PAUL SELLAR - Writer

Paul was born in London and studied Drama at Bristol University.

His plays include: The Bedsit at the Tabard Theatre, transferring to BAC as part of Time Out Critics Choice Season. Later that year it was produced by The Assembly Rooms for the Edinburgh Festival. Other plays at the Edinburgh Festival include: Dark is the Night, a stage adaptation of The Night Wire and The Waxwork which formed a double bill of mystery and suspense, and a farce, Cell G 159, that was revived the following year as The Dead Move Fast.

2Graves premiered at The Pleasance Theatre, Edinburgh (2006) before transferring to London where it re-opened The Arts Theatre. Directed by Yvonne McDevitt, the production featured an original score from Oscar- nominated composer Michael Nyman. 2Graves marked Paul’s West End debut.

Paul’s most recent play Worlds End previewed at the Pleasance Theatre for the Edinburgh Festival 2007 and transfers to Trafalgar Studios, West End in February 2008. His plays have been produced in Dublin and Chicago.

Previous commissions include The National Theatre, GB Productions, Camden Young People’s Theatre, Central School of Speech and Drama. His work has been developed at the NT Studio, The Bush Theatre, Soho Theatre (Studio) and The Old Vic. He is currently writing a drama for BBC Radio 3 (The Wire) and an original screenplay for Warp X Films (a joint initiative between Film4 and the UK Film Council). He is also writing a new stage play.

THE BEDSIT is published by Faber and Faber and THE DEAD MOVE FAST and 2GRAVES and WORLDS END are published by Oberon Books.

"An innovative playwright with a brilliant gift" Plays and Players

"A thrilling writer" Time Out

"Sellar continually defies expectation..." The Independent.

JONATHAN MOORE - Actor

Jonathan Moore is an award-winning opera director/librettist, playwright, theatre & film director, and a popular theatre & television actor. He co-starred with Gabriel Byrne in his own play Treatment (BBC Films, which also won him one of his two Scotsman Fringe First Awards). Starring roles in TV/Film include Jack The Ripper (CBS) opposite Michael Caine, in Bleak House opposite Dame Diana Rigg, in two series of Roger Roger, and the series Inside Story opposite Francesca Annis. His stage plays also include Street Captives, Behind Heaven and This Other Eden. In opera he is one of our most innovative directors, well known for his work with composers Michael Nyman, James Macmillan, Stewart Copeland (of Police fame) and Mark-Anthony Turnage. Opera librettos include the film Horse Opera (which he also directed) and Greek (Munich Biennale Best Libretto Award). Other awards include Royal Philharmonic Society Award for Best Film for Greek, BMW Best Director Award for 63: Dream Palace, and an Olivier Award nomination for Greek at the ENO.

WEBSITE: www.jonathanmooreuk.com

YVONNE McDEVITT - Director

Yvonne McDevitt is an Irish director, based in Cambridge. Her critically acclaimed productions of NOT I and ROCKABY by Samuel Beckett toured to the Hermitage Theatre in Moscow in 1997. Her production of EXILES by James Joyce, the first since Harold Pinter's 1971 production, was awarded a JERWOOD DIRECTORS AWARD at the Young Vic Theatre, in London in 2002. Her productions of ON WAR inspired by Claude von Clausewitz, at the Young Vic Theatre and MARCHING SONG by John Whiting at the Royal National Theatre Studio, were staged in 2003. Her radical devised work, BRUSSELS MANIFESTO was produced at the Scarabeus Theatre, in the Turkish quarter of Brussels in 2005. She has just been awarded an unprecedented award from the Arts Council of England for her production of THE BITTER TEARS OF PETRA VON KANT by Rainer Werner Fassbinder in London in 2008. THE OSLO EXPERIMENT, a new devised work inspired by Ingmar Bergman's SCENES FROM A MARRIAGE is currently being developed for production in Oslo in 2008. She has been an Associate Director at the Royal Court and Royal National Theatres in London between 1999-2003. Her most recent devised work, I ONLY WANT YOU TO LOVE ME was staged at Theatre 503 in London in May. She is about to direct NOT I, FOOTFALLS and COME AND GO - in English and French - at the Theatre Nationale Populaire in Lyon. She was awarded the JUDITH E WILSON Drama Fellowship at the University of Cambridge in 2004, where she has been researching a new work, ARTAUD IN DUBLIN, the story of Antonin Artaud's infamous trip to Dublin in 1936.

