CASTING ANNOUNCED FOR
PETER PAN
By J.M. Barrie
In a new version by Evan Placey
Music & Lyrics by Vikki Stone
Directed by Lucy Morrell
A Rose Original Production
1 December 2023 – 7 January 2024
Rose Theatre today announces casting for J.M. Barrie’s Peter Pan, in a new version by Evan Placey, with music and lyrics by Vikki Stone and directed by Lucy Morell. Kaine Ruddach will play the role of Peter, joined by Michelle Bishop (Hook/Mrs. Darling), Hilary Maclean (Gran), and Dominic Rye (Smee/Mr. Darling). Peter Pan runs from Friday 1 December 2023 until Sunday 7 January 2024 with Press Night on Thursday 7 December 2023.
The cast also features forty local young people from Rose Youth Theatre who will perform in two alternate casts. The Rose Youth Theatre company includes: Akira Dias, Alex Forster, Amelie Abbott, Ariana Shute, Arun Stewart, Audrey Johnston, Ava Harris, Bryn Wilson, Cameron Eggleston, Casper Groombridge, Cecily Cleave, Chloe Nichols, Diren Chhabra, Dylan Corchete-Quan, Ella Waldmann, Ellie Searle, Emily Porter, Ethan Harcourt, Eva Rouse, Fedor Skorodelov, Florence Datta, Hannah Grigg, Isla Griffiths, Jack Bartlett, Jack Fernie,, Jasmine Procter-Tarabanov, Jemima Leason, Josh Pritchard-Chase, Leah Wingfield, Leon Horton, Luke Groarke, Mimi Forster, Minaii Barrowes, Mischa Rudling, Naira Malik, Penny Bennett, Rebeca Lanaway Gonzalez, Scarlett Coburn, Shona Maggo and Viola Johnson.
Further creative team includes Oli Townsend (Set & Costume Designer), Emma Chapman (Lighting Designer), Aidan Jones (Sound Designer), Bradley Charles (Movement Director), Josh Mathieson (Associate Director and Voice Coach), Ellie Collyer-Bristow CDG (Casting Director), Claire Llewellyn of Rc-Annie Ltd (Fight & Intimacy Director), and Jody Robinson (Musical Director), Judith Hope (Puppet Director).
Lucy Morrell said: “I am delighted to be making this show alongside the best creative team anyone could ask for. I adore the original story of Peter Pan and Evan new adaptation is beautiful. Woking with our large ensemble of young people and fantastic professional actors is an absolute joy! I can’t wait for audiences, young and old, to see this festive, magical treat.”
All children grow up, except one…
Chasing his runaway shadow, a mischievous young boy crash lands through an open window and meets a headstrong young girl. With a sprinkle of fairy dust, they take flight on a whirlwind festive voyage over pirate ships, through mermaid lagoons, and into the heart of Neverland.
This Christmas, an enchanting adventure awaits.Award-winning writer Evan Placey adapts J.M. Barrie’s children’s classic in a brand-new version with music and lyrics by 2023 Olivier Award winner Vikki Stone (Hey Duggee) and directed by Lucy Morrell (Beauty and the Beast). Packed with song, dance, magic and featuring members of our talented Rose Youth Theatre, we promise to have you hooked.
CREATIVES BIOGRAPHIES
Evan Placey is a Canadian-British playwright and screenwriter who lives in London, UK. His debut play Mother of Him won the inaugural RBC National Playwriting Award at the Tarragon Theatre in Toronto, the King’s Cross Award in the UK, and the Samuel French Canadian Play Award in the USA. The play went on to be produced internationally and was adapted for BBC Radio. It was revived at the Park Theatre, London. His other plays include Girls Like That (Birmingham REP, West Yorkshire Playhouse & Plymouth Theatre Royal); Orange Polar Bear (Birmingham REP/National Theatre Company of Korea); Keepy Uppy (UK tour), Consensual (NYT/West End), Jekyll & Hyde (National Theatre, UK Tour & Birmingham REP/West End), Pronoun (National Theatre), WiLd! (UK tour), Scarberia (YPT, Toronto & York Theatre Royal, UK) Holloway Jones (Synergy/Unicorn), How was it for you? (Unicorn), and Banana Boys (Hampstead). Awards include: Jugend Theatre Preis Baden-Wurttemberg (Germany), Scenic Youth prize (France), Brian Way Award, Royal Society of Literature’s Literature Matters Award and the Writers’ Guild Award for Best Play for Young Audiences (all UK). For television He has written for Soulmates (AMC/Amazon) and the forthcoming The Tattooist of Auschwitz (Sky). Evan was recently named on the Brit List 2022.
