In This Program

• Show Program
• Stepping Into the Vision of Another
• Hitchcock and Northern California
• Global Security in Hitchcock’s San Francisco
• Who's Who
• Print Edition
• More about A.C.T.

The Cast

Roger Thornhill
Danny Collins

Mrs Townsend & Understudy
Evangeline Dickson

Eve Kendall & Others
Patrycja Kujawska

Valerian & Others (Sep 22–Oct 9)
Simon Oskarsson

The Professor & Others
Katy Owen

Anna & Others
Bryony Pennington

Phillip Vandamm & Others
Karl Queensborough

Valerian & Others (Oct 10–18)
Sam Archer

Stage Management

Company Stage Manager on Book
Helen Lainsbury

Company Manager
Becca Trimbur

Stage Manager
Zoë Mackinnon

Stage Manager
Megan McClintock*

Creative Team

Set and Costume Designer
Rob Howell

Composer and Sound Designer
Simon Baker

Lighting Designer
Malcolm Rippeth

Movement Director, Choreographer and Intimacy Coordinator
Etta Murfitt

Creative Consultant
Mark Kaufman

Fight Director
Kev McCurdy
Associate Director
Laura Keefe

Associate Choreographer
Simon Oskarsson

US General Manager and Tour Booker
Pemberley Productions

Touring Team

Head of Production
Jay Jones

Production Manager
Cath Bates

Technical Director
Jackie Deniz Young

Pemberley Productions

US General Manager
Annie Shea Graney

US General Manager
Doreen Sayegh

US Associate General Manager
Rosie Bross-Rice

Emma Rice Company

Artistic Director
Emma Rice

Executive Director
Poppy Keeling

Creative Director
Simon Baker

Head of Organisation
Steph Curtis

Associate Director and Head of Training
Laura Keefe

Head of Production
Jay Jones

Head of Finance
Ben Parker

Associate Producer
Rhys Bugler

Associate Producer
Sian Weeding

Fundraiser
Helena Price

Emma Rice Company is an Arts Council England National Portfolio Organisation

EMMA RICE BOARD OF TRUSTEES

Alan Brodie, Judith Dimant, Kane Husbands, Simon Inch, Irma Inniss,
Ashutosh Khandekar, Clare Reddington (Chair), Yuko Thomas

This production is made possible by

Season Presenters

Jerome L. and Thao N. Dodson
Robina Riccitiello

Company Sponsors

Jeri Lynn and Jeffrey W. Johnson
The Marymor Family Fund
Anupam and Radhika Singh

Executive Producers

John L. Garfinkle
Kirke and Nancy Sawyer Hasson
Luba Kipnis and David Russel
Elsa and Neil Pering
Nola Yee

Producers

Daniel E. Cohn and Lynn Brinton
Abby and Gene Schnair
Beverly and Loring Wyllie

Associate Producers

Judy and David Anderson
Kay Auciello
John and Terry Levin Family Foundation
James and Marilyn O’Toole
Mr. and Mrs. Tom Perkins
Emmett and Marion Stanton
Wendy M. vanden Heuvel and Bradley L. Coley

Benefactors

Robert H. Beadle
Orrin W. Robinson, III and Brigid S. Barton 
Irving Weissman and Ann Tsukamoto Weissman

Official Hotel Partner

Andy Chan Donald: So Emma, you’ve said that when you look to adapt something for the stage, you “relish tackling the impossible.” What is it about North by Northwest specifically that struck you as something impossible to tackle?

Emma Rice: The whole of North by Northwest is impossible to stage! First of all, it’s a travel movie. And what’s the one thing you can’t do on a stage? Travel! The film is all about changing locations and “sliding doors” moments for Roger Thornhill—this alone needed creative thought and inventive solutions.

But travel is just the start of the delicious problems. How do you take the crop duster sequence and put it on the stage? And Mount Rushmore! How on earth do you do that? North by Northwest is a sequence of impossibilities, which is a wonderful challenge for a theater maker. You have to create a palette of solutions that are beautiful, meaningful and flexible in equal measure.

It’s also an odyssey which is traditionally a “boy’s” story structure—something I have never knowingly done. I’ve always told “women’s” stories but I’ve been around a long time now. I thought it was time to push the boundaries and push my own imagination.

Despite this, I wasn’t willing to leave my feminist credentials at the door. I love and admire Hitchcock as a storyteller but think his treatment of women in many of his films is questionable. Whilst I’m very happy for artists to have complex on and offscreen relationships, I don’t want to be responsible for rehabilitating dodgy dudes. That isn’t what I’m on the planet to do.

With North by Northwest, this was not a problem. In fact it was the opposite. The journey of Eve Kendall is feminist, political, and radical in a genuinely surprising way. She’s the brains and bravery of the outfit, and I’ve loved putting her center stage in my retelling.

Andy: She’s the smartest character in the movie.

Emma: Absolutely the smartest character. That’s part of Hitchcock’s brilliance. He introduces a blonde, we see only a blonde—but actually what she is, who she is is so much more. She’s fearless, surprising, and intellectual. A true role model.

Andy: The North by Northwest screenwriter, Ernest Lehman, said that he liked writing himself into corners that he had to figure out how to write himself out of. And not only was that a useful way for him to work, but it allowed him and the audience to never really get ahead of the story. So did you ever contort yourself into a corner?

Emma: The whole thing was one of the most artistically painful things I’ve ever done. I would say my work is usually 90% emotion, 10% intellect and this brute is 90% intellect—and that meant digging deep to find the emotion. Understanding every scene, working out who knows what and why they’re doing it, was a genuinely hard task for me. There was a funny moment where I believed that I had done it. I’d understood every plot twist in this film—except one. And I thought, “It’s a mistake. Hitchcock and Lehman made one mistake and that’s okay, I forgive them.” I mentioned it in an early rehearsal saying, “I’ve got this down, guys, but there is one error in the film,” and then my lighting designer said, “Oh, no, I think you’ll find there’s a clue about that in scene two.”

Andy: Oh, really?

