BOAZ CHAD
SWING KAZEGO PUPPETEER & MOVEMENT CAPTAIN
Victoria Chen
MEI
RACHEL CLARE CHAN
KAZEGO PUPPETEER
SALLY CHENG
KAZEGO PUPPETEER
SABRINA PUI YEE CHIN
KAZEGO PUPPETEER
PHYLLIS HO
YASUKO/KAZEGO PUPPETEER
VICTOR ITANG
KAZEGO PUPPETEER
GABRIEL S JANORAS
KAZEGO PUPPETEER
ANNA KATO
KAZEGO PUPPETEER
HEATHER LAI
KAZEGO PRINCIPAL PUPPETEER
RONNIE LEE
KAZEGO PUPPETEER
WEN HSIN LEE
SWING KAZEGO PUPPETEER
MATTHEW LEONHART
KAZEGO Principal Puppeteer
AMBER LIN
SWING KAZEGO PUPPETEER
KUMIKO MENDL
NURSE EMIKO / KAZEGO PUPPETEER
ANNAKANAKO MOHRI
KAZEGO PUPPETEER
DEANNA MYERS
TSUKIKO/KAZEGO PUPPETEER
STEVEN NGUYEN
KANTA/KAZEGO PUPPETEER
AI NINOMIYA
KAZE NO KOE/SINGER
AMI OKUMURA JONES
SATSUKI
LUCY PARK
KAZEGO PUPPETEER
RICHARD PERALTA
KAZEGO PUPPETEER
CHLOE RAGRAG
KAZEGO PUPPETEER
NATHANIEL TAN
SWING KAZEGO PUPPETEER
DAI TABUCHI
TATSUO/KAZEGO PUPPETEER
JACQUELINE TATE
GRANNY OGAKI/KAZEGO PUPPETEER
SHAOFAN WILSON
MISS HARA / KAZEGO PUPPETEER
JAMIE ZUBAIRI
HIROSHI/KAZEGO PUPPETEER
BOAZ CHAD
SWING KAZEGO PUPPETEER & MOVEMENT CAPTAIN
RSC: My Neighbour Totoro (West End/Barbican, London 22-23 and 23-24).
TRAINED: Guildford School of Acting.
THEATRE INCLUDES: Death Note (Lyric Theatre); The Land of Might Have Been (Buxton International Festival/Norwich Theatre); Fiddler on the Roof, La Cage aux Folles (HK Repertory); Fame, Melodia (HKYAF); La Bayadere (Bavarian State Ballet); Otello, The Land of Smiles, Faust (Opera HK); The Tsar’s Bride (Bolshoi Opera).
Victoria Chen
MEI
RSC DEBUT SEASON: My Neighbour Totoro (West End).
TRAINED: School of the Arts, Singapore, and the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.
THEATRE INCLUDES: Victoria has worked in her native Singapore, as well as the UK, USA, China, Australia and even Iceland, specialising in devised and interactive theatre. Recent credits: Amber in The Night Before Christmas (Polka Theatre); Celia/Silvius in a child-friendly adaptation of As You Like It (Orange Tree). Victoria starred in sketch comedy Fat Kids are Harder to Kidnap from 2013-2022 (international tours/digital. Nominated for Best Theatre Production at the Melbourne Fringe 2020); solo show Charlie (Melbourne Fringe/Edinburgh Student Arts Festival. Melbourne Fringe Best Emerging Artist and Edinburgh Student Arts Festival Best Performing Artist award); The Amazing Celestial Race, Fair Play (W!ld Rice Productions); The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged) (Singapore Repertory Theatre); Aladdin (Perth Theatre); A Dream Under the Southern Bough (Toy Factory Productions); Eat Duck (Checkpoint Theatre).
FILM INCLUDES: Shorts: Gold Paper; Earthbxund; The Sunday Afternoon Running Club; Night’s Dream.
RACHEL CLARE CHAN
KAZEGO PUPPETEER
RSC DEBUT SEASON: My Neighbour Totoro (West End).
TRAINED: Royal Academy of Music.
THEATRE INCLUDES: Tsubaki in Your Lie in April (Harold Pinter Theatre/Theatre Royal Drury Lane); Cover Bet, Oliver & Dodger in Oliver! (Leeds Playhouse); Sayu in Death Note: The Musical in Concert (London Palladium/Lyric Theatre); Cover Kim in Miss Saigon (Raimund Theatre). Theatre while training: Louise Bigelow in Carousel, Colored Lights: The Songs of Kander and Ebb (Royal Academy of Music).
TELEVISION: The Crown series 6 (Netflix).
SALLY CHENG
KAZEGO PUPPETEER
RSC: My Neighbour Totoro (West End), A Christmas Carol, Twelfth Night.
TRAINED: Guildford School of Acting.
THEATRE INCLUDES: The Sound of Music (Pitlochry Festival Theatre); Twelfth Night (Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre); The Wizard of Oz, Macbeth (Watermill Theatre); Tony! The Tony Blair Rock Opera (Leicester Square Theatre/UK tour); Richard II, Love’s Labour’s Lost, Robin Hood (Guilford Shakespeare Company); The Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13 and 3/4 The Musical (Queen’s, Hornchurch); The Play that Goes Wrong (West End); A Christmas Carol, A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Scoot Theatre); The Wind in the Willows (Jermyn Street/GSC); The Last of the Pelican Daughters (The Wardrobe Ensemble/Complicite/Bristol Old Vic); A Christmas Carol,The Emperor and the Nightingale (Theatre by the Lake); For Services Rendered (Jermyn Street); Shadowlands (Chichester Festival Theatre); Footprints on the Moon (Finborough Theatre); Singin’ in the Rain (Bolton Octagon/Salisbury Playhouse/New Vic).
SABRINA PUI YEE CHIN
KAZEGO PUPPETEER
RSC DEBUT SEASON: My Neighbour Totoro (West End).
TRAINED: East 15 Acting School.
THEATRE INCLUDES: endings (Young Vic).
SCREEN INCLUDES: DI Ray (ITV); You Don’t Know Me (BBC).
PHYLLIS HO
YASUKO/KAZEGO PUPPETEER
RSC DEBUT SEASON: My Neighbour Totoro (West End).
TRAINED: Royal Central School of Speech and Drama.
THEATRE INCLUDES: Life of Pi (West End); The Tempest (Shakespeare in the Squares); The Mozart Question (Barn Theatre, Cirencester); Giraffes Can't Dance (Curve, Leicester); The Vagina Monologues (Ugly Duck); Gary's Not Well (Ragged Trouser Theatre); A Weekend Near Madison (Island Productions); Beggar's Opera (Seven Tyrants Theatre).
VICTOR ITANG
KAZEGO PUPPETEER
RSC DEBUT SEASON: My Neighbour Totoro (West End).
TRAINED: East 15 Acting School.
THEATRE INCLUDES: The Magic Flute/Die Zauberflote (Glyndebourne); The Road to Happiness (Nonsuch Studios); Monkey and the White Bone Demon (Red Dragonfly Productions); Tom Jones (Rotunda Theatre); The Comedy of Errors (The Dell, Stratford-upon-Avon).
SCREEN INCLUDES: Sweetpea (Sky Atlantic); Bite (Amazon Prime); Alo (BFI Network); #SWIL2 (Big Deal Films).
This is Victor’s West End debut.
GABRIEL S JANORAS
KAZEGO PUPPETEER
RSC DEBUT SEASON: My Neighbour Totoro (West End).
TRAINED: Rose Bruford College.
THEATRE INCLUDES: Wishmas (Secret Cinema); A Little Rain in Monaco (Sober Riot Theatre).