Kimie Nakano - Designer

Studied costume at E.N.S.A.T.T. in Paris and theatre set and costume design at Wimbledon School of Art. Trained at Opera de Paris and at the Saito Kinen Festival in Japan as an assistant designer. Assisted Academy Award winner Emi Wada in both opera and film, including ‘8 and a half women’ by Peter Greenaway. Designed the Award-winning ‘Yabu no naka’ director Mansai Nomura in the Japan Art Festival 1999 and collaborated with Choreographer Megumi Nakamura on ‘Sandflower’, receiving the Gold Award in the Maastricht Festival 2000 (Holland). Design in the U.K. includes, ‘8:15 ‘ with choreographer Megumi Eda for Ballet Rambert, Place Theatre, ‘Kensuke Kingdom’, ‘Big Magic’ Polka Theatre, ‘Sumidagawa ‘ The Britten Festival , ‘Rashomon ‘ Riverside Studio , ‘Futon and Daruma’, and ‘Festival for fish’ New Wimbledon Studio Theatre , ‘The Picture of Dorian Gray’ BAC, ‘I only want you to love me’ with director Yvonne McDevitt, Cambridge and Theatre 503, ‘Our lady of the drowned ‘ Southwark Playhouse, ‘Karius & Baktus’ Hackney Empire Bullion Rooms , ‘Double Tongue’ Old Red Lion , ‘Lady Aoi’ New End, ‘The Conquest of the South Pole’ for Theatre Resource and some short films. Director, Snow’ (workshop ) ENO studio with disability singers.

Matthew Deely - Designer

He graduated from the Motley Theatre Design Course and has worked with Stefanos Lazaridis on about twenty operas productions in the UK and continental Europe. The most notable of these include Julietta (Opera North), The Turn of the Screw (Brussels), Faust (Munich), the Italian Season (ENO), Lohengrin (Bayreuth Festival), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Venice), Wozzeck, The Greek Passion, Das Rheingold, Die Walkure, Siegfried and Gotterdammerung (Royal Opera House). He designed Marriage of Figaro for ENO and many shows on the London Fringe including Uganda (NT Studio) and Romans in Britain (Man on the Moon Theatre) Co-Video Artist on Festival for Fish (Wimbledon Studio Theatre) and Our Lady of the Drowned (Southwark Playhouse). Also a graduate of FDI Pinewood Studios, his film credits include Assistant Art Director on Proof (Miramax) and Art Department work on Closer (Elstree Studios).

ANDY JORDAN - Producer

Works as a director and producer in theatre, tv, film and radio, where his experience has been wide-ranging, pioneering and award-winning. He trained in TV and Film at the BBC, and was a founder – along with Susi Hush, Alan Bell and James Bellini - of one of the earliest independent TV production companies, Playfair Productions, for whom he conceived the TV drama series Legs, written by the internationally acclaimed screenwriter Paula Milne, a co-production with LWT and Limehouse Films.

Andy founded the acclaimed multi award-winning Bristol Express Theatre Company, for whom he directed and produced over 100 new plays. He is one of the UK’s leading directors and producers of new writing, and is renowned for discovering and helping to develop literally hundreds of new writers, many of whom are now internationally recognised, including Jimmy McGovern (creator ‘Cracker’), Glenn Chandler (creator ‘Taggart’), Allan Cubitt (Emmy award-winning lead writer ‘Prime Suspect), Don Webb (creator ‘Byker Grove’), Paul Unwin (creator ‘Casualty’) and acclaimed National Theatre/Almeida Theatre/Royal Court Theatre writer, Richard Bean.

Andy has directed and produced new plays by countless other, established writers, including Athol Fugard, Peter Nichols, Nick Fisher, Alan Plater, Elaine Feinstein, Edward Bond, Bill Morrison, Michael Arditti, Paul Herzberg, the late Roy McGregor, Bonnie Greer, the late Michael Wall, Ronald Hayman, Neil McKay, Shaun McKenna and Richard Crane.

He has been particularly associated with the Edinburgh Festival, having won a number of Festival Awards (including two ‘Scotsman’ Fringe First Awards), and produced and directed a huge range of straight plays, comedy, music and One Person Shows, many of which introduced artists who are now household names. His freelance theatre directing credits include work for many UK repertory theatres; drama schools; in London’s West End; and in New York.

In radio, where he was a Senior Radio Drama Producer for the BBC, he is one of the UK’s leading audio producers, having directed numerous internationally award-winning productions (two International Sony Radio Awards, two Giles Cooper Awards, the New York Radio Festival Award and the European Union Broadcasting Award). He has just completed the recording of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof by Tennessee Williams for BBC R3 with Joss Ackland, Gemma Jones, Alison Steadman, Roy Dotrice, Elizabeth McGovern and Marcus D’Amico in the cast.