Emma: Yeah. And it’s true, there isn’t a hole. There isn’t a single hole. Astonishing.

It’s really important that the audience don’t always know what’s happening in a thriller, but as theater makers, we really must understand what’s happening at every stage. Sometimes actors want to play the subtext, but I say “No, no, no, it’s a thriller. You need to play the surface, you need to play the mystery.” I have had to reverse engineer the plot and keep reminding the actors that the audience need to be kept in the dark. 

So yes! Working on this bloody Hitchcock and Lehman puzzle messed with every bit of my mind, heart, and soul—but that’s why I did it. I am at a point in my career where I like to challenge myself. I did, it did, and I loved it.

Andy: Were there any sacred cows in the film that you were committed to maintaining? Or was there any fear of being too faithful or not faithful enough in your adaptation or staging?

Emma: There weren’t a lot of decisions to make on that level. Pretty much everything in this film is a clue, so it’s very hard to edit. For this reason, I think this adaptation remains very true. Obviously, I combined and developed characters to make the theater form work, but you can’t mess with narrative structure. What I did mess with was the emotional palette. And there were riches to find there.

Andy: In his films, Hitchcock used the camera as more than just a delivery system for story. He used it as another character; it had its own personality with all of the cuts and closeups and what he was showing and withholding, and it was a stand-in for us. And you used some theatrical devices—a narrator, music, dance—I would say in a similar way.

Emma: Yes, the narrator. No spoilers but what I can share with you is that a large part of the narrator’s text is from the screenplay, so the wonderful language is mostly Lehman’s own words. Oh, the screen directions are fantastically written. The amount of detailed storytelling made me dribble. When I first got my hands on the screenplay I thought, “This is an absolute treasure trove. I have to use this.” It gave me a wonderful flavour of the ‘50s and an authentically male gaze. This was great fun to play with because the narrator is played by a woman. Hilarious and illuminating.

Andy: While watching the show, I thought, “This is her stand-in for the camera.” He is telling you where to look, but he’s also withholding from you and sometimes tricking you. I wouldn’t suppose it is a stand-in for Hitchcock himself or even Ernest Lehman, but it is the camera.

Emma: The scene in which that observation is absolutely true is the sexy, intimate scene on the train. When you read the screenplay, Lehman and Hitchcock carefully detail where the lens should be and describe the famous complex tracking shot in that scene.  The camera slowly winds and revolves round the two of them—and it’s so sexy. I wanted to keep that intimacy, keep that movement and retain the idea of a lens. One of my favorite bits in the show is when the professor is narrating straight from the screenplay. “Roger nibbles, Roger whispers, Roger breathes into her neck.” It’s all in there, every beat of it. I love the fact that, in the show we have our narrator holding a microphone and watching with binoculars. I’ve literally tried to recreate the job of a film set in that scene.

Andy: Tell me more about the music and dance in the show.

Emma: The music and the dance came from me thinking “This is theater, not film. What can I do that film can’t?” The movie is so stylish, I thought that adding dance could really help conjure that amazing vintage feel. We worked on the style of choreography to achieve this. That pinch of Fosse gives the show the swagger of a Hitchcock film. I might not be able to deliver the amazing wide shots that he could, but my team can smash a virtuosic dance number!

I thought that using found music from the time would bring some welcome showbiz to the production. It also brings emotion as the characters lip sync to tracks that match their character journey. On a simple level, this music anchors us in the time period. Whether you know these songs or you don’t, the genre of music still takes us back; transports us. They remind us of when this film was made, which in turn reminds us that this story is about the Cold War. The music does a lot of soft work for me.

On a more thematic level, I really enjoy that characters are lip-syncing; stepping into the voices of another. The whole film is about what would happen if you got mistaken for someone else? What would happen if you discovered yourself living somebody else’s life? And this, of course, what we do in theater every day—step into the shoes of another. For me, there’s a beautiful bubble of metaphor in this production, a bubble that explores the learning of empathy. Something I feel very passionate about.

Andy: And the fact that you only have seven actors who are playing all of these different parts and that theatrical convention of just putting on a coat and you’re somebody else or have a different accent.

This company is an extraordinary company. And with the demands of this kind of material, you need some tremendous comedic actors, movement-based actors. What do your actors bring to your development of a piece like this? What do you look for when you’re casting about for folks to work with?

Emma: These performers are part of my core company so I’ve worked with most of them many times. My work is built on the collective imagination, so their input is vital to the production. It’s a simple and complex process! I bring a story, I bring why I want to do it, I bring a whole palette of ideas of how I want to do it—and they bring themselves. They bring their experience and their ideas. Ours isn’t a world where I’m telling everybody what to do. No, this is a dialogue and a sharing.

This company of performers that are coming out to A.C.T. are truly exceptional. They often direct themselves, even when I haven’t asked them to. I’ll say, “I’m worried about the logic in the Auction scene” and they go, “Oh, wait a minute, Emma,” and then suddenly they’re organizing themselves into a new solution, a new idea. We call it “making an offer.” Because we have worked together for so long, they know me and they know the piece—therefore their offers will be fantastic. It’s a great deal for me!

But seriously, they’re a really superb cast. They’re all in their prime and they work incredibly hard. They train together, they work out together, and they’re genuinely committed to the show. It’s like watching a team of elite athletes and I feel incredibly lucky. 

Andy: It’s a good workout.

Hitchcock was a notorious control freak, and he was a very vigilant storyboarder. If he comes in and watches the rehearsal of your adaptation, what does he say?

Emma: He says, “Well done, Emma, you’re magnificent.” (Both laugh)

Andy: “You’ve made us proud.”

Emma: In all seriousness, I should think our egos would probably bash up against each other—but we have a lot in common. I’m equally rigorous with my storytelling and my storyboarding and for this reason I think he would appreciate my process in the same way I appreciate his. Oh my goodness, I can’t believe I’m saying this! He’s a master.

Andy: San Francisco was an adopted home for Hitchcock. He made a few films here and then eventually bought a home in the Bay Area. Certainly a lot of your work has found success here on both sides of the Bay. What excites you about coming back here to the Bay Area?

