Writer Federico García Lorca
Adaptor Emily Mann
Director Bijan Sheibani
Design Bunny Christie
Lighting Jon Clark
Sound Dan Jones
Casting Alastair Coomer
Movement Aline David
Fight Director Kate Waters
Dialect Coach Penny Dyer
Assistant Director Monica Bofill
Federico García Lorca
Writer
Federico García Lorca is regarded as one of Spain’s most treasured writers, establishing popularity in his home country when he became director of La Barraca, a touring theatre company founded by the new Republican government in 1932 as a student outreach project. During this time Lorca wrote his now most prominent plays, The House of Bernarda Alba, Blood Wedding (which was staged at the Almeida Theatre in 2005 starring Gael Garcia Bernal) and Yerma, all exploring the social conventions of rural Spanish society. In his early years Lorca developed significant relationships with leading members of Spain’s avant-garde, including Salvador Dali and Luis Buñuel, publishing poetry collections such as Canciones (Songs) and Romancero Gitano (Gypsy Ballads). In 1936, Francisco Franco's military insurrection led to the Civil War in Spain. When rebel troops occupied Granada, Lorca went into hiding at the home of a friend. He was found and arrested on 16 August, two days later he was executed.
Emily Mann
Adaptor
Emily is Artistic Director of the McCarter Theatre in Princeton, United States. In 1994 under Emily’s lead the McCarter Theatre was awarded the Tony Award for Outstanding Regional Theatre. Most recently, she directed the world premiere of Edward Albee’s Me, Myself & I and the world premiere of Sarah Treem’s The How and the Why. Emily has also written a number of successful plays, including Execution of Justice, Still Life (receiving 6 Obie Awards) and her latest play Mrs Packard, which was the recipient of the 2007 Kennedy Center Fund for New American Plays Award. Emily’s translations include versions of Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya, The Cherry Orchard and The Seagull all of which she has directed. This season Emily is scheduled to direct the world premieres of Phaedra Backwards by Marina Carr and The Convert by Danai Gurira at the McCarter Theatre and A Streetcar Named Desire on Broadway. She is the recipient of an Honorary Doctorate of Arts from Princeton University.
Bijan Sheibani
Director
Bijan is an Associate Director at the National Theatre where his production of Arnold Wesker’s The Kitchen is currently running. Other productions at the National Theatre include Greenland and Our Class, for which he was nominated for Best Director at the 2010 Olivier Awards. His production of Gone Too Far! at the Royal Court won the 2008 Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement in an Affiliate Theatre. He was awarded the James Menzies-Kitchin Memorial Trust Award for Young Directors in 2003 and the John S Cohen Bursary at the National Theatre Studio from April 2004 – April 2005. He was Artistic Director of ATC from 2007 - 2010.
Theatre includes: Moonlight (Donmar Warehouse); The Typist (Sky Arts/ATC); Eurydice; The Brothers Size (ATC / Young Vic Theatre); Ghosts Or Those Who Return (ATC / Arcola Theatre); Tarantula In Petrol Blue (Aldeburgh); Other Hands; Flush (Soho Theatre); Party Time / One For The Road (BAC); Have I None (Southwark Playhouse).
Bunny Christie
Designer
For the National Theatre productions include: The Cherry Orchard; Greenland; Men Should Weep; The White Guard; Our Class; Mrs Affleck; Women of Troy; Philistines; The Life of Galileo; The President of an Empty Room; A Streetcar Named Desire (Olivier Award); Dealer’s Choice; Fix Up; Elmina’s Kitchen (also filmed by the BBC and transferred to the Garrick Theatre); Baby Doll (Evening Standard Award for Best Stage Designer).
Other theatre includes: Moonlight; Dimetos; The Family Reunion; After Miss Julie (Donmar Warehouse); Haunted Child; Kin (Royal Court); Fool for Love (Apollo Theatre); The Postman Always Rings Twice (West Yorkshire Playhouse / West End); Dance of Death I and II (The Royal Dramaten Theatre, Stockholm); As You Like It (Shakespeare’s Globe / Tokyo Globe).
Opera includes: Brief Encounter; Tosca (Houston Grand Opera).
Film work includes: Swansong.
Future projects: The Comedy of Errors (National Theatre); Private Lives (West End).
Jon Clark
Lighting
Theatre includes: A Woman Killed With Kindness; Greenland; Beauty and the Beast; Hamlet; The Cat in the Hat; Pains of Youth; Our Class; Women of Troy (co-designed) (National Theatre); The Homecoming; King Lear; A Winter’s Tale; Merchant of Venice (RSC); Moonlight; Polar Bears (Donmar); Red Bud; Aunt Dan and Lemon; The Pride; Gone Too Far (Royal Court); How Much is Your Iron?; The Jewish Wife; Been So Long (also Edinburgh / Latitude Festival) (Young Vic); The Soldier’s Soldier’s Tale (Old Vic); Into The Woods (Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre); Painkiller (Belfast, Lyric); The Little Dog Laughed; Three Days of Rain; The Lover; The Collection; Pinter’s People; Dickens Unplugged (West End); Spyski!; The Birthday Party (Lyric Hammersmith); Silence and Water (Filter Project / RSC / Lyric Hammersmith).
Dance includes: Pleasure’s Progress (ROH2 / tour); Cheek To Cheek (London Coliseum); Clara / Howl; Libera Me; Between The Clock and the Bed (Bern Ballett); Lay Me Down Safe; Tenderhook; Sorry For The Missiles! (Scottish Dance).
