Perseverance Drive. Robin Soans

(Young Vic). Robin has also written several books including Deep Heat (Oberon), The Arab-Israeli Cookbook: The Recipes (Aurora Metro Publications – winner of the Best Innovative Food Book UK and the Special Jury Prize for Peace at the Gourmand World Book Awards), and is co-author of Verbatim Verbatim (Oberon). His radio plays include Not Today Thank You, The Arab-Israeli Cookbook, Talking to Terrorists, Life After Scandal, A State Affair. Also an accomplished actor, Soans will appear in the reprise of Visitors opposite Linda Bassett, which opens at the Bush Theatre in November.

      Madani Younis Director

      Madani took over as Artistic Director of the Bush Theatre in 2012. For 2013 he programmed the company’s most successful season to date, which saw the theatre play to 99% capacity, and for which the theatre was awarded the Groucho Club Maverick Award 2013. For the Bush Theatre he has previously directed Chalet Lines. Prior to his appointment at the Bush, he was Artistic Director of Freedom Studios in Bradford, Yorkshire where his work included the site-specific work, The Mill – City of Dreams. He has also worked nationally and internationally as a theatre director, writer and practitioner. Whilst at Freedom Studios he collaborated with the Bush Theatre through workshops culminating in Freedom’s two-week residency in 2010 at the theatre. He was previously Director of Red Ladder Theatre Company’s Asian Theatre School. He originally trained in film, and his debut short film Ellabellapumpanella, commissioned by the UK Film Council, was screened at the Cannes Film Festival in May 2007. He was the recipient of the Decibel Award at the South Bank Awards Show in 2006.

      Jaimie Todd Designer

      Jaimie’s previous designs at the Bush Theatre include Disgraced and Christmas is Miles Away. Other theatre design credits include The Lady Goes To War, Fever Pitch, Blue Remembered Hills, The Alchemist and Children of Eden. He also designed a bi-lingual version of Tale of Two Cities, which toured England and France; The Trestle at Pope Lick Creek, Pretend You Have Big Buildings, and Things of Dry Hours for Manchester Royal Exchange Theatre and Aces and Jacks for Guildhall at the Bridewell. Jaimie has completed five touring Shakespeare productions including Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Tempest and Hamlet and seven productions for Y-Touring Theatre Company. Jaimie also designs for the Centrepoint Theatre in Dubai: Sweeney Todd, Cats, West Side Story, Hairspray. Other credits include Sticks and Stones, House of Blue Leaves, Memory of Water and Be My Baby. He continues to assist other designers on productions in the West End and abroad.

      Ciaran Bagnall Lighting Designer

      Ciaran returns to the Bush having previously worked on Snookered. His other theatre credits include A Taste of Honey (Hull Truck Theatre), Home (National Theatre), Quartet for 15 Chairs (The MAC Belfast), Twelfth Night (Octagon Theatre), Philadelphia, Here I Come (Lyric Theatre, Belfast), Wanted! Robin Hood (Lowry Theatre), Robin Hood (Octagon Theatre), The Conquest of Happiness (European site-specific tour), Man in the Moon (Waterfront Hall), Big House Festival (Castletown House), Piaf (Octagon Theatre), Cooking with Elvis (Derby Theatre), Digging for Fire (Rough Magic @ Project), The Sweety Bottle (Grand Opera House), The Glass Menagerie (Octagon Theatre), Tull (Octagon Theatre), Planet (The MAC), Of Mice and Men (Octagon Theatre), Arabian Nights (Lowry Theatre), Wonderful Wizard of Oz (Hull Truck Theatre), Peter Pan (Octagon Theatre), Paisley & Me (NI Tour), Bliss (NI Tour), Much Ado About Nothing (RSC, Stratford & West End), The Rise and Fall of Little Voice (Octagon Theatre), The Baths (Templemore Bath House), Plants & Hopes (NI Tour), White Star of the North (Lyric Theatre, Belfast), and Shoot the Crow (Grand Opera House).

