MOON FOOL
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Moon Fool operates in collaboration with multi-disciplinary experts and artists from around the world. Our current research and productions in repertoire draw on the following ACT trained team.
Led by Director, Composer and Researcher Anna-Helena McLean, MOON FOOL has been hosting international theatre and music exchange since 2004. The umbrella organisation creates and tours original work, offering unique performer-training opportunities specialised for professional actors and conservatoire acting students. The company produce music-driven theatre shows for international touring as well as events, training and education for broadly diverse audiences. MOON FOOL have been supported by Arts Council England, British Council, MacArthur Foundation, Shakespeare Birthplace Trust/Warwickshire Consortium, Diazoma and Local Education Authorities funding as well as in partnership with South Hill Park, Trestle Touring, Amy Mueller, Helena Richardson, The Old Truman Brewery (see also below). Anna-Helena is currently working with producer Eleni Kyriacou to premiere INANNA in 2023 while running a female-first research Lab out of Guildhall, called 'ACT Sex' (exploring gender, identity and interpretation in actor/voice/performance training).
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"MOON FOOL is an international company with passion and talent that has fused together a unique theatrical practice that is proven groundbreaking and world-class."
Dexter Bullard, Head of Graduate Acting, The School of Art Institute of Chicago

"McLean's training is truly participatory and establishes bridges between indigenous musical forms and urban audiences and, in a lineage practically centred around male trainers (Grotowski, Staniewski, Bral), McLean's committed work proposes a ground-​breaking alternative."
​Dr. Konstantinos Thomaidis, University of Exeter

ANNA-HELENA MCLEAN

lead artist and director

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Photo: Sid Sawant
BA Hons Music & Drama, Royal Holloway Uni of London (2000). Principal of Gardzienice in Poland 2000-2007. Performances include Metamorphoses & Electra. Leader of international music & theatre exchange work worldwide since 2004. As composer & ensemble coach, productions include Yerma, with Kathryn Hunter; Arquiem, Periplum (RNT); Nothing Left To Lose, Company Collisions (LIMF); Glasgow Girls (NTS); It's a Wonderful Life, Theatre Ad Infinitum (Bush); Bangarang (Dundee Rep). Founding principal of Awake Projects, Awake Love Orchestra and Awake Youth (AWAKE Jackson's Lane). Guest director at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland since 2004 as well as NSD, Delhi; DePaul Uni, Chicago; Volda College, Norway; Edinburgh College. Lecturer in extended voice and performance, Uni of Winchester. As a director, productions include The Lear; Richard III (Aegis Productions); Romeo and Juliet; STORM for Libraries (Shakespeare Week) and Mme Butterfly (IJ Productions). As actor-producer/musician-composer, productions include ill Met by Moonlight, Trestle; Titania - A Solo Cabaret. As an actor-musician productions include King Charles III by Mike Bartlett West End and Broadway (Sonia Friedman Productions) and How To Be Immortal, Penny Dreadful Productions. Recently developed The Wig Show & Resonant Tails with Tract and Touch and undertook a phase of lecturing in 'Song and Shakespeare' at Rose Bruford College. Anna-Helena is currently engaged as a Doctoral Candidate in Performance Practice at Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Interview on Theatre Mix Most recent publication The act of listening
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ELENI KYRIACOU

creative producer

Born and educated in London, she graduated from Central Saint Martins in Theatre Design for performance in 2005 and started her career specialising in costume and set design working for companies such as the BBC, C4,Bruce Nauman at the Tate Turbine Hall and Kyle X tour, as well as across the UK festival circuit including Shunt Lounge and Lost Vagueness at Glastonbury.  Most notably on Punch Drunks Firebird Ball before her move into production on their next show, Faust a National Theatre Production.

After completing an MA at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama in Creative Producing, she went on to focus her practice in immersive and experiential work going on to programme, produce and tour for a range of clients and projects from intimate settings to large-scale productions, usually site responsive and in non-traditional settings. Some of which include; Punch Drunk productions at UK Festivals and London Productions, a two-week arts festival in Spitalfield's Market and Circus Space. Various projects at the Roundhouse, an immersive job interview for Virgin, Buster Dreams at Beckett International festival, The Curiosity Cabaret at The Old Operating Theatre and a range of outdoor projects for Art Reach.

