The Gangs of New York

Kieran Lynn is an award-winning writer for theatre and musical theatre. His work has been performed at many of the UK’s best-known theatres including the Hampstead Theatre, the Finborough Theatre, the Traverse Theatre, Theatre 503 and Trafalgar Studios in the West End. 

He has also had work translated and performed in countries around the world, including in India, Israel, New Zealand, Turkey, Serbia and across the United States. 

He has been a writer in residence at the Theatr Clywd, the Gladstone Library, the Hampstead Theatre and completed the BBC Radio 4 Sparks residential programme; and has worked extensively with the Old Vic Theatre, including on the 24-Hour Plays, the Time Warner Ignite project and he was awarded one of the prestigious T.S. Eliot Commissions. 

He has had two plays commissioned by BBC Radio 4 and was also a writer on the BBC Radio Sounds micro-plays project, That Moment When. 

He has won the Nick Darke Award for environmental writing, the Alpine Fellowship Theatre Prize, the Peter Brook Empty Space Award, as well as development and project-specific grants from the Arts Trust Scotland, the Tom McGrath Trust, and the Peggy Ramsey Foundation; he has also been awarded an Ideastap Innovators Grant and was the winner of an Arts Council International Development Award. 

He is currently developing a range of original projects for theatre, film and TV. 

John trained on the National Theatre Directors Course and is a former Resident Assistant Director at The Finborough Theatre.  

Prior to this he completed the Emerging Trainee Director Scheme at Theatre Clwyd. 

Most recently John was a mentor director for the National Theatre Connections Festival.  

Direction includes: Chester Mystery Plays 2023 (Chester Cathedral); Romeo & Juliet and The Merry Wives of Windsor (Grosvenor Park Theatre); Carrie, Alice by Heart and Jesus Christ Superstar (The Hammond) The Funny Thing About Depression (South Douglas Old Friends Association); The Drag Nativity (United Services) When the Light Goes Out (Tatton Park), Vincent River (Hope Mill Theatre), For the Fallen (Ballakermeen Studio), To Dream Again (Polka Theatre and Theatr Clwyd) A Brief History of Holding Hands (Vault Festival), Scattered (Theatr Clwyd, West Yorkshire Playhouse and Tour), We Know Where You Live (Finborough Theatre) A Place in the Woods (Tristan Bates), The Watchers (Southwark Playhouse), What the Walls Saw, The Thing Is and The Joy Show (Grosvenor Park Open Air Theatre Young Company) and Soft Beats the Heart (Theatre503).  

Assistant Director credits include: The Father and the Assassin and Kerry Jackson (Staff Director, National Theatre); The Beggars Opera and A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Storyhouse) Aladdin and Skyhawk the Musical (Theatr Clwyd), Chicken Dust and Our American Cousin (Finborough Theatre).  

John has been a script reader for The Finborough Theatre and the Manchester Royal Exchange Bruntwood Playwriting Prize.  

Film includes: Transfiguration: I Fall and We Rise (Fallen Angels) and Christmas Street (Theatre in the Quarter).

For Storyhouse / Grosvenor Park Open Air Theatre: Romeo and Juliet 2022  

Me + Deboe (Mercy Elise and Sarah Deboe) are a critically acclaimed duo known for their electrifying live performances and intricate harmonies. Their journey in the arts has taken them across national and international stages, consistently captivating audiences with their unique sound and dynamic stage presence. Renowned for their blend of original compositions and unique interpretations, Me + Deboe embrace a multi-genre to create a distinctive and memorable sound. Their work as composers showcases their creativity and versatility, earning them a dedicated following.  

The duo recently ventured into the world of music directing, and made significant contributions as both artists, and music directors; Romeo & Juliet at Grosvenor Park Open Air Theatre, and more recently, Liverpool’s Everyman Theatre. Their scores and live performances have enhanced productions, solidifying their reputation. 

 “A live soundtrack adds poignancy and a gentle ethereal atmosphere, at once contemporary and traditional.”  

Inspired to push the boundaries of live performance and musical composition, their commitment to artistic excellence and innovative approach shines through in every project they undertake, from live concerts to theatrical productions and recordings. 

This is Ieuan’s first season as Lighting Designer at Grosvenor Park Open Air Theatre (GPOAT)  having previously spent eight years as a lighting technician at Venue Cymru, Llandudno. With a variety of theatre, corporate and TV lighting experience, including 2020’s I’m A Celebrity, Ieuan is really looking forward to this year’s GPOAT, rain or shine!  

