The Snow Queen cast

It’s fantastic to be performing again in Bristol, home to two of our cast members: Joey (also Musical Director) and Stefanie (Set and Costume Designer). Make sure you look out for the cast out and about around the city this December and January.

Finally, a big and special welcome to Natisha Williams as this will be her first Christmas show in Bristol.

Introducing…

SAMANTHA SUTHERLAND

Samantha trained at Rose Bruford College.

Theatre credits include – Snow White (with NIE – Polka Theatre) Rapunzel (The Egg) Emilia (Vaudeville) 84 Charing Cross Road (Cambridge Arts Theatre) The Recruiting Officer (Salisbury Playhouse) Arabian Nights (Watermill) Oliver Twist (Bolton Octagon) Beauty and the Beast (with NIE – Tobacco Factory, New York) Falcon’s Malteser (New Old Friends)

Samantha also works as a puppeteer and writer. You can find her children’s story book ‘The Adventures of Oop and Imm’ in the Little Angel Theatre’s online shop.

ALEX MURDOCH

Alex’s acting credits include: Theatr Clwyd, Young Vic, Barbican, BBC, LIFT Festival, Theatre Uncut and Kneehigh. She recently appeared in Dance to the Bone at Sherman Theatre, and Eastenders.

As an improvisor she’s worked with Comedy Store Players and Improbable Theatre – for whom she’s performed in Animo, Permission Improbable and Lifegame – as well as running their Devoted and Disgruntled events for the theatre community.  She has a twoprov duo with Siobhan Casey.

She ran cult indie theatre company Cartoon de Salvo, touring nationally and internationally for 20 years.

As a writer she’s been commissioned by National Theatre Wales and the Royal Shakespeare Company, was 2018 Writer in Residence at Theatr Clwyd and is currently under seed-commission to NTW.

Snow Queen is her fourth NIE show following Around the World in 80 Days, Tales from the Edge of Town and Snow White. Her website is www.alexmurdoch.co.uk

NATISHA WILLIAMS

Natisha is an actor and a dancer specialising in devising and ensemble work.  She trained in Physical Theatre at St Marys University in London graduating in 2019. She is working with Dead Rabbits Theatre Company in The Tiger Lady. The show recently performed at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in August 2022.

JOEY HICKMAN

Joey trained on the Actor Musicianship course at Rose Bruford.

Acting credits include: Brief Encounter (Stephen Joseph, Theatre By The Lake & Bolton Octagon); Assassins (Watermill Theatre); The Snow Queen (NIE & Cambridge Junction); The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (Southwark Playhouse); Snow White (NIE & Tobacco Factory); Icarus (The Wild And The Innocent); We’re Going On A Bearhunt (Lyric Theatre); A Midsummer Nights Dream (Watermill Theatre); A Christmas Carol (Stephen Joseph Theatre); Romeo & Juliet and The School for Scandal (Shakespeare at the Tobacco Factory); Cinderella: A Fairytale (Tobacco Factory & Travelling Light); Made In Dagenham (Queens Theatre & New Wolsey), Thisbe (Door Ajar Theatre); Oliver! (Watermill Theatre); The BFG (Birmingham Rep); I Was A Rat! (Birmingham Rep/ UK Tour); The Snow Spider (Io Theatre Company).

Joey is also a Musical Director, Composer and Arranger. Credits include: Mog: The Forgetful Cat (Wardrobe Ensemble, Royal & Derngate & Old Vic); Beautiful: The Carole King Musical (Leicester Curve & Bath Theatre Royal); The Comedy About A Bank Robbery (Mischief Theatre); The Snow Queen (NIE); Catch That Beast (Bucket Club); Snow White (NIE & Cambridge Junction); A Midsummer Nights (Watermill Theatre); Reasons To Be Cheerful (Graeae); Three Minute Heroes (Belgrade Theatre); The Threepenny Opera (Graeae Theatre/UK Tour); Our House (New Wolsey Theatre/UK Tour).

STEFANIE MEULLER

Born in Switzerland, Stefanie studied at the International Theatre School Jaques Lecoq in Paris. She was Artistic Associate of Hoipolloi Theatre for 25 years working as an actress, director & set-designer. She designed and directed Hoipolloi’s award-winning collaborations with Hugh Hughes. Most recently Stefanie directed Shon Dale-Jones in POSSiBLE for National Theatre Wales and Still Floating

Recent TV includes: Journalist in The Crown; Greta in War of the Worlds 2; Nicole Moreaux in Killing Eve; Erna Richter in Homeland

Recent theatre work includes: The Snow Queen & Snow White for NIE (Tobacco Factory and Cambridge Junction); Factory of the Future, We Know Not What We May Be and Love Letters with Metis Arts (Barbican London, Edinburgh, Oslo, Berlin) Unconditional with ThisEgg (Edinburgh Fringe and UK tour)

For more info please visit: www.stefaniemueller.co.uk

ABAYOMI ONIYIDE

Abayomi studied Drama & Physical Theatre at St Mary’s University Twickenham.  He then went on to tour with his theatre company in London and Slough to perform his devised show called Windrush Square. Abayomi has gone on to do other shows such as, Snow White (Tobacco Factory), Billy Budd (Royal Opera House) and The Tiger Lady(Greenwich Theatre).

CREATIVES

DIRECTOR – ALEX BYRNE

Alex is the Co-Artistic director of New International Encounter (NIE), the company that he founded in 2001.  Alex’s work for New International Encounter has been invited to appear at young audience festivals all over the world and won prizes at numerous international festivals.  He was the director of I Will be EVERYTHING, a show about the future written by 3,000 children from 7 European countries.

He has led theatre workshops in the UK, the Czech Republic, Norway, Poland, Germany, the USA, Japan, Switzerland, China, Denmark, and Bosnia.

ASSISTANT DIRECTOR – SOPHIE COTTLE

Website: www.sophiecottle.com
Twitter: @SophCotts

LIGHTING DESIGNER – TRUI MALTEN

Designed sets, lights and costumes (!) for the first outdoor production after lockdown: Tatlin’s Tower, at the model of the tower behind the Sainsbury Centre in Norwich, directed by Karen Kirkham.

When corona hit, she was preparing Tamerlano for the Cambridge Handel Opera Company, her second design collaboration with director Dionysios Kyropoulos, after Strange Ghost by composer David Earl in 2015. It is scheduled to perform in April 2022.

With NIE she designed the lights for I Will Be Everything, which toured Europe; Snow White, and Beauty and The Beast, which started in Cambridge, toured to the Tobacco Factory in Bristol and the New Victory in NYC as well as Grand Soft Day.

In Palermo Trui collaborated with directors Matteo Bavera & Thea Dellavalle on the production Euthalia by Louisa Stella.

Trui Malten also lights for dance, opera and performance pieces: most recently she premiered Nora and Vera, new ballets choreographed by Stina Quagebeur for the English National Ballet at London’s Saddlers Wells.

She has worked with the artist Caroline Wright on Breath Control, years ago at the Cambridge Junction and in its latest incarnation at the Coronet in London. In Valencia she lit Peter Grimes at the Palau de les Arts, directed by Willy Decker. Together with the performer Adie Mueller, Trui developed and designed My Heart, My Heart, Live Poetry Jukebox, a poetry performance project that is touring the UK.