She was the outdoor/offsite producer and programmer for Birmingham International Dance Festival 2018 and most recently creative producer for This Is an Island? a Sky Arts and DanceXchange supported project with creative direction from award winning choreographer Gary Clarke, which toured to the Barbican and Sage Gateshead and featured on the Sky Arts, Art 50 TV series. Eleni has been acculturating to MOON FOOL's activity and output over the last year and will be taking up her role with the next funded project.

RobI Bogdanov-Schein (Romania)

administrator & assistant 

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Robi is an actor and theatre-maker as well as a core member of  MOON FOOL. His journey so far has led him to work internationally, viscerally, physically, musically and towards meeting different cultures and languages. He comes from Romania, but started out in a German Youth Theatre before undertaking training at the Academy of Music and Theatre Arts, Falmouth University. He has participated in the ACT International Voice and Performance Residency at Centro Anidra in Italy in 2018 and 2019, playing Bottom in a site-specific production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Enki in Inanna. His recent experience also includes workshops at the Odin Teatret and Nordisk Teaterlaboratorium, as well as with Gecko Theatre and Cardboard Citizens. He has co-founded The Void Theatre Company, where he has produced and tour managed performances such as Old Clown Wanted and ART. Further to regular coaching and participation in  MOON FOOL’s research practice Robi is now administrator for ACT International Residencies and was the director’s assistant for ‘Singing Village’ a virtual choir ‘bringing us through and beyond the pandemic’ June - August 2020.
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Research supervisors


​Niamh Dowling
 is Head of School of Performance at Rose Bruford College. She has worked extensively internationally as a Movement Director, leading workshops in the UK, Europe, USA, Asia, South and Central America and Russia. Niamh trained as a teacher of The Alexander Technique and in movement with Monika Pagneux in Paris and Ann Bogart, Nancy Topf and Eva Karczag in New York. She has collaborated closely with Teatr Piesn Kozla in Poland for the past fifteen years. Niamh has a holistic approach to education and performance training with an emphasis on the interconnectedness of movement and voice and is one of the practitioners on the recently launched online Routledge Performance Archive.
Dr Alex Mermikides directs the unique doctoral programmes at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama, which has a distinctive focus on research in, through and for the performing arts. 
Her own research also bridges scholarship and practice, the latter as a director, dramaturg and playwright. She has published on contemporary theatre-making (particularly devised and interdisciplinary performance) and the interface between theatre and medicine in the UK. Her edited books include Devising in Process (Palgrave 2010).
​Her current project Careful, developed with support from the Arts Council, explores themes of compassion, care and empathy through the perspective of nurses. Her work has been featured in The Guardian, Times Higher Educational Supplement and on This Week (BBC Radio 4).

Rosie-may jones

av artist, lab trainee

Multidisciplinary artist working in theatre and video, specialising in spoken word and cross-art collaboration. Her work explores cultural narrative through historical and social research.
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She is trained in video production, embodied voice and storytelling. She has presented work in festivals and venues in UK and Europe (including the Barbican, The Roundhouse, The Sage, Battersea Arts Centre).

EMILY JANE GRANT (UK/France)

company associate, ACT YOUTH LEADER 

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Bilingual performer and workshop leader. Trained at École Nationale Supérieure des Arts et Techniques du Théâtre (ENSATT) in France and with Moon Fool / ACT. Companies include: Theatre Sans Frontières. She works as an Artist facilitator for The International Schools Theatre Association, Freshwater Theatre in London and Snappy opera team with Mahogany Opera.

Founding co-creator of Join the Dots theatre company, London. Emily has assisted MOON FOOL's director on countless occasions including the British Council ACT workshop tour of India in 2009 and ACT Anidra 2018 in Italy. She was a principal member of the RnD ensemble working on Romeo & Juliet (Teaterhaus Mitte) and Richard III (Aegis productions) and performed in STORM for Libraries during Shakespeare Week in 2014 while delivering ACT Youth's schools programme. Emily remains an associate of MOON FOOL while stylistically working within youth work and teaching. She most recently contributed workshops in devising techniques and participatory performance as part 'The Singing Village' virtual choir that ran during lockdown June - August 2020 and has been part of the Practice Research into the company's latest production INANNA.