Vikki Stone is an award-winning writer, composer, comedian and musician. Writing credits include: co-adapter, writer and music supervisor for the Oliver Award winning Hey Duggee Live, #zoologicalsociety (Royal & Derngate), Cinderella, Aladdin (2022 The British Panto Awards winner for Best Script) at The Lyric Hammersmith, Ten Pieces Special Report for BAFTA Nominated children’s music series BBC Ten Pieces, Our Girls Our Game for The British Youth Music Theatre and Alice In Wonderland, which is heading to The Liverpool Everyman and Theatre Royal Plymouth in summer 2023.
Vikki made history when she was the musical director, pianist and band leader of the Saturday night ITV prime-time show Romeo and Duet, making her the first on-screen female musical director of a primetime entertainment show in the UK.
Other TV appearances include: BBC Proms coverage for BBC Four, Romeo and Duet, Richard Osman’s House of Games, Celebrity Pointless, The Dog Ate My Homework, The John Bishop Show, Partners in Rhyme and the BAFTA award-winning Ten Pieces for BBC.
Classical works include: The Thing That Matters, a massed choral piece commissioned by the National Youth Choir of Great Britain, and The Concerto for Comedian and Orchestra which premiered at Glastonbury Festival.
Lucy Morrell is a freelance theatre director who specialises in work with and for young people. She is the current Director of Learning and Participation at Rose Theatre. She trained at Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts and Central School of Speech and Drama. Theatre credits: Beauty and the Beast (Rose Theatre), Macbeth (Rose Theatre and Oldenberg State Theatre), The Creature (Rose Theatre and Oldenberg State Theatre), Hansel and Gretel (Rose Theatre, Associate), The Merry Wives of Windsor (Grassroots Shakespeare Company), Minotag (Almeida Young Company), The Oresteia (Almeida Young Company).
For Rose Young Company: The Great Gatsby, Junkyard, Dracula, The Cherry Orchard, DNA, Treasure Island, The Creature, 1984, Gulliver’s Travels, Our Town, The Railway Children, Black Beauty, Much Ado About Nothing, Macbeth, Twelfth Night, The Jungle Book, Charlotte’s Web and Alice in Wonderland.
Oli Townsend Set and costume designs include The Caucasian Chalk Circle (Rose Theatre), Cinderella, The Awesome Truth (Polka), Old Bridge (Papatango), Macbeth (Manchester Royal Exchange), Cosi Fan Tutti, Pelleas et Mellisande, Werther, and The Tales of Hoffmann (English Touring Opera), The Caretaker (Bristol Old Vic), Grounded, The Christians, and Wittenberg (Gate Theatre), The Choir of Man (West End & Worldwide Tour), Oh Mother, The Darkest Corners, Two Man Show (RashDash), We Want You To Watch (National Theatre/RashDash), Islands, Incognito (The Bush Theatre), The Art of Dying (Royal Court), The Measures Taken (Alexander Whitley Dance), L’Elisir D’Amore, Rodelinda (Scottish Opera), The Gamblers, Dead To Me, Gods are Fallen and All Safety Gone (Greyscale), The Coronation of Poppea, Macbeth (Blackheath Halls Opera), and Blood Wedding (Royal and Derngate). Between 2013 & 2016, Oli designed the sets for the Lyric Hammersmith panto each Christmas.
Costume credits include Wozzeck (English National Opera); The Lighthouse (ROH Linbury); Big Maggie (Druid) and In Wonderland, a film by Iona Firouzabadi. He had also provided art direction for branded content with Jungle Creations & Seldom Differ. In 2018, Oli cycled from Bristol to Bangkok, working on In Tandem Stories in partnership with the nonprofit kindness.org. He has written about the experiences for The Guardian, Lonely Planet, and WildBounds.
Josh Mathieson is a director and voice coach and trained at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama. Directing credits include Macbeth (Oldenburgisches Staatstheater/Rose Theatre); The Quest for the Blue Orchid (RBG Kew); Bits & Box and Fairly Tales (Edinburgh Fringe, Pleasance). Associate director credits include Witness for the Prosecution (County Hall), Beauty and the Beast and The Snow Queen (Rose Theatre); The Creature [Frankenstein Retold] (Oldenburgisches Staatstheater). Voice coaching credits includeBillie the Kid (Workshop); Sleepy Hollow (UK Tour); Grimm Tales (Chichester Festival Theatre); Romeo and Juliet (Guildford Shakespeare Company); Beast Quest (Hampton Court Palace); Scrooge and the Seven Dwarves (Theatre503); The Happy Theory (The Yard); Seussical
(Pleasance); Swish (Discover); Alice in Winterland and Hansel and Gretel (Rose Theatre).