Emma: Whenever we come to the Bay Area, we meet like-minded people. We love it and have made many fantastic friends over the years. There’s a quiet disobedience, a radical joy that not only understands my work, but meets it. I would say the Bay Area is one of my favorite audiences on the planet.. I actually feel that the Bay Area audiences “get” my work better than the Brits do. 

Andy: Yes. The audience here I think prides itself on its adventurousness.

Emma: I think your history means that you understand my subtle anarchy…perhaps my home crowd will never understand me as well as the Bay Area audiences do. In fact I think you might actually be my home crowd! It’s exciting and special to be coming back.

Hitchcock and Northern California

By Mick LaSalle

Don’t let anyone ever tell you that a location can be a character in a movie. To say so is to give into lazy thinking—or to an irrational impulse to quote bad writing. Locations are merely backdrops, places where movies happen. They can help or hurt; they can even be essential, but they can’t talk or feel or experience a journey of the soul.

What they can do is stand there, and be there, and sometimes just doing that can be profound. Case in point, the ideal symbiosis of Alfred Hitchcock and Northern California. In three classic films, the region’s beauty became an impressive, impassive backdrop to the filmmaker’s tales of paranoia and torment. 

Hitchcock and his family moved to the United States in 1939, and a year later he bought a ranch and vineyard in Scotts Valley, a few miles from Santa Cruz. By all accounts he loved it, and he lived there, on and off, for the next 34 years. But as an artist, he couldn’t trust it, because it was in the nature of his art that he couldn’t trust anything. For Hitchcock, ugliness and beauty were equally unsettling, the first for what it showed, the second for what it might conceal.

Hitchcock’s first Northern California film was Shadow of a Doubt (1943), shot and filmed in Santa Rosa. It told the story of Charlie (Joseph Cotten), a suave serial killer, who goes to stay with his unsuspecting relatives, in a place he expects that no one would ever look for him. Much is made of Santa Rosa as the ideal American small town, and there’s some suggestion that the good nature of its inhabitants constitute some form of natural protection.  

But there’s an eerie additional possibility, something proto-Twilight Zone-like about this nice place that makes you think the game was essentially over the moment Charlie got off the train. In the contest between him and Santa Rosa, he never had a chance.

Hitchcock’s San Francisco film, Vertigo (1958), remains such an enduring part of the city’s image of itself that we tend to forget that his presentation of it, at the time, represented a departure from the norm. The San Francisco fog, used to sinister effect, had been a film noir staple in movies such as The Maltese Falcon (1941), Out of the Past (1947), Dark Passage (1947), and Sudden Fear (1952). But in his portrayal of San Francisco, Hitchcock took the opposite approach. His San Francisco is cloudless. Everything is bright and Technicolor, and it’s hard to imagine that a more beautiful city exists.

But that beauty, perfect and impassive, can be cold. It doesn’t react in sympathy with James Stewart, as he slowly loses his mind, certainly not in the way New York City might have. In New York, everywhere he looked, he might have seen someone or something as decaying or forlorn as he was but that would have diminished our appreciation of the depth and uniqueness of his anguish. 

Instead, San Francisco remains beautiful, and watches him, without sympathy or comprehension. It’s a place of 740,000 happy people, plus James Stewart, who is cracking up. 

Hitchcock’s last movie filmed and set in Northern California is outside the pattern of his other two. The Birds (1963), which takes place in Bodega Bay, is not about organized civilization ultimately having its way with an evil or tormented non-conformist. It’s about the breakdown of organized civilization. It’s apocalyptic, made at a time when the apocalypse was a familiar and barely disguised motif in thoughtful cinema. 

Like Michelangelo Antonioni, whose L’Eclisse was released the year before, Hitchcock knew that if you’re going to stage the apocalypse, and you want the audience to feel it, set it in a visually arresting place.

If Hitchcock merely appreciated Northern California, the visions he left of it would not have the persistent power that they retain. He loved Northern California, but feared it, too—for its impassiveness, for what it hid, for its pristine self-sufficiency—and so did what he had to do. He watched it very closely. 

Mick LaSalle is the film critic and emeritus of the San Francisco Chronicle and the author of four books, including Dream State: California in the Movies.

Global Security in Hitchcock’s San Francisco

A North by Northwest-themed walking tour of the city

Above: Geary Theater block, ~1944, courtesy of American Conservatory Theater

Take a deep dive into the themes underlying the journey North by Northwest’s main character embarks on. Visit a San Francisco once gripped by Cold War paranoia and espionage. Explore the machinations of global powers during the founding of the United Nations and traverse the spaces where organizations and individuals were persecuted during McCarthyism’s darkest hours. We also take you through locations near Union Square seen through the eyes of Alfred Hitchcock’s camera lens. 

This 90-minute walking tour, conducted by Shaping San Francisco historians LisaRuth Elliott and Chris Carlsson, will whet your appetite for A.C.T.’s new production of the classic North by Northwest.

Saturday, September 26
11:30am–1pm walking tour
1–2pm lunch break
2pm show

Wednesday, October 7
11:30am–1pm walking tour
1–2pm lunch break
2pm show

Sunday, October 11
10:30am–12pm walking tour
12–1pm lunch break
1pm show 

Ticket Price: $40.00
Tour includes a moderate uphill walk and slightly steeper downhill portion.
To learn more and book a tour, visit act-sf.org/northwest
(Walking tour and North by Northwest tickets must be booked separately.)

About Shaping San Francisco

Serving the City since 1998, Shaping San Francisco is a community history project documenting and archiving overlooked stories and memories of San Francisco. Under the direction of Chris Carlsson and LisaRuth Elliott, Shaping San Francisco presents two seasons of public programming each year including discussions and tours investigating the intersections of San Francisco's long and recent histories—social, cultural, ecological, technological, political, and more. In service of public memory, collaborations with San Francisco Bay Area cultural producers form a part of the year's regular offerings. Shaping San Francisco's digital archive, Foundsf.org, operates as an online historical resource for information on the City's past, and as a participatory space to share one's own memories.