ANIRUDH NAIR (india)

ENSEMBLE PLAYER, act facilitator

PicturePhoto: Pau Ros
BA Hons History, St. Stephens College, Uni of Delhi. MA in Theatre Practice at the Uni of Exeter, with Professor Phillip Zarrilli. Theatre practitioner based in New Delhi. Founded WIDE AISLE PRODUCTIONS (WAP) in 2005. Directed Meet Will for schools and Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale and As You Like It. ​Anirudh has recently collaborated with Ben Crystal's OP Shakespeare Ensemble at The Globe and toured internationally as a lead actor with renowned director, Sankar Venkateswaran.

Core trainee within the ACT team further to first meeting MOON FOOL’s Director at the British Grotowski Project in Kent in 2007. Anirudh produced and assisted two ACT workshop tours with Anna-Helena across three parts of India in association with National School of Drama (Delhi) and the British Council, 2010. As an ensemble player he devised the role of Romeo in Romeo and Juliet, The Working Party Berlin and Ariel in the director's reimagining of Shakespeare's The Tempest, called STORM. Anirudh has been the India representative for ACT and continues to reference the 10 year collaboration with Anna-Helena McLean in new company work, and forging his Delhi-based profile with Guild of the Goat.




Chris-gerard heyward (USA)

ENSEMBLE PLAYER, ACT facilitator

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​With an early start at the South Carolina governor’s school for the arts and humanities Chris-Gerard began his pre-professional training. Moving on to receive a BFA in acting from The California Institute of the Arts. While there he studied, on exchange, at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland where he first met Anna-Helena McLean as a guest director. He played Romeo in Ulysses Teater's ‘Romeo I Julia ’68 ’ and toured with the Rock Band LISN in Croatia. Chris-Gerard later played Mercutio in MOON FOOL's production of 'Romeo and Juliet' at the Quadrangle Trust in Kent, England before being cast as a principal in STORM (2015), an urban retelling of 'The Tempest'. Chris-Gerard had the pleasure of teaching with MOON FOOL at the Beras summer academy (Jarna, Sweden), Pacific Union College (Napa, CA), FoolsFURY (San Francisco, CA), and PhysicalFEST in Liverpool. Chris-Gerard now plays Mr. Sunn, a recurring role on Netflix’s 'The Outerbanks' while continuing to collaborate with MOON FOOL remotely throughout the pandemic.


Wanning jen (CHINA)

act facilitator

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A Taiwan American / an actor/ a registered drama therapist / fomerly an engineer. Wanning pursued acting after he could no longer stand fixing machines on the industrial peninsula in Mie prefecture, Japan. Drastic changes of profession and his multi-cultural background shaped Wanning into a sensitive and empathetic actor. To him, theatre is less of an entertainment but more of a vehicle towards self-expression and personal growth. Apart from acting, he received his M.A in Drama Therapy from New York University. He was appointed by Robert Landy, the founder of NYU’s drama therapy program, to be the only rightful and authorized representative of 'Role Theory' and 'Method' in Asia.  

His recent drama therapy activities include: Drama therapist, the counselling centre of Taipei National University of the Arts; Keynote speaker, Second Middle School Education Theatre Conference; Trainer, anti bullying campaign; Co-presenter speaker, The second CTLA conference on drama and education. His recent acting work includes: Cheng in The Peace Inside; and John in Anna Karenina - Anna Karenina won awards in 2018 Worldfest Houston, 2018 Fastnet film festival, 2018 Albuquerque Film and Music Experience, 2018 Soho film festival and 2018 The European Independent Film Festival. The photo features Wanning in the role of Oberon from A Midsummer Night's Dream, during MOON FOOL's ACT Training residency in Italy, 2018 in which he participated for 3 weeks and has continued to work with the director remotely ever since.