      Ed Clarke Sound Designer

      Ed has previously worked at the Bush Theatre on Fear. His other theatre credits include Beauty and the Beast (Young Vic), Danny Boyle’s Frankenstein (Olivier, National Theatre – Olivier Award nomination 2012), Backbeat (Duke of York’s Theatre), The Mysteries and The Good Hope (Cottesloe, National Theatre), The Railway Children (Waterloo International Station and Roundhouse Theatre Toronto – Olivier Award nomination 2011), Fatal Attraction (Theatre Royal Haymarket), Backbeat (Duke of York’s), Phoenix and Babylon (BigHouse Theatre), 1 hour 18 minutes (Sputnik Theatre), His Teeth (Only Connect Theatre), The Wiz (Birmingham Rep and West Yorkshire Playhouse), Baby Doll (Albery Theatre), Alex (Arts Theatre, UK and international tour), Happy Now? (Hull Truck Theatre), Old Times, A Doll’s House (Donmar Warehouse), Bad Man Christmas (HMP Wormwood Scrubs), The Wizard of Oz and Sandi Toksvig’s Christmas Cracker (Royal Festival Hall), Singular Sensations (Haymarket Theatre), Twelfth Night, A Slice of Saturday Night (Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch), The Milk Train Doesn’t Stop Here Anymore, Treasure Island, The Cabinet of Doctor Caligari, Kindertoten-lieder, Then Again, Angela Carter’s Cinderella, Cause Celebre, Mrs Warren’s Profession, A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Lyric Hammersmith), Moti Roti Puttli Chunni, Running Dream and Mike Leigh’s It’s a Great Big Shame! (Theatre Royal Stratford East).

      Omar Elerian Associate Director

      Omar is Associate Director of the Bush Theatre. He is a director, deviser and performer, trained at Jacques Lecoq International Theatre School in Paris. Prior to his appointment at the Bush Theatre Omar worked as a freelance theatre practitioner collaborating with artists and companies throughout Europe and the UK. His most recent directing credits include the Olivier-nominated You’re Not Like the Other Girls Chrissy (Bush Theatre, UK and international tour), the acclaimed site-specific production The Mill – City of Dreams (Bradford, Yorkshire), Testa di Rame (Teatro Foertezza Vecchia, Italy), Les P’tites Grandes Choses (Maison de Arts du Cirque et du Clown, France) and L’envers du Decor (Theatre Les Enfants Terribles, Drance). He was also Associate Director on Jericho House’s The Tempest, which premiered in Palestine and Israel before opening up as part of the Barbican’s BITE ’11 season in St Giles Cripplegate. Omar is also directing Islands by Caroline Horton which will open at the Bush Theatre in January 2015.

      Gemma Hancock CDG & Sam Stevenson CDG Casting

      Theatre credits include One Man, Two Guvnors, The Humans, King Lear, Our Country’s Good, Henry IV, parts 1 & 2, Where There’s a Will, Love’s Labour’s Lost, The Portrait of a Lady, A Doll’s House, The Vortex, Uncle Vanya, Pygmalion, Little Nell, Amy’s View, Habeas Corpus, Measure for Measure, You Never Can Tell, Waiting for Godot, Much Ado About Nothing, The Dresser, As You Like It, Man & Superman, The Herd, 55 Days, Blood and Gifts, Canary, Rutherford and Son, Ring Round the Moon, Waiting for Godot, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, In the Club, Honour, What the Butler Saw, Abigail’s Party, Private Lives, Blithe Spirit, Don Juan, Tejas Verdes, Emperor Jones, The Chairs, The Deep Blue Sea, The Odyssey, Miss Julie, Everything is Illuminated, The Lieutenant of Inishmore, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Beasts and Beauties, Watership Down and Ghosts. Television and film credits include Glasgow Girls, Our World War, Nightshift, The Selection, Care, The Snipist, The Minor Character, Nixon’s the One, Money, Emma (nominated for 2010 Primetime Emmy for outstanding casting), Peter Ackroyd’s London, The Bill, My Life as a Popat, Holby City, EastEnders, Private Peaceful, Babel (UK Casting), The New World (Casting Associates) and The Age of Stupid.

      Annelies Henny Wardrobe Supervisor

      Annelies Henny graduated in 2009 from Dartington College of Arts with a first class degree in Theatre and Visual Arts. After graduating she lived in Bristol for four years working as a designer and maker for outdoor performance, experimental theatre and festivals. Her collaborations have included Original Spinners, Invisible Circus and her work has been part of festivals including Beatherder, Shambala and Secret Garden Party.