Finegan Kruckemeyer – Playwright
- Finegan was born in Ireland and moved with his family to Adelaide at the age of eight. His formative experiences in children’s, integrated, community and adult theatre all occurred in South Australia under a string of important and generous mentors. In 2004 he moved with his wife Essie to Hobart, Tasmania, from where he now writes for national and international companies.
- He has had 35 of his commissioned plays performed around Australia, North America, Europe and Asia, with 19 new works set to have international seasons in 2011. This year he writes commissioned works in England, Ireland, China, Hobart, Sydney and Adelaide.
- As well as the 2009 AWGIE Award, Finegan received the 2009 Young Tasmanian Artist Award, 2008 Best Children’ Theatre playwright Oscart (for The Tragical Life of Cheeseboy), 2007 Best Playwright Oscart (for This Uncharted Hour – Brink Productions), 2006 Jill Blewett Playwrights’ Award and 2002 Colin Thiele Scholarship.
“For a play about a boy ending up on the other side of the world and having an adventure, it has been joyously fun to be a boy… who ended up on the other side of the world… and had an adventure. The Hullabaloo of one theatre, and the Action of another, have come together to make a very fun way to work.”
Martyn Harry – Composer
- Martyn Harry is University Lecturer at Oxford University and is the music fellow of St Anne’s and St Hilda’s colleges there.
- He studied composition with Alexander Goehr at Cambridge and music theatre with Mauricio Kagel at Musikhochschule, Cologne, on a DAAD Scholarship.
- His works have been performed by, amongst others, the London Sinfonietta, Northern Sinfonia, the Opera Group, Broomhill Opera, Eos, the Allegri Quartet, Piano Circus, the Reg Vardy Band, the New Music Players and the BBC Singers. They have also been broadcast on BBC Radio 3, Classic FM, NDR 3 and WDR 3.
- In the months after completing the music for My Mother Told Me Not To Stare, he will also become the first ever living composer to create a new work for his Majesty’s Sagbutts and Cornetts.
“It has been an amazing experience working with Fin Kruckemeyer’s wonderful texts, with Nina Hajiyianni, Beks Palmer and the incredibly talented group of performers we have assembled for ‘My Mother Told Me’. Normally it is challenging enough to find singers who can act as well as sing, but here we are asking for members of the ensemble to perform instruments at a very high level too. Andrew Sparling, Eleanor Meynell, Tom Bates, Eva Karell and Gary Hughes are all unique in being able to do this, and the music I am writing for this opera is very much a response to their brilliant individual talents.”
Nina Hajiyianni – Director
- Nina is currently associate director with Action Transport Theatre Company, a leading new writing company for young audiences based in the North West of England. Her past work includes professional touring productions for young people, large-scale community plays, experimental opera, object theatre and site-specific work in museums and outdoor spaces.
- Her work explores total theatre experiences by placing equal emphasis on image, sound and the spoken word as a way of creating new and compelling languages for story telling. Her work with young people is driven by the belief that what young people bring to the theatre making process has particular value.
- Nina has participated in theatre programmes in Belgium, Holland and Japan where she ran a workshop for young people at the ‘Kijimuna’ festival in Okinawa, 2006. She was shortlisted for the Puppet Centre Trust Outstanding Achievement Bursary Award for her work in object theatre and was also shortlisted to direct the United Kingdom’s Holocaust Memorial Day National Event, Newcastle upon Tyne, 2007.
“In May 2008, both Finegan Kruckemeyer and I were invited to participate in the ‘Next Generation Project’ an initiative by world children’s theatre organisation ASSITEJ which brought together young theatre makers from across the globe to explore opportunities for artistic collaborations. As a result of this starting point, many months later we are on the brink of creating a truly world class production.
Martyn Harry’s astounding operatic music, Fin’s gift of being able to write into the hearts and minds of children and the magical design elements and puppets created by Bek Palmer have created a deeply profound and spellbinding piece of work. A work I am very proud to be a part of.”
Bek Palmer – Set Designer
- Bek trained in Theatre Design at LIPA and later, Post Graduate Theatre Design at Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama.
- Previous set and costume designs include; A Midsummer Night’s Dream (British Touring Shakespeare), The Provoked Wife (The Courtyard Theatre), the opera Cendrillon (Sherman Theatre, Cardiff), Dr Korczak’s Example (Birmingham Young Rep Company) and Godfather Death (Warhorse Theatreworks). She specialises in designing and making puppets some which have recently featured in A Christmas Carol (Greenwich Playhouse) and Sweeney Todd (Finger in the Pie Productions).
- Bek has an interest in immersive performance for unusual spaces that she has developed by working on a couple of Punchdrunk’s recent projects as an installation artist. Other work includes Prop Maker for Alton Towers and Theatre Alibi and Wardrobe Mistress for pantomimes and onboard production shows on the Cunard fleet of ships.
“I am very excited to be designing My Mother Told Me Not To Stare. It is a beautifully written piece to respond to and incorporates many of my favourite influences. I can’t wait to see all the elements come together.”
Miranda Thain, Creative Producer
- Miranda is Creative Producer of Theatre Hullabaloo, the North East’s specialist producer of theatre for young audiences. She joined the company (then CTC Theatre) as General Manager in 2007 and has led it’s restructure, rebrand and new artistic programme since her appointment to Chief Executive in 2008.
- In 2003, Miranda completed an MA in Applied Theatre at Manchester University and has since gone on to produce more than 30 plays for and with young people. She has worked for tutti frutti productions, Konflux Theatre in Education and M6 Theatre Company as well as establishing her own company, Palatine Theatre, specialising in producing classic texts in unusual spaces.
- Miranda is believed to be the youngest Chief Executive of an Arts Council RFO in the UK. Her work is driven by the belief that young people deserve theatre of the highest quality and greatest artistic challenge.
“The extraordinary talents of Finegan Kruckemeyer and Martyn Harry, not to mention that of Nina, Bek and our gob-smackingly brilliant performers make this a dream project to work on. The calibre of the artists and the ambitions of this project are no less than our audience deserves”
