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	Biographies

 

Biographies

Guy Holland Carey English

Guy Holland

Founder, Joint Artistic Director and Chief Executive Quicksilver Theatre (1977- present) Introduction After studying Economics and Business Management in Amsterdam (1967/70), Guy began his career in theatre in June 1970 as an actor with the Amsterdam based branch of the New York La Mama Theatre. Since coming to the UK in 1971 his subsequent career has included directing, producing, writing, dramaturgy, company management, teaching drama, play competition adjudicating and lecturing in arts economics, marketing and other subjects relating to theatre. Acting and Writing He has written and co-written more than 24 plays for children, family and adult audiences, as well as producing and/or directing 44 other plays. As an actor he has worked in dozens of stage productions, with companies and individuals including Quicksilver Theatre, Lumiere and Son Theatre Company, Recreation Ground Theatre, First Stage Company, Sidewalk Theatre Company, Fo-Rama Theatre Company, English National Opera, Lindsey Kemp Company, John Caird, Peter Flannery, John Burrows, John Vaccaro and Lamar Alford. On television he has appeared in DR WHO and SPACE 1999 and on radio in an adaptation of John Le Carre’s THE SPY WHO CAME IN FROM THE COLD. April 2004 saw his return to acting after a break of some years, for Quicksilver Theatre's national tour of UPSTAIRS IN THE SKY which has gone on to tour Japan and Dubai. He toured in TEDDY IN HIS RUCKSACK (Spring 2005) a new play for children 5-8 years old and 2006 will see him tour both TEDDY IN HIS RUCKSACK and UPSTAIRS IN THE SKY in tandem on a national tour. Directing, Dramaturgy and Producing In 1977 he founded Quicksilver National Touring Theatre with a remit to explore new writing. Two productions – commissioned, produced and directed by Guy Holland - THE SOUND COLLECTOR by Roger McGough and SINK OR SWIM by Mike Kenny - have been selected as Time Out ‘Best Plays for Children’. In recent years his association with artistic teams at Quicksilver have produced such successes as: THREE SECRETS OF SERENDIP, BEULAH’S BOX, BEDLAM, BRAINPOWER, THE LADY DRAGON’S LAMENT and IDLE POP – all by Nona Shepphard; GRANNY’S BOTTOM DRAWER and NO3 PIED PIPER STREET both by Cheryl Moskowitz; BABY LOVE, ALL BY MY OWN, FRIENDLY FEELINGS, THE MAMAS AND THE PAPAS, UPSTAIRS IN THE SKY and TEDDY IN HIS RUCKSACK (all co-written by Guy Holland and Carey English); LITTLE VICTORIES (winner of the 1994 London Fringe Award and Time Out Best Play for Children, in a co-production with Trestle Theatre Company and retoured by Quicksilver in Autumn 2004), THE GIANT PRINCE (Machiavelli’s The Prince), and THE WITCH’S KITCHEN (Goethe’s Faust) – all by Shaun Prendergast; ONE HUNDRED MILLION FOOTSTEPS (on the Children’s Crusades) by Diane Samuels; MRS WOBBLE THE WAITRESS (from the book by Allan Ahlberg) by Vicky Ireland; WHOSE SHOES and BAG DANCING by Mike Kenny; MR BIFF THE BOXER (from the book by Allan Ahlberg), PROSPERO’S CHILDREN (from Shakespeare’s THE TEMPEST) and SEA OF SILENCE all three by Robin Kingsland, and TALKING WITH ANGELS by Neil Duffield (on the life of Joan of Arc), THE WILD GIRL by John Retallack and FATHERS AND EGGS by Heleen Verburg. He has since directed IDLE POP by Nona Shepphard and the two of Quicksilver's Classic Treasures LITTLE VICTORIES by Shaun Prendergast in 2004 and SINK OR SWIM by Mike Kenny in 2005. Partnership Projects Artistic collaborations, teaching and lecturing have involved Trestle Theatre Company, Vocem Electric Voice Theatre, Sue MacLennan Dance Company, Central St. Martin’s and Wimbledon Schools of Art and Theatre Design, RADA, Anna Scher Theatre, Leicester Haymarket Theatre, Windsor Arts Centre, John Retallack’s company of angels, the poet Roger McGough, the musical director Steve Byrne, the designer and director Philip Engleheart, the directors Ian Rickson, John Wright, Steve Tiplady and Jurgen Flugge (from Germany) - and many other artists in acting, design, puppetry, music, writing, and directing. Quicksilver is currently collaborating on a research and development programme with Tiata Fahodzi. International Projects A visitor to Russia since 1984, he has worked in Moscow and other cities as director, playwright, workshop leader and teacher. In 1999 he directed a workshop production of William Shakespeare’s RICHARD lll for Moscow’s Strela Theatre Company. Also a lecturer on business management in the arts for the Moscow Higher School of Arts Management (1992 and ’93), he is an Honorary Professor there. Funded by the Foreign and Common Wealth Office’s Overseas Development Agency this project was to support the transition to a market economy in the former Soviet Union within the arts sector. Since 1993 he has also been a regular visitor to Japan, where in 1995 he began working for the Company Himawari, initially as a teacher of drama, and subsequently as a director of plays. In 1998 Himawari and Quicksilver collaborated on a Japanese version of BABY LOVE, which was directed by Guy Holland. First presented as part of the UK in Japan Festival and supported by the British Embassy this play was also seen in the UK on tour and at the Royal National Theatre as part of the JAPAN in the UK 2001 festival, supported by The Japan Foundation and the Japanese Embassy. BABY LOVE and UPSTAIRS IN THE SKY have since also been produced in a Spanish version for Gruppo 55 and are touring Mexico. Guy Holland, in 2002, directed a further production of BABY LOVE for the Singapore Repertory Theatre together with a new production of PROSPERO’S CHILDREN. BABY LOVE and UPSTAIRS IN THE SKY have since also been produced in a Spanish version for Grupo 55, and UPSTAIRS IN THE SKY toured festivals in both Japan and Dubai in 2005. Committee and Board Participation and Advocacy Since 1983 Guy has actively been involved in Board participation for several theatre companies, associations, and umbrella organisations, promoting and campaigning nationally and internationally on many issues relating to the advancement of theatre. As a Director of the International Association of Theatre for Children and Young People - ASSITEJ from 1983 to 2003 he has participated in numerous international events and festivals, applying the experience of various artistic expressions encountered to keep Quicksilver on the cutting edge of new developments in theatre in the UK. He is also co-founder and the first Chairman (1983-'91) of the Association of Professional Theatre for Children (APT). Now an Honorary Life Member he again was on its Board (as Vice Chair and Deputy International Representative from 1997 to 2003). He was a member of the Council and the Executive of the DGGB from 1996 to 2003 (Director’s Guild of Great Britain - Treasurer from 1998 -'00 and Vice Chair from 2000-'03 on the Finance and General Purposes Committee) and he was also on the Board for the Spare Tyre Theatre Company (1988 to 2003) as Chairman between 1990 and 1995 and as Treasurer from 1995-03). From 1997 to 2003 he was a Reviewer of Plays for the Arts Council of England Drama Department.