Previous lighting design credits he’s especially proud of include Ysgol John Bright’s Addam’s Family in 2023 and Present Stage Theatre Company’s Blithe Spirit in 2018. 

Kaitlin teaches Stage Combat and Intimacy at Manchester School of Theatre, is a teaching and examining member of The Academy of Performance Combat and one of only three women on the
Equity Register of Fight Director.

For Storyhouse and Grosvenor Park:

Shoot/Get Treasure/Repeat, The Merry Wives of Windsor, Romeo & Juliet, The Snow Queen, Faustus: That Damned Woman, The Great Gatsby, A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

Fight Direction includes:

Theatre: Macbeth (RSC); Sweat (The Royal Exchange, Manchester); The Chester Mystery Plays 2024 (Chester Cathedral); Singin’ In The Rain (Kilworth House Theatre); Life is A Dream, The Scent of Roses, Red Ellen, Macbeth (an undoing) (Edinburgh Lyceum); Lucrezia Borgia (English Touring Opera); The Famous Five, Sleeping Beauty, Robin Hood, Constellations (Theatr Clwyd); A Skull In Connemara, Jack & The Beanstalk, Aladdin, Jungle Book (Oldham Coliseum); Tom, Dick & Harry (New Vic Theatre); Habibti Driver (Bolton Octagon); Comedy of Errors (more or less),
Dracula: The Bloody Truth (Stephen Joseph Theatre); Around the World in 80 Days, Jungle Book (The Dukes, Lancaster); The Girl on The Train (The Barn, Cirencester); Guards at The Taj (Theatre By The Lake); Midsummer Night’s Dream, Our Country’s Good (The Tobacco Factory); Cherry Jezebel (Liverpool Everyman); Comedy of Errors (Greenwich Playhouse); Killer Joe (The Pleasance Theatre); Jeeves & Worcester in Perfect Nonsense (Salisbury Playhouse).

Film & TV: So Awkward (CBBC); Crimewatch (BBC); Blank… (KenMor Films).

Intimacy Direction includes:

Theatre: Sweat, A Taste of Honey (The Royal Exchange, Manchester); Cinderella (Storyhouse, Chester); The Sweet Science of Bruising (York Theatre Royal); Oppenheimer, Mary Stuart, Linda (Grosvenor Theatre, Manchester); Vincent River, The Pride (Hope Mill, Manchester).

Film & TV: Urge (Influence Films); Treading Water (Big North Films); Letters From Seville (Bloodhound Productions).

For Storyhouse: Miss Blake in Blue Stockings, Marie in The Suicide, Lady Gabriel in The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, Mrs Nordstrom in A Little Night Music, Tituba in The Crucible and Aunty Em and The Good Witch in The Wizard of Oz.  

Other stage work includes, Francisca in Wonder Girl (Oval House), Isabel & Northumberland in Richard II (Arcola), In The Blood (Finborough), The Wedding Dance (Bolton Octagon), 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 (Regent‘s Park Open Air), The Amen Corner (Bristol Old Vic), The Red Balloon (Birmingham Rep/National Theatre), The Threepenny Opera (Donmar) and most recently, Titania in A Midsummer Night’s Dream (US tour 2024 for Actors From The London Stage) and Agathe in Agathe (The Playground Theatre, London). 

 Television credits include You Don’t Know Me, Doctors, Rough Treatment, The Bill, Casualty and In Your Dreams. Film credits include; Fluid, Greys Inbetween, Offending Angels, Harvest Festival and the BAFTA winning Zinky Boys Go Underground. 

Tom trained at Rose Bruford college on the MA Actor Musicianship programme. 

His theatre credits include: Oh What a Lovely War (Blackeyed Theatre); 2065 and Firesongs (FrozenLight); Rewind and Offstage (Ephemeral Ensemble); Romeo & Juliet and Snow White (Black Rat Productions). 

Tom’s television credits include: Gwaith/Cartref (S4C/Fiction Factory); Tuesday at Jackie’s (It’s My Shout/BBC Wales). 

Theatre includes: Human Nurture (Theatre Centre Tour), Run Sister Run (Paines Plough/Sheffield Theatres/Soho Theatre), The Butterfly Lion (Chichester Festival Theatre), Kes (Leeds Playhouse), War Horse (National Theatre Tour), The Winter’s Tale (ENO, Coliseum), Pinocchio; A Tender Thing (The Duke’s Theatre), Alan, We Think You Should Get a Dog (New Diorama Theatre), Coram Boy; Ivanov; Romeo and Juliet (RCSSD), This is Not a Drill (Tristan Bates Theatre), Five, Four, None (The Roundhouse). 