Additionally, Josh wrote and directed the award-winning short film Things That Grow (2020). He teaches voice and text at ArtsEd and has adapted seven classic novels for the stage.
Ellie Collyer-Bristow CDG is the Casting Director for Peter Pan. Theatre credits include: Witness for the Prosecution, Adrian Mole, Killer Joe (West End); And Then There Were None; The Mirror Crack’d, Macbeth, Dusty, Turn of The Screw, French Without Tears, Handbagged, Arcadia, The Swearing Jar, A Splinter of Ice, The Good Enough Mums Club, The Night Watch, The Croft, Caroline’s Kitchen, Wait Until Dark, Night Must Fall, French Without Tears, As You Like It (UK tours); The Hypochondriac (Sheffield Theatres); They Don’t Pay? We Won’t Pay! (Mercury Theatre); Blue Remembered Hills, Playhouse Creatures, Fred’s Diner (Chichester Festival Theatre); The Girl Who Fell, A Guide for the Homesick, 3 Women (Trafalgar Studios); Dancing at Lughnasa (Lyric Theatre, Belfast); The Glass Menagerie (Nuffield); Dirty Great Love Story (Arts Theatre); Fool for Love (Found111); The Permanent Way, Ages of the Moon (Vaults); Broken Lad, Eldorado (Arcola); Hansel and Gretel (Rose Theatre Kingston); The Wider Earth (Natural History Museum); The Secret Garden (York Theatre Royal); Ladies Day (Wolverhampton Grand); Gaslight (Ed Mirvish, Toronto); Wordsworth, Two Way Mirror, After the Dance, Handbagged, Remarkable Invisible, Miss Julie (Theatre by the Lake); Romeo & Juliet, Doubt, A Lie of the Mind (Southwark Playhouse); Mythosphere (Stonenest); Madame Rubinstein, The Gathered Leaves (Park Theatre); Sideways (Other Palace); The Milk Train Doesn’t Stop Here Anymore, GH Boy (Charing Cross); The Gunpowder Plot, The War of the Worlds (Immersive).
Children’s casting: The King and I, Wind in the Willows (London Palladium); Macbeth, Doctor Dolittle (UK tour).
Ellie previously worked as Casting Associate for the Ambassador Theatre Group.
Emma Chapman trained at Bristol Old Vic Theatre School. With Lucy Osborne and Howard Eaton, Emma Chapman designed and realized The Stage Awards’ Theatre Building of the Year 2015: Roundabout, commissioned by Paines Plough. After taking the venue on tour with that company in 2014 and 2015, the trio set up Studio Three Sixty to design and build more innovative spaces, including the pop-up multipurpose performance venue The Mix.
Theatre credits include: Self-Raising (Graeae/Edinburgh Fringe); The Third Man; Christina Bianco – In Divine Company; Marjorie Prime (Menier Chocolate Factory); The Mirror Crack’d (UK Tour); The Lion (Southwark Playhouse); Beauty And The Beast (Rose Theatre, Kingston); The Ruff Tuff Cream Puff Estate Agency (Belgrade Theatre, Coventry); Ghost Quartet (Boulevard Theatre, Soho); Rosenbaum’s Rescue (Park Theatre); Kiss Me Kate (Theatre du Chatelet, Paris, Theatre de la Ville, Luxembourg, Oper Graz); Utility (Orange Tree Theatre); The Importance of Being Earnest (Clwyd Theatr Cymru); The Human Ear (Paines Plough); Joanne (Clean Break Theatre Company & Soho Theatre); Boi Boi is Dead (Leeds Theatre Trust & West Yorkshire Playhouse); Rose (with Art Malik; Edinburgh Fringe); The Machine Gunners; The Planet and Stuff; Run (Polka Theatre); Dublin Carol (Donmar Season); Sex with a Stranger (Trafalgar Studios); Three Sea Plays (Old Vic Tunnels); Parallel Hamlet (Young Vic); Dick Whittington (Bury St Edmunds). Opera credits include: The Paradis Files (Graeae Theatre Company, UK Tour); Xerxes; Carmen (Royal Northern College of Music); Cosi Fan Tutte (Royal College of Music); The Pied Piper (Opera North); Il Turco in Italia (Angers/Nantes Opera and Luxembourg). She has also lit Rumplestiltskin for London Children’s Ballet at the Peacock Theatre, available on DVD.
Other notable engagements include Olivier Award-winning play The Mountaintop for Theatre 503 & Trafalgar Studio; the highly praised The Painter which opened the new Arcola Theatre, and the David Mamet double bill which opened their studio; Wet Weather Cover at the King’s Head and Arts Theatre.