Anannya Tripathyi (india)

lab participant & trainee

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A theatre actor, based in Delhi. She has done her post graduate in Psycho-social clinical studies from Ambedkar University, Delhi and holds a diploma in Bharatnatyam from Prayag Sangeet Samiti, Allahabad.
 
She has acted in the National Award winning movie 'Dharma' and now practices theatre in Delhi with some of the leading groups and directors of the city namely Tadpole Repertory,
MOON FOOL, Turntable Productions and Improper Fractions, ArtBlend Ensemble. Her artistic practice has primarily focused on the body, its relation to space, time and other bodies. As an actor, she enjoys processes where the body has been the starting point of creating text and its performance. She has been a part of rigorous ACT training residencies in Delhi and Bangalore and now collaborates with the company remotely as well as co-producing educational outreach.


Kat Shaw (Australia)

 lab participant & trainee

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​Kat Shaw is a performer and theatre-maker born and bred in Perth, Western Australia. She has a BA Performance Studies & Creative Writing (Curtin) and completed the internationally acclaimed Internship Program with Zen Zen Zo Physical Theatre (Brisbane) in 2014.     She was a founding member of The Open Lid Ensemble in 2015, and was nominated for Best Newcomer for her performance in Hypatia (2017) at the WA Performing Arts Awards. She relocated to London in 2018 where she completed an MA in Collaborative Theatre Making, in association with Frantic Assembly, graduating with a distinction and the Course Tutors' Award. She began training with MOON FOOL in 2019, participating workshops and individual training programs, as well as the ACT International Residency in Italy 2019, and the A-C-T Sex Laboratory project in 2020.


Noah Silver

Lab participant & trainee

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​Noah Silver is a final year actor-in-training on the BA World Performance Course at East 15 Acting School. He specialises in devised physical theatre and has trained with the Grotowski Institute’s Studio Kokyu. Noah recently directed the puppetry piece Hermit Crab which was scheduled to run in March of 2020 (now postponed) and appeared as dancer in the music video Tiny Kingdoms by Sable. He has worked with Anna-Helena McLean in an ACT summer intensive residency, weekend workshops, and also in one-to-one settings.


Policy advisor & Mediator (Australia/uk)

Brodie Turner has a Master of Cultural and Creative Industries from Monash University, with a thesis on consent in creative practice. She has explored consent and safety in her own immersive and cabaret performance, and recently consulted on safety, safeguarding, inclusion and intimacy for shows by Immersive London and Inventive Productions. She was also invited to participate in an Equity roundtable on safety in immersive theatre, and presented at UK Theatre’s Building Resilience conference. Brodie also led the conception and organising of Consent Festival, a conference event exploring issues in the LGBTIQA+ community, which opened Melbourne’s queer festival, Midsumma. Brodie is a proud trans woman.

DEMetris zavros

creative advisor

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Demetris comes from Cyprus where he lived until the age of 20. He lived in Louisiana (US) for six years where he studied Music composition at Louisiana State University - with LSU Boyd Professor of Composition Dinos Constantinides and Stephen David Beck (Electroacoustic Composition) – as well as Mass Communication.

He then moved to Bristol and completed an MA in the Composition of Music for Film, TV and Theatre (with composer Martin Kiszko). On completion, he moved back to Cyprus where he worked as a teacher in Primary and Secondary Education as well as started to collaborate with some theatre and dance groups.
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In 2005 he moved to Leeds where he started working towards a PhD, and since then he has worked extensively with many artists in theatre, dance and music (including Takis Tzamargias, Lea Maleni, Hanan Snir, George Rodosthenous, Elena Christodoulidou, Riccardo Meneghini, Alex Panayi, Christina Argyri and others). He completed his PhD in 2009 and continues to see himself as both an academic and a practitioner.


