Tales from a Thousand and One Nights at Chelmsford Theatre

Chris Agha

Chris graduated from The Court Theatre Training Company. Last year he performed in three highly acclaimed productions at The Royal Opera House: in March Deborah Warner’s production of Peter Grimes, in the summer David Alden’s production of Lohengrin and in October Robert Carsen’s production of Aida. He recently performed with the Olive & Stavros Theatre Company in the comedy The Play with Speeches at the Jack Studio Theatre in London. What or Who inspired you to want to become an actor? My school teachers encouraged me to perform when I was 10/11, as I had a booming voice for my age. I then fell in love with being on stage, and was lucky to attend a great school where the arts were actively encouraged. What was your first experience of acting and what shows/performance/s have you most enjoyed? My first proper acting performance of a play was Mojo by Jez Butterworth, and still, to this day, I think it’s one of my favourite plays, so gritty. I played Potts, who funnily enough was originally played by Andy Serkis - who is one of my favourite actors, - at the Royal court theatre in 1995. What has been the biggest challenge in your career to date and what ambitions do you have? My biggest challenge was probably having my final year of drama school affected by Covid. We had to perform three of our final year shows over zoom. It was a huge struggle, especially being so restricted. However since covid, I’ve been very lucky to have had a great year in the industry and I hope to be performing on stage and screen throughout 2023 and beyond. I’ve got a lot to prove and can’t wait to get stuck in to a variety of projects. What do you enjoy most about your job? I love the excitement of what’s to come, the endless plays and characters that I can get stuck into and just making an impression on peoples lives, making them come out of a theatre, laughing or crying or just having been transported to that world of the character or play. And it’s endless fun! And of course, all the many friends I meet on the way! If you weren’t an actor/actress what job would you like to do? I think something creative still, perhaps a singer as I have a huge love of music. Painting is another huge passion of mine. Both my parents are artists, and I still love to paint when I find the time.

Maeva Feitelson

French and British with Iranian heritage, Maëva Feitelson trained at the International College of Musical Theatre in London (ICMT) where she graduated with the Kenneth Avery-Clark award of excellence. She made her West-End debut in the ensemble of the original cast of Rumi : The musical which played at the Coliseum theatre and starred Ramin Karimloo and Nadim Naaman. More recently, she took part in Emma Rice’s Wise Children Summer Camp workshop where she combined her musician and acting skills for the first time. Maëva is also a songwriter and can often be found hosting and singing in different cabarets across London. She is very excited to be a part of the Tales from of a Thousand and One Nights and to be able to tell another Persian story! What or Who inspired you to want to become an actor? My mother and grandmother who were both actors. I spent lots of time watching my mother acting and my grandmother directing. I guess it was impossible not to fall in love with theatre when being surrounded by it from a young age. What was your first experience of acting and what shows/performance/s have you most enjoyed? I first performed when I was 10 years old in a Swiss touring production of Woyzeck. And I would say that performing in Rumi : The Musical at The Coliseum was the most mesmerizing experience so far. What has been the biggest challenge in your career to date and what ambitions do you have? The biggest challenge was without a doubt graduating in 2020…One of my deepest desires would be to act with The Jamie Lloyd Company. What do you enjoy most about your job? Getting to live out all of the experiences one could go through without ever really living them. You become someone else for a while, yet feel like you’ve learnt from them, and you keep that lesson without having to carry them within you once the show is over. I guess what I mean is that it teaches true empathy, understanding and a love for human beings. If you weren’t an actress what job would you like to do? I’d probably be working on the other side of the table. Director, Casting Director, Agent or Stage Manager.