Aiden Jones studied Sound & Lighting Design at Northbrook College in Worthing in 2011. After finishing his degree, he launched his sound career by touring many major Musicals and Plays around the UK/Internationally. He is responsible for many of the productions in London’s West as part of the sound production team.
Aidan has designed many Professional productions throughout the years. Aidan has often been given the role of Associate Sound Designer on several UK Tours and West End productions. He is thrilled to be making his debut in Kingston for the Sound Design of Peter Pan.
Sound Designs: For Tonight (London Palladium), Alice in Wonderland (Liverpool/Plymouth), Lizard Boy (Hope Mill Theatre/Edinburgh Fringe), Sleeping Beauty (Crewe), Cinderella (Sutton Coldfield), Aladdin (Cambridge), Magpies & Mischief (Jersey), Peter Pan (Swansea), Aladdin (Sutton Coldfield), Cinderella (York), Beauty and The Beast (York), Aladdin (York).
Other Sound Credits: Shrek the Musical (UK Tour), The Sponge Bob Musical (UK Tour), Matilda The Musical (International Tour), Oklahoma (Wyndhams), Deathdrop (UK Tour). Man in the White Suit (Wyndams), A Taste of Honey (UK Tour), Band of Gold (UK Tour), Switzerland (Ambassadors), Vulcan 7 (UK Tour), Art (UK Tour), Witness For The Prosecution (County Hall), The Twits (UK Tour), Breakfast at Tiffany’s (Haymarket and UK Tour), Oklahoma (UK Tour), Annie (New Zealand Tour), Fiddler On The Roof (UK Tour), The Three Phantoms (UK tour).
Bradley Charles has performed with and choreographed for some of the UK’s leading dance companies, including; ZooNation (Into The Hoods, West End), Boy Blue Entertainment (Olivier Award winning Pied Piper, Theatre Royal Stratford East), FLAWLESS UK (World Tour) and British Youth Music Theatre 2023.
He was previously Artistic Director for ZooNation Youth Company and is currently a ZooNation Associate Artist. Recent performance credits include; Mojisola Adebayo’s STARS (UK Tour) and Sylvia (Old Vic). As Director and Choreographer; Black Tea (Commission by Studio 3 Arts). As Movement Director and Choreographer; Four Walls (Derby Theatre). As Associate Choreographer; Hex (National Theatre, Director: Rufus Norris). As Associate Choreographer and Dance Captain; Peter Andre Arena Tour (Choreographer: Gary Lloyd and Kenrick Sandy), NDubs Arena tour (Choreographer: Michelle MDV). As Assistant Choreographer; Opening Ceremony 2012 Olympic Games (Choreographer: Kenrick Sandy), StreetDance 3D (First UK cinema released dance film, Choreographer: Kenrick Sandy)
Fun, energetic and dynamic, Bradley’s dance style is hard to miss.
Jody Robinson trained at the Royal College of Music and the Royal Academy Music. She works as an MD, Vocal Coach, Singing Teacher, Singer and Arranger. MD credits include A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Hazlitt Theatre), Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella (Tabard Theatre), ‘Til The Clouds Go By (tour), Half a Sixpence (New Wimbledon Theatre), Madagascar (TIE tour), The Snow Queen (Rose Theatre), Big Fish (Blackheath Halls), Beauty And The Beast (Rose Theatre), Persuasion (Oxford Playhouse), Loserville (Blackheath Halls) and The Jungle Book (Chichester Festival Theatre.) Jody teaches at Trinity Laban Conservatoire for Music and Dance.
CAST BIOGRAPHIES
Kaine Ruddach plays Peter Pan.
Training: CAPA College and Laine Theatre Arts.
Theatre includes: Ensemble & cover JD, Ram and Kurt in Heathers The Musical (The Other Palace,) Ensemble in Dark Lord (MT Fest – The Other Palace); Ensemble & Cover Pepper in MAMMA MIA! (UK and International Tour); Jimmy John in Canary Girls The Musical (Sheffield Crucible); Aladdin (Norwich Theatre Royal) and Snow White (Churchill Theatre, Bromley). Film and television include: No Offence (Channel 4), Hank Zipzer (CBBC) and Gloves Off. Other credits include: Lead Dancer for Dorian Electra (London Tour), ‘Sixteen’ Ellie Goulding Music Video.
Michelle Bishop plays Captain Hook / Mrs. Darling.
Training: Laine Theatre Arts.