TV and Film include: Last to Break (YLE1), Casualty (BBC), Masters of the Air (AppleTV), The Witcher: Blood Origins (Netflix), Worzel Gummidge (BBC). 

Theatre includes: Falkland Sound, The Comedy of Errors, Twelfth Night, Faust, The Alchemist, The Virtuoso, Julius Caesar (RSC), Richard III, The Tempest, Much Ado About Nothing, Nell Gwynn (Shakespeare’s Globe), Our Lady of Blundellsands (Liverpool Everyman), The Last Abbot (Rabble), Henry V (Tobacco Factory), Witness for the Prosecution (County Hall), Parliament Square (Manchester Royal Exchange/Bush), King Lear (Old Vic), Goodnight Mr Tom (West End/Tour), I Am a Camera (Southwark Playhouse), Bingo (Chichester/Young Vic), You Can’t Take It With You (Manchester Royal Exchange), Romeo and Juliet (Wolsey Ipswich), The Pull of Negative Gravity (Colchester/Traverse/NYC), The Firework Maker’s Daughter (Told by an Idiot), Men Should Weep, Singer, After the Dance (Oxford Stage), Present Laughter (Bath), East is East (Leicester Haymarket), Pera Pelas (Gate), Romeo and Juliet, The Revenger’s Tragedy (Orange Tree). 

Television includes: It’s a Sin, Spooks, Wallander, Casualty, EastEnders, Waking the Dead, Doctors, Innocents and Grange Hill. 

Film includes: Benjamin, Undercliffe and Making Noise Quietly. 

Hanora is a Bristolian actor, musician and theatre maker. Her theatre credits include: TESS (Ockham’s Razor); MACBETH (Bristol Old Vic) Brief Encounter (New Wolsey & Wiltshire Creative, UK tour); A Gig for Ghosts (Soho Theatre with 45North); Mog: The Forgetful Cat (Royal & Derngate with The Old Vic); The Ballad of Maria Marten (Wilton’s Music Hall, UK tour); 5 Children & IT (The Egg, Theatre Royal Bath); Winners (The Wardrobe Ensemble); Riot (Bristol Old Vic); 1972: The Future of Sex (Bristol Old Vic); Education, Education, Education (Trafalgar Studios); Four Seasons (Little Bulb Theatre Company); The Wind in the Willows (The Core at Corby Cube); Eloise and the Curse of the Golden Whisk (The Wardrobe Theatre, UK tour); Edgar and the Land of the Lost (The Bike Shed Theatre); Pippi Longstocking (The Royal & Derngate); Rebellion Playground (The Exeter Phoenix); The Snow Beast (UK tour); Great Train Robbery (UK tour); Nel (UK tour); A Fool’s Proof (UK tour); Chloe and the Colour Catcher (Theatre Ad Infinitum with Bristol Old Vic); C Word Clubhouse (Bristol Old Vic). 

 TV: Borderline (Sky); Hijack (Apple TV+); The Undeclared War (Channel 4); Breadline (BBC Four); Mimi’s World (Channel 5).  

 Radio: The Flock (A Ton of Feathers).   

For Storyhouse / Grosvenor Park Open Air Theatre:  Romeo & Juliet, Stig of the Dump and Little Women 2022.  

He has been touring The Circle by Somerset Maugham – last year’s acclaimed production from The Orange Tree Theatre. 

Other theatre credits include: Fiddler on the Roof (The Menier Chocolate Factory/ The Playhouse); La Cage Aux Folles (The Playhouse); The Sound of Music (The Palladium); Richard III, Macbeth, Loves Labours Lost, As You Like It, She Stoops To Conquer (Guildford Shakespeare Company); James and the Giant Peach, Daisy Pulls It Off (The Watermill); The Soldier’s Tale, I Shall Hear In Heaven (Wimbledon International Music Festival); Bar Mitzvah Boy (Upstairs at the Gatehouse). 

TV includes: Professor T, Grantchester, Doctors, The Sister Boniface Mysteries. 

Film includes: The Therapist. 

Radio includes: Orley Farm, Rudolph’s Quest, Together. 

Robert records for the audiobook company Deadtree Publishing. 

He was a professional French Horn player for twenty years, and a member of The Philharmonia for ten of them. 

For Storyhouse / Grosvenor Park Open Air Theatre, Pride and Prejudice, The Jungle Book and Merry Wives of Windsor and Oliver Twist,  2021.  