Andy is also a teacher and lecturer, most recently having been Head of Drama at Bradfield College (Berkshire), and, currently, Senior Lecturer in Drama, Radio & TV at Lincoln University. He has taught and directed at numerous Drama Schools (notably Guildhall) and Universities (including Bristol University Drama Dept), and was a regular tutor at BBC Radio Training.

Andy Jordan Productions Ltd

Andy Jordan Productions was created in summer 2000, initially to present Picasso’s Women. Since then AJP has presented Oxygen by Carl Djerassi and Roald Hoffmann (Riverside Studios, London); Murder in Paris by Howard Ginsberg (co-production with Basingstoke Haymarket Theatre); My Matisse by Howard Ginsberg (Edinburgh Festival 2002); An Immaculate Misconception by Carl Djerassi (Bridewell Theatre, London 2002); Kings of the Road by Brian McAvera, Playing For Reward by Chris Pitt and Joe Evans, Last Song of the Nightingale by Peter Quilter, and Ego by Carl Djerassi (Edinburgh Festival 2003). Two of these shows toured after Edinburgh: Kings of the Road (playing in Dublin, Greenwich and Winchester) and Last Song of the Nightingale (in Greenwich).

Three on a Couch by Carl Djerassi, starring Leigh Zimmerman, Rolf Saxon and Michael Praed, directed by Andy Jordan, March 2004, Kings Head Theatre, London; Calculus by Carl Djerassi, starring Nick Wilton, John Kane, Susan Sheridan, Roger May, Lynette Edwards, Michael Fenner and David Gant, New End Theatre, London 2004, directed by Andy Jordan; Swansong written and performed by Conor McDermottroe at the Pleasance Theatre, Edinburgh Festival, 2004; Talk About The Passion by Graham Farrow, New End Theatre, London and Arc Theatre, Stockton 2004, starring Daniel Ainsleigh and Phillipa Peak, directed by Darren Tunstall; Phallacy by Carl Djerassi, with Hamish Clark, Karen Archer, Jack Klaff, directed by Andy Jordan (New End Theatre/Kings Head Theatre, London, 2005); Hush by Samantha Wright, with Juliet Cowan and Alex Palmer,directed by Donnacadh O’Briain; Playing Burton by Mark Jenkins, with Brian Mallon, Pleasance Theatre, Edinburgh Festival, 2005; Rosebud: The Lives of Orson Welles by Mark Jenkins, starring Christian McKay, co-produced with Steven Berkoff (Kings Head Theatre, London, 2005/6); Lies Have Been Told by Rod Beacham, starring Philip York, directed by Alan Dossor (New End Theatre, London / Trafalgar Studios, West End of London, with ATG, 2006); Taboos by Carl Djerassi, with Nicola Bryant, Jeremy Lindsay Taylor, Jane Perry, Kathryn Akin and Jane Perry, directed by Andy Jordan (New End Theatre, London, 2006; 2Graves by Paul Sellar, with Jonathan Moore, directed by Yvonne McDevitt, original music by Michael Nyman (Edinburgh Festival / The Arts Theatre, West End of London, 2006); Worlds End by Paul Sellar, directed by Paul Robinson, with Fiona Button and Merryn Owen (Edinburgh Festival, 2007); Escaping Hamlet by Natalia Capra with Viviana Durante and Robert Reynolds, co-production with Teatro dei Borgia, directed by Gianpiero Borgia (Edinburgh Festival and Castel Dei Mondi Festival, Italy, 2007); Marcia Brown – The Unsung Diva! with Tameka Empson (Trafalgar Studios and Edinburgh Festival, 2007).

AJP have a number of other plays in development, including a revival of Picasso’s Women / GABY, with Jerry Hall, directed by Andy Jordan; Henry and Alice by David Tristram, starring Russ Abbott and Gemma Craven, directed by Andy De La Tour; Rattlesnakes by Graham Farrow, The Lab by Jean Noel Fenwick, in a new version by Jeremy Sams, directed by Christopher Luscombe; What Are Friends For? , starring Louise Jameson, by Leonard Gross, and Marathon by Eduardo Erba, directed by Mick Gordon.

AJP evolved from Bristol Express Theatre Company, founded by Andy Jordan. Bristol Express was well-known for its work with new writers and new writing, for its diverse programme of national touring and commercial co-productions. Originally formed to take shows to the Edinburgh Festival, it won a ‘Scotsman’ Fringe First Award in 1978 for Andy Jordan’s production of Michael Meyer’s Lunatic & Lover, a play and production which was subsequently seen around the world. The company was responsible for discovering numerous now internationally recognised writers, directors, producers and actors.