(Pegasus Theatre). He has since appeared in The Boy Who Fell Into A Book (English Touring Theatre) and the original production of Precious Bane for Pentabus. Television includes Life Begins (Granada), and he has just returned from filming an as yet untitled short film in Mexico.
Theresa Heskins Director Trained at Oxford University and Birmingham Rep. As a freelance director, as joint artistic director of Jade Theatre and as artistic director of Pentabus Theatre since 2000, she has directed over forty new productions including Sarah Woods’ Grace, Bryony Lavery’s Shot Through the Heart and Julian Garner’s Silent Engine (Fringe First winner 2002).
Alex Jones Beguildy Theatre work includes: Peter Pan, The Tempest, Swamp City and The Ash Girl (Birmingham Rep); Secret, Black and Midnight (Pentabus) and Dennis Potter’s Blue Remembered Hills (New Vic, Stoke). A regular actor for BBC radio drama, Alex plays Clive Horrobin in The Archers. He is also a playwright – productions include Noise (Soho Theatre), Phil and Jill and Jill and Phil (Coventry Belgrade), Heart of the Wood and The Bridge (Pentabus); Mr and Mrs Schultz and Deadwood (The Watermill, Newbury).
Mary Keith Composer and Musical Director Musical magpie has worked extensively as a multi-instrumentalist, singer, performer, MD and facilitator for companies such as Foursight Theatre, Horse and Bamboo, Opera North and the Halle. She composed music for Dancing with the Devil, The Byker King, The Bewdley Pirate, Possession and The Wright Stuff for Pentabus. She was artistic director of the Raising the Spirits International Festival of Women’s Voices. She runs a community based singing group – Loud Mouth Women – who enjoy a wide range of vocal styles, from Bulgaria to Blur! She now lives in Shropshire’s Lakeland, where Precious Bane is set.
Bryony Lavery Playwright Bryony Lavery’s most recent plays include a new version of A Dolls House (Birmingham Rep); Thyestes (RSC); and Frozen, which was has just transferred from off-Broadway to the Circle in the Square Theatre on Broadway, where it was the most nominated new play for the TONY Awards in New York this year. Frozen, which originally played at Birmingham Rep and the National Theatre, also won the TMA Best Play Award and the Eileen Anderson Central Television Award for Best Play in 1998. Other plays include Bag, Origin of the Species, Witchcraze, Wicked, Kitchen Matters, Nothings Compares to You, Ophelia, A Wedding Story and the award-winning Her Aching Heart. Work for young people include More Light and lllyria. Her extensive work for BBC Radio includes No Joan of Arc, Velma and Theresa, The Smell of Him, Requiem and adaptations of Wuthering Heights, High Wind in Jamaica and Lady Audley’s Secret for the Classic Serial. She has adapted Behind the Scenes at the Museum for York Theatre Royal and Angela Carter’s The Magic Toyshop for Shared Experience. She is an honorary Doctor of Arts at De Montfort University
Charlie McCarthy Kester Trained at the Central School of Speech and Drama, graduating last July. Charlie has just completed his first tour with NTC playing Clamp in Bedazzled. On leaving Drama School he understudied the role of Jake in Stones in His Pockets (national tour), appeared in a new version of Jekyll & Hyde with Babayaga Theatre Company, and been a ‘Vicious Attacker’ on Crimewatch! During his training he appeared as Maurice in Dance Hall Days by Ros Scanlon at the Riverside Studios, Hammersmith. Plays at Central include: Dancing to Lunghnasa, The Glory of Living, The Cosmonaut’s Last Message, Summerfolk and Macbeth.
Julia Munrow Mother Trained at RADA. Theatre includes Much Ado About Nothing for Mark Rylance’s LTI; Trojan Women (Drill Hall); Judgement (Artaud Theatre); Have The Men Had Enough? (King’s Head); Deathtrap (Eye Theatre); Romeo & Juliet (Open-Air Barnwell); Table Manners (Yeovil Octagon); Breathing Space (Toronto Festival). Film /TV: Great Balls of Fire, Emmerdale, Love Again. Radio: Letters From Chechnya (BBC). Formerly Director of MOMI Actors, her stage adaptations include Woe From Wit, Lickers and Kickers, Eisenstein in Action, The Needle’s Eye and currently her comedy MUTTON, which she is performing at The Gilded Balloon, Edinburgh this year.
Kirsty Wood Jancis Beguildy Trained at Dartington College of Arts and Arts Ed, London where she graduated with an MA in Acting in 2003. Roles at drama school include Catherine in Memory of Water, Beatrice in The Changeling; and Juliet in Eclipsed. Television roles include Mary in Only Girls (Channel 4) and Siobhan in The Bill. This is Kirsty’s first professional theatre role.
Karren Winchester Mrs Beguildy Trained at Guildford School of Acting, leaving in 1995. Theatre credits include Year 10 for the Royal Court Theatre’s Young Writers Programme; Sons and Lovers (Snap Theatre Company); The Browning Version and The Twelve Pound Look (Bath Theatre Royal), A Doll’s House and Electra (Compass Theatre Company); Oliver! (Marlowe Theatre, Canterbury); Beating Time (Lewisham Theatre); Much Ado About Nothing and Easy Virtue (Lilian BayIis Theatre); Love From Shakespeare to Coward (Covent Garden); A Clockwork Orange and Crystal Clear (national tours). Television and film includes The Ruth Rendell Mysteries; the BBC’s A Fight To the Death; After Now (Channel 4) and To Kill Again (Newlyn Productions).
The Mere Singers Choir 2004
Choir Leader Sue Harris
Youth Choir Leader Toby Belfield
Choir Members
Paola Alessandri-Gray
Rosa Alexander
Kate Allan
Beth Ash
Angela Axson
Caroline Babb
Lauren Baker
Jill Bamford
Sian Basker
Paula Bayley
Richard Beasley
Debra Booth
Robyn Bowie
Keith Bowtell
Vanessa Bowtell
Candy Bowtell
Marianne Bowtell
John Buckland
Lin Cawthorne
Tom Chadwick
Pamela Chambers
Susan Clarke
Margaret Clayfield
Alex Coates
Helga Coburn
Josie Corbett
Rob Cosnett
Maureen Cousins
John Cox
Catherine Cunning
Julia Denyer-Coates
Vicky Dwyar
Stephanie Edge
Patricia Edge
Su
