Northern Stage has announced the cast for its production of Laura Lindow’s stage version of H G Wells’s novel The War of the Worlds which will run in Stage 3 from 31 January to 10 February prior to a tour.
It is the maiden production of an expanded NORTH programme, going beyond the simple actor training of previous programmes to include staging and touring a new production, offering four emerging actors from the North East the opportunity to perform professionally with the theatre in Spring 2018.
The chosen four are Charlotte Ryder, Luke Maddison, Jack Lloyd and Lauren Waine.
Charlotte Ryder, originally from Newcastle, is a member of the National Youth Theatre and a graduate of full-time professional actor training course Project A at Newcastle Theatre Royal, where she appeared as Clare in Jim Cartwright's Road in 2017.
Luke Maddison’s recent roles include Leopold in Opera North’s Der Rosenkavalier (2016), Milo / Steve / Simon / Tom in Leaving by Paddy Campbell and Curious Monkey at Northern Stage and Sam in Twenty Seven Productions’ Don’t Go Outside at the Castle Keep in 2017. He also appeared in The Frights Response Plays at Alphabetti.
Jack Lloyd is another graduate of Project A and studied BA (Hons) Drama and Applied Theatre at Northumbria University. Recent productions include starring as Wilfred in Wilfred at Alphabetti in Newcastle and he was nominated for the prestigious Spotlight Prize in 2017
Lauren Waine from Sunderland is a recent graduate from The Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts (LIPA) where she graduated with a First Class Hons degree in Acting and was awarded The Laurence Olivier Bursary Award. Her credits include Faustus (The Globe’s Sam Wanamaker Festival), Three Jumpers (Unearthed Theatre at Edinburgh Fringe) and Marina in Pericles (Brighton Open Air Theatre). She was a founder member of Live Theatre’s all-girl comedy group, Your Aunt Fanny. Most recently she played Polly Perkins in Durham Gala’s panto Robinson Crusoe.
The production, which has been set in the North East, will be directed by Elayce Ismail who is the RTYDS Associate Director at Northern Stage and an Associate Artist of Boundless Theatre. She was awarded the JP Morgan Award for Emerging Directors 2014/2015, under which she was Resident Director at the National Theatre Studio. Prior to this, she was a Jerwood Assistant Director at the Young Vic.
She has directed theatre and opera for companies including the National Theatre, Royal Opera House, Young Vic, Gate, Soho Theatre, Royal Court, The Yard and Deutsches Theater Berlin. Her work includes Girls (HighTide / Talawa / Soho Theatre), Spooky Action at a Distance (Royal Court / RWCMD / Gate); The Iphigenia Quartet Chorus, The Rise and Shine of Comrade Fiasco (Gate), Stay Another Song, Simpatico (Young Vic), Nanjing (The Yard) and The Lost Ring (NT / Deutsches Theater Berlin).
Writer Laura Lindow, a Scottish playwright / director resident in the region for 20 years, is probably best known for directing Open Clasp’s huge hit Key Change.
Other credits include: Beyond The End of the Road (writer) for November Club; Ghostfish (writer) a reading, developed as an international writers exchange with Live Theatre Newcastle (Live Lab) and Teater Katapult Denmark, Hey Presto by Nadia Shireen (writer of stage adaptation) for New Writing North; The Terrorist’s Guide To Romance (writer) for Alphabetti Theatre; The Important Man (director) for Cap-A-Pie Theatre Co; Preggers (director) for Curious Monkey; Up & Out, Christmas Sprout (writer) for Northern Stage; then LEAP (writer / solo performer) for The Lowry, Ovalhouse, Cheshire Spot On & Lancashire Touring Network; Donna Disco and Brown Bird (director) for Chicken Pox Fox and Heartbreak Soup (writer / director) on tour and at the 2008 Edinburgh Fringe for The Empty Space (Guardian, Pick of the Week, Total Theatre Award nominee).
The composer is Mariam Rezaei, Composer in Residence at the Literary and Philosophical Library, Newcastle, Artistic Director of The Old Police House (and Ensemble) and Bradford Scratch Orchestra.
She was MD for ZENDEH’s Flock, Cinema and Transit, Curious Monkey’s Beats North, Open Clasp’s Jumping Puddles, and Northern Stage’s Here Is The News… and ran music for three shows at Edinburgh Fringe 2015 (Zendeh ‘Cinema’, Northern Stage's Here Is The News.. She composed the music for David Almond’s adaptation of A Song for Ella Grey (Northern Stage), Daniel Bye’s touring one man show Instructions for Border Crossing for Edinburgh Fringe 2017 and Live Theatre's From the Sky to Your Hands.