OTHER: Adverts for Waitrose, World Remit and Meta.
ANNA KATO
KAZEGO PUPPETEER
RSC: My Neighbour Totoro (West End/Barbican, London 23-24).
TRAINED: Originally from Japan, Anna received a Masters in Acting at East 15 Acting School, London.
SCREEN: Web series Defy.
HEATHER LAI
KAZEGO PRINCIPAL PUPPETEER
黎曉瑩
RSC: My Neighbour Totoro (West End/Barbican, London 23-24).
TRAINED: The Curious School of Puppetry.
THEATRE INCLUDES: As Performer/Puppeteer: The Cat and the Canary (Chichester Festival Theatre); Die Zauberflöte (Glyndebourne); World Factory (Young Vic/New Wolsey/HOME/Attenborough Arts Centre/Cambridge Junction); Dr Faustus (St Sepulchre’s Chapel).
TELEVISION: Knuckles (Paramount+).
OTHER: Assistant Director for the Hans Christian Andersen Museum audio tour (Odense Denmark).
RONNIE LEE
KAZEGO PUPPETEER
RSC DEBUT SEASON: My Neighbour Totoro (West End).
TRAINED: Laine Theatre Arts.
THEATRE INCLUDES: Ocean at the End of the Lane (UK & Ireland tour/Noël Coward Theatre); Harry Potter and the Cursed Child (Palace Theatre); Cinderella (Trinity Theatre, Tunbridge Wells); Sleeping Beauty (The Capitol, Horsham); Dick Whittington (Yvonne Arnaud). Theatre while training: Just So, The Laramie Project.
TELEVISION: Gangs of London series 2.
WEN HSIN LEE
SWING KAZEGO PUPPETEER
RSC DEBUT SEASON: My Neighbour Totoro (West End).
TRAINED: Chinese Culture University.
THEATRE INCLUDES: Wen Hsin Lee is a dancer, actor and performing artist from Taiwan, now based in London. Theatre includes: The Burnt City, Sleep No More (Punchdrunk); Rhythm & Ruse, Bacchanalia (Sleepwalk); Priceless (Random Trigger). She recently created Mola ‒ a puppetry theatre show for young people (Grand Boat Culture, China).
DANCE INCLUDES: Layers (Eyal Dadon x Xie Xin Dance Theatre); From In (Xie Xin Dance Theatre); Mi Casa Tu Casa (Les Petites Choses Production). Wen Hsin has worked as rehearsal assistant for Xie Xin Dance Theatre.
TELEVISION: Blossom (Wong Kar Wai).
OTHER: Wen Hsin is also a make-up artist, photographer and magician.
MATTHEW LEONHART
KAZEGO Principal Puppeteer
布文龍
RSC: My Neighbour Totoro (West End/Barbican, London 22-23 and 23-24).
UNDERSTUDY: Tatsuo.
THEATRE INCLUDES: Invisible Cities (59 Productions/RAMBERT/global tour); Mountains: The Dreams of Lily Kwok (Manchester Royal Exchange); Peach Blossom Fan (REDCAT, Los Angeles, directed by Chen Shi-Zheng).
PUPPETRY INCLUDES: Invisible Glass (REDCAT, Los Angeles); The Lost Dreamachine (HK Fringe Club); Aurora (Greenpeace Project); Sinkin’ Soon (Norah Jones MV); Out of the Rain (The Duhks MV); Protagonist (Sundance Film); Too Loud a Solitude (Tuck & Go Films). Puppetry design: Sick to My Bones, May You Never Die.
TELEVISION: Tim Terkel in Berlin Station (season 2).
FILM INCLUDES: An Enemy Within, Man of the Cosmos, Wyrms, As I Am, The Accidental Spy. Matthew has performed in award-winning short films such as May You Never Die and Emily, both directed by Guy Davies.
OTHER: Matthew's voice can be heard in over 20 cartoons such as Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood, Darker Than Black, Eureka 7, and video games including the main villain Yang in the critically acclaimed game Sifu. In 2024 his voice will be heard in three major video game series. He's also a former VJ for the popular Asia music TV show Channel V.
AMBER LIN
SWING KAZEGO PUPPETEER
胡洵琳
RSC DEBUT SEASON: My Neighbour Totoro (West End).
Amber Lin is a London-based Singaporean Chinese non-binary actor. Alongside their acting credits, they also possess experience in facilitation, spoken word, puppeteering, stunt work and game writing.
THEATRE INCLUDES: A Play, A Pie and A Pint (Òran Mór, Glasgow); performing in both English and Mandarin as Miranda in Dinosaur World Live (Nicoll Entertainment/China and Australia tours. Olivier Award Best Family Show).
OTHER: Amber owns a TikTok account dedicated to anime.
KUMIKO MENDL
NURSE EMIKO / KAZEGO PUPPETEER
RSC DEBUT SEASON: My Neighbour Totoro (West End).
UNDERSTUDY: Granny Ogaki.
TRAINED: Jacques Lecoq Theatre School in Paris.
THEATRE INCLUDES: Cyrano (National Theatre); Top Girls (Royal & Derngate); Onigoro Valley (Royal Court); Blue Remembered Hills (New Earth/Ustinov, Bath); Play to Win (New Earth/Soho Theatre); The Bourgeois Gentilhomme, The Tempest (Tara Arts); Tongue Tied (Young Vic); The History of Water (The Gate); Magic Paintbrush, Snow Lion, No Worries (Polka); Tales from Old Japan, Paper Washi Wish, Me and My Cat (A Thousand Cranes/artsdepot); Lysistrata (Rose Theatre); Small Poppies (Byre Theatre); Hey Nicaragua!, The CIA Cabaret (Assembly Rooms); Macbeth (New End).
TELEVISION INCLUDES: The Many Cinderellas (Channel 4); A Migrant’s Heart (BBC2); The Day of Reckoning (BBC).
FILM: Frog in the Well.
RADIO: From Telford… (Radio 4).
OTHER: Kumiko is a founder member and former Artistic Director of New Earth Theatre (previously known as Yellow Earth Theatre) 2011-2024, the UK’s foremost British East and South East Asian (BESEA) Theatre company. She is co-Artistic Director of A Thousand Cranes.
ANNAKANAKO MOHRI
KAZEGO PUPPETEER
RSC: My Neighbour Totoro (West End/Barbican, London 23-24).
TRAINED: The Ailey School, New York.
Annakanako is a dancer, actor and puppeteer. She was born in Windsor, UK, and grew up in Tokyo, Japan.
THEATRE INCLUDES: Swing/Cover Bo in Spirited Away (London Coliseum, Imperial Theatre Tokyo); Dance Captain for Othello (Theatrical Company Shinkansen); The Lion King (international tour/Hamburg, Germany); Message in a Bottle (Zoonation/Peacock Theatre); Falling Family, Sayonara Tokyo (Wintergarten Variete Berlin).
SCREEN INCLUDES: Everybody's Talking About Jamie, Ich War Noch Niemals (New York); Tokyo 2020 Paralympic close ceremony, KOHAKU Uta Gassen (Japan National TV NHK). Adverts: American Express (AMEX), Loewe × Studio Ghibli (TikTok), Amazon Music, Google pixel, Minecraft.
DEANNA MYERS
TSUKIKO/KAZEGO PUPPETEER
RSC DEBUT SEASON: My Neighbour Totoro (West End).