DANNY COLLINS (Roger Thornhill) Danny trained at Millennium Performing Arts. Theatre credits include: Singin’ in the Rain (Manchester Royal Exchange); Titus Andronicus (RSC Swan Theatre); Minority Report (Simon Friend Entertainment); White Christmas (Sheffield Crucible); Rumi (D’reesha Performing Arts Festival, Doha); Tammy Faye (Almeida Theatre); 101 Dalmatians (Regents Park Open Air Theatre); Gypsy (Alexander Palace); South Pacific (Chichester Festival Theatre); Sweet Charity (Nottingham Playhouse); Barnum (Menier Chocolate Factory); Oklahoma! BBC Proms (Royal Albert Hall); 42nd Street (Théâtre du Châtelet); Frank Schultz in Show Boat (Sheffield Crucible & Gillian Lynn Theatre); Kiss Me Kate BBC Proms (Royal Albert Hall); Dry Write’s Dance: Radio (Roundhouse); On The Town (Théâtre du Châtelet Paris & The London Coliseum); Sinatra (UK Tour); and The Wizard of Oz (Southampton Mayflower). TV and Film credits include: A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms (HBO); Cats (Working Title Films); and Curfew (Sky One). Dance credits include: Jekyll in Jekyll & Hyde (Old Vic- Nominated for “best male performance—modern” National Dance Awards); Drunk (Bridewell Theatre); Romeo & Juliet; Early Adventures; The Car Man; George Monroe; Edward Scissorhands; Sleeping Beauty; Play without words; Fritz in Nutcracker!; Cinderella; and Swan Lake (New Adventures).

EVANGELINE DICKSON (Mrs Townsend & Understudy; Assistant Director) Evangeline trained at Mountview. Evangeline has previously completed the Wise Children Training Programme Residency. Other work with Emma Rice Company includes: North by Northwest (UK Tour). Her other theatre credits include: The Owl Who Came For Christmas (MAC/Leicester Curve); A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Theatre In The Forest); Pinocchio and The Tale of Mr Tod (Red Rose Chain/The Avenue Theatre); Around the World in 80 Days (Barn Theatre); Speed Dial (The Pleasance Theatre); Macbeth and A Midsummer Nights Dream (The Young Shakespeare Company); Doctor Who: Time Fracture (West End); and Jeff Wayne’s The War of the Worlds (Immersive Everywhere/BBC). Her television work includes: Did Someone Happen To Mention Me? and Crooked House (Netflix); and The Halcyon (ITV).

PATRYCJA KUJAWSKA (Eve Kendall & Others) Patrycja trained at the Academy of Music, Poland. Previous work with Emma Rice Company includes: Wise Children (Old Vic and UK tour); Bagdad Café (Old Vic); Blue Beard (UK tour); The Little Match Girl and Happier Tales (The Lucky Chance) and North by Northwest. Previous work with Emma Rice includes: Tristan and Yseult (UK and US tour); Dead Dog In A Suitcase (UK tour and Shanghai); The Wild Bride (UK and US tour); The Red Shoes (UK and US tour); Don John (RSC); The Tin Drum; Midnight’s Pumpkin; 946: The Amazing Story of Adolphus Tips (Shakespeare’s Globe and UK and US tour). Other theatre includes: Cyrano; The Grinning Man and The Nutcracker (Bristol Old Vic), Broken Chords (UK and US tour); Motherland (UK and US tour); Drop Dead Gorgeous; Let The Mountains Lead You To Love; Punk Drunk; Fairy Tale; Test Run and If We Go  On and Underwood (Vincent Dance Theatre); The Killing of Sister George (Told By An Idiot and New Vic); The New Real (RSC) and Macbeth (Tobacco Factory). Other work includes: Je Suis Carl- voice over Netflix/Violet Studios in Poland: City Theatre in Gdynia, Dada Von Bzdulow.

SIMON OSKARSSON (Valerian & Others, Sep 22–Oct 9; Associate Choreographer) Simon is from Nybro in Sweden. Previous work with Emma Rice Company includes: A Child’s Christmas in Wales (The Lucky Chance); and North by Northwest (UK tour). Theatre includes: Dear Evan Hansen (2Enterain/ Intiman Teatern), Hadestown (Lyric Theatre); The Book Thief (Leicester Curve/Belgrade Coventry); Robin Hood The Legend. Rewritten (Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre);  Claus – The Musical (The Lowry, Manchester); 101 Dalmatians (Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre); Assassins (Watermill Theatre/Nottingham Playhouse); Kärlek Skonar Ingen (Gothenburg Opera House—GöteborgsOperan); A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre); Julia Capulet (Lilla Beddinge Teater); Kiss Me Kate (Sheffield Crucible); Ögonblick (LDMG Scholarship Residency); To Paint The Earth (Southwark Playhouse); and Return To The Forbidden Planet (Upstairs at the Gatehouse). Film includes: Unity Of Opposites (Short Film—FANGO Produktion, FILM I VÄST); and 03:03 (Short Film—tretvåfilm). Television includes: So Awkward (CBBC); This Time (Feature film); Olivier Awards 2024 (ITV); BIG Night Of Musicals (BBC1); Lotta På Liseberg (TV4); The National Television Awards 2019(ITV); Comic Relief (BBC1).

