Biographies

Cree Barnett Williams

Cree graduated from Rambert School of Ballet and Contemporary Dance. Whilst at school she worked with Mark Baldwin, Kerry Nicholls, Hubert Essakow and performed as part of Resolution! at The Place in Soul Notes for Nexus Dance Company. Since graduating, Cree has worked with Dane Hurst, Renaud Wiser, Darshan Singh Bhuller (Caravaggio: Exile and Death) and most recently on Aletta Collins’ production of Carmen for Osterfestspiele Salzburg.  

Rick Bland

The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, The Bible, The Complete Word of God and The Complete History of America, for the Reduced Shakespeare Company, (West End, UK, Irish, Dutch Tours, Dubai), Reduced Shakespeare Company, Generous (Finborough), Jerry Springer the Opera (BAC and Edinburgh), Strike (Finborough Theatre/BAC), Angel, (The Mark Bruce Company), Stone Diaries, Unless, The Complete Presidency of George W. Bush and Annabel (BBC Radio 4), Reduced Shakespeare in Love (BBC Radio 2), Star Wars Shortened (Sky TV, Criterion Theatre), Writer/Actor/Producer of Thick, Best Actor, 2005 FringeNYC and Winner Argus Angel – Outstanding Artistic Excellence (Nightingale Theatre, Brighton Fringe, 2010) Work with Darren Ellis Dance includes, Romeo Error (The Place), Sticks and Bones (UK tour) and writing and voicing the 2011 Place Prize Semi-Final piece, Frome the Waist Up. He also works as a producer at the Oscar winning Animation Studio, Tandem.

Greig Cooke

Greig graduated from London Contemporary Dance School in 1995 with a Post Graduate Diploma in Contemporary Dance and subsequently performed internationally for sixteen years developing longstanding collaborations with Charles Linehan, Lea Anderson and Mark Bruce. Greig has also worked with and originated roles for AMP (Swan Lake), Aletta Collins, Charlotte Vincent, Random Dance, Arthur Pita, Tom Sapsford, Fleur Darkin and the reworking of Peter Schaffeur’s west end production of Equus in 2007. He has toured the world extensively and was nominated for most outstanding performer whilst on tour in Toronto in 2004. In 2005 he took the role of rehearsal Director for The Featherstonehaughs on their reworking of Flesh and Blood and was recently in Comma 39, directed by art film maker Stuart Croft and choreographed by Ben Wright. As a teacher, Greig enjoys working with different age groups and abilities and teaches extensively in the UK delivering workshops and regular classes to schools, boys groups, professionals, over 50′s and vocational dance schools.

Eleanor Duval

 Eleanor grew up in France and trained at the Hamburg Opera in Germany and Rambert school in London. Before performing with The Mark Bruce Company in the productions of ‘Sea of Bones’ in 2006-07 and ‘Love and War’ in 2010. She worked with Dansconnect performing works by Scott Ambler, Jonathan Lunn, Nikki Smedley, Yael Flexer, Kenneth Tharpe, Mark Bruce and Richard Banks as well as various productions at Glyndebourne Opera and The Royal Albert Hall. Eleanor teaches for Swindon Youth Dance Academy and adult classes in Frome, Somerset. Eleanor combines her dancing career with taking care of her three children.

Marian Bruce – Art works for the stage

Marian is a visual artist making assembled installation/sculpture. She has shown widely in the UK and in the US, including The Angel Trilogy presented on the Merlin Theatre Stage for the Frome Festival 2002 to 2004. Her work is currently on exhibit in The Love London Recycled Show at The Wetlands in Barnes, South West London. In 1991 she began a parallel career designing for contemporary dance. Her recent stage credits include Three Songs -Two Voices for The Royal Ballet, A Steel Garden – Rambert Dance Company, Hush -The Houston Ballet and Rambert Dance Company, Rooster – the National Ballet of Canada, Dance at the Crossroads – Ballet Mainz, Ten Poems – Ballet Kiel and Sea of Bones, Bad History and Stars – Mark Bruce Company.

Dorothee Brodrueck – Costume Designer

Dorothee Brodrück studied costume design at Berlin’s esteemed Universität der Künste. Additionally she pursued painting and etching at Freie Kunstschule, Berlin. After graduating, she moved to Switzerland where she became assistant costume designer in Bern’s Stadttheater for 2 years, contributing to diverse ballet and theatre projects. She has enjoyed the privilege of working with choreographers Erik Ekmann, Hofesh Shechter, Mark Bruce and Doug Varone, and she regularly collaborates with Cathy Marston. As a freelancer, Dorothee has created costumes for dancers, musicians and actors for venues as varied as the Komische Oper (Berlin, Germany), Stadttheater (Bern, Switzerland), Hans-Otto-Theater (Potsdam, Germany) and Theater an der Sihl (Zürich, Switzerland) among others. Now based in Berlin, she co-founded the avant-garde Dieter & Thomas label with Karoline Lobeck in 2010.

Pickled Image – Puppet Design and Creation

Pickled Image is a production company specialising in puppetry for live performance and theatre. Since 2000 the company has created a distinct trademark style, which has become the brand for all its productions. Over the years the company has gained international recognition for their darkly humorous visual productions and has won many awards for their work. Proud to be at the forefront of British puppetry the company is continuing to create exquisite puppets and performances, which are enjoyed all over the world.   Dik, Co-Director Pickled Image; has entertained audiences in various guises from fire-eater, escapologist, clown and puppeteer. As an experienced and highly talented designer and puppet maker. Dik has applied those skills to creating some of the Pickled Image’s most striking puppets. Directing projects have included Hunger 2009 for Tinkerting & Nordland Visual Theatre in Norway and Mange Tout 2008 for Delite De Facade in Paris. He worked with Green Ginger in 1994 – 2003 performing in some of their most celebrated shows ‘Slaphead – Demon Barber’ and ‘Frank Einstein – Rewired’, and can even be seen in Terry Gilliam’s ‘Brazil’ if you have a really good pause button. Vicky Andrews Co-Director Pickled Image;trained as a sculptor, illustrator and theatre designer and has been involved in designing shows for venues such as Bristol Old Vic, Bath Theatre Royal and the Welsh National Opera over the past 10 years.  Her artistic skills have been applied to producing and designing all of Pickled Image’s shows since 2000. As a driving force behind the Company, Vicky was responsible for developing the link with Nordland Visual Theatre based on the Lofoten Islands in Norway – co-produced Houdini’s Suitcase 2006 & Hunger 2009) and Delit De Façade in Paris – Mange Tout 2008. She is intrinsic to the creative process as a performer, maker and administrator to the company, often working in non-traditional theatre spaces with collaborators from all over the world. Emma Powell;Bristol based model maker and illustrator. Emma was employed as a freelance maker to help with the construction of the shark, she has proved to be a brilliant puppet maker and extremely talented with creating mechanisms for puppets. Freshly out of college, Emma is a ‘true find’ for Pickled Image, watch this space for her work in the future! Her other commissions have included working with ‘Jeff Cliff Model Effects’ Bristol, ‘Rusty Squid’ a Bristol Creative technology Company and ‘The University of The West of England’. Special thanks to Marc Parrett from Stuff & Nonsense Theatre Company – Marc helped Dik get his head around making the complicated mechanism for the mouth. He truly is a genius puppet maker and engineer and we are delighted he helped with the early phase of making this magnificent puppet.