CREATIVE TEAM
AMANDA NOAR
Director & Producer
I’m a Manchester lass through and through, and that Northern spirit runs right through every challenge that comes my way, especially my passion for new writing. There’s nowt better than being in a room from the ground up, shaping a brand-new show and giving it its first breath.
I’ve worked across theatre, film and TV as a performer, producer, director and choreographer but the most rewarding thing has to be finding the heart of a story and bringing it to life with energy, honesty and a bit of Northern soul.
Recent Directing and Choreographing credits include:
Pippin, Stephen Sondheim’s Road Show; You’re A Good Man, Charlie Brown (London & Shanghai); Sister Act, Working: A Musical, which received rave reviews and a seal of approval from Stephen Schwartz himself.
New directing writing credits include:
Chains (By Francesca Rose) The World Premiere of Moominvalley in November, Golden Door ( www.thegoldendoor.uk ) and Chasing Rainbows (The Road To Oz).
If this sounds like your kind of show and you fancy getting behind something new, bold and proudly Northern, we’d love you to get involved. Give us a hand getting this workshop off the ground and in front of the right people.
PETE GALLAGHER
Book & Lyrics
Pete has spent over four decades as a performer, writer and director, with a career that has taken him from huge West End blockbusters to the furthest corners of the UK and Europe; from the Palladium to Pinewood and everything in between. This is his third project with the brilliant Rob Dowton, and as their first Northern piece, he has loved delving back into his Middlesbrough family roots.
Other writing includes:
Musicals: A Teenage Opera (after the legendary lost ‘Grocer Jack’ project of 1967), Fanny Hill (with Rob Dowton), Feelin’ Good -The Anthony Newley Story, Face2Face (the remarkable friendship between Mr Treves and Joseph Merrick) and The Christmas Shop.
Plays: Dragonfly, The Cryptic Lines (adapted from Richard Storry’s best selling novella), The Brothers Lionheart (based on Astrid Lindgren’s children’s classic), Tongues and What Goes Around.
Recordings: He’s His Own Grandpa and The Black Book, comedy and rock-horror respectively; and children’s book series Gribblum Tales.
Other non-performing credits include:
Directing the first UK tour of Spring Awakening, also Meet at the Ark at Eight, God - The Untold Story, Great Expectations, plus The Addams Family and Just So in Barcelona and Zurich respectively.
TV drama coaching has included Any Dream Will Do for Andrew Lloyd Webber and BBC1, Strictly Come Dancing (BBC1), Gladiators (SKY TV) and Radio 2’s Voice of Musical Theatre.
Aged 25, he took charge of the legendary Corona Academy in London and has since been Head of Drama or Musical Theatre in various vocational establishments.
ROB DOWTON
Music
Not as northern as the other two, but grandad was from Bolton, which isn't much help as this story was written by my grandmother... from Offley (firmly south of the Watford Gap). But hoping I have a rudimentary understanding of how to write a semi-decent tune!
As Musical Director: I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change (Riverside Studios), Lucky Stiff (Guildford School of Acting), Seussical, Legally Blonde, Avenue Q, Betty Blue Eyes, Priscilla, Queen of the Desert and The Addams Family.
Concerts include: Pianist/Arranger for Ria Jones (The Crazy Coqs, residency at The Ivy, London), Rosemary Ashe’s Call Me Merman (Union Theatre and Yvonne Arnaud Theatre, Guildford), choir for Elton John (Royal Albert Hall) and Sondheim at 80 (Royal Albert Hall).
Other credits as Musical Director/Composer include: Fanny Hill (with Pete Gallagher) Cinderella, The Full Monty, Beauty and the Beast, Made In Dagenham, Sister Act.