THEATRE INCLUDES: Shutters (Omnibus Theatre. Offie nomination). US theatre includes: The Good John Proctor (Trinity Repertory Theatre); Enough to Let the Light In (Contemporary American Theatre Festival); The Great Leap (Steppenwolf Theatre); King of the Yees (Goodman Theatre); The Scene, Smart People, Tiger Style! (Writers Theatre); The Gulf (About Face Theatre).
SCREEN INCLUDES: Chicago Med, Empire, Chicago Fire, Sebastian, The Drunk.
STEVEN NGUYEN
KANTA/KAZEGO PUPPETEER
RSC DEBUT SEASON: My Neighbour Totoro (West End).
TRAINED: The Academy of Live Recorded Arts (ALRA).
THEATRE INCLUDES: The Rise of Hermit (Omnibus); A Play for the Living in a Time of Extinction (Headlong /Barbican, London); Lady Lessons (Theatre503); Helium (The Space Arts Theatre).
AI NINOMIYA
KAZE NO KOE/SINGER
二宮 愛
RSC: My Neighbour Totoro (West End/Barbican, London 22-23 and 23-24).
THEATRE INCLUDES: Les Misérables (Japan tour); CHESS the Musical (Japan tour).
TELEVISION INCLUDES: WILD HEROES (Nippon Television Network Corporation); UTAGE! (Tokyo Broadcasting System Television, INC).
AMI OKUMURA JONES
SATSUKI
奥村 英衣未
RSC: My Neighbour Totoro (original production 2022/2023).
TRAINED: East 15 Acting School.
THEATRE INCLUDES: Scandaltown (Lyric Hammersmith); Wendy & Peter Pan (Leeds Playhouse); As You Like It, Hamlet (Watermill Theatre); Treasure Island (Bolton Octagon); WITCH WITCH WITCH (Camden People’s Theatre); FIVE:EIGHT (Bernie Grant Arts Centre).
TELEVISION INCLUDES: Rebus, EastEnders, Midsomer Murders, Kitti Katz.
FILM: Round Round Baby Round Round (short).
RADIO: Fukushima (BBC).
LUCY PARK
KAZEGO PUPPETEER
RSC DEBUT SEASON: My Neighbour Totoro (West End).
TRAINED: MA in Musical Theatre, Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts.
THEATRE INCLUDES: Lucy Park is an actor/singer/writer, born and raised in South Korea. She studied pop/jazz singing and worked as a professional singer in South Korea before moving to the UK. Credits include: Your Lie in April, Priscilla: The Party, Come From Away (West End); Peter Pan (Hall for Cornwall); Play AI (Riverside Studios); Tokyo Rose (Southwark Playhouse/UK tour); Game Face, The List (Tristan Bates); The Lightning Road (Actors’ Church).
SCREEN INCLUDES: Can I Just Say Something? (short film).
RICHARD PERALTA
KAZEGO PUPPETEER
RSC DEBUT SEASON: My Neighbour Totoro (West End).
UNDERSTUDY: Hiroshi.
THEATRE INCLUDES: Richard is a Deaf, neurodiverse, Filipino-American multidisciplinary artist. Originally from Missouri, Richard grew up performing in the St. Louis Muny (Roman Holiday, Singin' in the Rain, West Side Story, Grease, Bye Bye Birdie, Miss Saigon). Recent credits: Sherlock Holmes and the Poisonwood (Watermill Theatre); Much Ado About Nothing (Sheffield Theatres/UK tour); Galatea (Wildworks); Wendy & Peter Pan (Leeds Playhouse); originating the lead role of Riz in Hilmi Jaidin’s musical, Cruel, Inhuman, and Degrading; developing their new play Goldfish (Graeae Theatre/Nottingham Playhouse/New Earth Theatre/Theatre503). Richard contributed as a playwright to Titilola Dawudu and Tamasha Theatre’s Hear Me Now, Volume 2: Audition Monologues for Actors of Colour, and was chosen to participate in BBC Writersroom Access Group 23-24.
OTHER: Richard has a M.Ed. in Counselling, Education and an M.S. in Psychology. They continue to serve the creative sector as an educator and consultant in EDI (Equality, Diversity & Inclusion) with a passion for social justice, decolonisation, and disability access; having also worked for Inclusive Arts UK and as Sheffield Theatres' Agent for Change.
CHLOE RAGRAG
KAZEGO PUPPETEER
RSC DEBUT SEASON: My Neighbour Totoro (West End).
TRAINED: The Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.
THEATRE INCLUDES: Three Musketeers (New Vic); Hermia’s Dream (McLellan Arts Festival); [Going] Nowhere Fast (Off Kilter Festival); [BLANK], Glory on Earth, Coriolanus/Macbeth double bill (Royal Conservatoire of Scotland).
SCREEN INCLUDES: Only Child (BBC); Fear (Amazon Prime); Toy Library (Cromeans Productions); One Last Tear (Pixeleighted Productions).
RADIO INCLUDES: The Farewell Glacier (Naked Productions, BBC Radio 3).
NATHANIEL TAN
SWING KAZEGO PUPPETEER
RSC DEBUT SEASON: My Neighbour Totoro (West End).
THEATRE INCLUDES: Sun Gan in The Chinese Labour Corps (Blue Orange Arts); Navy Guard in Billy Budd (Royal Opera House); Rory in Squirm (Theatre503/Edinburgh Fringe); Isaac in Modern Romance (Southwark Playhouse); Bardolph in The Merry Wives of Windsor (The Principal Theatre Company).
SCREEN INCLUDES: FBI: International, Spar (pilot episode), The Contract (Short), Love Online, Todd Sloane (short), Adieu Marx.
DAI TABUCHI
TATSUO/KAZEGO PUPPETEER
田渕 大
RSC: My Neighbour Totoro (West End/Barbican, London 22-23 and 23-24).
THEATRE INCLUDES: Usagi Yojimbo (Southwark Playhouse); The Over Coat (Geck/world tour); Paradise: Ruhr Triennale Project (Theatre Rites); The Over Coat (Gecko/Lyric Hammersmith); Twin Stars (Unicorn Theatre); Tin Tin (West End/tour); The Long and the Short and the Tall (Sheffield Theatres); Cymbeline Closed Up (Shakespeare’s Globe).
TELEVISION INCLUDES: Industry (Bad Wolf/HBO/BBC); Invasion (SDTA/Apple TV+); Giri/Haji (Sister Pictures/Netflix); The Crown (Left Bank Pictures/Netflix); Nazi Megastructures (National Geographic); The Feed, Good Omens (Amazon Studios); You, Me & Them (Hat Trick Productions); Cloud Upon the Slope (NHK/Japan); Mr Yamaguchi.
FILM INCLUDES: Blade of the 47th Ronin, The Phantom of the Open, Tomoko, Spectre, The Scopia Effect, All That Remains, The Angel’s Share, 47 Ronin, Shanghai, Basho, Chosyu Five, Munich, Kizuna.
VOICE WORK INCLUDES: Hanzo in Chuggington (CBeebies/Disney in UK and US); Hiro and Kenji in Thomas & Friends: All Engines Go– Race for the Sodor Cup (UK).
JACQUELINE TATE
GRANNY OGAKI/KAZEGO PUPPETEER
藤井 夢華
RSC: My Neighbour Totoro (West End/Barbican, London 22-23 and 23-24).
THEATRE INCLUDES: Murder on the Orient Express (Chichester Festival Theatre); Les Misérables (Queen’s); South Pacific in Concert (Cadogan Hall); Allegro (Southwark Playhouse); Avenue Q (national tour/Lyric Hong Kong); South Pacific (Barbican/national tour); Avenue Q (Gielgud/Wyndham’s/national tour); The Phantom of the Opera (Her Majesty’s); My Fair Lady (Esplanade, Singapore); The Pirates of Penzance, The Merry Widow (national/international tours); Bernstein’s Mass (London Symphony Orchestra/Barbican); Evita (Zouk Mikael, Beirut).
