LES ELLISON - WRITER
Les Ellison is a member of The Salvation Army in Warrington and a product of many years of Riding Lights Summer Theatre Schools. His play Saving Grace was toured nationally by Riding Lights in 2003. Published work includes Utter Garbage - an environmental play for children and its sequel Space Junk (Samuel French), Red Star - The tragic rise of Yuri Gagarin and Are the Kings Still Wearing Curtains? (RADIUS), First Easter and Away from the Manger (NIMBUS). Most of his current work is for the Lancashire based collective The Reduced Ego Theatre Company.
PAUL BURBRIDGE - DIRECTOR
Paul Burbridge is Artistic Director of Riding Lights Theatre Company. He has been a major influence behind the Company’s reputation for pioneering new work, for comedy and for powerful ensemble productions of classics and devised plays. He has been involved as actor, director or writer in all the Company’s major productions, from award-winning revues at the Edinburgh Festival to the recent world premiere of the hilarious comic masterpiece Augustus Carp Esq., and highly successful national tours of Dario Fo’s Mistero Buffo, The Winter’s Tale and the recent co-production with York Theatre Royal of African Snow, marking the 200th anniversary of the Abolition of the Slave Trade.
Paul has overseen the development of Riding Lights from its community touring roots into one of the UK’s most productive and enduring independent touring companies. The Company’s first permanent home, Friargate Theatre in York, opened in 2000 with his ‘Yorkshire’ version of The Alchemist. Other notable productions for Riding Lights include his own adaptation of Three Men in a Boat (The Northcott Theatre and Theatr Clywd and revived at York Theatre Royal in 2008) and The Fire Raisers (The Northcott Theatre and The Bridewell, where it was Time Out’s Critics’ Choice). In 2001, a new award-winning musical Dick Turpin was one of a string of highly original ensemble productions for Riding Lights created with writer Bridget Foreman and designer Sean Cavanagh. Other recent shows, addressing issues such as international debt relief, terrorism, science and faith, social responsibility and safe water provision, have included A Different Drum, Balancing Act, Love Fifteen, Wrestling with Angels, Science Friction, Saving Grace, Hope Opera, Remember Remember, Pipe Dreams and Salaam Bethlehem.
BRIDGET FOREMAN - DIRECTOR
Bridget is an Associate Director of Riding Lights. She trained at Oxford University and the National Youth Theatre. Recent writing credits include Calvary for York Minster, her adaptation of Augustus Carp Esq, the award-winning Dick Turpin, Black Market, Pipe Dreams, Remember Rememberand Science Friction and Salaam Bethlehem all for Riding Lights, and Pinocchio (as Dramaturg) for York Theatre Royal / Shysters / Full Body and the Voice. Her plays include Love Fifteen, Balancing Act, a different drum, First Hand, A Dangerous Game, Barking Up The Christmas Tree (all RLTC), No More Gods (Sea View), Shouting at Shadows (6th Sense / Cheltenham Everyman), a short film for the BBC / Millennium Dome, and A Grain of Glass for BBC Radio 4. Directing for Riding Lights includes Black Market, The Fun of The Fair, The Franklin’s Tale, Scrub That Manger!, 3-Legged Race, Angel at Large, Shepherds' Delightand Mistero Buffo, Friendly Fireand Losing Itas co-director. She is an Associate Artist of the National Youth Theatre and a project director for Pilot Theatre. She has also directed for 6th Sense, Greenwich Theatre and Bristol Old Vic. As Artistic Director of Manchester Youth Theatre, her productions included The Caucasian Chalk Circle at the Lowry, Salford, and Jane Eyre and Arabian Nights at the Royal Exchange.
ANNA MORRIS - DESIGNER
Anna trained in theatre design at Nottingham Trent University. She is currently working on A Vampire’s Story (Nuffield Youth Theatre/NT Connections). In the last year work includes: production and set designer for The Icarus Project (Dragon Breath Theatre /Leicester Haymarket), prop making (The Masque of the Red Death, punchdrunk); design assistant to Sean Cavanagh (The Grapes of Wrath, Riding Lights Summer Theatre School) and Geraldine Pilgrim (Enchanted Parks, Newcastle Gateshead Initiative).