Who we are

We have worked together on stage or behind the scenes alongside a network of organisations and educational establishments.

 

 

   Mary Chater - Founder

Mary read music at Somerville College, Oxford and trained at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School.

Her theatre work includes Hamlet, The Shaughraun and Square Rounds at the National Theatre, London and On at NT Studio. Much Ado About Nothing, Two Shakespearean Actors, The Seagull, A Woman of No Importance and Women Beware Women at the Royal Shakespeare Company. The Winter's Tale, Orange Tree, London. A Midsummer Night's Dream and The Nativity, Bolton Octagon. As You Like It, Manchester College Gardens, Oxford. The Triumph of Tears, Finborough Arms, London (writer and actor) Mrs Vershinin, Riverside Studios, London. A Woman of No Importance, Theatre Royal, Haymarket, London. Night Must Fall, Worcester Swan. Eve of Retirement, Gate, London. The Caucasian Chalk Circle, Oxford Playhouse and the Young Vic, London. Me and Michael, Old Red Lion, London. Saving Charlotte, Bridewell, London. Lady Windermere’s Fan, Chichester Festival Theatre. The Second Mrs Tanqueray, Glasgow Citizens’ Theatre. Sex and the City of Westminster UK tour (writer and actor). Gaslight, UK tour 2019 and A Merchant of Venice, The Playground Theatre, London 2021.

TV work includes Footballer's WivesWycliffe, People Like Us, Five to Eleven, Shoestring and Robin of Sherwood. BBC radio work includes Sir Walter Raleigh - A Devon ManThe Russia HouseUncle DynamiteA Fatal Inversion and The Triumph of Tears.

 

  Bill Alexander - Artistic Director

Bill Alexander is an award winning theatre director who began his career at the Bristol Old Vic, directing everything from the classics to innovative drama. He joined the RSC in 1977 and remained there as Resident and then Associate Director until 1992. He was Artistic Director of the Birmingham Rep between 1992 and 2001, when he left to pursue his freelance career. His production of The Snowman is performed in London’s West End every year. Bill and his productions have won numerous awards including Best Director at the Olivier Awards for The Merry Wives of Windsor. He has also lectured on Shakespeare all over the world. His latest book published by Nick Hern Books in May this year includes excerpts from the company's Blog and is called Exploring Shakespeare.

 

   Julian Curry - co founder

Julian was a British actor with wide experience on stage, television and film. On tv he was well known as Erskine-Brown in Rumpole of the Bailey. His films include Escape to Victory (Fuga per la Vittoria in Italy), Les Brontës, The Manions of America, Seven Days to Live, The Missionary, Fall From Grace, Rasputin: Dark Servant of Destiny, and Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow.

Julian made his professional debut walking on in Franco Zeffirelli’s production of Romeo and Juliet, in 1961 at the Teatro La Fenice in Venice. During almost 60 years as an actor, he worked on stage in a wide variety of plays both classical and modern, for the RSC, the National Theatre and in London’s West End. His numerous Shakespeare roles included Angelo, Horatio, Macbeth, Polixenes, Lear’s Fool, Antonio in The Merchant of Venice, Oberon, York in Richard 2nd, Malvolio, Cymbeline, Pandulph and Leontes. In 2018 he played the Judge in Witness for the Prosecution in London’s County Hall and in autumn 2019 played a retired professor in the comedy/ horror TV series Truth Seekers.
Following the success of his book Shakespeare on Stage, a collection of interviews with leading actors focussing on the Bard’s key roles, he wrote a second volume. Both volumes were shortlisted for the annual Theatre Book of the Year award. His one-man entertainment Hic! or The Entire History of Wine (abridged) was premiered on Cape Cod in May 2000 prior to being performed over 150 times from Hong Kong to London to San Francisco. A more extensive list of credits is available on Wikipedia. Julian died on June 27th 2020 in Brighton of natural causes. We miss him beyond words.

