (Southwark Playhouse); Goldie Frocks and the Behrmitzvah (JW3); Huddle, The Wolf, The Duck and The Mouse (Unicorn Theatre); Kim’s Convenience (Riverside Studios); The War of the Worlds (Wilton’s Music Hall); Some Demon (Arcola theatre & Bristol Old Vic, Offie nominated); 23.5 Hours, Kim’s Convenience (The Park Theatre); Love Bomb (National Youth Theatre); When you pass over my tomb (The Arcola Theatre); The Hatchling (Wakefield Festival Theatre Co)

Film credits include: Hostages; Greatest Days; London’s Forgotten; Nostalgia Ranch

Television credits include: Mr Loverman; A Thousand Blows; Trigger Point; Top Boy (BAFTA Winner); The Witcher; The Great; The Enfield Poltergeist (BAFTA Nominated); The Rings of Power; Bridgerton (CDG Award Nominated); Ten Percent; Call the Midwife; Lockwood & Co (National Film Awards UK Nominated) ; Nike Commercial; LTA Commercial; Bershka Commercial

Stacey Nurse

Stage Manager

Alexander Standish-Murray

Assistant Stage Manager

Alexander Standish-Murray recently Graduated from the University of East London where he studied Performing Arts and specialised in experimental, ritualistic, divisive theatre.

He is a passionate early career Stage Manager who has already worked on multiple professional theatre productions,  such as (Rehearsal) Stage Manager on The Glorious French Revolution and Stage Manager for Win(d)ing Orchestra’s R&D3.

Alex is also a dedicated theatre technician, being involved in many productions as an operator, displaying his skill in understanding the technical aspects that bring a show together.

Adam Jefferys

Production Manager

Adam is a lighting designer and production manager from Essex.

Recent work includes: Animal Farm (UK Tour); Statues (Bush Theatre); Autumn (Park Theatre); Foreverland (Southwark Playhouse); Playfight (Summerhall Festival); I Love You, Now What? (Park Theatre); Communion (Bush Theatre); The End (Bush Theatre); My Father’s Fable (Bush Theatre); The Bleeding Tree (Southwark Playhouse); The Great Privation (Theatre503); The Olive Boy (UK Tour); Murder In The Dark (UK Tour); Elephant (Bush Theatre); It Is I, Seagull (UK Tour); Soon & Pilot (Both Summerhall Festival); Philosophy of The World (Cambridge Junction); After The Act (New Diorama); War & Culture (New Diorama); Under The Kundè Tree (Southwark Playhouse); Jekyll and Hyde (Derby Theatre); Project Dictator (New Diorama & Edinburgh); Everything Has Changed (Tour & Edinburgh) and Dorian (Reading Rep).

Stephen Settle

Associate Lighting Designer & Programmer

Stephen is a freelance Lighting Programmer and Associate based in the UK. He was previously the Lighting Programmer at the Royal Court Theatre where he worked on over 50 productions.

Recent programming credits include: Retrograde (Apollo); The Capulets and the Montagues (ETO); Lonely Londoners (Kiln); Robin Hood (Rose Theatre); The Unseen (Riverside Studios); The Turn of the Screw (Queen’s Theatre); Never Let Me Go (UK Tour); A Face in the Crowd (Young Vic); Fangirls (Lyric Hammersmith); The Secret Garden (Regents Park); Beegu, The Odyssey (Unicorn Theatre); Midsummer [a play with songs], Importance of being Earnest (Mercury Theatre); Macbeth (UK Tour); Cinderella (Churchill Theatre); Cinderella (Brixton House); Backstairs Billy (Duke of York’s); Hamnet (Garrick); Beautiful Thing (Stratford East).