 

Carey English

Joint Artistic Director A founding member of Quicksilver Theatre, Carey graduated from the University of Kent with a degree in English and Sociology. In her early work with Quicksilver she worked as a designer and tour organiser and began to act in 1980. Throughout the eighties she performed in Quicksilver productions, notching up over two thousand performances in a broad range of venues visited by the company over the years, from playgroups to parks, schools, theatre studios and middle scale theatre venues. During this time she became increasingly aware of the great aesthetic learning potential of very young children and felt that the artistic principles guiding Quicksilver should apply equally to this age group as to older children. In 1988, supported by an ACGB bursary, she and Cheryl Moskowitz conducted ground breaking research into theatre for the under- fives, one outcome of which was the first ever national conference to explore this very important subject. Thus she made a pivotal contribution to the nation-wide momentum in this field and continues to do at a national and international level. In the early nineties, in developing her early work for 3-5 year olds, she collaborated with a range of people, each very talented in their own field: GRANNY'S BOTTOM DRAWER with Cheryl Moskowitz and Ian Rickson, PRETEND WE'RE FRIENDS with Robin Kingsland, WHOSE SHOES, a solo show written for her by Mike Kenny, and THE SOUND COLLECTOR with Roger McGough. Since the mid-nineties her work has extended to writing and directing for this age group. MAGIC MIRRORS and FRIENDLY FEELINGS were co-written with Guy Holland, were directed by Carey, and co-produced with the Haymarket Theatre, Leicester. BABY LOVE (dir. Guy Holland) has toured extensively nationally and abroad and has been translated and produced in Mexican Spanish and Japanese. Keen to stay close to her audience, she wrote and performed her one woman play ALL BY MY OWN (dir. Philip Engleheart) in 1998. Her play for 1999/2000, THE MAMAS AND THE PAPAS, was written specifically for children and their parents. For this production she also devised a workshop for parents and children to do together; entitled TWINKLE IN YOUR EYE! it is based on the idea that the adult who can share in the child’s play receives as much power as s/he gives. She became a Millennium Fellow in 2000 when she received a Family Learning Millennium Award to support much of the research and development for the play and workshop. Her artistic and education aims are a) to develop a purer, simpler theatre form, which will have deep resonance with very young children; b) to introduce a new dimension into Creativity in the Early Years, which will enfranchise children and empower teachers to trust that their children can be more creative than they ever could have believed. She is currently working on UPSTAIRS IN THE SKY. This is an interactive project for children aged 3-5 to explore a synthesis of theatre and children’s play. Inspired by her recent Italian trip to the pre-schools of Reggio Emilia and to the theatre companies of the Emilia Romagna region, the play uses ‘open- ended play materials’ as the only props, sets and costumes, which the children get to play with afterwards! Recently she collaborated with Indefinite Articles Theatre on their new show for 3-5 year olds using lots of clay and improvisation. Carey is also is also a primary school governor.

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