Talal Karkouti

Talal Karkouti is an actor and comedian from West London, with roots in musical theatre and improvised comedy. He also works and performs as a voice-over artist and provides ADR for major motion pictures and TV series. Talal is a seasoned stand-up comedian, recently winning 2nd place in the Musical Comedy Awards. You can currently find him co-hosting and producing The Alexei Sayle Podcast. What or Who inspired you to want to become an actor? As the youngest child in a house full of show-offs, I was almost always involved in some kind of battle for attention. This definitely helped fuel my desire for performance. However, seeing my older sister performing as Adelaid in her high school production of Guys and Dolls, watching her and her friends disappear into the distant, romantic and hilarious world of 1950s New York, the audience all in stitches... this was a game changer. What was your first experience of acting and what shows have you most enjoyed? I was always first in line to audition for the school plays, but at 12 years old I was lucky enough to get my first job - providing ADR for the Stephen Sommers 1999 film The Mummy. It felt incredible to have even such a small part -voicing kids in the background - to play in this massive production. I've regularly been doing ADR ever since, which keeps my improv bones well-trained! What do you enjoy most about your job? Nothing quite beats the feeling of getting on stage and making people laugh, which is why I love performing stand-up comedy. Just me, my guitar and an audience. No safety barrier, no retakes, just pure spontaneous energy. It all excites me - the laughter, the shared experience and even the danger. Touring with this show, I'll get to have a little bit of that every night... can't wait! If you weren’t a performer what job would you like to do? If I wasn't a performer I think I would have worked with animals. Perhaps a zoologist or a park warden. Something hands-on and unpredictable, with an equally tough audience!

Eliot Giuralarocca

After studying for a degree in English Language and Literature at Christ Church, Oxford, Eliot trained as an actor at the Guildford School of Acting. Over the past 30 years he has worked extensively in Theatre, Film, T.V. and Opera while also creating his own work, devising and developing projects as a Theatre-maker and working as a freelance Theatre Director. As Artistic Director of Dragonboy Productions, he brings this experience together to focus on creating and developing new work for the theatre. Artistic Director Eliot Giuralarocca directed and performed in the company's last show, In and Out of Chekhov’s Shorts, which he adapted from some of the best of Anton Chekhov’s short stories. The production toured to 27 theatres across the country and was warmly received by critics and audiences alike. The Tempest, which he adapted and created for the British Council's Shakespeare Lives programme, toured throughout Europe and was subsequently nominated for the Spanish Grand Prize for the Performing Arts. He directed Blackeyed Theatre’s acclaimed national tours of Frankenstein, The Great Gatsby, Dracula and Not About Heroes while for Armonico Consort he directed Baroque around the Block, Monteverdi’s Flying Circus and The Imperfect Pearl an Arts Council funded production about the life of the Baroque composer Domenico Zipoli. He also directed the world premiere of Knackerman by Rosanna Negrotti and Stephen Sharkey’s minaturist piece Retrospective at the Arcola Theatre.

Victoria Spearing

Victoria trained at Bretton Hall where she received a first class honours in Theatre design and technology. Over the last 20 and a bit years she has been lucky enough to work on various theatre productions for both touring companies, out door theatre, youth theatre, in house productions at South Hill Park, and a variety of Pantomimes in various theatres around England, - winning best Set design at the Great British pantomime awards. A small selection of productions she has designed ranging from plays, musicals and pantomimes is: For Dragonboy Productions: In and Out of Chekhov’s Shorts. For Others: Just So, CalendarGirls, James and the Giant Peach, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Noughts and Crosses, Brassed Off, Fantastic Mr Fox, Oliver!, Henry V, House and Garden, The Wizard of Oz,The Adventures of MrToad, Summer Holiday, and Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast, Peter Pan, Jack and the Beanstalk, Dick Whittington, Cinderella and SnowWhite. The Great Gatsby, Teechers..... There are many others but the list will get dull to read! I have loved them all and am forever thankful people ask me to design their productions.

