Crowning Glory. Somalia Seaton

Mad Blud (2009). Theatre credits include: In The Red and Brown Water (Young Vic), House of Agnes (Ovalhouse), Torn (Arcola Theatre).

      Television credits include: House of Anubis (Lime Picture), After You’ve Gone (BBC), My Family (BBC). Film credits include: Spoil (Channel 4).

       KATIE HAYES TOKEN

      Katie trained at the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art. She recently appeared in the Angelic Tales New Writing Festival at Theatre Royal Stratford East in Tonight is Your Answer. Theatre credits include: Muswell Hill (Orange Tree Theatre), Hamlet 1603 (Vital Signs Theatre), The Snow Queen (Stephen Joseph Theatre), In an Instant (Theatre503), A Midsummer Night’s Dream, A Chorus of Disapproval, Summer Lightning (Theatre by The Lake), Birds Birds Birds, Birdsong (Wimbledon Studio), The Girlz, Much Ado About Nothing, King Lear (Orange Tree Theatre), Custom of the Country (Fallen Angel), Christian Turned Turk (Arcola Theatre), Teechers (Cambridge Arts Theatre), The Wind Thing (Plough Arts) Peer Gynt (Ibsen Stage Company).

      Film credits includes: The Sun and The Traffic, Long Way Out, and Moon Talk.

       T’NIA MILLER BAL-EAD

      T’Nia trained at GSA. Theatre credits include: A Midsummer Night’s Dream (National Theatre, touring), Love is Not Enough (Bussey Arts Café), Elegies for Angels Punks and Raging Queens (Shaw theatre).

      Film credits include: Stud Life, Wolfe, What’s in a Name (BFI).

      Television and on-line drama credits include: Holby City, Kate Modern, Dubplate Drama.

      T’Nia’s starring role in Stud Life has received much accolade here and abroad showing to 1000s of audiences across the globe. Earlier this year Stud Life received a Screen Nation Award and released in the UK on DVD this summer.

       REBECCA OMOGBEHIN BOUNTY

      Rebecca trained at Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts, graduating last year. Since graduating, she has performed in various projects.

      Recent credits include: Oil City (Platform for the Arts Admin Festival), Song of Seasons, Snow Ghost’s Murder Cries (Music Video, Epoch Films).

      Training credits include: A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Recruiting Officer, The Seagull, Oedipus the Visionary (Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts).

       CREATIVE TEAM

       SOMALIA SEATON WRITER

      Somalia Seaton is an actress and writer. She trained at East 15 Acting School on the BA/Hons Contemporary Theatre course. Her debut play Crowning Glory returns to Theatre Royal Stratford East following a sell-out success at last year’s rehearsed reading of the show at the Angelic Tales New Writing Festival. Acting credits include Cure (The Underbelly, Edinburgh), Work! (Theatre503), Buried Alive (Rose Theatre, Bankside), Two Thousand and Sex (Team Angelica) and Angie Le Mar’s Ryan Sisters. Directing credits include I Am Green (E15 Acting School and Unicorn Theatre) and Between the Silence (Brockley Jack Theatre).

      Somalia is founder and Artistic Director of No Ball Games Allowed (NBGA), a forum theatre arts education and community organisation, dedicated to inspiring and empowering disaffected young people.

       DAWN REID DIRECTOR

      Dawn is the Deputy Artistic Director at Theatre Royal Stratford East. Most recently she directed Jack & The Beanstalk for the theatre. Her directing credits for Theatre Royal Stratford East include: A Clockwork Orange; Rikki Beadle Blair’s Familyman; Funny Black Women on the Edge; Sleeping Beauty, The Snow Queen and Hansel and Gretel. She co-directed The Harder They Come (Barbican, West End, Toronto and Miami) and Mad Blud. Dawn was the Assistant Director on Aladdin and Red Riding Hood. Other shows she has directed at Theatre Royal Stratford East include: Speechify: Four Men on Family; Kat Francois’ one woman shows Me, Myself and 7, Raising Lazarus and Kat’s Got Your Tongue; Da Mic Sounds Nice; Summit; Over The Dune; My Father and Other Superheroes, Mad Blud; Ade Ikoli’s Diary of a Single Man; and DRD’s Dis is How We Do It.

      She has also directed rehearsed readings for BritAsia and New Voices, part of the Theatre’s work with new writers. Other work for the theatre includes assisting on shows such as One Dance Will Do, Aeroplane Man, Windrush and Things Change. Dawn has produced festivals for the Theatre including Gateway to the Arts, a series of shows for and by young people, and Spoke-Fest, festivals of Spoken Word, performances and workshops. Dawn produced Boy Blue’s sold-out show The Book of Koraka; and produced and directed Club V.

      Other theatre credits include directing Llewella Gideon’s premiere of Fruit Salad (Greenwich Theatre) and working as Associate Director on Avenue Q (Noël Coward Theatre). Dawn is the co-creator of Spoke-Lab with Roger Robinson and the recipient of a Carlton Multicultural Achievement Award for Performing Arts.

       NICK BARNES DESIGNER

      Nick studied Drama at Hull University and Theatre Design at the Slade School of Fine Art. Until recently he was Co-Artistic Director of Blind Summit Theatre, a company he formed with Mark Down, to make new shows with puppets for adult audiences. Nick designed, performed and made puppets for the company whose own productions included Mr China’s Son, Tramping the Boards, The Spaceman, Pirate Puppetry, Martin’s Wedding, A Puppet in the Works, Low Life, Call of the Wild, 1984, The Heads and The Table, many of which toured to theatres and festivals nationally and internationally. In 2005 they collaborated with Anthony Minghella on the ENO award-winning production of Madame Butterfly, providing puppets for the production and performing with them. Other major collaborations include: Shunkin, A Dog’s Heart, Master and Margarita (Complicite), El Gato Con Botas (Tectonic Theatre), On Emotion (Mick Gordon, On Theatre), Faeries (Royal Opera House), His Dark Materials (Birmingham Rep, WYP), Kommilitonen! (Royal Academy of Music) Last year they oversaw the puppetry in Danny Boyle’s spectacular opening ceremony for the Olympic Games. As a theatre designer Nick’s credits include: The Barber of Seville, Rhinoceros, La Boheme, L’Elisir D’Amore, Sexual Perversity in Chicago, Carmen, Aida and The Magic Flute, West Side Story and Showboat, Martin Guerre, The Wiz, Danny 306 + Me (4 ever), Hansel & Gretel, Miss Saigon, Bombitty of Errors. Previous productions for Theatre Royal Stratford East include: 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Red Riding Hood, Sleeping Beauty and Familyman.