KATY OWEN (The Professor & Others) Katy is from Cardiff and trained at the Royal Welsh College Of Music and Drama. Previous work with Emma Rice Company includes: A Child’s Christmas in Wales (The Lucky Chance); North by Northwest (UK tour); The Little Match Girl and Happier Tales (The Lucky Chance); Wise Children (Old Vic and UK tour); and Wuthering Heights (Bristol Old Vic, National Theatre and UK tour, US tour and The Holland Festival). Previous work with Emma Rice includes: Twelfth Night (Shakespeare’s Globe); 946: The Amazing Story of Adolphus Tips (Shakespeare’s Globe and UK and US tour); A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Shakespeare’s Globe); Rebecca (UK tour); and The Little Match Girl and Happier Tales (Shakespeare’s Globe and UK tour and The Lucky Chance). Other theatre includes: UBU karaoke! (Kneehigh); The Night Before Christmas (Chapter Arts Centre); Apparitions of Spirits with the Forsythe Sisters (Gaggle Babble); Maudie’s Rooms (Sherman Theatre); The Little Match Girl (Theatr Iolo) and Plum – And Me, Will, Cinders (Sherman Cymru); David Copperfield (Riverside Theatre). Film includes: Cyrano (MGM/ Working Title / Mestiere Cinema), Daddy’s Girl and Princess and Peppernose. Television includes: Casualty and The Story of Tracey Beaker.

BRYONY PENNINGTON (Anna & Others) Bryony trained at the Rambert School of Ballet and Contemporary Dance, where they received the Charlotte Kirkpatrick Award. Work in theatre includes Les Liaisons Dangereuses (The National Theatre). Work in dance includes Juliet in Romeo and Juliet; The Car Man; The Midnight Bell; The Red Shoes and Swan Lake (Matthew Bourne’s New Adventures); Until the Lions (Opéra national du Rhin Ballet); Cosmic Yoghurt (Impermanence); Dance With Whoever You F***king Want To (Stuart Winter); Phantoms tour (Mark Bruce Company); Bayadère – The Ninth Life (Shobana Jeyasingh Dance); Crisi and Extremalism (Ballet National de Marseille); and The London Jazz Music Festival (GoGo Penguin Lynne Page at Barbican). As Associate Choreographer include: The Book Thief in concert (Southbank Centre); and Dance With Whoever You F***king Want To (Stuart Winter). Dance films include: (Don’t) Say My Name, Water Hymn, Silent Spaces (also as co-choreographer), The Shipping Forecast (as Assistant Director and choreographer); Fund Freelance Dance; Contagion (BBC); Moving Southwark and Moving London.

KARL QUEENSBOROUGH (Phillip Vandamm & Others) Karl trained at Royal Central School of Speech & Drama (in ‘Collaborative & Devised Theatre’). Previous Work with Emma Rice Company: North by Northwest (UK tour). Previous work with Emma Rice includes: The Little Match Girl and Happier Tales (Shakespeare’s Globe and UK tour). Other theatre includes: Alexander Hamilton in Hamilton (Victoria Palace Theatre); Sylvia and Girl From The North Country (Old Vic); The Rite Of Spring with Aurora Orchestra (Royal Albert Hall/Southbank Centre); White Teeth & A Wolf In Snakeskin Shoes (Kiln Theatre); The Big Life (Stratford East); Lady M (1862 Fashion Arts Theatre, Shanghai); Aladdin and Cinderella (Lyric Hammersmith); Sleeping Beauty (Norwich Theatre Royal); The Machine Stops (York Theatre Royal); Only The Brave (Millennium Centre); A Midsummer Night’s Dream (HOME Manchester); Morning (Traverse Theatre Edinburgh). Film includes: Between Sundays (The Way Studios) ‹The Talent› (streaming on Disney Plus); Denzel (Mixing Productions); Pragma (Silver Rose Productions); Malison, Alive In Their Garden, Marloo, I Don’t Need The Badge; Leroy (Hazey Jane Films); Number 13 (Lions Tooth Productions); Off Beat, Sex Lies & DVDs (BBC). Television includes: The Crown (Netflix); Enterprice (BBC Three); Casualty (BBC); Misfits (Channel 4). (Amazon Prime series to air in Autumn 2026). Other work includes: Voiceover credits (Gaming): Crimson Desert; Baldur’s Gate 3 (which was voted game of the year 2023); Warhammer 40,000: Space Mariner II, Harmony: The Fall Of Reverie; Expeditions: Rome, Red Solstice 2: Survivors; Spellforce 3: Fallen God, Blood & Truth (PlayStation 4); Radio/Audio includes: Heathcliffe (Audible): The Ballad Of Anne & Mary (Long Cat Media); The Rez (Whistledown Productions); Passenger List (BBC); Outta The Books (Story Songs), Carlton Hobbs Runner up award; Black Dog (BBC). Workshops: One Day (Musical): Sherlock Holmes (Regents Park): Thelma & Louise (Young Vic): To The Streets (National Theatre); Bronco Billy Musical; Things I Know To Be True/ Artemis Fowl (Frantic Assembly); A Changing World (Elliot & Harper); Gobble Gobble Gobble Goblin (Old Vic); workshops with Sonia Friedman & also Max Webster.

SAM ARCHER (Valerian & Others, Oct 10–18) Sam received a 1st Class (Hons) Degree at Bird College in Kent. Previous work with Emma Rice Company includes: Wuthering Heights (UK tour, US tour, Amsterdam Festival & Sydney and Asia tour); Bagdad Cafe (Wise Children/The Old Vic); Wise Children (Old Vic/UK Tour). Other theatre work includes: The Happy Prince (The Place); An Ideal Husband (Vaudeville Theatre); Wonder.land (National Theatre/Theatre de Chatalet); La Boheme (Royal Albert Hall); Arthur Pita’s Metamorphosis (Joyce Theatre, NY); Wind in the Willows (Linbury Studio Theatre); Chariots of Fire (Hampstead Theatre/Gielgud Theatre); Earthquakes in London (UK Tour); Oklahoma! (Chichester); Mary Poppins (UK Tour); We Will Rock You (Dominion Theatre); and Oliver! (London Palladium). For Matthew Bourne’s New Adventures: Romeo & Juliet, Lord of the Flies; Swan Lake, Cinderella; The Car Man; Play Without Words; The Red Shoes; and Edward Scissorhands. Screen includes: Humans (Kudos/C4); Mr Selfridge (ITV); Allied (Paramount Pictures); and Disney’s Muppets Most Wanted; Life is a Buffet.