TELEVISION INCLUDES: East Mode, EastEnders.
SHAOFAN WILSON
MISS HARA / KAZEGO PUPPETEER
金小凡
RSC: My Neighbour Totoro (West End/Barbican, London 22-23 and 23-24).
UNDERSTUDY: Tsukiko.
THEATRE INCLUDES: Pool (No Water) (Royal Court); Wonder Winterland (Soho Theatre); The Welkin, All of Us, The Ocean at the End of the Lane (National Theatre); The Secret Love Life of Ophelia (Greenwich Theatre); Oh for F*ck’s Sake (I’m in Love with You) (Nottingham Playhouse); Girls (The Old Market Brighton); Pappyshow Cabaret (Battersea Arts Centre).
JAMIE ZUBAIRI
HIROSHI/KAZEGO PUPPETEER
RSC DEBUT SEASON: My Neighbour Totoro (West End).
TRAINED: LAMDA.
THEATRE INCLUDES: Witness for the Prosecution, The Letter (West End); Guy Fawkes (Theatre Royal York); Burmese Days (53e53 Theater NYC); In The Weeds (Mull Theatre); Diary of a Somebody (Seven Dials); Parliament Square (Manchester Royal Exchange/Bush); A Doll's House (Theatre of Europe); When Mountains Meet, Wolf (Authentic Artist Collective); Cinderella, Hansel & Gretel (Theatre Royal Stratford East); Little Bears Christmas Dream (Play On Words); Why the Lion Danced, Dogs (New Earth); Cheese (Fast Familiar); Counted (LookLeftLookRight); Beauty Sleeps, Where's Ali? (Young Vic); Immigrant Song (Mainbrace/Albany); Merlin The Magnificent (Unicorn/Regent's Park Open Air Theatre); Man Is Man (Finborough).
SCREEN INCLUDES: EastEnders, Silent Witness, Grange Hill (BBC); Cucumber (Channel 4); Tides (film, Open Palm Productions).
RADIO AND AUDIO INCLUDES: Inspector Chen in Inspector Chen Mysteries, Lek & Mrs Miller, The Disappearance of Mr Chan (all BBC), Doctor Who The Early Adventures, The Eighth Doctor Adventures: Connections (Big Finish).
WRITING: Alongside co-writing the feature film Tides, Jamie has written and produced three plays: Skylarking (North Devon Festival); Unbroken Line and Expectations (both Ovalhouse).
Sophie Gabszewicz
Company Manager
Duncan Parker
Stage Manager
Sharon Hobden
Deputy Stage Manager
Stephanie Hammersley
Assistant Stage Manager
Lauren Hitchen
Assistant Stage Manager
Alex Jaouen
Assistant Stage Manager
Christopher Smith
Assistant Stage Manager
Sophie Gabszewicz
Company Manager
Duncan Parker
Stage Manager
Sharon Hobden
Deputy Stage Manager
Stephanie Hammersley
Assistant Stage Manager
Lauren Hitchen
Assistant Stage Manager
Alex Jaouen
Assistant Stage Manager
Christopher Smith
Assistant Stage Manager
Creative Team
NICOLA T. CHANG
Sound effects & soundscape designer
TONY GAYLE
Sound designer
PIPPA HILL
Dramaturg
JOE HISAISHI
Executive Producer & Composer
JESSICA HUNG HAN YUN
Lighting Designer
PHELIM McDERMOTT
Director
HANNAH MILLER
Casting Director
TOM MORTON-SMITH
Adaptor/English Lyrics
KIMIE NAKANO
Costume Designer
BRUCE O’NEIL
Music Supervisor
TOM PYE
Production Designer
FINN ROSS
Video Designer
ANDREA SCOTT
Video Designer
WILL STUART
Orchestrator & Arranger
BASIL TWIST
Puppetry Designer and Director
YOU-RI YAMANAKA
Movement Director
KENICHI YODA
Producer
GRISELDA YORKE
Executive Producer
IMPROBABLE
NIPPON TV
STUDIO GHIBLI
ROYAL SHAKESPEARE COMPANY (RSC)
NICOLA T. CHANG
Sound effects & soundscape designer
張彤
RSC: My Neighbour Totoro (original production 2022/23), All Mirth and No Matter.
Nicola T. Chang is a composer/sound designer for stage and screen. She was the Composer/Sound Designer on the 2020/21 Old Vic 12 cohort and a current BAFTA Connect Member (Film Composer). She was a co-winner of the Evening Standard Future Theatre Fund (Audio Design) in 2021.
THEATRE INCLUDES: As Performer: Fantastically Great Women Who Changed the World (Assistant MD/Keys 2/Percussion); Six the Musical (Deputy MD/Keys 1); STOMP (West End/world tour).
She has performed with the Chinese orchestra, the Women of the World Orchestra and the London Film Music Orchestra, and at venues such as the Royal Albert Hall, the Royal Festival Hall and Shakespeare’s Globe. She currently works with companies including National Youth Theatre, Rambert, British Youth Musical Theatre, National Youth Ballet and House of Absolute.
Other theatre credits include: For Black Boys Who Have Considered Suicide When the Hue Gets Too Heavy (Apollo West End/Royal Court/New Diorama); Kerry Jackson (National Theatre); The Real and Imagined History of the Elephant Man (Nottingham Playhouse/Blackpool Grand/Coventry Belgrade); TRIBE (Young Vic); Of the Cut (Young Vic); The Ministry of Lesbian Affairs (Soho); The Swell (Orange Tree); Little Baby Jesus (Orange Tree/JMK 2019); Feral Monsters (National Theatre of Wales/UK tour); Top Girls (Liverpool Everyman); NEST (LEEDS 2023); Macbeth (Leeds Playhouse); Derren Brown's Unbelievable (Criterion West End/Mercury Colchester/Manchester Palace); Dizidax (Almeida); White Pearl (Royal Court); Miss Julie (Chester Storyhouse); The Death of Ophelia (Shakespeare’s Globe).
TONY GAYLE
Sound designer
RSC: My Neighbour Totoro (original production 2022/2023).
THEATRE INCLUDES: For Sound Design: Two Strangers (Kiln); High Times, Dirty Monsters (Liverpool Playhouse); Sizwe Banze Is Dead (Mayflower); Next to Normal (Donmar Warehouse); Pygmalion, Sylvia, The 47th (The Old Vic); Beneatha’s Place (Young Vic); School Girls; Or, The African Mean Girls Play, Get Up, Stand Up! The Bob Marley Musical (Lyric, Hammersmith); Greatest Days, Beautiful: The Carole King Musical, Salad Days, American Idiot (UK tour); Disney’s Aida (Holland); Newsies (Troubadour/Wembley Park Theatre); Kinky Boots (New Wolsey); Playboy of the West Indies (Birmingham Rep); Legally Blonde (Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre); Running with Lions (Talawa/Lyric, Hammersmith); Spring Awakening, And Breathe... (Almeida); The Wiz (Hope Mill); A Place for We (Talawa/Park); Bye/Orange (Theatre Royal Bath); Gin Craze (Royal & Derngate); The Living Newspaper, Shoe Lady (Royal Court); Poet in da Corner (Royal Court/UK tour) Songs For Nobodies (Wilton’s Music Hall/West End); Floyd Collins (Winton’s Music Hall); The Wild Party (The Other Palace); Lazarus (King’s Cross).