Claire Childs

Claire studied Mathematics at Oxford before starting her career as a lighting designer. Her credits include the UK and international tours of Sherlock Holmes: The Sign of Four and The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (Blackeyed Theatre), and the UK tours of I Am Beast, Killing Roger and The Girl With No Heart (Sparkle and Dark), The Snowsmith, Boulder and Under the Frozen Moon (Half a String), The Tempest (Thick as Thieves), Revenge (Crime and Comedy Theatre Company), The Shipwrecked House(Penned in the Margins) and The Just So Stories (Red Table Theatre). Other lighting designs include 100 Years and Push (Popelei Theatre), Humane (True Name Productions), Kaj Nazar (London Armenian Opera), Invisible Me (House of Stray Cats), As One and Imoinda (Lontano), Zaryab (Toos Foundation), Mozart vs Machine (Mahogany Opera Group), Robin Hood (The Opera Story), Rudolf (Pins and Needles), Iolanthe (Charles Court Opera), The Barrier (Earwig Arts), 1000 Songs (Pinch Punch), Venus/Mars (act up) and A Midsummer Night's Dream (Cornucopia). Lighting designs for dance productions include Beauty and the Beast, The Little Mermaid, Alice - Wonderland Through the Looking Glass and Dracula - Welcome to D's (Chantry Dance Company) and NowHere and Forgot Your Password? (Divya Kasturi).

Luke Wallace

What or Who inspired you to want to become a Stage Manager? Ever since I saw Bombay Dreams in the West End I’ve wanted to work in all areas of technical theatre and have focused on learning about every capacity of the job. What was your first experience of the profession and what shows have you most enjoyed? My first experience was on Matilda in the West End, I was a follow spot operator and at the time I didn’t have a clue! I loved working on ‘Into The Woods’ which I programmed; I loved the music. What has been the biggest challenge of your career to date and what ambitions do you have? I think the hardest challenge was deciding what aspect of theatre I should focus on. In the end, I didn’t decide but learned all aspects in depth! My ambition is to enjoy my work and enjoy what I put out into the world. What do you enjoy most about your job? I constantly get to meet new people and to visit some of the most obscure places in the world, - from Jordon to Texas, - my career has taken me on a journey second to none. If you weren’t a Stage Manager what job would you like to do? My main job is actually Lighting Design and Projection and I work in this capacity throughout the globe, designing festivals, theatre and live events.

Christine Warner

Christine has always had a drive and passion for making ‘something’ from ‘nothing’; as a child creating Ferris wheels, fairy furniture and puppet shows from discarded items such as cotton reels, cheese boxes, cardboard, and elastic bands In recent times this creativity has found expression through sculpture. Having spent time with Kim Beaton, the sculpting director of Weta Workshop in New Zealand - made famous through its work on Lord of the Rings – Christine started small by creating a 6-inch fairy door which was followed by a slightly more ambitious project which turned out to be the creation of a six-feet dragon called Derek, made using cardboard, tinfoil and concrete clay! She has gone on to create life like busts with input and guidance from Sir Richard Taylor the co-founder of Weta Workshop. Christine is also a fine artist whose oil paintings are sought after from around the world with commissions ranging from copies of Henry VIII and his wives to people and their pets. Making props and masks for theatre finds her back doing something she loves while repurposing waste and keeping rubbish out of landfill. Bubble wrap, wire and papier-mache has been turned into a huge bird claw; while tin foil, old tights, cushion and scraps of fabric have been mixed with a homemade clay of flour, glue and poly filler to create a Sinbad puppet. Made from reused rubbish, these show items are light, durable and green and show how with a dash of imagination - and no little skill, - something really can be made from nothing!

Samantha Warner

Samantha read law at Cambridge and completed her masters degree in law at Victoria University of Wellington. She also has a Postgraduate Certificate in History from Oxford. Qualifying as a barrister and solicitor in New Zealand, she worked for international accounting firm Ernst & Young as a tax consultant and then practiced corporate law with Russell McVeagh, specialising in all aspects of business law and advice. She also founded South Pacific Trademarks, specialising in international trademark registration and advice and has worked as a director and advisor to a number of start-up businesses in industries as diverse as technology and cosmetic manufacturing. Samantha was also a trustee and legal advisor to the Kokomai Arts Festival in New Zealand, a ten-day biannual festival that sources world-class touring performances from around the world.