Jenny trained at Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts. 

Theatre credits include: The Wind in the Willows (Shakespeare North Playhouse), The Card (New Vic Theatre), Twopence to Cross the Mersey (UK tour), The Card (Claybody theatre),  Cilla – The Musical (UK tour), Julius Caesar (The Playground Theatre), The Little Match Girl and The Fir Tree, (Door Ajar), The Decameron (Tara Theatre).  

Yolanda trained at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts. 

In 2020 she won Paradox Theatre Company’s Monologue Competition and in 2021 won Best Supporting Actress in a Drama at The British Web Awards for her performance of Juliet in The Shakespeare Republic #AllTheWebsAStage (The Lockdown Chronicles) Web series. 

Her most recent credits include: JITNEY’at The Old Vic Theatre, SPLINTERED at Soho Theatre and UNBELIEVABLE at The Criterion Theatre- marking her West End Debut. 

Theatre credits include: Captain John’s in Jon Dove and Josh Roche’s Pressure, Lord Peter Wimsey in Brian Blessed’s Busman’s Honeymoon, Tom Watson in Psyche Stott’s Girl on The Train, Orlando in Caroline Devlin’s As You Like It, Marlow in Tom Littler’s She Stoops To Conquer, Banquo in Ant Stones Macbeth, Lockwood in Michael Oakley’s Wuthering Heights, Adolf in Tom Littler’s Creditors, Dumaine/Holofernes in Tom Littler’s Loves Labour’s Lost, Little John in Richard Neale’s Robing Hood, Jean in Tom Littler’s Miss Julie, Dr Banner/Lawrence in Phillip Wilson’s After the Dance, Andy in Brian Martin’s Align, Nicholas in A.A. Milne’s The Dover Road, Tom Wingfield in Tennessee Williams’ The Glass Menagerie, Charles Bruno in Patricia Highsmith’s Strangers on a Train, Soranzo in John Ford’s ‘Tis Pity She’s A Whore, Willy Wax in Clifford Odets’ Rocket to the Moon, Henry VIII in Howard Brenton’s Anne Boleyn, Uncle in Lawrence Till’s Perfect Boy.  

TV credits: Charles Radler – Father Brown 2024, Officer McLeash – Sherwood 2023, Campbell Kamen – Sister Boniface Mysteries 2023, Detective Robson – Hollyoaks 2023, Andrew – Grantchester 2021, PC Adam Striker – Casualty 2019/2020/2023, Ed Turnham in two episodes of Doctors (BBC).  

Other: Trivago Guy – Trivago Campagne 2023/2024, Dad – Everybody Dies … Sometimes 2021, Peter – Murder Trail Tonight – 2023. 

Oisín Thompson is an actor from Belfast. He graduated from the Lir Academy in 2023. His stage credits include: An Chos Eile, an Irish Language Production, Hammam by Anu Productions at The Abbey Theatre and The Rising of the Moon by Lady Gregory at Bewleys Theatre. 

This is Hannah Rose Curtis’ professional stage debut, she recently appeared in SYC’s production of Shoot/Get Treasure/ Repeat (2024) as Jane. Hannah trained at the Hammond receiving a first class BA Hons Degree in Musical Theatre. Other notable credits include Jesus Christ Superstar (2024), Chester Mystery Plays (2024), and Strictly Does Musicals (2024). She has also recently performed in her own one-woman show My Beautiful Brian. Hannah can’t wait and she looks forward to seeing you all in the sun.

This is Francesca Davidson’s professional stage debut. Recent credits include: SYC’s Shoot/Get Treasure/Repeat (2024), Love and Information (2023) and Olivia in Twelfth Night (2022) Having studied at the University of Bristol she is now going on to train at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art on the MFA Professional Acting course in September!

Cai is delighted to be making his professional stage debut following his time with Storyhouse Young Company (SYC) earlier this year. Previous stage credits include Shoot / Get Treasure / Repeat with SYC.  

Victor/Creature in Frankenstein, Guy in Once, Mephistopheles in Doctor Faustus, and Donkey in Shrek the musical.   

Harry was a member of Bangor English Dramatics Society. He recently performed in Storyhouse Young Company’s (SYC) Shoot / Get Treasure / Repeat.  Over the years he’s performed as George in Of Mice and Men, Dakin, in History Boys, Ralph in Bouncers, as well as various ensemble roles and co-directing. He’s featured in many student films and done extra work for S4C soap, Rownd a Rownd. 

‘I can’t wait to perform with the team and give the crowd an incredible Gangs of New York experience.’