 

 Sandro Pascucci - co founder

Sandro graduated in Philosophy with a dissertation on the Aesthetics of Music, having completed a three year course in electronic music at the Rossini Conservatoire in Pesaro. For several years he worked for town councils in Emilia Romagna and  Marche. There he inaugurated the initiative "Creative Residencies", an innovative method of directing in the historic theatres of those regions, making diverse scenic spaces available for rehearsals, previews and the staging of shows. Sandro has been instrumental in the re-opening of numerous municipal theatres. He has overseen the management of, and given expert advice to the CRT in Milan, the Teatro Fondamenta Nuove in Venice and the Ambra Jovinelli in Rome. From 2002 – 2007 he was director of the Network of Historical Theatres in the province of Pesaro Urbino. In 2008 he managed and was artistic director of the Santarcangelo Theatre Festival, re-establishing it as a festival for leading contemporary companies. From 2009 – 2011 he was jointly responsible for the restored Salsomaggiore Terme Theatre. In 2013 he founded the cooperative Cartoleria 18 in Bologna to facilitate interaction between Psychotherapies and the Arts. 

Sandro has been director of the Teatro Comunale in Cagli [PU] Marche since 2015.

 

 Jonny Wiles- Associate Director

Jonny is an actor, writer, and academic. He trained at Guildford School of Acting, and has performed in many of Shakespeare’s plays, including Macbeth, Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, Twelfth Night, Henry IV Part 1, The Winter’s Tale, and Love’s Labour’s Lost. Over the course of his acting and academic careers, he has taught over 1,600 hours of literature and drama classes, around half of which have been on Shakespeare.

Alongside his work with the Chronicle Theatre Company, he is also working on a PhD on Dante’s Divine Comedy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

     Collette Parker (Nicholls) – Associate Director (Projects) 

Collette trained as a journalist working on regional and national titles. She took a career break in 1998 and graduated from the University of Cambridge in 2001 with a degree in English, Drama and Education.

She worked for a short while at her college Homerton for Prof Peter Raby and the Director of Studies, the playwright Steve Waters. She specialised in theatre direction and arts in the community and ran Ocras Theatre Group until 2009, also working in community arts, public relations and event management, combining her skills for both the written and spoken word to communicate with audiences of all kinds.

Collette worked on Menagerie Theatre Company's Hotbed Festival in Cambridge both as an actor and director, and worked with the company on their skills in the workplace programme during this time.

She has acted as a spokesperson for companies on radio and television, and has been instrumental in the success of a number of award-winning environmental PR campaigns She has been a school governor, chairman of governors, and trustee and chairman on arts and youth enterprise organisations.

 

    Lucy Bailey - Associate Artist

Lucy Bailey studied English at Oxford University where she directed the world premiere of Lessness by Samuel Beckett in consultation with the author.

She trained as an assistant director for the Royal Shakespeare Company, National Theatre and Glyndebourne Opera Company. Lucy co-founded  The Print Room a new venue in Notting Hill Gate and was artistic director from 2010 - 2012 . Shows she directed include: Fabrication, Snake in the Grass, Kingdom of Earth and Uncle Vanya with Iain Glen in title role. She was also co-founder and co-artistic director of the gogmagogs (1995 – 2007) a music theatre company comprising seven string players.

Recent productions include: And Then There Were None ( UK tour '23 - '24) Much Ado About Nothing ( Shakespeare's Globe) Oleanna ( Arts Theatre, London's West End and Bath Theatre Royal) Gaslight (UK tour with Martin Shaw) Switzerland (Ustinov Theatre, Bath and the Ambassador’s Theatre, London’s West End); Witness for the Prosecution ( London’s County Hall). Other theatre credits include: Titus Andronicus, Macbeth, Timon of Athens, As You Like It, The Maid’s Tragedy (Shakespeare’s Globe); The Winter’s Tale, Taming of the Shrew, Julius Caesar (Royal Shakespeare Company, Stratford/Roundhouse, London/The Armoury, New York). 

 

      Frankie Parham - Producer

Frankie Parham is a producer of theatre, opera, film and comedy. He is a Co-Founder and the Executive Producer of The New Generation Festival, Chief Financial Officer at the Mascarade Opera Studio (both in Florence, Italy) and Executive Producer of Andermatt Music in Andermatt, Switzerland.

