works as lighting tutor at Goldsmith’s College. She also sings and performs with Frank Chickens and is co-founder of the ‘Hey Ho Ha’ theatre company, with Yoko Nishimura. She works on projects across a whole range of genres. She is interested in creating performance work with a strong visual language that engages with interdisciplinary practices.
Richard Aylwin (Designer) Richard Aylwin is an artist and designer, specialising in prepared space, printed and moving image. Much of his work has been associated with opera and new music. The companies Richard has worked for include: English National Opera, The Wrestling School, Royal Lyceum Edinburgh, Scottish Opera, Opera Northern Ireland, Music Theatre Wales, Lyric Theatre London, Wexford Festival Opera, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, Opera North, Liverpool Philharmonic Society, Opera Vest (Norway), Contact Theatre Manchester, Welsh National Opera and Sadler’s Wells. Theatre and Opera productions include: The Tragedy of Carmen (Brooke), Mother Courage, La Cenerentola, Don Giovanni, Noye’s Fludde, The Fall of the House of Usher, Waiting for Godot, Phaedra, Soldier’s Tale, Katya Kabanova, Punishment Without Revenge, School for Clowns, Rigoletto, The Rape of Lucrecia, Hansel and Gretel, The Threepenny Opera, The Shaming of Bright Miller, Monster, Beatrice and Benedict; and for Ensemble: Portraits in Song, Ay Carmela, The Uninvited, and Souvenir d’Anne Frank.
Steve Trafford (Writer) Steve was a founding member of Red Ladder Theatre, where his credits included: Taking Our Time (Dir. Michael Attenborough) and Ladders to the Moon (Dir. Annie Castledine). He wrote Marie (UK and USA tours, Fortune Theatre, and BBC Radio Four), as well as Hymn to Love (Mercury Colchester, Drill Hall London, Traverse 1 Edinburgh Festival and adapted for BBC Radio Three). He translated Brecht’s The Mother for a UK tour, and co-devised Portraits in Song with Elizabeth Mansfield for tours in the UK and USA, followed by A Cloud in Trousers at York Theatre Royal and a UK tour, and a new translation of Ay Carmela by Jose Sanchis Sinisterra for York Theatre Royal and a UK tour. Steve’s work for the screen includes the Channel Four Feature Film T Dan Smith and many popular TV series including The Knock, Heartbeat, Medics, Wycliffe, The Bill and the BBC Series Between the Lines for which he won a Writers Guild Award. Most recently he has been a regular writer for Midsomer Murders.
Our huge thanks to all those who have helped support and promote this production, especially: John Bright, Max Brittain, Beatrix Campbell OBE, Professor Laura Gowing, Pete Jacobs, Glenn Keiles, Rolf Kruger, Phyllis Mansfield, Steve Muckersie, Leslie Pearson, Merril Jenkins-Rose, Stephen Rose.
The Restoration of Nell Gwyn was first performed at The Studio, York Theatre Royal on 9 October 2014. Following an opening run, the show toured to regional venues throughout the UK. The production was supported using public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England.
Henry Purcell 1659-1695 Henry Purcell was born in Old Pye Street, a notorious slum area of Westminster, known as ‘The Devil’s Acre’. His father and uncle were both musicians and ‘Gentlemen of the Chapel Royal’. Purcell became a chorister of the Chapel under Pelham Humfrey, who had been sent to France by Charles II to learn the French style. The gifted Purcell was composing by the time he was eleven. He stayed on at the Chapel Royal, after his voice had broken, studying with John Blow and later succeeded Blow as organist of Westminster Abbey. Purcell was prodigious, composing songs and anthems, church music, music for plays, and odes for special occasions, his most famous being the three odes for St Cecilia’s day. Purcell wrote everything from incidental music, lively dance numbers, passionate arias, to rollicking choruses and comical catches. He also wrote the first English ‘opera’ Dido and Aeneas for the girls of Josiah Priest’s boarding school, in Chelsea. Its most famous aria ‘Dido’s Lament’’ remains one of the best beloved arias of all time. Purcell enriched the English Baroque style with Italian and French influences, to create powerfully expressive tonal music, with brilliant vocal settings. His influence on contemporary classical and popular music continues. He was a powerful influence on Benjamin Britten’s work; and Pete Townshend of the rock group ‘The Who’ identified Purcell as a key influence in the group’s music. Purcell is buried beneath the organ in Westminster Abbey. His memorial tablet states that he ‘… is gone to that Blessed Place where, only, his harmony can be exceeded’.
For a lively, accessible read about the historical context of The Restoration of Nell Gwyn, including timelines, articles and information about the English Civil War, Women in the 17th Century, the Restoration Theatre and more, please visit our website at www.ensemble-online.com and follow the link to The Restoration of Nell Gwyn, then click ‘Learning resource pack’
Registered Charity No. 1134292
Email: [email protected] Web address: www.ensemble-online.com
The Restoration of Nell Gwyn
Co-producers: Ensemble and York Theatre Royal
In association with Park Theatre
About ENSEMBLE
Ensemble was formed in 2001 by Elizabeth Mansfield and Steve Trafford to work collaboratively with other artists in creating and touring new theatre work exploring the relationship between music, text and song, alongside educational programmes for young people.
The company has produced seven original theatre, music pieces, all of which have toured extensively in the UK, and some in the USA: Portraits in Song - Edith Piaf and Bertolt Brecht; The Greatest Drummer in the World; The Uninvited – Songs and Stories of Exile; Clara’s Gift (based on Robert Schumann’s song cycle ‘Frauenliebe und Leben’); Ludwig’s Ghost (with the Peabody Trio, Baltimore USA) featuring Goethe’s ‘West-Östlicher Divan’ and Beethoven’s E flat and ‘Ghost’ piano trios.
Ensemble enjoys a special relationship with York Theatre Royal who supported and co-produced with us: A Cloud in Trousers by Steve Trafford, about the Russian Futurist poet Vladimir Myakovsky; Ay Carmela by Jose Sanchis Sinisterra, translated by Steve Trafford; Souvenir d’Anne Frank, devised by Elizabeth Mansfield, to the music of Colin Decio’s ‘ Het Achterhuis’ piano trio. Also, a revival of Marie by Steve Trafford, which had previously enjoyed two runs at the Fortune Theatre, London.
Ensemble has also produced in association with Theatre by the Lake Keswick, the Drill Hall London, Z-arts Manchester and Leeds Lieder. Ensemble’s work has been supported using public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England and by Spelthorne Borough Council.
We have taken workshops accompanying several productions into schools, and also, alongside Souvenir d’Anne Frank, worked with Women Asylum Seekers Together (WAST) in Manchester to create an exhibition to accompany the show on tour. The Uninvited – Songs and Stories of Exile was performed in Bronzefield Prison to launch a workshop programme with women prisoners encouraging them to tell their own stories. The workshops culminated in a show, written and performed by the prisoners themselves.
Ensemble is Registered Charity 1134292, and the company’s Patron is Josette Bushell-Mingo.
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About YORK THEATRE ROYAL