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George Bellamy
Ensemble Player, ACT Youth Leader
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Photo: Pau Ros
Ezra Faroque Khan
Ensemble Player

PicturePhoto: Karol Jarek
Alexandra Kazazou
​Collaborator

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Danny Kearns
​Ensemble Player

CORE FUNDING PARTNERS

Arts Council England, MacArthur Foundation, British Council, Trestle Touring, DIAZOMA, Guildhall School of Music and Drama,
Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, Warwickshire Schools Libraries Consortium, Culture.PL, West Kent Local Authorities, TDPT Journal

British Grotowski Project, National Theatre of Scotland, Giving Voice Festival/AMATA/Falmouth University, Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, South Hill Park, FoolsFURY Theatre Company, Amy Mueller, Huddersfield/Exeter/Plymouth/Wolverhampton/Winchester Universities, Old Roots/New Routes (Ideastap), THE VAULTS London, PhysicalFEST, PASS Edinburgh College, The Working Party and Teaterhaus Mitte, 
Walkabout Theatre, De Paul School of Drama, National School of Drama Delhi, The Old Truman Brewery (Juliet Kennedy), The Quadrangle Trust, Studio 301, Studio 180, Culture Monks, Arshinagar Project, Southstreet Theatre Reading, The Nightingale Theatre

collaborators

Flavia Bertram, Elly Ball, Jessica Bockler, Aleasha Chaunte, Eleanor Debreu, Akshay Deokuliar, Richard Dumbrill, Andrea Foa, Gavin Hoare, Dominika Jarosz, Ben Joiner, Anoop Mohandas, Ian Morgan, Prajith Prasad, Pamela Prather, Pau Ros, Monica Sadkowska, Sid Sawant, Rowan Sawday, Matt Smith (Videofeet), Ben Spatz, ​William Summers, Konstantinos Thomaidis and Elzbieta Rojek. Past collaborations took place with Stadium Teatralne, Studio Matejka, Farm in the Cave, Biuro Podozy, No Fit State, Luminescent Orchestrii, Hydra Vocal Trio, Gre Badanie Experimental Choir, Periplum, Vanishing Point, Aegis Productions, The Awake Projects, Au Brana Cultural Centre, The Beekeepers and Studio 180 (Tom Leamon), The Explorers Club, Redcape Theatre, David Glass Ensemble, Theatre Nation, and individuals; Jane Frere, Jonathan Grieve, Helena Kaut-Howsen, Kathryn Hunter, Rosanna Lowe, Ed McGurn, Thom Pasculli, Jason Singh, Max Webster.

Recent/key trainees

Florence Brady, Rhianna Compton, Akshay Deokuliar, Laura Hopwwod, Gina Isaacs, Valeria Lembo, Yuxuan Liu, Hraban Luyat, Inez Mackenzie, Anoop Mohandas, Rea Mole, Laila Mnii, Sarah Nicholls, Louise Parr, Chris Roche, Holly Sonabend, Erin Washington, Suzanna Zajac, Oscar Zito

LINKS - FRIENDS AND allys

 The work we do is possible due to the teaching, influence, effort, collaboration, support and care of so many incredible, kind and talented people, too many to thank one by one. Every step of the way is made with gratitude. Thank you for being part of our international theatre performance and research family.
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Gardzienice Centre for Theatre Practices | Trestle Arts Base | Video feet Creative Media | Day and Night | ACT Youth | Studio 180 | The Quadrangle Trust | Helena Richardson PRM | Paddy Molloy | CreationBox LONDON | Pau Ros Photography | PhysicalFEST | Gallery 223 | Theatre Mix  | foolsFURY | Walkabout Theatre | The Beekeepers | The Arshinagar Project | Wide Aisle Productions  | Jujus Bar & Stage | Theatre & Performance Research Association | Theatre Dance and Performance Training Journal | Guildhall School of Music and Drama | Earl Street Creative Space | Beechmast Wood | Culture Monks | Fish Island Circus | Studio 301 | Infinite Souls Artists Retreat

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  • Anna-Helena McLean
    • ANNA HELENA MCLEAN C.V.
    • Coaching & Corporate
  • MOON FOOL ENSEMBLE
  • Productions
    • INANNA - Work in Progress
    • TITANIA - A Solo Cabaret
    • STORM
    • Day and Night
  • ACT TRAINING
    • CURRENT PROGRAMMES
    • ACT International Residency 2021
    • ACT Online
    • Past Programmes
    • ACT Youth (Schools Programme)
  • Contact
  • BLOG