Last Orders Cast Jan 2011

Cast

Crystal Francesca Waite

Michelle Sarah McDonald Hughes

Robbie Ted Holden

Ste Martin Gibbons

Craig Daniel Fitzsimons

Stan James Harris

Director: Martin Gibbons

Assistant Director: Francesca Waite

Stage Manager: Miriam Ainsworth

Francesca Waite: Francesca’s credits for Monkeywood include Donna in Maine Road, Crystal in Last Orders, Jenna in A Song for the Lovers and Janet and the infamous Rabbit in Coach G. She has just performed in Steph Riding’s National Express, as part of The Library Theatre’s Re:Play Festival 2011. She has appeared in Verbally Challenged at The Contact Theatre and prior to that as a villager in The Kirov Ballet’s production of Don Quixote at The Lowry. Francesca toured the north east with Team Players Theatre in Education Company and has appeared in several short films for Shameless Films, including the title roles in Nona Transvaal and Avril Tungsten. Francesca’s writing work includes On Standby for Verbally Challenged at The Contact Theatre and Silent Movie for BBC Learning & Libra Television.

Sarah McDonald Hughes: Sarah is an actor and writer from Manchester. For Monkeywood, she has appeared in numerous productions including Closer, Coach G, A Song for the Lovers, Last Orders and Maine Road. Sarah’s other recent acting work includes Be My Baby and A Taste of Honey for Northface Theatre; Love Shaped Thing, Maine Road and Caligari for BBC Radio; Night Train and A Million Shades of Pink for Action Transport Theatre; Come Back for Vita Nova Films and Somebody’s Son at the Lawrence Batley Theatre, Sheffield Lyceum & Library Theatre Manchester. On TV Sarah has appeared in Hollyoaks and numerous commercials. 

Sarah is co-artistic director of Monkeywood Theatre and has written a number of plays for them, including A Song for the Lovers (The Lowry, 2008), Last Orders (Royal Exchange Studio, 2009) and Maine Road (National Tour 2010). She has collectively written a number of plays for Action Transport Theatre including Night Train and Scratches in the Earth. She also wrote The Tree, a short play for children which was produced as part of Action Transport’s Croak project and subsequently shortlisted for Theatre Centre’s Adrienne Benham Award in 2009. A radio version of Maine Road was highly commended in the Alfred Bradley Bursary Award 2009 and produced by the BBC in 2009, featuring Sarah as Jade. Sarah is currently part of the Royal Exchange’s new writing project The Twelve, and was recently commissioned to write a play for Paines Plough’s national project, Come to Where I’m From, which was produced at the Royal Exchange in 2010. Sarah is also part of Vision and Media’s ‘Drafted’ scheme, working with industry professionals to develop an original feature film screenplay.

Ted Holden: Ted trained at The University of Salford, graduating in 2002 with a BA Honours in Performing Arts. Ted has previously worked with Monkeywood in Last Orders, as part of the Royal Exchange Theatre’s sell-out PUB season. His most recent stage appearance was as ‘Jay’ in the M.E.N. Award Winning new play Lub You at The Octagon, Bolton and The Young Vic, London. Ted has also appeared as ‘Smiler’ in Chips With Everything and ‘Edward’ in Someone Who’ll Watch Over Me at The Lowry, Salford Quays. Some of Ted’s extensive television credits include – The Secret Diaries of Miss Anne Lister, Coronation Street, Life of Riley, Heartbeat, EarlyDoors, The Royal and the ITV drama Dead Clever.

Martin Gibbons: Martin is one of the Artistic Directors of Monkeywood. He directed the recent production of Maine Road and will be directing the upcoming Once in a House on Fire. Other directing credits include Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead and The Glass Menagerie. Acting credits for Monkeywood include Davy in A Song for the Lovers, Matthew in Coach G and Dan in Closer. He has also appeared in A Taste of Honey for Northface Theatre Company and has toured extensively for Team Players Theatre Company in the North East. Other work includes numerous short films and commercials and he appeared on BBC 3 in the short film The Curse of Jeff. Martin is also a full-time Casting Director.

Daniel Fitzsimons: Dan’s first professional role was playing Leo in the original production of Maine Road at the 24:7 Theatre Festival in July 2009 and subsequently on its national tour in 2010. He also worked with Monkeywood playing Craig in the premiere of Last Orders as part of the Royal Exchange’s PUB season 2009. Other theatre credits include a tour of Not in my Name for Fuse Theatre, Our Country’s Good with Northface Theatre and most recently a tour of Street Voices 3 with Freedom Studios, which closed at The Bush Theatre, London. Daniel also played a small part in Coronation Street.

James Harris: James is a comedy writer, performer, animator and film maker based in the North East of England. He appeared in Closer and Coach G for Monkeywood Theatre, and O’Leary’s Daughters as part of the 24/7 Festival in 2004. He has also appeared in several short films including the award-winning Rinse and Spin (2008), Bewick’s Mambo (2008), Real Must Have (2009) and Pleasure Droid 3000 (2010). He was in an advert for SCS last year too, but we don’t talk about that.