AWARDS: Olivier Award for Best Sound Design 2023 for My Neighbour Totoro (RSC); Best Sound at the 23rd Annual WhatsOnStage Awards for My Neighbour Totoro (RSC); Black British Theatre Awards (BBTA) Light and Sound Recognition Award 2019 and 2021.
OTHER: Wise Children Trustee, Stage Sight Co-Director, Founder of The Audio Cartel.
PIPPA HILL
Dramaturg
RSC: Pippa is the Head of New Work and oversees the commissioning and development of all of the Company’s new plays, adaptations and translations.
As Senior Dramaturg she works across all the Company’s rehearsal rooms, supporting the creative process of each creative team. As Senior Dramaturg: Hamnet (Stratford/West End), My Neighbour Totoro (original production 2022/2023), Dream Online, The Boy in the Dress, A Museum in Baghdad, The Whip, Crooked Dances, Maydays, Miss Littlewood, The Fantastic Follies of Mrs Rich, A Christmas Carol, Kingdom Come, The Earthworks, Vice Versa, The Hypocrite, The Seven Acts of Mercy, Fall of the Kingdom, Always Orange, Queen Anne, Don Quixote, Hecuba, Oppenheimer, The Christmas Truce, The Roaring Girl, The Ant and the Cicada, I Can Hear You, Wendy & Peter Pan, The Empress.
Pippa was previously the Literary Manager at Paines Plough running three nationwide writing initiatives designed to identify and develop new playwrights. She co-wrote the adaption of Can Dundar’s book #WeAreArrested which was produced by the RSC at The Other Place in Stratford-upon- Avon in 2018 and transferred to the Arcola, London in 2019. Pippa worked as Dramaturg and Writer in collaboration with Marshmallow Laser Feast, Philharmonia and Manchester International Festival to create the RSC’s live, interactive digital production of Dream in 2021.
Pippa commissioned and developed the RSC/NTV/Improbable production of My Neighbour Totoro.
JOE HISAISHI
Executive Producer & Composer
RSC: My Neighbour Totoro (original production 2022/2023).
Joe Hisaishi first became interested in minimal music when he was a student at Kunitachi College of Music, Japan and started his career as a contemporary music composer. His work with MKWAJU in 1981 and the release of his first album Information in the following year kicked off his career as a solo artist.
From Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind (1984) through to The Boy and the Heron (2023), Hisaishi has produced music for 11 Hayao Miyazaki films. He also composed the music for HANA-BI directed by Takeshi Kitano, Departures directed by Yojiro Takita, Villain directed by Sang-il Lee, The Tale of The Princess Kaguya directed by Isao Takahata, and What A Wonderful Family! series directed by Yoji Yamada.
Joe Hisaishi is a renowned and skilled performer, ranging from piano soloist to orchestra conductor. Alongside major Japanese orchestras, he has conducted the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, American Symphony Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra, Singapore Symphony Orchestra and many more. In 2017, he also began a world tour of Joe Hisaishi’s Symphonic Concert: Music from the Studio Ghibli Films of Hayao Miyazaki (visiting London, Paris, Melbourne, San Jose, Los Angeles, New York, Prague, Brussels and Lyon). The success of the tour is unparalleled.
In recent years, he has actively worked as a classical music conductor and composed new works in a contemporary music style, including TRI-AD for Large Orchestra (2016), The East Land Symphony (2016), ad Universum (2019), Border Concerto for 3 Horns and Orchestra (2020), and Viola Saga (2023). Hisaishi has collaborated with a wide range of artists including Philip Glass, David Lang, Mischa Maisky, and Terry Riley.
Since 2014, he has been working as a producer and conductor, and holding contemporary music concerts with his JOE HISAISHI presents MUSIC FUTURE (also recorded as a live album).
In 2019, he also lead a concert series Future Orchestra Classics (FOC) and released a Beethoven Symphony recording that was given a Special Prize from 57th Record Academy Award Japan 2019. He has been appointed to two new positions: Composer in Residence and Music Partner with New Japan Philharmonic Orchestra from September 2020, and Principal Guest Conductor with Japan Century Orchestra from April 2021. In 2023, the Deutsche Grammophon released their first Joe Hisaishi album, A Symphonic Celebration: Music from the Studio Ghibli films of Hayao Miyazaki, which reached No.1 on the Billboard chart. His unique input as a contemporary musical composer is highly appreciated, and his continuous enthusiasm for musical activities that go beyond ordinary creative work is appreciated worldwide.
JESSICA HUNG HAN YUN
Lighting Designer
RSC: My Neighbour Totoro (original production 2022/2023); The Mirror and the Light (Playful Productions/West End).
THEATRE INCLUDES: Lyonesse (Harold Pinter Theatre); Once on This Island (Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre); The Good Person of Szechwan (Sheffield Crucible); Straight Line Crazy (The Shed, New York/The Bridge Theatre); The Glow, Seven Methods of Killing Kylie Jenner (also Public Theater, New York/Woolly Mammoth, Washington DC), Living Newspaper Edition 7, Pah-La (Royal Court); Anna X (Lowry/West End); Marys Seacole, Blindness (Donmar Warehouse); Out West (Lyric Hammersmith); Inside (Orange Tree); The Band Plays On, She Loves Me (Sheffield Theatres); Dick Whittington (National Theatre); Rockets and Blue Lights (Royal Exchange Manchester); Faces in the Crowd, Mephisto, Dear Elizabeth and The Human Voice (The Gate); Equus (Theatre Royal, Stratford East/ETT/Trafalgar Studios/UK tour); Armadillo (The Yard); Reasons To Stay Alive (Sheffield Theatres/ETT/UK tour); One (Home/UK tour/international tour); Forgotten (Moongate/New Earth/Arcola/Theatre Royal, Plymouth); Hive City Legacy (Hot Brown Honey/Roundhouse); Snowflake (Kiln/from Fire Station Oxford); Fairview (Young Vic); Cuckoo (Soho Theatre); Nine foot nine (Bunker/Edinburgh Festival Fringe); Becoming Shades (VAULT Festival).
DANCE INCLUDES: HOME (Rambert2); Twice-Born (Scottish Ballet).
OTHER EVENTS INCLUDE: DIVA Exhibition (V&A); Guardians of the Galaxy: The Live Immersive Experience (Secret Cinema); Winter Light (commissioned by the Museum of the Home).
Awards: Olivier Award and WhatsOnStage Award for Best Lighting Design for My Neighbour Totoro, Knight of Illumination Award for Plays and Off West End Award for Best Lighting Design for Equus.
PHELIM McDERMOTT
Director
RSC: My Neighbour Totoro (original production 2022/2023).
Phelim is a founder member of Improbable and the company's co-artistic director.
THEATRE INCLUDES: 70 Hill Lane, Lifegame, Animo, Coma, Spirit, Sticky, Cinderella, The Hanging Man, Theatre of Blood (in collaboration with the National Theatre); Panic, Beauty and the Beast (in co-production with ONEOFUS); The Tempest (a co-production with Northern Stage and Oxford Playhouse); Opening Skinner's Box (a co-production with Northern Stage and West Yorkshire Playhouse); Lost Without Words (a co-production with the National Theatre); Tao of Glass (co-production with Manchester International Festival). Other credits as Director: the Olivier Award-winning Shockheaded Peter; Alex (Arts); The Ghost Downstairs (Leicester Haymarket); Dr Faustus, Improbable Tales (Nottingham Playhouse); The Servant of Two Masters, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, The Government Inspector (West Yorkshire Playhouse); Artistic Collaborator on She's Leaving Home (produced by 20 Stories High).
