MAY-BRIT AKERHOLT
English translation
May-Brit Akerholt is a freelance translator and dramaturg. More than 20 of her translations have been produced by leading theatre companies around Australia. She worked as production dramaturg for most of the productions. She has extensive experiences as production dramaturg on classic and contemporary plays. She has also worked as a dramaturg with a number of Australian playwrights in the development of their new plays. She is the Norwegian contemporary playwright Jon Fosse’s English translator. Currently she is working with The Ibsen Centre at the University of Oslo on a new translation of a volume of Ibsen’s letters and theatre articles.
Two volumes of May-Brit’s translations of plays by Ibsen and Strindberg are published by Five Islands Press, University of Wollongong. Three volumes of her translations of Jon Fosse’s plays are published by Oberon Books, London, with a fourth volume to appear in 2014. Her critical articles have been published in various books and journals, and her book, Patrick White (Australian Playwrights Monograph Series), was published by Rodopi, Amsterdam.
Positions include: Tutor in the School of English and Linguistics at Macquarie University; Lecturer in Drama at the National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA); six years as Resident Dramaturg at Sydney Theatre Company; ten years as Artistic Director of the Australian National Playwrights’ Centre and the National Playwrights’ Conference. She recently finished a PhD (The Dramaturgy of Translation) at the University of Sydney.
SIMON USHER
Director
Simon has directed widely in the UK. Recent productions include The Complaint (Hampstead Theatre), Ivy & Joan (The Print Room), Splendid Isolation (Edinburgh Festival), and If So, Then Yes, NF Simpson’s final play (Jermyn Street). Other credits include Tamar’s Revenge, King Baby (RSC), The World’s Biggest Diamond, Black Milk, Mother Teresa is Dead, Herons (Royal Court), Sing Yer Heart Out For The Lads (National Theatre), The Evil Doers, Pond Life, Not Fade Away, The Mortal Ash, All of You Mine, Looking At You (Revived) Again, Wishbones, Card Boys (Bush Theatre), Holes in the Skin, Mr Puntilla and His Man Matti (Chichester Festival Theatre), Great Balls of Fire (Cambridge Theatre, West End), No Man’s Land (English Touring Theatre) Burning Everest, Exquisite Sister (West Yorkshire Playhouse).
He has been Artistic Director of The Belgrade Theatre, Coventry (many productions, including Hamlet and Waiting For Godot), Associate Director of Leicester Haymarket (numerous productions, including Timon of Athens, Pericles, The Winter’s Tale and French Without Tears) and Literary Manager of the Royal Court.
LIBBY WATSON
Set and Costume designer
Libby trained at Bristol Old Vic Theatre School and has a 1st class BA Hons in Theatre Design from Wimbledon School of Art.
Libby has worked extensively in the UK at the Royal Court, Birmingham Rep, The Crucible, The Wolsey, Nottingham Playhouse, Soho Theatre, Northcott Exeter, Bristol Old Vic, Bolton Octagon, Salisbury Playhouse, English Touring Theatre, Hampstead, West Yorkshire Playhouse, Riverside Studios, Hampstead Theatre, Tricycle, Stratford East, Bury St Edmunds Theatre Royal, Belgrade Coventry, Bush Theatre and Manahattan Theatre Club New York. Libby designed the 2011 Olivier Award winning play The Mountaintop at Trafalgar Studios West End. Recently she designed One Monkey Don’t Stop No Show at the Tricycle, God of Carnage at Royal and Derngate Northampton and Fences by August Wilson at the Duchess Theatre West End. Future projects include Propoganda Swing at Nottingham Playhouse and the Belgrade Coventry and As You Like It at the Stafford and Ludlow 2014 Shakespeare Festival.
SIMON BENNISON
Lighting Designer
Simon trained in Music at Salford University, Lighting and Design at RADA and the Yale School of Drama, and in Architecture at the University of North London.
Works for theatre include: Ivy & Joan (The Print Room), The Complaint, Everything is Illuminated (Hampstead Theatre), Splendid Isolation (Edinburgh Festival), Twelfth Night (Ludlow Festival), Comedians (Hammersmith Lyric), The Price (Tricycle Theatre/West End), The World’s Biggest Diamond, Black Milk (The Royal Court), Home, Serjeant Musgrave’s Dance, Comedians, The Contractor and Troilus & Cressida (Oxford Stage Company/West End), Yard, Normal, and Howie The Rookie (Bush Theatre/Off Broadway), Holes in the Skin (Chichester Festival Theatre), Scenes from an Execution, A Lie of the Mind (Dundee Repertory Theatre), Two Gentlemen of Verona (Cottesloe), The Lady’s Not For Burning (Finborough Theatre), Death of a Faun (Touring/Off Broadway), Owner Occupier (Arcola), and Penthesilia, Anatol (RADA). Scenes from an Execution was nominated for Best Lighting Design in the 2004 Critic’s Awards for Theatre in Scotland.
PAUL BULL
Sound Designer
Paul provides sound and music – and other technical – support for all types of live performance. In addition, he is a sound artist, composes electronic music and performs as a musician using no-input mixing techniques.
Paul has a long history working with director Simon Usher, and productions include Ivy & Joan (The Print Room Balcony), The Complaint (Hampstead Downstairs), and Terms and Conditions (White Bear). Other recent sound designs include the Bike Shed Theatre’s tour of Bunnies (for short), Sons Without Fathers, Uncle Vanya and Palace of the End at the Arcola, and Blok/Eko for The Wrestling School at Exeter Northcott. Since 2000, Paul has been sound designer on many Edinburgh shows including Fringe First winners Lockerbie:Unfinished Business, An Instinct for Kindness and Somewhere Beneath It All A Small Fire Burns, Still. As a sound engineer, Paul enjoys working with Camille O’Sullivan, The Segue Sisters, Mike Westbrook, The Pindrop Band, pianocircus, Exeter Contemporary Sounds, and Murray Lachlan Young. Away from theatre, Paul is a Labour and Co-op councillor on Exeter City Council and campaigns for social justice as a volunteer with Exeter Citizens Advice Bureau.
‘The Print Room has fast become one of the most exciting fringe venues in London…every production it programs turns into a must-see’
The Spectator
‘London’s most upmarket fringe theatre’
Time Out
The Print Room is an intimate performing arts venue in Notting Hill that opened in 2010. Set just off Westbourne Grove, in a 1950’s converted graphic design warehouse, it comprises an 80-seat flexible theatre and adjoining exhibition space. We have so far presented four highly acclaimed seasons of performing and visual arts across all genres including theatre, dance, concerts, exhibitions, and a varity of multidisciplinary collaborations.
Recent highlights include the London revivals of Harold Pinter’s THE DUMB WAITER; Arthur Miller’s THE LAST YANKEE and Brian Friel’s MOLLY SWEENEY (which transferred to The Lyric Theatre, Belfast this year); the UK Premiere of Amy Herzog’s 4000 MILES in a co-production with Theatre Royal Bath; a new full-length dance commission IGNIS; and the award-winning production of UNCLE VANYA by Anton Chekov, in a new translation starring Iain Glen.
Now in its fourth year, under Artistic Direction of Anda Winters, The Print Room continues to stage exciting undiscovered pieces by great writers, and create work with emerging and talented artists from all fields.