INTRODUCING THE CREATIVE TEAM FOR our IN-HOUSE CHRISTMAS PRODUCTION OF OLIVER TWIST!
Seamas Carey
Seamas Carey is the composer and co-songwriter for the production.
Seamas Carey is a Cornish artist / composer / choir leader / bloke, perhaps best known for his podcast series The Reason Why, and the “provocative, nuanced and controversial” comedy show - Help! I Think I’m A Nationalist.
His other work includes; Pagan Pandemonium, I Wish I Was A Standing Stone and Seamas Carey Meets His 4 Year Old Self (Emma Rice’s 2019 theatre highlight, The Guardian). He also founded and still conducts Cornwall’s first alternative male voice choir, Men Are Singing. In 2020 he received the Maurice O’Connell Bursary Award and went on to exhibit work at Tate St Ives the following year. As a multi-instrumentalist (accordion, piano, double bass, bagpipes) Seamas has worked for 12 years as a performer and musical director with theatre companies such as Wildworks, Kneehigh, Traveling Light, Bristol
Old Vic, C-Scape, Cheap Date Dance, Bashstreet and Sally Cookson. He has toured throughout the world, but still remains firmly rooted in his
LaÏla Diallo
LaÏla Diallo is the Choreographer.
Laïla is a choreographer and performer based in Bristol.
Alongside independently and collaboratively devising dance works, Laïla often works as movement director/choreographer in theatre and opera.
Recent works include Like Moth to Light with visual artist Helen Carnac, and short film 1:1, produced by MAYK and commissioned by British Council #WomenPowerinCulture for WOW Istanbul. Movement direction and choreography credits include: ABBA Voyage; Rigoletto, Otello, Un Ballo in Maschera (Opera North); Emilia, Three Seagulls (Bristol Old Vic Theatre School); Wonder Boy, Nutcracker (Bristol Old Vic); Aïda, War and Peace (Canadian Opera Company); Thérèse Raquin, All’s Well That Ends Well (National Theatre); The Prince of Homburg, Dance of Death (Donmar); Tis Pity She’s a Whore (West Yorkshire Playhouse), Days of Significance (RSC, Tricycle).
Adam Peck
Adam Peck is the Writer.
Adam has spent the past two decades working as a playwright, dramaturg and theatre-maker. He has been an Associate Artist at Bristol Old Vic since 2013, and in 2019 his devised adaptation of A Monster Calls won an Olivier Award.
Work includes: The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe (Elliot Harper Productions, The Bridge Theatre and Leeds Playhouse), the OFFIE-winning and Olivier Award-nominated Cinderella: A Fairytale (Travelling Light Theatre & Tobacco Factory Theatres; The Other Palace; Unicorn Theatre; MAC), Orpheus & Eurydice, Belle & Sebastien, Igloo, Sleeping Beauty, The Boy Who Cried Wolf, Medusa, Only, Hey Diddle Diddle (Bristol Old Vic), 101 Dalmatians, The Last Voyage of Sinbad the Sailor, Bonnie & Clyde (Tobacco Factory Theatres), Father Christmas (Lyric Hammersmith, Leeds Playhouse & Warwick Arts Centre), Oh No George and Well Done, Mummy Penguin (Can’t Sit Still, UK Tour), Shop of Little Horrors (Pickled Image, UK Tour), 140 Million Miles (Oran Mor), Minotaur and Septimus Bean & His Amazing Machine (Unicorn Theatre), Tom and Varmints (Sadler’s Wells), Fagin’s Twist (Avant Garde Dance & The Place) and the My First Ballet series (2014-2017) for English National Ballet.
Lydia Cook
Lydia Cook is the Assistant Director.
Lydia Cook, a true Bristol local, delights in crafting theatre both in her
hometown and throughout the UK and internationally.
Lydia’s directorial credits include: Holes (Tom Basden, performed in The
Ancient Chinese town of Wuzhen and The Wardrobe Theatre Bristol)
Assistant Director credits include: Emilia (Morgan Lloyd Malcolm,
directed by Sally Cookson); The Future is Beige (Hannah Ali Khan)
As a theatre practitioner, Lydia engages with aspiring artists at the
Tobacco Factory’s Young Theatre Makers, Bristol Old Vic’s Young
Company, Bristol Institute of Performing Arts, and Pauline Quirke
Academy.
She finds inspiration in immersive, courageous, and bold artistic
endeavours, weaving elements of music and movement into her work. As a director, her mission is to spotlight the voices of individuals from
global majority backgrounds and queer LGBTQIA+ communities.
Lydia is a recent graduate of the MA Drama Directing course at Bristol
Old Vic Theatre School.
Lydia is excited to be part of the Tobacco Factory team and hopes you
enjoy this production of Oliver!
Heidi Vaughan
Heidi Vaughan is the Director.
Heidi is the Artistic Director & CEO of Tobacco Factory Theatres. She was formerly Artistic Director of Travelling Light Theatre Company (Bristol), Kazzum (London), Head of Learning (Oxford Playhouse) and Director of Young People’s Theatre (The Point, Eastleigh). She is delighted to have been an Associate Artist of the egg where she held a Leverhulme scholarship and Evolve Artist at Oxford Playhouse.
Heidi has worked as a Director for over 20 years and has directed multiple Shakespeare plays, New Work, Street Performance, Community Plays, Young People and Family Work and durational installation pieces. She is excited by celebrating the theatrical, the imaginative and the simple joy of coming together to experience brilliant stories.
Heidi has worked on an international level delivering projects for young people and communities in the near and mid East, Ireland, Spain and Italy with the British Council and the inspiring Druid Theatre Company.