OPERA INCLUDES: Philip Glass's Satyagraha (English National Opera/LA Opera); The Perfect American, the Olivier Award-winning Akhnaten, Mozart's Cosi fan tutte (Emglish National Opera/Metropolitan Opera, NY); Aida (Emglish National Opera);
BambinO (an opera for babies, co-produced with Manchester International Festival and Scottish Opera); The Hours (Metropolitan Opera, NY).
AWARDS: Phelim is a recipient of the International Society for the Performing Arts’ Distinguished Artist Award.
HANNAH MILLER
Casting Director
RSC: My Neighbour Totoro (original production 2022/2023). Hannah Miller has played a pivotal role as Deputy Head of Casting from 2003-2005 and as Head of Casting from 2008-2022.
Her theatre credits include being the Casting Assistant at the National Theatre, Casting Director for the Birmingham Rep, and freelance Casting Director for productions like Great Expectations and Brief Encounter.
She has also directed the 2023 ArtsEd Actors final year showcase and continues her collaboration with the RSC's Learning and National Partnerships team as a practitioner.
Hannah is also a Trustee of both Northampton Theatres Trust and Tamasha, and a member of the Casting Directors' Guild and an RSC Associate Artist.
TOM MORTON-SMITH
Adaptor/English Lyrics
RSC: My Neighbour Totoro (original production 2022/2023). Tom Morton-Smith is well-regarded for writing the 2015 play Oppenheimer, detailing the life of J Robert Oppenheimer. His work The Earthworks was part of the Royal Shakespeare Company’s Mischief Festival.
Other plays by Tom include Ravens, Salt Meets Wound, and Everyday Maps for Everyday Use.
KIMIE NAKANO
Costume Designer
中野 希美江
RSC: My Neighbour Totoro (original production 2022/2023. Winner of the Olivier Award for Best Costume Design).
TRAINED: Kimie is an international costume and set designer who works across theatre, opera and dance. She studied theatre costume design at the École Nationale Supérieure des Arts et Techniques du Théâtre in Paris, and theatre design at Wimbledon College of Arts.
Kimie has worked extensively with the Akram Khan Company, including Vertical Road, Dust, iTMOi, TOROBAKA, Gnosis, Kaash, The Rashomon Effect, techne (for Sylvie Guillem, Life in Progress), XENOS, Chotto Xenos and Outwitting the Devil. She has worked internationally with many choreographers including Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, David Nixon, José Agudo and Didy Veldman, and companies including Ballet Vlaanderen, Rambert, Les Grands Ballets Canadiens de Montréal, English National Ballet, Northern Ballet, Lithuanian National Opera and Ballet, Royal Danish Ballet, Companhia Nacional de Bailado, Van Huynh Company and Yabin Studio.
THEATRE INCLUDES: Death Note (West End. Musical by Nick Winston); Rough Girls (by Kimberley Sykes. Lyric Belfast); Pas, Pas Moi, Va et Vient (TNP Beckett Festival).
OPERA INCLUDES: Turandot (by Daniel Kramer for Grand Théâtre de Genève/Tokyo Bunka Kaikan); The Return of Ulysses ( John Fulljames. Royal Opera); Tristan und Isolde (dir. Carmen Jakobi/Longborough Festival Opera).
Film Includes: Basho and Macbeth.
Kimie’s work has also been exhibited, including at the 2015 Prague Quadrennial and the V&A.
BRUCE O’NEIL
Music Supervisor
RSC: My Neighbour Totoro (original production 2022/2023). Bruce is Head of Music for the RSC and has been Music Director and Supervisor for 50 RSC productions including the global hit Matilda The Musical, the Guy Chambers and Robbie Williams musical of David Walliams’ book The Boy in the Dress, and Shakespeare Live, a BBC TV live broadcast from the Royal Shakespeare Theatre marking the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death in 2016 which was nominated for a BAFTA Television award.
TRAINED: Birmingham Conservatoire, Guildhall School of Music and Drama, and the National Opera Studio.
Since 2013, Bruce has supervised an RSC project releasing studio recordings of music commissioned for every Shakespeare play, which also include scores composed for previous Stratford productions throughout the twentieth century. The completed series will be a unique double survey of scores composed for the Shakespeare canon spanning 120 years, highlighting the significant longstanding and continuing contribution by the RSC to the commissioning of new music for the theatre.
TOM PYE
Production Designer
RSC: My Neighbour Totoro (original production 2022/2023).
Tom has worked with a diverse range of directors around the world in theatre, TV, film, opera and dance. Collaborations include Peter Brook, Sally Wainwright, Phelim McDermott, Simon McBurney, Jonathan Kent, Diane Paulus, Chen Shi-Zheng, Yuri Possokhov, James McDonald, Simon Godwin, Maria Friedman, David Leveaux, Deborah Warner, Phyllida Lloyd, Tom Morris, Fiona Shaw, Nicholas Hytner and Pierre Audi.
THEATRE INCLUDES: Broadway: Long Day’s Journey into Night (starring Jessica Lange); The Testament of Mary (Fiona Shaw); All My Sons (starring John Lithgow and Dianne Wiest); The Glass Menagerie (starring Jessica Lange); Fiddler on the Roof (starring Alfred Molina, TONY nomination); Cyrano de Bergerac (starring Kevin Kline); Medea (starring Fiona Shaw). West End: Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (starring Imelda Staunton); A Christmas Carol (starring Jim Broadbent); Sinatra (musical).
BALLET & OPERA INCLUDES: Cinderella (The Royal Ballet); The Hours (Metropolitan Opera); The Nutcracker (Atlanta Ballet); Anna Karenina (Joffrey Ballet); Cosi Fan Tutte, The Death of Klinghoffer, Eugene Onegin (ENO/Metropolitan Opera co-productions); Akhnaten (ENO/LA and Met Opera); Aida (ENO/Geneva/Houston Grand Opera); Riders to the Sea, St John Passion (English National Opera); Thebans (ENO/Theater Bonn); Messiah (ENO/Opera Lyon).
SCREEN INCLUDES: The upcoming series Renegade Nell (Disney +); Gentleman Jack (HBO/BBC. RTS nominations for Best Costume Design for both seasons); To Walk Invisible (BBC); Gloriana, A Feast at Midnight, Christie Malry’s Own Double Entry, Richard II, Twelfth Night, Just William, The Helen West Casebook, The Late Michael Clark, and several years of Production Design for MTV Europe.
FINN ROSS
Video Designer
RSC: My Neighbour Totoro (original production 2022/2023); The Tempest (RSC/Barbican)
THEATRE INCLUDES: Tammy Fey, Spring Awakening (Almeida); Dancin, Mean Girls, Betrayal (Broadway); Back to the Future, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child (West End/Broadway); Frozen, Les Miserables (International); Sweet Charity (Donmar/Broadway); Bat out of Hell (West End/International); Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (Broadway/West End/Tour); Jagged Little Pill, In the Body of the World (American Reparatory Theatre/Broadway); American Psycho (Broadway/Almedia); (Broadway); Chimerica (Almeida/est End); Master and Margarita, All My Sons, Shunkin (Complicite).
OPERA INCLUDES:The Hours (The Met);The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny (Royal Opera House); Missa Solemnis (LA Phil); Benvenuto Cellini, Death of Klinghoffer, Death in Venice, Damnation of Faust, Don Giovanni, (English National Opera); Hänsel und Gretel, Zäuberflote, A Dog’s Heart (DNO, Amsterdam); La clemenza di Tito, Mr Brouček (Opera North); Les Pêcheurs de Perles, Béatrice et Bénédict, Turn of the Screw (Theatre an der Wien); Rinaldo, (Glyndebourne).
