Yann Martel is a Canadian writer. He is the author of a collection of short stories and four novels, most notably Life of Pi, for which he won the 2002 Man Booker Prize. Additional writing credits include The Facts Behind the Helsinki Roccamatios, Self, Beatrice and Virgil, The High Mountains of Portugal, and the non-fiction collection 101 Letters to a Prime Minister: The Completed Letters to Stephen Harper. Martel is presently at work on Son of Nobody, a novel about the Trojan War.
Lolita Chakrabarti OBE is an actress and an award-winning playwright. Her debut play Red Velvet opened at the Tricycle Theatre, London, before transferring to St Ann’s Warehouse in New York and then to London’s West End as part of Sir Kenneth Branagh’s inaugural season at The Garrick Theatre. It earned her the Evening Standard Charles Wintour Award for Most Promising Playwright 2012; The Critics’ Circle Award for Most Promising Playwright 2013; AWA for Arts and Culture 2013 and an Olivier Award nomination for Outstanding Achievement in an Affiliate Theatre 2012, as well as many other nominations. Red Velvet is now on the Drama syllabus for A level, is studied at universities in the UK and USA and there have been over twenty professional productions in the USA and beyond, including at the Shakespeare Theatre Company in Washington, DC, in June 2022. In 2019 Lolita adapted the Booker Prize winning novel Life of Pi for the stage, (Sheffield Theatres and Wyndham’s Theatre in London’s West End) for which she won the award for Best New Play at the Olivier Awards 2022, UK Theatre Awards 2019, and WhatsOnStage Awards 2019. Other writing credits include Hymn (Almeida Theatre/Sky Arts); an adaptation of Italo Calvino’s Invisible Cities (Manchester International Festival and Brisbane Festival); Stones of Venice, a VR film for New Vision Arts Festival in Hong Kong; she curated The Greatest Wealth (The Old Vic), celebrating 8 decades of the NHS, which was also shown online during the pandemic; she was dramaturg on Message in a Bottle (ZooNation/Sadler’s Wells). Lolita is dramaturg on the forthcoming Sylvia for the Old Vic. Acting credits include Fanny and Alexander (The Old Vic); Hamlet (Royal Academy of Dramatic Art), “Vigil,” ”Showtrial,” “The Casual Vacancy” (BBC); “Wheel of Time” (Amazon Prime); “Born to Kill” (Channel 4); “My Mad Fat Diary” (E4), “Beowulf: Return to the Shieldlands” (ITV); “Riviera” (Sky); “Criminal” (Netflix).
Max Webster is an Associate Director at The Donmar Warehouse. As Director, credits include Henry V (Donmar Warehouse); Antigone, As You Like It and Twelfth Night (Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre); Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax (Old Vic Theatre/San Diego Old Globe/Minneapolis Children’s Theatre); The Jungle Book (Fiery Angel); Fanny and Alexander, Cover My Tracks (Old Vic Theatre); The Twits (Curve Theatre, Leicester); The Winter’s Tale (The Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh); The Sea of Fertility and Mary Stuart (Parco Productions, Tokyo); Much Ado About Nothing (Shakespeare’s Globe); Shostakovich’s Hamlet (City of London Sinfonia); Orlando, To Kill a Mockingbird, My Young and Foolish Heart (Royal Exchange Manchester); James and the Giant Peach, My Generation (Leeds Playhouse); Carnival Under the Rainbow and Feast Kakulu (Hilton Festival, South Africa) & Caucasian Chalk Circle (Aarohan Theatre, Kathmandu). Opera credits include La Bohème (Göteborgsoperan, Sweden) & The Merry Widow (English National Opera).
Double nominations at the 2022 Olivier Awards - Best Set Design for Back to the Future and Life of Pi (Winner). Tim has designed extensively for The National Theatre, West End and Broadway, and is the winner of 2 Tony Awards, 3 Olivier Awards, & 4 Drama Desk Awards, including the 2022 Olivier Award for Best Set Design for Life of Pi. Theatre credits include Back to the Future (West End); Dreamgirls (West End & UK Tour);Travesties (West End/ Broadway); Ghosts (Almeida Theatre/West End/Brooklyn Academy of Music);Little Eyolf (Almeida Theatre); Temple (Donmar Warehouse); Enemy of the People, Pajama Game (Chichester Festival Theatre); Mr. Foote’s Other Leg (Hampstead Theatre/West End), The Bodyguard (West End/International Tours); Shrek (West End/Broadway/UK Tour/US Tour); Spamalot (West End/Broadway/US Tour/Las Vegas); Private Lives (West End/Broadway), The Crucible (Broadway), Singin’ in the Rain, My Fair Lady (Chatelet Paris) and Carmen & Don Quixote (The Royal Ballet). Film credits include Production Design for Closer, Notes on a Scandal and Stage Beauty.