EMMA RICE (Adaptor and Director) Emma Rice is the proud Artistic Director of her company, Emma Rice Company, and an internationally respected theatre-maker and director. For Emma Rice Company, Emma has adapted and directed the productions A Child’s Christmas in Wales, North by Northwest, The Buddha of Suburbia, Blue Beard, The Little Match Girl and Happier Tales, Wuthering Heights, Bagdad Cafe, Romantics Anonymous, Enid Blyton’s Malory Towers and Angela Carter’s Wise Children. As Artistic Director of Shakespeare’s Globe: Romantics Anonymous, Twelfth Night, A Midsummer Night’s Dream and The Little Matchgirl (and Other Happier Tales). As joint Artistic Director of Kneehigh: The Flying Lovers of Vitebsk, Tristan & Yseult, 946: The Amazing Story of Adolphus Tips, The Wild Bride, The Red Shoes, The Wooden Frock, The Bacchae, Cymbeline (in association with RSC), A Matter of Life and Death (in association with National Theatre), Rapunzel (in association with Battersea Arts Centre); Brief Encounter (in association with David Pugh and Dafydd Rogers Productions); Don John (in association with the RSC and Bristol Old Vic); Wah! Wah! Girls (in association with Sadler’s Wells and Theatre Royal Stratford East for World Stages); and Steptoe and Son. Emma received the Outstanding Contribution to British Theatre award at the 2019 UK Theatre Awards and in 2022 was named one of Sky Arts’ “50 most influential British artists of the last 50 years.” Emma recently won Best Direction at the 2025 Whatson Stage awards.

ROB HOWELL (Set and Costume Designer) Rob has worked extensively at the National Theatre, Royal Court, Old Vic, Almeida, Donmar, Young Vic, Bristol Old Vic, Chichester, Royal Opera House, Metropolitan Opera, Westend and on Broadway. Theatre includes: Mary Page Marlowe (Old Vic), The Hills of California (West End and Broadway), Juno and the Paycock (Westend), Matilda the Musical (also costume designer for the 2022 film), Little Eyolf, Richard III, The Family Reunion (Royal Shakespeare Company); Eureka Day, Lungs, Present Laughter, Dr. Seuss’s The Lorax, The Caretaker, The Master Builder, Future Conditional, A Flea in Her Ear, Inherit the Wind, Speed-the-Plow, Complicit, OLD VIC: IN CAMERA – A Christmas Carol, Faith Healer, Lungs (The Old Vic), A Christmas Carol, The Norman Conquests, Groundhog Day (The Old Vic/Broadway). He has won three Olivier Awards for Set Design, including for Matilda the Musical (RSC/West End/Broadway/International tour) for which he also won a Tony Award. He won two Tony Awards for The Ferryman in 2019 (Royal Court/West End/Broadway) for Best Set and Best Costume Design and 2 Tony Awards for A Christmas Carol in 2021 (The Old Vic/Broadway) also for Best Set Design and Best Costume Design.

SIMON BAKER (Composer and Sound Designer) Simon has designed sound (and video) for all of Emma Rice Company’s shows: A Child’s Christmas in Wales; The Buddha of Suburbia; The Little Matchgirl and Happier Tales (The Lucky Chance); Blue Beard (UK & International tour; Wuthering Heights (UK & US tour and The Holland Festival); Bagdad Café (Old Vic); Romantics Anonymous (Bristol Old Vic); Malory Towers (UK tour) and Wise Children (UK tour). He also worked with Emma on productions for Kneehigh Theatre including Brief Encounter (Worldwide). Other recent theatre credits include: One Day (Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh & Melting Pot); Juno & The Paycock (Gielgud), The Artist (Plymouth Theatre Royal), The Constituent (Old Vic)Hamnet (Garrick Theatre); Groundhog Day (The Old Vic, Broadway); The Secret Life of Bees (Almeida Theatre); Hex (National Theatre); A Christmas Carol (The Old Vic, Broadway); Woman In Mind (Chichester Festival Theatre); Girl From The North Country (Old Vic, West End, Broadway, UK & Ireland Tour); Faith Healer, Three Kings, Lungs, Present Laughter, The Caretaker, The Master Builder, Future Conditional, High Society (Old Vic); Standing At The Sky’s Edge (Sheffield Theatres); and Matilda The Musical (Worldwide). Alongside his design work, Simon is Creative Director for Emma Rice Company and an Associate Artist at The Old Vic and a Fellow of the Guildhall School of Music & Drama. Simon is the proud recipient of an Olivier Award for his work on Matilda The Musical, a Tony Award for his work on A Christmas Carol and a Stage Award for Digital Innovation for his work at Emma Rice Company during the COVID pandemic.

MALCOLM RIPPETH (Lighting Designer) Malcolm’s work in theatre, dance and opera can be seen throughout the UK and worldwide. He has been working with Emma Rice for over twenty years, on shows including A Child’s Christmas in Wales, Malory Towers, The Little Match Girl and Happier Tales, Blue Beard (Emma Rice Company); Brief Encounter (West End and Broadway); The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (West End); The Empress (RSC); Romantics Anonymous (Shakespeare’s Globe); Wise Children (Old Vic); The Red Shoes, Tristan & Yseult, The Wild Bride (Kneehigh) and Orpheus in the Underworld (English National Opera). Other recent shows include My Brilliant Friend (National Theatre); Captain Corelli’s Mandolin, Songs for Nobodies (West End); Titus Andronicus (RSC); The Gretchen Question (Fuel); Hamlet (Bristol Old Vic); Betty! A Sort of Musical (Manchester Royal Exchange); Sputnik Sweetheart (Arcola); The Mirror Crack’d (Mumbai); 1923 Muzikali (Zorlu Center Istanbul); Klangwolke (Donaupark Linz); Future Cargo (Requardt and Rosenberg); The Becoming (balletLORENT); The Wreckers (Glyndebourne); Pleasure (Opera North); Breaking the Waves (St Gallen); Stiffelio (Strasbourg); Hercules (Karlsruhe); The Turn of the Screw (Garsington); War & Peace (Welsh National Opera); Der Rosenkavalier (Irish National Opera); Madama Butterfly (Oper Graz) and Rusalka (Santa Fe Opera). He has received a Village Voice OBIE and WhatsOnStage Award and been nominated for Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle and New York Drama Desk Awards for their work.

