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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lead artist and director |
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 |
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 |
EMILY JANE GRANT (UK/France) |
company associate, ACT YOUTH LEADER |
ANIRUDH NAIR (india) |
ENSEMBLE PLAYER, act facilitator |
Chris-gerard heyward (USA) |
ENSEMBLE PLAYER, ACT facilitator |
Wanning jen (CHINA) |
act facilitator |
Anannya Tripathyi (india) |
lab participant & trainee |
Kat Shaw (Australia) |
lab participant & trainee |
Noah Silver |
Lab participant & trainee |
DEMetris zavros |
creative advisor |