Finn Caldwell is a director, designer, and performer; he is co-artistic director of Gyre & Gimble, a theater company specializing in puppetry, where his Co-Director/Puppet Designer credits include The Four Seasons: A Reimagining (Shakespeare’s Globe, Sam Wanamaker Playhouse); The Hartlepool Monkey (UK Tour), and The Elephantom (National Theatre/West End). As Puppet Co-Designer/Director, credits include The Grinning Man (Bristol Old Vic/West End) and Running Wild (Chichester Festival Theatre/Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre/UK Tour). As Director of Puppetry and Movement, credits include The Ocean at the End of the Lane (National Theatre/West End); Angels in America (National Theatre/Broadway); The Light Princess (National Theatre); and War Horse (National Theatre/West End/International Tour).
Nick Barnes began making puppets whilst studying drama at Hull University and theatre design at the Slade School of Fine Art, and soon after began incorporating puppets into his designs for opera and theatre. He subsequently formed the puppetry company Blind Summit Theatre, devising and performing in shows which toured internationally from the Edinburgh Fringe to the Metropolitan Opera, whilst designing and building puppets for companies such as the ENO, Complicité and the Royal Opera House. In 2012 he co-directed the puppetry in Danny Boyle’s spectacular opening ceremony for the London Olympic Games.
Nick now runs a puppet design studio in Hove (UK), where he designs and makes puppets for theatre and live performance. As Puppetry Designer for Blind Summit, theatre credits include Low Life, The Table, 1984, Madame Butterfly (English National Opera/Metropolitan Opera); A Dog’s Heart (ENO/Dutch National Opera); Shunkin and Master and Margarita (Complicité); El Gato Con Botas (Tectonic Theatre); On Emotion (Soho Theatre); Faeries (Royal Opera House) and His Dark Materials (Birmingham Repertory Theatre/Leeds Playhouse). As Nick Barnes Puppets, credits include Doctor Dolittle (Music & Lyrics Productions); The Lorax (Old Vic Theatre and US Tour); Ariodante (Festival d’Aix-en-Provence/Dutch National Opera); Angel’s wings, Angels in America (National Theatre/Broadway); Running Wild (Associate Designer/Chichester Festival Theatre/Regent’s Park); Mr Popper’s Penguins (Kenny Wax Ltd/West End/Broadway); Beauty and the Beast and The Butterfly Lion (Chichester Festival Theatre); Al Adiyat (Dubai Expo 21, AIM). Nick has also designed large-scale Firebird and Gnomus puppets for the BBC Proms concerts at the Royal Albert Hall and created the Iron Man costume for Disneyland Paris’ Summer of Superheroes show. You can follow Nick's work at www.nickbarnespuppets.co.uk
Video Designer and Animator Andrzej studied Theatre Design at Central Saint Martin’s in London. Theatre includes Eureka Day (Old Vic); The Time Traveller’s Wife (Chester Storyhouse); The Unfriend (West End); Burn (Joyce Theatre, NTS); Henry V (Donmar Warehouse, NT Live); Life of Pi (West End, A.R.T.); The Da Vinci Code (UK tour); & Juliet (West End, Toronto, Broadway); The Drifters Girl (West End); People, Places and Things (National Theatre/West End/St Ann's Warehouse); Groundhog Day (Old Vic/Broadway); Room (Stratford East/Princess Of Wales Theatre); The Unfriend, The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, 8 Hotels, Pressure (Chichester Festival Theatre); Coriolanus (Donmar Warehouse, NT Live); Message in a Bottle (Sadler’s Wells); The Unreturning – also set design (Frantic Assembly); The Girl on the Train (UK tour); 1984 (Sadler’s Wells); Constellations – also set design (NCPA Theatre); The Machine (The Armoury); Kiki’s Delivery Service (Southwark Playhouse). Awards and Nominations include Olivier Award winner for Best Lighting Design 2022, UK Theatre Award winner for Design 2019, Broadway World Award winner for Best Video Design 2019, Knights of Illumination Nomination for Video Design 2019 (Life Of Pi); WhatsOnStage Award winner for Best Video Design 2020 (& Juliet); Off-West End Award 2019 nomination for Video Design, and Broadway World Award 2019 nomination for Set Design (The Unreturning); Drama Desk Award nomination 2018 for Outstanding Projection Design, and Knights of Illumination USA Award nomination for Projection Design 2018 (People, Places and Things). In 2017 he won the inaugural Theatre and Technology Award for Creative Innovation in Video Design (Room) and was nominated for a WhatsOnStage Award for Video Design (Groundhog Day). www.agoulding.com
Tim Lutkin trained at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Credits include Jack Absolute Flies Again, Under Milk Wood, Back to the Future (Olivier nomination and WhatsOnStage Award), Fiddler on the Roof, Chimerica, Elf, Quiz, Impossible, The Girls, The Go-Between, Close To You - Bacharach Reimagined, Strangers on a Train, The Full Monty, Ralph Fiennes - Four Quartets (West End); Timon of Athens, The Rover, Candide, All’s Well That Ends Well (Royal Shakespeare Company); The Crucible, Anthony & Cleopatra, Salome, Le Bancs (Olivier Theatre/National Theatre); Mickey and the Magician, Marvel Superheroes United, The Art of Animation, Disney Junior Dream Factory (Walt Disney Imagineering); Twelfth Night (Young Vic); Lungs, The Crucible, Present Laughter (Old Vic); Philadelphia Here I Come!, Knives in Hens (Donmar Warehouse); David Blaine: Real Or Magic (National Tour); Destiny Spectacular (MGM Theatre Macau); Dynamo Live: Seeing Is Believing (Hammersmith Apollo/World Arena Tour); Single Spies, The Winslow Boy (Chichester Festival Theatre/National Tours); Dynamo: The Power of X (Copper Box Arena). Tim Lutkin has received two Olivier Awards for Best Lighting Design for Chimerica and Life of Pi.