ETTA MURFITT (Movement Director, Choreographer and Intimacy Coordinator) Etta is Associate Artistic Director of Matthew Bourne’s New Adventures and has performed and collaborated on many shows which include Nutcracker, Swan Lake, Cinderella, Edward Scissorhands and most recently Romeo and Juliet and Midnight Bell. Etta has worked with Emma Rice and Mike Shepherd for Kneehigh theatre in many shows and these include Wild Bride, The Flying Lovers of Vibsek, 946, Dead Dog in a Suitcase and Tim Drum. Choreography credits include: The Unbelievers (Royal Court Theatre): Choreographic Associate for Oliver! (Chichester Festival Theatre); The Buddha of Suburbia (Royal Shakespeare Company/Wise Children & Barbican); Blue Beard (Wise Children UK Tour); Wuthering Heights (National Theatre/US Tour); Bagdad Café (Old Vic); Wise Children (Old Vic & UK Tour); Romantics Anonymous (Bristol Old Vic/Sam Wanamaker Theatre); Orpheus in the Underworld (English National Opera); A Clockwork Orange (Everyman & Playhouse); The Tin Drum (Kneehigh Theatre/UK Tour), Much Ado About Nothing and A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Shakespeare’s Globe), Le Nozzedi Figaro (Holland Park Opera), The Way of the World (Wilton’s Music Hall), The Infernal Galop (Images of Dance / Sarasota Ballet), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Albery Theatre), Umbrellas of Cherbourg (Kneehigh Theatre Co. / Leicester Curve and Gielgud Theatre), Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead (Chichester Festival Theatre/ Haymarket Theatre), Wild bride and Midnights Pumpkin (Kneehigh Theatre Co./ Asylum Tent Cornwall), Travesties (Birmingham Rep), Sleeping Beauty (Birmingham Rep). As Associate Director and Performer for AMP/New Adventures: Romeo & Juliet; Sleeping Beauty; The Midnight Bell; The Red Shoes; Romeo & Juliet; Sleeping Beauty; Cinderella (Original London and LA productions); Dorian Gray; Edward Scissorhands and Nutcracker!  Ettaalso originated roles in Nutcracker (Opera North and Sadler’s Wells); The Car Man (Old Vic); Swan Lake (Sadler’s Wells, West End, LA & Broadway); Highland Fling (Donmar Warehouse & UK tours); The Infernal Galop; The Percy’s of Fitzrovia; Deadly Serious and Town & Country. TV & Film credits include Nutcracker (BBC/NVC), The Car Man (Channel 4), Cinderella (South Bank Show, ITV), Swan Lake (BBC), Late Flowering Lust (BBC), Roald Dahl’s Red Riding Hood (BBC), Mrs Hartley and the Growth Centre (BBC), Storm (Aletta Collins / BBC), Swan Lake 3D (Sky Arts).

MARK KAUFMAN (Creative Consultant) Warner Bros. Theatre Ventures, under the supervision of Executive Vice President & Managing Director Mark Kaufman, is represented on Broadway by the Tony–winning Best Musical The Outsiders; Good Night, and Good Luck; and Real Women Have Curves.  The Tony nominated musical Beetlejuice is currently on national tour.  Previously, the division produced the Broadway productions of Beetlejuice, the Olivier-winning musical Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Stephen King’s Misery and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time as well as the original productions of Elf and Hairspray.  Upcoming projects: Crazy Rich Asians, Dog Day Afternoon, The Lost Boys.

KEV MCCURDY (Fight Director) Kev is an Equity Registered Fight Director. He is also the Fight Instructor at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama as well as the Co-Founder, a Fight Examiner and Senior Stage Combat Tutor of the Academy of Performance Combat (APC).  He works in a wide range of disciplines across film, television, and theatre. Previous work with Emma Rice Company includes; The Buddha of Suburbia; Blue Beard (UK & International tour; Wuthering Heights (UK & US tour and The Holland Festival); and Malory Towers (UK tour). Theatre credits include: Les Misérables (Sondheim Theatre & UK Tour); Miss Saigon (Prince Edward, UK and European tour); O Island, Ivy Tiller: Squirrel Killer, The Tempest (RSC); Frankenstein, Hamlet, Let The Right One In (Royal Exchange, Manchester); Anthony & Cleopatra, Mosquitoes, Barbershop Chronicles, Othello (National Theatre); Eyam, Love’s Labour’s Lost, The Taming Of The Shrew (Shakespeare’s Globe); Billy Elliot (Curve); Glory (The Dukes, Lancaster & UK tour); The Comedy About A Bank Robbery (UK Tour); Sylvia, Jitney (Old Vic); Hamlet, The House of Shades (Almeida); Fairview, Mandela (Young Vic); The Wife of Willesden (Kiln); Bajazet (Irish National Opera Tour & Royal Opera House); Moreno (Theatre 503); Guardians Of The Galaxy (Secret Cinema); Red Pitch (The Bush Theatre); Marys Seacole, Trouble In Butetown (Donmar Warehouse); Sister Act (UK tour & Eventim Apollo); The Colour Purple (UK tour). Film includes: The Lady of Heaven; Season Of The Witch; John Carter Of Mars; Journey’s End; Kenya; Canaries; Carmilla. Television includes: Eastenders; The A List; Hetty Feather; Hollyoaks; Pobol Y Cwm; Keeping Faith; Craith/Hidden; 4Stories; The Story of Tracy Beaker; Y Golau.

