We’re excited to announce the cast for our new in-house company of actors, who will perform in rep five productions at Storyhouse and Grosvenor Park Open Air Theatre. It is the largest repertory company in the UK outside the Royal Shakespeare Company or National Theatre. 30 actors and three trainees make up the completely gender-balanced company.
The company will divide evenly between Stephen Sondheim’s A Little Night Music (5 May – 8 July) Arthur Miller’s The Crucible (15 June – 7 July), and Bryony Lavery’s Swallows and Amazons (1 June – 26 August), together with Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing (6 July – 25 August) and The Tempest (14 July – 26 August).
Alex Clifton, Artistic Director at Storyhouse said:
“33 performers join Storyhouse and make the largest rep company in the UK outside the RSC or National Theatre. Chester is becoming a major centre for culture in the UK, and casting this season has been a joy. Our dynamic and talented company will be here in Chester for the next 6 months, and they’re all really excited to join our community to tell these incredible stories.”
Performing in A Little Night Music and The Crucible:
Daniel Flynn as Fredrik and Reverend Parris
Previous productions:
55 Days, The Intelligent Homosexual’s Guide To Capitalism And Socialism, Hampstead; The Father, Duke of York’s Theatre
Serena Evans as Desiree and Ann Putman
Previous productions:
The Ruling Class (Trafalgar Studios); Blithe Spirit (Gielgud Theatre); School For Scandal (Bath); Inadmissible Evidence (Donmar); The Merry Wives of Windsor (Shakespeare’s Globe, UK tour & New York);
Gay Soper as Madam Armfeldt and Rebecca Nurse
Previous productions:
Curious Incident Of Dog In The Night-Time (Apollo and Gielgud); Les Miserables from 1988 to 1991 (Palace Theatre); Salad Days (Vaudeville) Mother Courage (National Theatre).
Leigh Quinn as Petra and Mary Warren
Previous productions:
Pride and Prejudice (Regent’s Park Open Air theatre); Richard II, Henry IV Parts 1 and 2, Henry V (RSC/The Barbican, New York).
Eleanor Sutton as Anne Egerman and Abigail Williams
Previous productions:
Windows (Finborough Theatre), The Master Builder (Old Vic), Future Conditional (Old Vic), Amadeus (National Theatre)
Matthew Flynn as John Proctor
Previous productions:
War Horse (National Theatre, West End); Children of the Sun (National Theatre); Wild Honey (Hampstead)
Jonathan Dryden Taylor as Mr Lindquist and Francis Nurse
Previous productions:
The Beggar’s Opera, Storyhouse; As You Like It, Our Country’s Good, Light Shining In Buckinghamshire, King Lear, Othello, The Captain Of Kopenick (all National Theatre)
Simeon Truby as Mr Erlanson and Giles Corey
Previous productions:
The Red Balloon (Birmingham Rep); Warhorse – International Tour (National Theatre); Sweeney Todd (Aldephi Theatre); Merry Wives of Windsor, The Mouse and His Child (RSC).
Freddy Elletson as Frid and Reverend John Hale
Previous productions:
That Blue Dress – Man Theatre 503
Richard Lounds as Henrik and Marshal Herrick
Previous productions:
L’Etoile du Nord, Kokkola Opera; The House of Usher (The Hope Theatre)
Mary Doherty as Charlotte Malcolm and Elizabeth Proctor
Previous productions:
Twelfth Night (National Theatre); Henry VI Trilogy (Shakespeare’s Globe); Anne Boleyn (ETT & Shakespeare’s Globe); All’s Well That Ends Well (Shakespeare’s Globe)
Martin Turner as Danforth
Previous productions:
Uncle Vanya (Theatr Clwyd and Sheffield Crucible); The Plague (Arcola Theatre).
Natasha Bain as Tituba
Previous productions:
The Royal Hunt of The Sun (National Theatre); The Lion & The Jewel (Barbican Theatre); The Gondoliers/The Water Babies (Chichester); The Lion King (Lyceum); Merry Wives of Windsor, Twelfth Night (Regents Park Open Air Theatre).
Esme Sears as Mercy Lewis
Previous productions:
State Of Fear: Britain For Breakfast (Southwark Playhouse)
Kayi Ushe as Count Carl Magnus and Cheever
Previous productions:
Motown the Musical (Shaftesbury Theatre); The Caterpillar – Wonderland (UK Tour);
David Nellist as Thomas Putnam and Judge Hathorne
Previous productions:
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (National Theatre).
Performing in Swallows and Amazons, Much Ado About Nothing and The Tempest:
Catherine Cusack as Prospero
Previous productions:
Coronation Street (ITV); The Fifth Column (Southwark Playhouse)
Alex Mugnaioni as Benedick
Previous productions:
The Beggar’s Opera, Alice in Wonderland (Storyhouse and Grosvenor Park Open Air Theatre); The Taming of the Shrew, Twelfth Night, Othello, King Lear, Much Ado About Nothing (The Globe Theatre)
James Weaver as Don Pedro
Previous productions:
Julius Caesar, A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Storyhouse);
Ian Harris as Leonato
Previous productions:
As You Like It, Stig of the Dump (Grosvenor Park Open Air Theatre)
Aryana Ramkhalawon as Nancy
Previous productions:
The Secret Seven (Storyhouse)
Laura Dalgleish as Gonzalo
Previous productions:
Call The Midwife, Eastenders (BBC); George’s Marvellous Medicine (Cambridge Corn Exchange, Tour)
Mitesh Soni as Claudio
Previous productions:
East is East (Octagon Theatre); Romeo and Juliet (National Theatre).
Jack Quarton as Friar Sebastian
Previous productions:
Wonderland (Nottingham Playhouse); Alice in Wonderland (Derby Theatre)
Charlotte Workman as Peggy
Previous productions:
The Borrowers (Watermill); Fantastic Mr Fox (Lyric Hammersmith); The Twits (Leicester Curve)
Lucy Keirl as Ariel
Previous productions:
A Little Night Music (Watermill Theatre)
Emily Pithon as Beatrice
Previous productions:
Waiting For God (James Seabright Productions)
Callum McIntyre as John, Ferdinand and Borachio
Previous productions:
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Romeo and Juliet (Bristol Old Vic)
Dominic Rye as Balthasar
Previous productions:
Wind in the Willows (Sherman Theatre)
Claudia Grant as Caliban
Previous productions:
Harry Potter and The Cursed Child
Alongside the 30 actors, three performers are making their professional debut:
Megan Hollie Roberts will be playing Fredrika in A Little Night Music, Lauren Dinsdale will play Betty in The Crucible and Amy Murphy will play Susanna in The Crucible.
Returnees
Returning to Chester are Alex Mugnaioni, who was part of Storyhouse’s inaugural rep company as Macheath in The Beggar’s Opera and Mad Hatter in Alice in Wonderland; James Weaver, also in the 2017 rep company, who played Casca in Julius Caesar and Oberon in A Midsummer Night’s Dream; and Jonathan Dryden Taylor, also of the inaugural Storyhouse rep company, who played Lockit in The Beggar’s Opera and Caterpillar in Alice in Wonderland.
Ian Harris also returns, having performed in As You Like It, Two Gentlemen of Verona and Stig of the Dump and Grosvenor Park Open Air Theatre, as does Aryana Ramkhalawon, who played Pam in The Secret Seven, Storyhouse’s first Christmas production.