DANCE INCLUDES: Cinderella (The Royal Ballet); Anna Karenina (The Joffrey Ballet); The Nutcracker (Atlanta Ballet); The Feeling of Going (Skånes Dansteater/Malmö Opera)
MUSIC INCLUDES: Declan Mckena (Reading/Leads, 2023); Lewis Capaldi (2022 Tour); Azimuth (Al Ula); Music of the Spheres (Cold Play); 17 Going Under (Sam Fender); Life is Yours (Foals); Herbert Grönemayer (20th Anniversary Concert); Midnight Feeling (Mark Ronson); Fortnight (J Balvin, Fornightmares), W Hotel Instillation (Guangzhou, China): Rolling Stones Exhibitionism (International).
OTHER: Finn has won two Olivier’s, a Tony, three Drama Desk’s and four What’s on Stage Awards. He is an Honourary Fellow of The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama.
ANDREA SCOTT
Video Designer
RSC: My Neighbour Totoro (original production 2022/2023).
TRAINED: Andrea holds a BA (Hons) Business with Psychology (2017, Dublin Business School), an MSc International Marketing (2018, King’s College London), and a BA (Hons) in Technical Theatre and Stage Management, specialising in Video (RADA, 2021).
THEATRE INCLUDES: For Tonight (Adelphi); Chess (The Muny, USA); Bob Fosse’s Dancin’ (San Diego, USA); Spring Awakening (Almeida); Beauty and the Beast (Disney, UK/Ireland tour).
BALLET: Cinderella (Royal Opera House, London).
OPERA: Magic Flute (Bergen National Opera, Norway).
LIVE MUSIC INCLUDES: Mariah Carey (LA & Las Vegas, USA), Liam Gallagher (Knebworth, 2022), Becky Hill (Summertime Ball 2022), Foals (Life is Yours, 2022), Years & Years (2022), Sam Fender (17 Going Under, 2022)
OTHER: Andrea is an award-winning Video and Projection Designer based in London. Her work as a designer and animator spans across theatre, opera, live music and dance in Europe and overseas. With a hands-on approach and keen interest in cinematography and directing, Andrea revels in creating content that is captivating as well as story driven.
WILL STUART
Orchestrator & Arranger
RSC: My Neighbour Totoro (original production 2022/2023).
Will is an Olivier nominated Orchestrator, Arranger and Composer.
THEATRE INCLUDES: As Composer: Pygmalion (Old Vic); Noises Off (Haymarket); GOOD (Pinter); The Corn is Green (National Theatre). As Arranger or Orchestrator includes: The Drifters Girl (Garrick, vocal arrangements); Wicked (Hamburg); Amélie (Munich); The Band Plays On, Guys and Dolls (Sheffield Crucible); Committee (Donmar Warehouse); West End Men (Vaudeville); From Here to Eternity (USA).
As Music Supervisor includes: The Drifters Girl (UK tour); The Secret Life of Bees (Almeida); Guys and Dolls, The Band Plays On (Sheffield Crucible); From Here to Eternity (USA); A Christmas Carol (Associate, Broadway).
As Musical Director includes: The Drifters Girl (Garrick); Standing at the Sky’s Edge (Sheffield Crucible); A Christmas Carol, Mood Music, The Divide (Old Vic).
OTHER ARRANGER/ORCHESTRATOR CREDITS INCLUDE: Dame Shirley Bassey, Paloma Faith, Cerys Matthews, Bryn Terfel, Stella McCartney (Paris Fashion Week), Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, BBC Concert Orchestra, BBC Big Band, Hamburg Symphoniker, Stockholm Sinfonietta.
BASIL TWIST
Puppetry Designer and Director
TRAINED: École Nationale Supérieure des Arts de la Marionnette (ESNAM) in Charleville-Mézières, France.
Basil is a third-generation puppeteer who creates iconic, visionary puppetry worlds with a remarkable range of style and scope appearing in intimate nightclubs to large orchestra halls. He is a sought-after collaborator for theatre, ballet, opera, dance and film. His unique approaches have been recognised with multiple awards and fellowships and have furthered contemporary artistry and the technical craft of puppetry. Basil is known for revitalising puppetry as a serious and sophisticated art form through his experiments with materials, techniques and uses in both narrative and abstract works. Basil’s shows range from productions of classic stories to abstract visualisations of orchestral music and are informed by puppetry traditions from around the world.
ORIGINAL WORK INCLUDES: Symphonie Fantastique (1998) which featured abstract materials in a tank of water to simulate imagery and characters to music, Petrushka, Doguagaeshi, Rite of Spring, Hansel & Gretel, Arias with a Twist, La Bella Dormente nel Bosco, Sisters Follies, A Streetcar named Desire (La Comédie Française, also co-director), and most recently Jean-Joseph Cassanéa de Mondonville’s Titon et l›Aurore at the Opera Comique and The Book of Mountains and Seas by composer Huang Ruo in Copenhagen, New York City and soon to be at Koorbiennale Amsterdam. He contributed to the magic of Alfonso Cuarón’s Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, creating the Dementors. Basil’s honours include Obie, Henry Hewes and Doris Duke Performing awards, multiple UNIMA and Bessie Awards, a Guggenheim fellowship and a MacArthur Fellowship.
Since 1999 he has served as Artistic Director of the Dream Music Puppetry Program in New York City.
YOU-RI YAMANAKA
Movement Director
山中 結莉
RSC: My Neighbour Totoro (original production 2022/2023).
TRAINED: You-Ri is a Japanese actress, movement director, voiceover and acting teacher. She TRAINED in Kabuki dance and Butoh in Japan, and also TRAINED at LAMDA, Le Coq and Michael Chekhov in the UK, Europe and US. She explores the meeting points between the East and West.
THEATRE INCLUDES: As Movement Director/Coach/Choreographer and Director: Dido and Aeneas, Temple Middle Hall (Temple Festival); Magic Flute (New National Theatre, Tokyo); Madam Butterfly (ENO); Pacific Overtures (Menier Chocolate Factory); Illyria (Theatre Royal Bath); Richard III, A Midsummer Night’s Dream (East 15); The Crucible, Our Country’s Good (New National Theatre Tokyo, Drama Studio); A Midsummer Night’s Dream (NAHDA, Cairo, Egypt). You-Ri has worked in theatre, film and TV as an actress in the UK and her unique style, deeply connected with the body, has been much appreciated by many theatre companies such as: Watermill Theatre Newbury, dreamthinkspeak, Volcano Theatre, Theatre503, Southwark Playhouse, New Earth Theatre, StoneCrabsTheatre, Dash Arts, amongst others and beyond the border of culture. As Cultural Consultant: George Takei’s Allegiance (Charing Cross Theatre); Pacific Overtures (Menier Chocolate Factory).
TEACHING INCLUDES: LAMDA, BADA, East 15, ALRA, Rose Bruford, ArtsEd, Fourth Monkey, LDA, New National Theatre Tokyo Drama Studio. You-Ri’s tailor-made workshop, ‘Freeing the Inner Voice – Body and Expression’, has been in constant demand worldwide for many years.
KENICHI YODA
Producer
Kenichi Yoda is Producer at the NIPPON TV’s live entertainment division.
Among other theatre shows and events, his previous work includes Japan’s first major original arena show the DRAGON QUEST Live Spectacle tour and Joe Hisaishi’s concerts.
Yoda is also a member of the Studio Ghibli Board of Directors from October 2023.