Heidi has enjoyed Tobacco Factory Theatre’s brilliant Christmas productions over many years and is thrilled that she has the opportunity to make a new festive offer as her first production since taking up post in January 2023.
Chris Swain
Chris is a lighting designer based in Bristol.
He has worked extensively with physical theatre company Gecko – collaborating with the company for over ten years. Lighting design for the company includes ‘Kin’ (which will play at the National Theatre in January), ‘a little space’, ‘The Dreamer’, ‘Time of Your life’, ‘Institute’, and ‘Missing’.
Other lighting designs include: ‘Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf’, ‘Our Country’s Good’, ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’, ‘Beautiful Thing’, and ‘Blue Heart’ for Tobacco Factory Theatres, ‘Colour of Dinosaurs’ and ‘We Can Time Travel’ for gig-theatre maker Dom Coyote, ‘Oz’, ‘Flies’, and ‘The Scarlet Pimpernel’ for Pins and Needles, ‘Snowed in’ for Anatomical, ‘Cutting Out’ for artist and activist Viv Gordon, and designs for various contemporary dance companies including: New Movement Collective, Fertile Ground, Renaud Wiser Dance, Sophie Nuzel Dance, and TrashDollys.
Chris also is a visiting lecturer at Bristol Old Vic Theatre school, where he works with the students on their own lighting designs, supervises technical workshops and fit-ups, and provides lighting design for the school’s productions.
Katie Sykes
Katie Sykes is the Designer.
Katie trained in Theatre Design at Wimbledon School of Art and has since worked on both scripted and devised productions, large scale Community Shows, Engagement projects and National/International tours.
Theatre as Set and Costume Designer includes: If You Fall, Beautiful Evil Things (Ad Infinitum Productions); The Great Gatsby (Wardrobe Ensemble); Wonder Boy (Bristol Old Vic); Living Spit’s Odyssey (Living Spit); Pippi Longstocking (Royal & Derngate); Swallows and Amazons (York Theatre Royal); Love’s Labour’s Lost, The Two Gentlemen of Verona (Shakespeare’s Globe); Hetty Feather (West End); Romeo and Juliet (Rose Theatre, Kingston); Cinderella: A Fairytale, 101 Dalmatians (Tobacco Factory); Chloe and the Colour Catcher (Theatre Adinfinitum), Antigone, World Cup 1966 (Bristol Old Vic); La Strada (Coventry Belgrade); Up Down Man (Salisbury Playhouse); The Wind in the Willows (Mercury Colchester); Boing!, Into the West, Cloudland, How Cold My Toes, Mother Savage, Vixen (Travelling Light).
Theatre as Costume Designer includes: Jane Eyre, Peter Pan (National Theatre/ Bristol Old Vic); Treasure Island, Sleeping Beauty (Bristol Old Vic) A Monster Calls (Old Vic)
Elizabeth Purnell
Elizabeth Purnell is the Sound Designer.
Bristol based composer and sound designer Elizabeth Purnell trained at Bristol University and writes music in a variety of genres, from audiobooks to radio dramas to installations and events. She wrote the fanfare for the 2022 Commonwealth Games. Theatre includes 20 of the Award-winning Shakespeare at the Tobacco Factory’s productions, musicals and shows at the Old Rep in Birmingham, Liverpool Playhouse, Hackney Empire, Salisbury Playhouse and the Orange Tree Theatre. She is also a composer for BBC radio dramas and an Emmy nominated orchestral arranger and conductor for films and TV, including Black Mirror, Annihilation, Devs, HANNA, and the Ivor Novello award winning Any Human Heart, numerous BAFTA awarded Attenborough natural history documentaries, recording with BBC orchestras and many ensembles in Europe.
TRAINING: B.A, M.A(Mus) Bristol University
THEATRE: Girl on the Train, How the Other Half Loves (Salisbury Playhouse); And Then There Were None (Derngate/Current tour); Of Mice and Men (Birmingham Rep); Arms and the Man, Shaw Shorts, Candida, While the Sun Shines, The False Servant (Orange Tree Theatre); A View from the Bridge (Liverpool Playhouse); 21 shows for Shakespeare at the Tobacco Factory; Our New Girl (Bush); Kindertransport (Aberystwyth); The Camp, The Wills’ Girls (Show of Strength); Khadija is 18/The Sea at Night/Commercial Road (Hackney Empire); Walking the Chains (Passenger Shed Bristol); Knives in Hens (Ustinov)
TELEVISION INCLUDES: The Great Fire (ITV); Churchill (C4); A Bitter Inheritance (BBC) Wildlife on One (BBC); These Four Walls (BBC)………
FILM INCLUDES: Orchestration on numerous feature films, including Alex Garland’s Annihilation, Shadow of the Vampire……
RADIO INCLUDES: ’Fairy Meadow’ BBC Podcast; Mighty Beast BBC; Anthony and Cleopatra BBC; A Season in Hell BBC; The Once and Future King BBC; The Martin Beck series BBC; The Element of Water BBC; SheBBC; A Triton Amongst the Minnows BBC
OTHER: ‘1984’ Storytel; ‘Vergil!’ Audible; Fanfare for the 2022 Commonwealth Games, Birmingham.
Full Creative Team
Director Heidi Vaughan
Writer Adam Peck
Set and Costume Designer Katie Sykes
Composer & Musical Director Seamas Carey
Choreographer Laïla Diallo
Sound Designer Elizabeth Purnell
Lighting Designer Chris Swain
Producer Sian Weeding
Costume Supervisor Sophia Khan
Assistant Director Lydia Cook
Production Manager Ed Borgnis
Stage Manager Anna Booth
Assistant Stage Manager Robyn Small
Posted on 15 November 2023
