Actor/Writer

(Photo: © Guido Karp)

Bella has been acting, writing and actor training for nearly 30 years. With a passion for fact-based drama, she has performed in David Hare’s The Permanent Way (National Theatre/Out of Joint), Lightworks’ Sarajevo Story (Lyric Hammersmith), Susannah Cibber (AS Laughing Matter, National Theatre/ut of Joint), Mad Margaret (Richard III, Colorado Shakespeare Festival), murderess Florence Bravo (The Malvern Widow, Worcester Swan Theatre), Eleanor, Duchess of Gloucester (Henry VI, Part 2, Shakespeare & Company, Massachusetts) as well as numerous fictional roles in TV, film, radio and theatre. Author of numerous publications (including The Complete Stanislavsky Toolkit; Acting: The Basics 3rd Edition; Shakespeare & Company: When Action is Eloquence: and Facing The Fear: An Actor’s Guide to Overcoming Stagefright), she is also a singer-songwriter and a Distinguished Professor of Acting and Directing at the University of California, Riverside. She and Speer are co-PIs on BODY-WORD-VOICE www.bellamerlin.com

Director

(© Photo: Guido Karp)

Miles is an award-winning and internationally acclaimed actor, beloved face on television, film and theatre, as well as a familiar voice on radio and audiobooks. Recent Oscar-nominated films include Joel Coen’s The Tragedy of Macbeth with Denzel Washington and Frances McDormand; and Damien Chazelle’s LaLa Land with Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone; as well as numerous others. Television favourites include Aiden Dempsey inUltimate Force, Dan Fortune inSoldier Soldier, Roger O’Neill in the original House of Cards, as well as the popular American series Hunters with Al Pacino, Always Sunny in Philadelphia, and Days of Our Lives. Favourite theatre roles include 10 years at the Royal Shakespeare Company, including Macbeth, The Twin Rivals, The Witch of Edmonton, Volpone and Peter Pan; 4 years at the Old Globe, San Diego, with Adrian Noble, including Prospero (The Tempest) Shylock (The Merchant of Venice), Salieri (Amadeus) and Bottom (A Midsummer Night’s Dream). Not to mention, Lunatic and Lover with Andy Jordan, at the Old Red Lion, London. www.milesanderson.us

Dramaturg/Collaborator

Annika is a performance-maker, dramaturgical researcher and script consultant for theatre and film, most recently for The Girl on the Train (2016), Men, Women & Children (2014), Walking Stories (2013), and Call Me Crazy: A Five Film (2013). She has directed plays as fundraisers for Women Help Women, Planned Parenthood, and Pacific Pride Foundation with the mission to generate collaborative, creative, and activist oriented theatre. She is also Professor of Teaching in the Department of Theatre, Film, and Digital Production at UC Riverside where she runs the public speaking program. She is the Co-Director of the UC-Wide Public Speaking Initiative, that prioritizes interdisciplinary training in speech and rhetoric. She prioritizes communication pedagogy through close work with numerous campus programs, providing a large variety of public speaking workshops for the Graduate Student Resource Center, the Chancellor Research Fellows, the Science to Policy Certification Program, and the Social Entrepreneurship Engagement and Development (SEED) Lab, to name but a few. Speer is also supporting faculty of the Medical Health and Humanities Studies (MHHS) program. She and Merlin are co-PIs on BODY-WORD-VOICE.

Costume Designer

(Photo: Cindy Yamanaka)

I thrive on collaborating with all my co-workers because working alone is no fun.  I like a good script (who doesn’t?) particularly new pieces, and helping develop characters and stories for the first time.  The research process, learning about people and their stories, is always fascinating and humbling.  I do a deep dive into my voluminous costume library, which has too many books, if there is such a thing.  Inspiration is in every fabric store and finding the perfect choices is the most satisfying thing ever.  Working through the details during rehearsals is extremely gratifying, making all the costumes come together as the production develops.  There’s nothing better than a good costume shop; finding treasures in stock and using them to great advantage. I’m a stickler for good wigs because nothing is worse onstage than a bad wig. I adore period shows, love musicals, as well as stories from today. My goal is always finding or creating clothes that excite the actors and give them keys to their characters. 

https://www.maggiemorgandesign.com/

Sound Designer

David is a musician, sound designer and professor of theater studies with a focus on music theater at the LMU Munich. He has researched and taught at the universities of Hildesheim, Exeter and Kent and has been a collaborator with Bella and Miles on Tilly No-Body since its first inception. He studied cultural studies and aesthetic practice at the Hildesheim University Foundation and received his doctorate there with a thesis on theater as music (Narr, 2003). In addition to being a theatre and music-maker, he is an internationally acclaimed scholar. His research focuses on the musicalization of theater and the theatricalization of music, sound and performance, intermediality, as well as performativity and musicality in video games. Most recently, he has published the books Composed Theatre (with Matthias Rebstock, Intellect, 2011) and Theatre Noise (with Lynne Kendrick, CSP, 2012), the monograph Musicality in Theatre: Music as Model, Method and Metaphor in Theatre-Making (Ashgate, 2014) and Theatre Music. Analyses and Conversations (Theater der Zeit 2019). https://lmumunich.academia.edu/DavidRoesner

Scenic Designer

(details coming)

Executive Producer

Andy Jordan Productions is an independent production company committed to producing high quality new theatre - plays, musicals and comedy, usually by new writers, in all forms and styles.  We also produce audio drama (Andy Jordan's radio drama work is internationally recognised and has received many awards) and online drama. AJP have been producing at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival for 25 years. Their five productions at EFF 2024 garnered prestigious acclaim

Andy Jordan Productions (AJP) was founded in 2000 by Andy Jordan, a highly experienced director and producer in theatre, television and radio drama. It evolved from Bristol Express a renowned theatre company established by Andy Jordan.

AJP began by presenting the world premiere of Picasso'sWomen by Brian McAvera, a cycle of eight one woman dramatic monologues about the women in Picasso's life. Starring Susannah York, Toyah Willcox and Josie Lawrence, Picasso's Women was a huge success at the Edinburgh Festival 2000. In 2002 we presented a tour of Picasso's Women starring Jerry Hall, Frances Tomelty, Cherie Lunghi and Gwen Taylor in association with The Ambassador Theatre Group, one of the leading West End managements and theatre owners.

Find out about AJP past productions here

Contacts:

Producer Andy Jordan   andy@andyjordanproductions.co.uk

General Manager Chris Corner  chris@andyjordanproductions.co.uk

General Manager

Chris is a freelance theatre general and production manager, who has managed projects for many of the major new writing companies in the UK, including Foco Novo, Joint Stock, Bristol Express, Paines Plough, Bright Red, Moving Theatre, The Half Moon, Yellow Earth Theatre, and Lifeblood Theatre Co. Also work with York Early Music Festival, Leicester Haymarket, Sheffield Crucible, Royal Court and the Royal Opera House. Recent projects have included a bilingual Ukrainian/Russian Troilus & Cressida in Kyiv. He is Executive Director of Kali Theatre Company, UK, dedicated to “intrepid plays by fearless women” from South Asia.