LAURA KEEFE (Associate Director) Previous work with Emma Rice Company includes: A Child’s Christmas in Wales (The Lucky Chance), The Buddha of Suburbia; The Little Match Girl and Happier Tales (The Lucky Chance); Blue Beard (UK tour), Wuthering Heights (UK and US tours, The Holland Festival & Sydney and Asia tour); Bagdad Café (Old Vic); Romantics Anonymous (Bristol Old Vic) and Malory Towers (UK tour). Other work as Director includes: Wildfire Road (Sheffield Theatres); The Christmas Goblin (Marlowe Theatre); One Million Tiny Plays About Britain and Robin Hood (Watermill Theatre); Parakeet (Boundless Theatre); Dennis of Penge (Albany Theatre/Ovalhouse); The Ladykillers of Humber Doucy Lane (Eastern Angles) and My Beautiful Black Dog (Roundhouse/Southbank Centre). Previous work as Staff Director includes: As You Like It (The National Theatre); Brief Encounter (West End); A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Regent’s Park); Feast (The Young Vic); The Two Gentlemen of Verona and Romeo and Juliet (Shakespeare’s Globe). Laura is Head of Training for Emma Rice Company and a Creative Associate at The Northwall, Oxford.

ANNA SOUTER (Touring Head of Wardrobe) is a freelance Designer & Maker, having graduated with a BA (Hons) in Theatre and Performance Design from the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts in 2014. She worked as Head Of Wardrobe for Emma Rice Company’s UK Tour of North by Northwest in 2025. Credits include Taking The Piste (The Royal Court Liverpool, May 2026), The Wizard of Oz (Theatre By The Lake, Dec 2025), Syncopated (Liverpool Playhouse Theatre, Sept 2025), Hushabye Mountain (Hope Mill Theatre Manchester, May 2021), Our Lady of Blundellsands (Everyman Theatre Liverpool, March 2020), Miracle On 34th Street: The Musical (Liverpool Playhouse Theatre, Dec 2019), Sweeney Todd (Everyman Theatre Liverpool, May 2019) Spymonkey’s A Christmas Carol (Liverpool Playhouse Theatre, Dec 2018), Repertory Company Seasons (Everyman Theatre Liverpool, Jan-June, 2017/2018), Celtic the Musical (The Pavillion Theatre Glasgow, Sept 2018), The Hound of The Baskervilles (Liverpool Playhouse Theatre, Dec 2017).

EMMA RICE COMPANY (Producer) is a theatre company created and led by multi-award-winning director, Emma Rice. Founded in 2018 we are an Arts Council England National Portfolio organisation. From our home in Somerset, we make groundbreaking work with exceptional artists and tour across the UK and internationally. Our home, The Lucky Chance, is in Frome, Somerset. Originally a 1900s Methodist Church, we transformed The Lucky Chance into our creation space and a tiny theatre in which to welcome audiences of all shapes and sizes. The Lucky Chance opened to the public for the very first time in December 2023 with Emma Rice’s production of The Little Match Girl and Happier Tales. Emmaricecompany.co.uk; IG @emmaricecompany

PEMBERLEY PRODUCTIONS (US General Management and Tour Bookers) Theatrical producers, GMs, tour enthusiasts—bringing international theatre to the US. Transparent, thoughtful, dynamic. People first. Highlights: Emma Rice’s Wuthering Heights (US Tour); Kim’s Convenience (US Tour); Heathers The Musical (Off-Broadway); RSC’s Hamnet (US Tour); The Woman in Black (McKittrick Hotel Off Broadway, across the US); The Secret Garden (CTG); National Theatre’s An Inspector Calls (US Tour); The Last Ship (starring Sting, US Tour); Elizabeth McGovern’s Ava: The Secret Conversations (Off Broadway, US, and Canada). More at pemberleyproductions.com.

HELEN LAINSBURY (Company Stage Manager on Book) is a Liverpool, UK based Stage Manager for theatre and live events. Recent theatre credits include: Breakin’ Convention (Hip Hop Dance Theatre UK and Hong Kong tours), Private Lives (Manchester Royal Exchange), Cinderella (Shakespeare North Playhouse), Romeo and Juliet (Liverpool Everyman) and Boys From The Blackstuff (National Theatre and The Garrick in London’s West End). Helen is delighted to be continuing on North by Northwest in the US, after completing the UK Tour as Stage Manager in 2025.

BECCA TRIMBUR (Company Manager) is thrilled to be joining the North by Northwest team for the US tour! Born and raised in Northern Kentucky, she has spent most of her career in company management at regional theatres in the U.S. She could not do this without the unwavering support of her friends and family. US Tour: Kim’s Convenience. Regional: Capital Repertory Theatre (NY), Florida Repertory Theatre (FL), Actors Theatre of Louisville (KY). Summer stock: Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival (PA), Williamstown Theatre Festival (MA).

ZOË MACKINNON (Stage Manager) Previously for Emma Rice Company: North by Northwest (UK Tour). Credits as Stage Manager: Cable Street (New York and Marylebone Theatre) From the Heart (Fortune Theatre), I Was A German (Zoo Southside, Edinburgh), Bury the Hatchet (The Pleasance, Edinburgh), Paraorchestra: The Virtuous Circle (Southbank Centre), The Brief Life and Mysterious Death of Boris III, King of Bulgaria (UK Tour, New York and Edinburgh). Credits as Assistant Stage Manager: A Sherlock Carol (Marylebone Theatre), 23.5 Hours (Park Theatre), I’m Gonna Marry You Tobey Maguire (Southwark Playhouse), Cable Street (Southwark Playhouse) Pandemonium (Soho Theatre), Once on This Island (Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre).

MEGAN MCCLINTOCK* (Stage Manager) Resident Stage Manager Megan McClintock’s favorite A.C.T. credits include Co-Founders, Big Data, A Whynot Christmas Carol, The Wizard of Oz, Wakey Wakey, A Walk on the Moon, Between Riverside and Crazy, A Little Night Music, and Indian Ink. Other Bay Area credits include productions at Berkeley Repertory Theatre, California Shakespeare Theater, The Curran, Aurora Theatre Company, and Marin Theatre Company. Regionally she has worked at St. Ann’s Warehouse, La Jolla Playhouse, Chicago Shakespeare Theater, McCarter Theatre Center, and Arena Stage. She has a BA in theater and history from Willamette University.

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