GRISELDA YORKE
Executive Producer
Alongside her role as Executive Producer of My Neighbour Totoro, Griselda Yorke is Producer at The Old Vic. She also works alongside Denise Wood as Executive Producer of Matilda The Musical. Previously she was Executive Producer for the Royal Shakespeare company where she worked on multiple productions including the coproduction with Good Chance of Kyoto, directed by Stephen Daldry and Justin Martin, Simon Godwin’s Hamlet with Paapa Essiedu, Lolita Chakrabati’s adaptation of Maggie O’Farrell’s Hamnet directed by Erica Whyman the international tour of Gregory Doran’s King and Country tetralogy and the musical of The Boy in the Dress.
Before joining the RSC Griselda was Executive Producer for the pioneering immersive theatre company, Punchdrunk. Prior to that Griselda was Executive Director at Cheek by Jowl, producing and touring productions in three languages in the UK and around the world. She started her career on the international season at the Barbican Theatre where projects included Robert Wilson and Tom Waits’ The Black Rider and Merce Cunningham’s Events. She has worked in New York, with Pomegranate Arts. Griselda sits on the Board of SOLT.
IMPROBABLE
Led by Phelim McDermott and Lee Simpson, Improbable is an award-winning theatre company that defies categorisation. At the heart of our artistic practice is improvisation. Whether in performance, rehearsal or development, the practice and philosophy of improvisation is at the core of our creation process.
The breadth of Improbable’s experience is unrivalled and we occupy a vital space in the landscape of UK and international theatre, working with a huge range of partners nationally and internationally across sectors and scales. Other recent on-stage collaborations and projects have included: The Hours, Metropolitan Opera; Akhnaten (Olivier Award winner for Best Opera Production, Grammy Award for Best Opera Recording), English National Opera; Perfect Show for Rachel created by Zoo Co at Barbican (winner Off West End Award, Access); An Improbable Musical, Royal & Derngate, Northampton; Tao Of Glass, with Factory International, Perth Festival, Ruhrfestspiele Recklinghausen, Hong Kong New Vision Arts Festival and Carolina Performing Arts – University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in association with Naomi Milgrom AO. We were awarded Producer of the Year at The Stage Awards in 2023.
Beyond our work on stage, we use Open Space Technology to create and hold diverse and deeply democratic spaces that bring communities together to work on urgent issues. We do this for the theatre sector through our Devoted & Disgruntled programme and work with other sectors and organisations through Open Space For Hire and Improbable For Business. Improbable is a core supporter of M/Others Who Make, an international network for women and non-binary people who care about creating, and create whilst caring.
NIPPON TV
Nippon Television Holdings, Inc. is a media and content company whose core operation is broadcasting. At the nucleus of its businesses is the subsidiary Nippon Television Network Corporation, Japan’s first commercial television broadcaster that hit the airwaves in 1953.
Celebrating its 70th anniversary this year, the country’s leading linear platform enjoys widespread support from viewers, propelling it to win the annual Triple Crown Title for the 11th consecutive year in 2021 by ranking No. 1 in individual viewer ratings across all three timeslot categories. In October 2023, NIPPON TV acquired the shares of Studio Ghibli, making it a subsidiary. As part of the same group, NIPPON TV continues to support Studio Ghibli.
STUDIO GHIBLI
Studio Ghibli was founded in 1985 by animated film directors Isao Takahata and Hayao Miyazaki, and has produced twenty-four feature-length films. Most Studio Ghibli films ranked number one at the box office in Japan in the year in which they were released. The Studio’s SPIRITED AWAY (2001), HOWL’S MOVING CASTLE (2004) and PRINCESS MONONOKE (1997) are among Japan’s top 10 grossing films. Studio Ghibli films have garnered numerous awards and critical acclaim from film critics and animation specialists around the world. SPIRITED AWAY was awarded the Golden Bear as the Best Feature Film at the 2002 Berlin International Film Festival and won the 2002 Academy Awards® for Best Animated Feature Film. In October 2001, Studio Ghibli, in conjunction with The Tokuma Memorial Cultural Foundation for Animation, founded the Ghibli Museum, Mitaka, designed by Hayao Miyazaki. THE WIND RISES (2013), THE TALE OF THE PRINCESS KAGUYA (2013), WHEN MARNIE WAS THERE (2014) and THE RED TURTLE (2016) have earned the studio four consecutive nominations for the Academy Awards® for Best Animated Feature Film. EARWIG AND THE WITCH, was an official selection for the 2020 Cannes Film Festival. The studio’s latest film ThE BOY AND THE HERON, released in Japan on July 14, 2023, has been awarded the Golden Globe, BAFTA and the Academy Award® for Best Animated Feature in 2024. The studio will receive Honorary Palme d’or at the 77th Cannes Film Festival.
ROYAL SHAKESPEARE COMPANY (RSC)
The Royal Shakespeare Company is a theatre and learning charity that creates world class theatre, made in Stratford-upon-Avon and shared around the world, performing plays by Shakespeare and his contemporaries, as well as commissioning an exceptionally wide range of original work from contemporary writers. Our purpose is to ensure that Shakespeare is for everyone, and we do by that unlocking the power of his plays and of live performance and out learning and education work throughout the UK and across the world.
We believe everybody’s life is enriched by culture and creativity. We have trained generations of the very best theatre makers and we continue to nurture the talent of the future. Our transformative Learning programmes reach over half a million young people and adults each year, and through our Creative Placemaking and Public Programme we create projects with and for communities who have not historically engaged with our work. We are a leader in creative immersive technologies and digital development.
We have a proud record of innovation, diversity and excellence on stage and are determined to grasp the opportunity to become an even more inclusive, progressive, relevant and ambitious organisation.
We have one of the UK’s largest arts learning programmes, working with over 1,000 schools each year to broaden access to high quality arts learning and transform experiences of Shakespeare in schools. Through our national partnership programme with schools and regional theatres we target areas of structural disadvantage, including 26 areas of multiple deprivation across the country, from Cornwall to Middlesbrough. Research shows that our approaches to teaching Shakespeare support the development of reading and writing skills, accelerate language acquisition and development, raise aspirations and improve student attitudes to school and learning in general. They also foster well-being, self-esteem, empathy, resilience and tolerance and promote critical-thinking, creative, analytical, communication and problem-solving skills.
We are committed to being a teaching and learning theatre and we are the only arts organisation to have been awarded Independent Research Organisation status. We create world class theatre for, with and by audiences and theatre makers of all ages. We provide training for emerging and established theatre makers and arts professionals, for teachers and for young people. We share learning formally and informally. We embed training and research across our company, work and processes.
We recognise the climate emergency and work hard to embed environmental sustainability into our operations, creative work and business practice, making a commitment to continually reduce our carbon footprint.
Keep Your RSC supports our mission to create theatre at its best, unlocking Shakespeare and transforming lives. Thousands of generous audience members, trusts and foundations and partners supported Keep Your RSC since 2020, alongside a £19.4 million loan from the Culture Recovery Fund, we are thrilled to be welcoming audiences back. It will take time to recover, to reopen all our theatres, and many years to repay the loan and the support and generosity of our audiences is more important than ever. Please donate at rsc.org.uk/donate.
The RSC is supported using public funding by Arts Council England
The work of the RSC is supported by the Culture Recovery Fund
Miranda Curtis CMG – Lead Production Supporter of the original production and the 2023 production of My Neighbour Totoro
New Work at the RSC is generously supported by The Drue and H.J. Heinz II Charitable Trust
The RSC Acting Companies are generously supported by The Gatsby Charitable Foundation
TikTok £10 Tickets sponsored by TikTok