Frankie has previously worked at the Royal Shakespeare Company (Revolutions season), Shakespeare’s Globe (Globe to Globe season), Sovremennik Theatre, Rustaveli National Theatre, Théâtre National de Nice, Arcola Theatre, Southwark Playhouse, Soho Theatre and Rose Theatre Kingston, predominantly producing productions of Shakespeare's plays.

Frankie read Classics and Russian at St John's College, Oxford after which he studied Law at both SOAS and BPP University in London and qualified as a solicitor with White & Case LLP. He worked for the City law firm in London, Moscow and Paris.

 

 

 

Trustees

 

William Ramsay  

William Ramsay is the Chairman of the trustees. He spent his career as an investment manager at Morgan Grenfell, NM Rothschild and EFG International in London and Geneva. Today he is a non executive director of Capital Union Banks investment management company in Bedford Square.

His experience of the theatre ranges from presenting BBC Radio 4's Week Ending on the Edinburgh Fringe in 1979, which transferred to The King's Head in Islington and won a Fringe First the following year to founding The Fletcher Theatre Company in 1982 which presented rescripted excerpts from Shakespeare to young people studying the texts. He was a director of The Theatre Royal Windsor for ten years from 1987 to 1997. He has been a member of Equity since 1979, ticking the nil earnings box each year.

 

Sarah Sayeed                             

 

Sarah Sayeed is a musician, composer, sound designer and writer. She has created compositions and sound designs across Western classical choral works, Indian and Bengali classical vocals, instrumental pieces and her first love: contemporary jazz, soul and hip hop. Sarah plays instruments tanpura and shruti,and is the lead vocalist in international duet Myth of Her with violin and electronic artist Anne Eltard (Copenhagen, Denmark). Sarah is currently training in classical vocals with leading Classical Indian Music maestro Swati Natekar and was the successful recipient of the Portfolio Composers Scheme in partnership with Sound and Music and Kuljit Bhamra. Sarah’s credits include Principle Musician in Richard 2nd at Shakespeare's Globe (2019), Composer & Musical Director for the Royal Shakespeare Company adaption of Moliere's Tartuffe (2019/2018) and Sound Designer for Contact Theatre's production on Suffragette Movement, She Bangs The Drums (2018).  She worked on Intention, directed by Kash Arshad (co-production with Graeae and Tamasha) and wrote the music and designed the sound for A Merchant of Venice with Shakespeare in Italy, directed by Bill Alexander in autumn 2021.

Sarah was creative director of Phakama Project at Queen Mary University, Mile End, East London until recently.

 

Jeremy Peckham  

Jeremy is happily retired from the world of accountancy – mainly working in large corporations - for many years. His first contact with Shakespeare, as with many of us, was at school. There was something about the plays and the sonnets that left a lasting impression. A formative experience was joining a junior theatre company formed by a wonderful English teacher just after leaving school and taking part in a performance of Romeo and Juliet at the Nuffield theatre Southampton. 
His  earliest memory of seeing a Shakespeare production in London was Hamlet at the National with Peter O’Toole in the title role. Jeremy is a Friend of Shakespeare’s Globe and worked there for a number of years as a volunteer steward. He joined Shakespeare in Italy three years ago on the recommendation of a friend and really enjoyed the many Zoom sessions during lockdown, then the summer schools in London in 2021 and Cagli (Pesaro Urbino) in 2022. He found it very special receiving guidance from the fantastic course leaders and most rewarding working with the other participants.

 

 Jayne Bridges 

Jayne trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in the 1960s. She jumped ship and became a theatre critic, later moving to main stream journalism. Fast forward, aged 40 she reinvented herself and joined the Wine Trade where for 25 years she had a fulfilling and exciting career. She has given more than 2000 public wine tasting events, worked in Chile, Argentina and New Zealand . When she semi-retired in 2008, she returned to education and completed a BA in The History of Art at the University of Warwick and is currently undertaking an MA at the Shakespeare Institute in Stratford upon Avon.