Joan Maud Littlewood was an English theatre director who trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, and is best known for her work in developing the Theatre Workshop. She has been called "The Mother of Modern Theatre". Her production of Oh, What a Lovely War! in 1963 was one of her more influential pieces.
Stella Gonet is a Scottish theatre, film and television actress. She is known for her roles in the BBC dramas The House of Eliott (1991–94) and Holby City (2007–09). Her stage credits include playing Ophelia in the 1989 National Theatre revival of Hamlet, opposite both Daniel Day-Lewis and Ian Charleson as Hamlet and playing Margaret Thatcher in the original West End production of Handbagged (2014). She played Queen Elizabeth II in the 2021 movie Spencer and Margaret Thatcher in the 2023 movie El Conde.
Anita, Lady May, known as Anita Dobson, is an English actress and singer. She is best known for her role from 1985 to 1988 as Angie Watts in the BBC soap opera EastEnders. In 1986, she reached number four in the UK Singles Chart with "Anyone Can Fall in Love", a song based on the theme music of EastEnders. She is married to Queen guitarist and astrophysicist Sir Brian May.
The Theatre Royal Stratford East is a 460 seat Victorian producing theatre in Stratford in the London Borough of Newham. Since 1953, it has been the home of the Theatre Workshop company, famously associated with director Joan Littlewood, whose statue is outside the theatre.
Dilys Laye was an English actress and singer, best known for her comedy roles, in which she was seen in the West End and on Broadway for more than fifty years, beginning in 1951. Although primarily a stage performer, she broadcast frequently on radio and television, and appeared in films.
Sylvia Young Theatre School is an independent school in Marble Arch, London, England. It is a specialist performing arts school named after its founder and principal, Sylvia Young OBE.
David Burt is a British actor, known primarily for his many and wide-ranging West End performances.
Anne-Marie Duff is a British-Irish actress and narrator.
Maria Zena Schneider, known professionally as Maria Charles, was an English film, television and stage actress, director and comedienne. She was probably best known for her performance as the overbearing mother Bea Fisher in the ITV sitcom Agony. Charles also appeared on the stage in original West End productions including musicals by Stephen Sondheim, Charles Strouse and Sandy Wilson.
Brian Protheroe is an English singer, songwriter, narrator and actor. He is best known for his first single, "Pinball", released in August 1974, which entered the UK Singles Chart at number 40 and reached a peak of number 22. He has been narrating the Channel 4 dating show First Dates since 2015.
Elaine Glover is an English actress, singer and chef.
Murray Melvin was an English actor. He was best known for his acting work with Joan Littlewood, Ken Russell and Stanley Kubrick. He was the author of two books: The Art of Theatre Workshop (2006) and The Theatre Royal, A History of the Building (2009).
Jack Montgomery is a British actor and singer, who has appeared in television, stage productions and films.
Sophie Bould is a British theatre and TV actress from Shropshire, where she attended Thomas Telford School and St Dominic's High School for Girls in Brewood.
Coram Boy is a play written by Helen Edmundson with music composed by Adrian Sutton, based on the 2000 children's novel of the same name by Jamila Gavin, an epic adventure that concerns the theme of child cruelty. The play is called a "play with music", rather than a musical.
Twang!! is a musical with music and lyrics written by Lionel Bart and a book by Bart and Harvey Orkin, an American theatrical agent and former writer for The Phil Silvers Show. When production faced issues, American writer Burt Shevelove was called on to help fix the book. The piece, a spoof of the character and legend of Robin Hood, was a disastrous box-office failure and cost Bart his personal fortune.
Robert Hugh Carvel is a British film and theatre actor. He has twice won a Laurence Olivier Award: for Best Actor in a Leading Role in a Musical for his role as Miss Trunchbull in Matilda the Musical, and for Best Actor in a Supporting Role for his performance as Rupert Murdoch in Ink. For the latter role, he won the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Featured Role in a Play.
Jeffrey Richard Shankley is a British actor, singer and a former member of the Royal Shakespeare Company who has had a long career as a television and stage actor particularly in the musicals of Andrew Lloyd Webber for whom he originated several roles, including Munkustrap in the original London production of Cats at the New London Theatre in London in 1981 and Greaseball in Starlight Express at the Apollo Victoria Theatre in 1984.
Sara Powell is a British-Jamaican stage, screen and voice-over actress and audiobook narrator. Her regular television roles include crown prosecutor Rachel Barker in the BBC's police procedural drama HolbyBlue (2007–2008), driver Sally Reid in ITV's firefighting drama London's Burning (1993–1994) and psychologist Cass in Channel 4's sitcom Damned (2016–2018).
Katherine Manners is an English actress, screenwriter, and playwright. She is best known for her lead role as Vera Brittain in the 2008 BBC One television documentary A Woman in Love and War: Vera Brittain and for portraying Jane Corby Whigham in the 2021 Prime Video historical drama television miniseries A Very British Scandal. She has performed as a stage actress at the Royal National Theatre, Watford Palace Theatre, and West End Theatre. She was part of the international touring cast of Sam Mendes' production of Richard III. A screenwriter and playwright, Manners has written for the London Omnibus programme, and for the National Theatre with Melly Still. In 2017, she wrote and produced the play C*nt at The Yard Theatre.