Carolyn Downing is an award-winning sound designer working in theatre and across a variety of media, both nationally and internationally. Her work in theatre and live events includes Commonwealth Games Birmingham 2022 Opening Ceremony, Henry V, BLANK, Les Liaisons Dangereuses (also on Broadway), Fathers and Sons, Dimetos and Absurdia (Donmar); Fantastically Great Women Who Changed The World (Kenny Wax); The Normal Heart, The Welkin, Downstate (also at Steppenwolf Chicago and Playwrights Horizons NYC), Mr. Gum and the Dancing Bear – the Musical!, As You Like It, Our Country’s Good, The Motherf*cker with the Hat, Dara (NT); All My Sons (Old Vic); Death of a Salesman (Young Vic and West End); Summer & Smoke (Almeida and West End, Olivier Nomination 2019), Chimerica (Almeida and West End, Olivier Award Best Sound Design 2014), Carmen Disruption and Blood Wedding (Almeida); Gypsy, Mother Courage, The Producers (Royal Exchange); The Fantastic Follies of Mrs. Rich, Coriolanus, Julius Caesar, Antony and Cleopatra and King John (RSC); Handbagged, White Teeth (Kiln); Me and My Girl, Copenhagen and Fiddler on the Roof (Chichester); A Woman of No Importance (Vaudeville & UK Tour); The Believers, Beautiful Burnout and Love Song (Frantic Assembly); Hope, The Pass, The Low Road and Choir Boy (Royal Court); All My Sons (Broadway). Designs for opera include Benjamin, Dernière Nuit at Opéra de Lyon, How the Whale Became at the Royal Opera House, American Lulu for Opera Group and After Dido for the ENO. Exhibitions include Jean Michael Basquiat: King of Pleasure presented by his family in NYC, Reimagining Wordsworth for the Wordsworth Trust; Hut 11A: The Bombe Breakthrough at Bletchley Park; So You Say You Want a Revolution? Records & Rebels 1965– 70 at the V&A; Exhibitionism: The Rolling Stones at Saatchi Gallery; Collider at the Science Museum; and Louis Vuitton: Series 3. Carolyn has also created soundscapes for Shawn Mendes’ Illuminate tour 2017 and Louis Vuitton Ready to Wear Collection shows at the Louis Vuitton Foundation and The Louvre, Paris.
Broadway highlights: Mrs. Doubtfire (Drama Desk Award); Moulin Rouge!; Come From Away; Dear Evan Hansen; Frozen; Kiss Me, Kate; Travesties; War Paint (Drama Desk Award); She Loves Me (Drama Desk nomination); Curious Incident... ; The Bridges of Madison County; If/Then; Macbeth; Death of a Salesman; Follies; Sister Act; Shrek; Legally Blonde; Spamalot; Nine; Gypsy; Sweet Smell of Success; Aida; The Iceman Cometh; Chicago; Side Show; Steel Pier. Film credits: “Angels in America” (Emmy-nominated), Too Wong Foo..., It’s Complicated.
