Company Members
Andrew Gledhill email Andrew
Andrew is a director, performer and musician from Liverpool, who graduated in Theatre, Film and Television from York St John College. He was a founder company member of the masked theatre troupe Les Poulets Espace for three years, performing at Manchester's Royal Exchange Studio and Contact theatres and the Edinburgh Fringe. In 2007 he trained as apprentice theatre director at Liverpool's Hope Street Limited. Since then Andrew has performed with FUSE and People Show as well as in various outdoor/ walkabout productions including Puppet Pool's A Night at the Theatre, Hope Street Ltd's Market of Optimism and as the idiot assistant to the audacious Great Stephano. Andrew directed The Suitcase Ensemble's first studio production Clunk. He is songwriter and musical director for the monthly Edgy Cabaret, and is co-directing the Sound Tracks project.
Tessa Buddle email Tessa
Tessa is a performer and writer working in contemporary performance, community arts and young people's theatre. She graduated in Theatre Studies from Lancaster University in 2006, and went on to train in physical theatre with Hope Street Ltd. Tessa plays Petal in The Suitcase Ensemble's Clunk and is currently directing the monthly Edgy Cabaret. Previous performances include Stephano's Christmas Solutions, an intervention performance for The Living Market and People Show 119: Ghost Sonata, in which she played the ghostly Milkmaid. Tessa also coordinates and delivers participatory arts projects. She was previously Projects Coordinator at young people's theatre company 20 Stories High, and recently worked with Liverpool Lantern Company as Project Manager for the Lord Mayor's Pageant 2010. Tessa is co-directing the Suitcase Ensemble's Sound Tracks project and will also lead the youth theatre at Runcorn's Brindley Theatre from September 2010.
Sam Yates
Sam has been working in popular music and community arts for over fifteen years, touring with companies including Banner Theatre, Red Ladder and M6 and Twisted Nerve band Misty Dixon. More recently Sam trained as a Musical Director and has since worked on projects with Kal Ross, Ian Smith, FUSE Theatre and Hope Street Ltd and is currently writing songs for artists on the Switchflicker Record Label. Sam also runs her own music production company - Eden Songs - and works as a music technology tutor at Blackburne House.
Lauren Taylor
Lauren is a contemporary dance artist trained at Laban BA(Hons) in Theatre Dance. Lauren has taught as Springwood Dance in South Africa and Merseyside Dance and Drama College in Liverpool teaching choreography, Contemporary technique, Ballet and A Level Dance. She is currently completing a MA in Dance Theatre at LIPA with an interest in dance devising and durational performance. Lauren has performed for New Shoes Dance Theatre, Lea Anderson, Joanne Fong and Angela Woodhouse and has choreographed for the Durban dance festival in South Africa.
Julie Langford
Julie is a performer, musician and deviser from Houston, Texas with experience in a variety of performance styles including children's theatre, Shakespeare and improvisation. She trained at Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts (MA Acting) and Sam Houston State University (BFA Musical Theatre) and was a proud member of the 2009 Hope Street Ltd Apprentice Company with whom she performed at Tate Liverpool (Fool Spectrum) and Crosby Beach (About Another Place), as well as in The Big Nosh and other street theatre exploits. Recent credits include The Ballad of Juniper Davy and Sonny Lumiere (Metal), Walking Through Windows (Liverpool Cathedral/ The Everyman), and Half A Person (A Rebours). Julie has also created Border-less, an ongoing participatory art project exploring ideas of geography, love and internationalism.
Finally Julie is, let's face it, the star of the Edgy Cabaret.
Chris Murray
Chris studied performance design at LIPA and became interested in performing, prop making, puppet making, puppeteering, set construction, set painting and stop motion animation. Enjoying all of these things Chris began freelancing and this broadness of scope has allowed him to perform/design for such shows as Front Window (Unity Theatre), Alice in Wonderland (Spike Theatre), The Hungry Caterpillar (TIE tour), the Hallowe'en Lantern Parade (Liverpool Lantern Company), Cover (with Maria Malone) and Alice (Refresh Theatre). Chris regularly performs internationally with FLUKT, a Norwegian site-specific improvised performance project. He recently directed A Night at the Theatre for Liverpool Puppet Pool at Unity Theatre. Chris played Dennis in Clunk and took a lead on the design and build for the show.
Additional artists who have worked with us include:
Mary Cummings
Helen Godfrey
Charlie Mallard
Beth Pinches
Ceri Rimmer
Alice Robinson www.refreshtheatre.co.uk
Clare Robinson
Matt Speddings
Karen McLeod www.karenmcleod.co.uk
Kenny Thomas
Liz Walker www.faultyoptic.co.uk
Laura Yates