Opera includes: The Return of Ulysses (English National Opera); Recital I; Down By The Greenwood Side; Into The Little Hill; Street Scene; Seven Angels; The Lion’s Head (Opera Group).
Dan Jones
Sound
For the Almeida: The Knot of the Heart; Through a Glass Darkly.
Theatre includes: Ivan and the Dogs (ATC / Soho Theatre); Greenland; England (National Theatre); Kursk; War Music; The Watery Part of the World; Going Dark (Sound&Fury); A Prayer for My Daughter (Young Vic); Fall (RSC / Traverse); Slippage (Rambert Dance Company); Othello; The Turn of the Screw; Uncle Vanya (Bristol Old Vic); Peter Pan; Happy Days; A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Dundee Rep); Coriolanus; The Changeling; The Taming of the Shrew; Julius Caesar; The Tempest; Uncle Vanya (Shakespeare at the Tobacco Factory).
Film includes: Max; Shadow of the Vampire; Manolete; Tomorrow La Scala; Four Last Songs; Twockers.
Television includes: Any Human Heart; Criminal Justice; Dead Set; David Attenborough’s Darwin and the Tree of Life; Sahara; The Spectre of Hope; Witness; Real Lives; The Spying Game; Wildlife on One; The Ghosts of Rwanda; The Natural World; David Attenborough’s Life of Mammals; Horizon; The Iron Duke.
Radio includes: Between the Ears.
Audio artwork and installations include: Suburban Counterpoint: Music for Seven Ice Cream Vans (LIFT / NNF10); Sky Orchestra (Fierce Festival / RSC Complete Works Festival / Sydney Festival / international tour); Dream Director (ICA / Arnolfini / tour); Listening Posts (permanent installation Cork Harbour); Paradise Omeros (Julian Isaac, Tate Modern). Dan has also produced string arrangements for Massive Attack and Alpha / Jarvis Cocker.
Dan co-directed Kursk at The Young Vic for Sound&Fury for which he is co-artistic director.
Alastair Coomer
Casting
Alastair is the Deputy Head of Casting at the National Theatre.
Theatre includes: One Man Two Guvnors (Adelphi); Death and the Maiden (Harold Pinter); Juno and the Paycock (Abbey Theatre / National Theatre); Much Ado About Nothing (Wyndhams); War Horse (New London); The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time; Detroit; She Stoops to Conquer; Collaborators; The Kitchen; One Man Two Guvnors; The Cherry Orchard; Rocket to the Moon; Season’s Greetings; Men Should Weep; Hamlet; Earthquakes in London; Danton’s Death; After the Dance; Women Beware Women; Really Old Like 45; Our Class; The Power of Yes; England People Very Nice; Harper Regan; The Revenger’s Tragedy; War Horse; St Joan; Chatroom / Citizenship (National Theatre).
Film includes: Wall; Cubs (nominated for BAFTA Best Short Film).
Penny Dyer
Dialect
For the Almeida: Reasons To Be Pretty; A Delicate Balance; Becky Shaw; Rope; Parlour Song; In a Dark Dark House; Nocturne; The Last Days of Judas Iscariot; Cloud Nine; Awake and Sing!; Big White Fog; There Came a Gypsy Riding; Tom and Viv; An Earthly Paradise; The Late Henry Moss; ID; The Mercy Seat; Camera Obscura; The Shape of Things.
Theatre includes: Absent Friends (Pinter); Saved (Lyric Hammersmith); Death and The Maiden (Pinter); Inadmissable Evidence; Anna Christie; Spelling Bee; Passion; Serenading Louie; A Streetcar Named Desire (Donmar Warehouse); The Faith Machine; Chicken Soup With Barley; Clybourne Park; Tusk,Tusk; Wig Out!; The Pride; (Royal Court); Blood and Gifts (National Theatre); Flare Path; All My Sons; Legally Blonde; The Little Dog Laughed; Spring Awakening; A View from the Bridge; Shadowlands; Boeing, Boeing (West End); Noughts and Crosses; The Crucible (RSC); Piaf; Frost/Nixon (Donmar West End).
Television includes: Endeavour; Little Cracker; Titanic; The Café; The Slap; Downton Abbey; Any Human Heart; Small Island; Margaret; A Short Stay in Switzerland; The Curse of Steptoe; Sincerely Yours; Fantabuloso; The Deal; Blackpool; Pierrepoint.
Film includes: My Week With Marilyn; Wreckers; Tamara Drewe; Special Relationship; Nowhere Boy; The Queen; Cheri; The Damned United; Frost/Nixon; The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas; Infamous; Dirty Pretty Things; Ladies in Lavender; The Importance of Being Earnest; Elizabeth.
Monica Bofill
Assistant Director
Monica studied Theatre Direction at the Institut del Teatre de Barcelona.
As a Director: The Polygraph (Teatre Scanner, Barcelona); Far Away (University production, Barcelona).
As an Assistant Director: El Asesor (for Sergi Calleja); Nit de Radio Dos Punt Zero (Sala FlyHard, Barcelona), Greenland (Rehearsal Room Assistant, National Theatre); Fora de Joc (also Stage Manager, Teatre Capitol / Festival Grec de Barcelona); Agost (August, Osage County); El Ball (Teatre Nacional de Catalunya, Barcelona).
As a translator: Black Snow (Teatre Ovidi Montllor, Barcelona).