Andrew T Mackay is an Olivier Award-nominated and award-winning classically trained composer & producer and the co-founder with Garry Hughes of the electronica/world music act Bombay Dub Orchestra. Andrew studied piano, clarinet, and composition at the London College of Music under Dr. Lloyd Webber and John McCabe. His music often fuses orchestral with folk and traditional elements of music from the project’s region and has scored many films in India including the National award-winning Hamid by Aijaz Khan. Andrew’s company Bohemia Junction Ltd exclusively represents Abbey Road Studios for India as well as the FAMES’ Skopje Studio Orchestra, and has provided music services on dozens of films, concerts, and Games over the last decade. He is the Director of India’s first ever Composers Lab, which started in 2013 as part of Mumbai Film Festival in association with Abbey Road, PRS for Music UK and supported by BMI. The Olivier Award-nominated music soundtrack to Life of Pi was Andrew’s first foray into scoring for theatre, which was followed by Henry V with Kit Harington (Donmar) in 2022 and Butter Arms, a short film for Royal Ballet/Royal Opera House. The soundtrack album to Life of Pi is available on all streaming platforms, as well as on CD on the Bohemia Junction Recording Co. label. www.mackay.at
Jack Bradley is a Literary producer, dramaturg, playwright, and translator. Previously Bradley was Literary Associate at SFP, and Literary Manager at London’s National Theatre from 1994-2006, advising on the repertoire for Richard Eyre, Trevor Nunn and Nicholas Hytner. From 1989-1994 he worked in new play development at the Soho Theatre.
Duncan Stewart CSA, Benton Whitley CSA. Broadway/NY: Paradise Square, Hadestown (Artios Award), Chicago, Rock of Ages, The Lightning Thief, The Great Comet, Elf, On the Town, Pippin, La Cage aux Folles. TV/film: Netflix, 20th Century Fox, NBC, Lionsgate, Disney Channel. West End/U.K.: Hadestown, Thriller Live, Menier Chocolate Factory. Numerous tours. Follow: @stewartwhitley and stewartwhitley.com.
Broadway: Tina—The Turner Musical, The Play That Goes Wrong, The Color Purple, Finding Neverland, Motown, Pippin, The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess. Off- Broadway: The Tempest, Richard III, Well, Take Me Out, The Winter’s Tale, subUrbia, Without You. The Apollo Theater, Afropunk Worldwide, The Classical Theater of Harlem.
Broadway: Tina, The Prom, Kinky Boots, Three Tall Women, The Glass Menagerie, Curious Incident... and Romeo and Juliet. National tour: Mean Girls. Off-Broadway: The Public and St. Ann’s Warehouse. Regional: A.R.T. and La Jolla Playhouse. Film/TV: “The Gilded Age” and tick, tick...BOOM! Grateful.
Broadway: Tina—The Tina Turner Musical. Tour: The Lion King. Off-Broadway: Confederates (Signature); american (tele)visions (New York Theatre Workshop); The Last of the Company); Snow in Midsummer (Classic Stage Company); Soft Power (The Public).
Co-founder of The Sống Collective, an initiative amplifying voices from the Vietnamese diaspora. www.jonathancastanien.com
Simon Friend has commissioned, developed and lead produced many productions in the U.K. including Life of Pi, which arrives on Broadway after a long run in London’s West End. Recent West End credits: Bad Jews, The Starry Messenger, The Girl on the Train, The Height of the Storm (also Broadway) and Admissions, amongst many others, and this year’s sell-out success The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel across the U.K. Simon also produced the Academy Award- winning film The Father.
Daryl Roth holds the singular distinction of producing seven Pulitzer Prize-winning plays: Anna in the Tropics, August: Osage County, Clybourne Park, How I Learned to Drive, Proof, Edward Albee’s Three Tall Women and Wit. The proud recipient of 13 Tony Awards and London’s Olivier Award, over 125 productions including Kinky Boots, Funny Girl, Into the Woods, Indecent and The Normal Heart. Trustee, Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and Lincoln Center Theater. Honored to have been inducted into the Theater Hall of Fame.
Winner of five Tony Awards and two Olivier Awards, Hal Luftig has worked on and off Broadway for the past 35 years. Broadway includes Here Lies Love, Plaza Suite, American Utopia, Kinky Boots, Children of a Lesser God, Legally Blonde, Thoroughly Modern Millie, The Diary of Anne Frank and Angels in America. Off-Broadway: Fiddler on the Roof in Yiddish; Scotland, PA (Roundabout); Here Lies Love (The Public). Upcoming: Becoming Nancy and Scotland, PA (Broadway).
Broadway: The Piano Lesson, POTUS. U.K.: Jocelyn Bioh’s School Girls... (upcoming). Off-Broadway: Nollywood Dreams (MCC), The Buddy System. Film: Saving Private Ryan, Speed, The Day After Tomorrow, Wonder Boys, Primary Colors, 2012, Murder on the Orient Express, Source Code, Steve Jobs, Molly’s Game, The Patriot. Television: “Grey’s Anatomy,” “Criminal Minds,” “Ray Donovan,” “Designated Survivor,” “Private Practice,” “Quantico,” “Army Wives,” “The Rookie,” “The Rookie: Feds.” Mark Gordon Pictures’ theatre division is led by Jessica Chase.