West End/London theatre credits: Cabaret (Kit Kat Club / Playhouse Theatre), Cinderella (Gillian Lynne Theatre), City Of Angels (Garrick Theatre), Strictly Ballroom The Musical (Piccadilly Theatre, West Yorkshire Playhouse & Toronto), Sunset Boulevard (Coliseum/ENO), The Great American Trailer Park Musical (Waterloo East Theatre), Bend it Like Beckham (Phoenix Theatre), White Christmas (Dominion Theatre), Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (Theatre Royal, Drury Lane), Kiss Me Kate (Old Vic), Lend Me a Tenor (Gielgud Theatre), Company (Southwark Playhouse), Jersey Boys (Prince Edward Theatre), Fame (Shaftesbury Theatre) and Snow White & The 7 Dwarfs (Victoria Palace).
Regional and overseas theatre credits:Grandpa’s Great Escape (UK Tour), Little Shop of Hours (Storyhouse, Chester), Kiss Me Quickstep (Hornchurch, Ipswich & Clwyd), Top Hat, Thoroughly Modern Millie and Guys and Dolls (Kilworth House Theatre), A Midsummer Nights Dream (New Wolsey, Ipswich), Monkee Business (UK Tour), Footloose (UK Tour), The Wedding Singer (UK Tour), Grease (UK Tour), Jus Like That (UK Tour), Seasonal Sauce (Watermill Theatre), Singin’ In The Rain (Paris), Saturday Night Fever (South Korea/ Taipei) and Ultimate Broadway (China).
Tv/Film:Mrs Henderson Presents (BBC Films), Ant and Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway (ITV), Galavant (ABC) and The Royal Variety Performance (BBC).
Hilary Maclean plays Gran.
Hilary trained at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama (now RCS).
Theatre includes: Romeo and Juliet (AFTLS, US Tour); Sunshine on Leith (UK Tour); The Importance of Being Earnest (Theatr Clwyd); The Autumn Garden (Jeremyn Street Theatre); Dirty Dancing (Aldwych Theatre); Macbeth, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and Poor Superman (Manchester Royal Exchange); Bloody Sunday and The Colour of Justice (Tricycle Theatre); Mill on the Floss (Shared Experience Tour – New Ambassador’s, London, John F Kennedy Center, Washington; Beijing and Shanghai, China); Life is a Dream (Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh; London Barbican; BAM, New York); The Conquest of the South Pole (Traverse Theatre; Royal Court, London); Great Expectations (Traverse Theatre; Middle and Far East Tour); Bondagers (Traverse; Donmar Warehouse, London; Winnipeg and Toronto, Canada; Hungary); Inès de Castro (Traverse; Riverside Studios, London). Television includes: Queenie (Channel 4); Annika (Alibi TV); Outlander (Starz), Torchwood, Lip Service, Dangerfield, Doctors, Monarch of the Glen, Casualty, Holby City, The Creatives (BBC), Coronation Street, Arthur and George, Making Waves, Alibi, Taggart, Doctor Finlay, The Bill (ITV). Hilary’s voice work includes voicing various characters in the animation series Sarah and Duck for CBeebies, several audiobooks and radio plays and series, including Secrets and Lattes, Alone and For the Love of Leo for BBC radio and The Harrowing for Storyglass.
Dominic Rye plays Smee/Mr. Darling.
Training: BA Acting from The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama.
Theatre credits include: Deals and Deceptions (Esk Valley Theatre); Robin Hood, Treasure Island, The Jungle Book and Alice in Wonderland (Derby Theatre); Jack and the Magic Beanstalk (Birmingham Rep), Catch That Beast! (Bucket Club), The Passion (Gatton Park Theatre), Siobhan Basset’s ‘Hound of the Baskervilles’ (Yvonne Arnaud Theatre, Guildford); Sleep No More (Punchdrunk, Shanghai); Treasure Island (Leicester Haymarket); Grimm’s Fairytales, Alice in Wonderland (Guildford Shakespeare Company); The Tempest, Much Ado About Nothing and Swallows & Amazons (Grosvenor Park Outdoor Theatre); Swallows & Amazons (Chester Storyhouse); Plots and The Bow Maker (Theatre Royal Stratford East); The Virgin and the Gypsy (New Wolsey, Ipswich); Wind in the Willows (Sherman Theatre, Cardiff); Carmen the Gypsy (Cambridge Junction and National Theatre Studios); Love’s Labour’s Lost (Oxford Shakespeare Company); Treasure Island (Birmingham Old Rep); Fallen Angels and Yes, Prime Minister! (Frinton Summer Theatre). Radio credits include: The Antiquary and Reserve Rope (BBC Radio 4). Other credits include: Rehearsed reading: Perkin Warbeck (Sam Wanamaker Playhouse)
