RSC: My Neighbour Totoro (original production 2022/23), All Mirth and No Matter.

Nicola T. Chang is a composer/sound designer for stage and screen. She was the Composer/Sound Designer on the 2020/21 Old Vic 12 cohort and a current BAFTA Connect Member (Film Composer). She was a co-winner of the Evening Standard Future Theatre Fund (Audio Design) in 2021.

THEATRE INCLUDES: As Performer: Fantastically Great Women Who Changed the World (Assistant MD/Keys 2/Percussion); Six the Musical (Deputy MD/Keys 1); STOMP (West End/world tour).

She has performed with the Chinese orchestra, the Women of the World Orchestra and the London Film Music Orchestra, and at venues such as the Royal Albert Hall, the Royal Festival Hall and Shakespeare’s Globe. She currently works with companies including National Youth Theatre, Rambert, British Youth Musical Theatre, National Youth Ballet and House of Absolute.

Other theatre credits include: For Black Boys Who Have Considered Suicide When the Hue Gets Too Heavy (Apollo West End/Royal Court/New Diorama); Kerry Jackson (National Theatre); The Real and Imagined History of the Elephant Man (Nottingham Playhouse/Blackpool Grand/Coventry Belgrade); TRIBE (Young Vic); Of the Cut (Young Vic); The Ministry of Lesbian Affairs (Soho); The Swell (Orange Tree); Little Baby Jesus (Orange Tree/JMK 2019); Feral Monsters (National Theatre of Wales/UK tour); Top Girls (Liverpool Everyman); NEST (LEEDS 2023); Macbeth (Leeds Playhouse); Derren Brown's Unbelievable (Criterion West End/Mercury Colchester/Manchester Palace); Dizidax (Almeida); White Pearl (Royal Court); Miss Julie (Chester Storyhouse); The Death of Ophelia (Shakespeare’s Globe).

RSC: My Neighbour Totoro (original production 2022/2023).

THEATRE INCLUDES: For Sound Design: Two Strangers (Kiln); High Times, Dirty Monsters (Liverpool Playhouse); Sizwe Banze Is Dead (Mayflower); Next to Normal (Donmar Warehouse); Pygmalion, Sylvia, The 47th (The Old Vic); Beneatha’s Place (Young Vic); School Girls; Or, The African Mean Girls Play, Get Up, Stand Up! The Bob Marley Musical (Lyric, Hammersmith); Greatest Days, Beautiful: The Carole King Musical, Salad Days, American Idiot (UK tour); Disney’s Aida (Holland); Newsies (Troubadour/Wembley Park Theatre); Kinky Boots (New Wolsey); Playboy of the West Indies (Birmingham Rep); Legally Blonde (Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre); Running with Lions (Talawa/Lyric, Hammersmith); Spring Awakening, And Breathe... (Almeida); The Wiz (Hope Mill); A Place for We (Talawa/Park); Bye/Orange (Theatre Royal Bath); Gin Craze (Royal & Derngate); The Living Newspaper, Shoe Lady (Royal Court); Poet in da Corner (Royal Court/UK tour) Songs For Nobodies (Wilton’s Music Hall/West End); Floyd Collins (Winton’s Music Hall); The Wild Party (The Other Palace); Lazarus (King’s Cross).

AWARDS: Olivier Award for Best Sound Design 2023 for My Neighbour Totoro (RSC); Best Sound at the 23rd Annual WhatsOnStage Awards for My Neighbour Totoro (RSC); Black British Theatre Awards (BBTA) Light and Sound Recognition Award 2019 and 2021.

OTHER: Wise Children Trustee, Stage Sight Co-Director, Founder of The Audio Cartel.

RSC: Pippa is the Head of New Work and oversees the commissioning and development of all of the Company’s new plays, adaptations and translations.

As Senior Dramaturg she works across all the Company’s rehearsal rooms, supporting the creative process of each creative team. As Senior Dramaturg: Hamnet (Stratford/West End), My Neighbour Totoro (original production 2022/2023), Dream Online, The Boy in the Dress, A Museum in Baghdad, The Whip, Crooked Dances, Maydays, Miss Littlewood, The Fantastic Follies of Mrs Rich, A Christmas Carol, Kingdom Come, The Earthworks, Vice Versa, The Hypocrite, The Seven Acts of Mercy, Fall of the Kingdom, Always Orange, Queen Anne, Don Quixote, Hecuba, Oppenheimer, The Christmas Truce, The Roaring Girl, The Ant and the Cicada, I Can Hear You, Wendy & Peter Pan, The Empress.

Pippa was previously the Literary Manager at Paines Plough running three nationwide writing initiatives designed to identify and develop new playwrights. She co-wrote the adaption of Can Dundar’s book #WeAreArrested which was produced by the RSC at The Other Place in Stratford-upon- Avon in 2018 and transferred to the Arcola, London in 2019. Pippa worked as Dramaturg and Writer in collaboration with Marshmallow Laser Feast, Philharmonia and Manchester International Festival to create the RSC’s live, interactive digital production of Dream in 2021.

Pippa commissioned and developed the RSC/NTV/Improbable production of My Neighbour Totoro.

RSC: My Neighbour Totoro (original production 2022/2023).

Joe Hisaishi first became interested in minimal music when he was a student at Kunitachi College of Music, Japan and started his career as a contemporary music composer. His work with MKWAJU in 1981 and the release of his first album Information in the following year kicked off his career as a solo artist.

From Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind (1984) through to The Boy and the Heron (2023), Hisaishi has produced music for 11 Hayao Miyazaki films. He also composed the music for HANA-BI directed by Takeshi Kitano, Departures directed by Yojiro Takita, Villain directed by Sang-il Lee, The Tale of The Princess Kaguya directed by Isao Takahata, and What A Wonderful Family! series directed by Yoji Yamada.

Joe Hisaishi is a renowned and skilled performer, ranging from piano soloist to orchestra conductor.  Alongside major Japanese orchestras, he has conducted the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, American Symphony Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra, Singapore Symphony Orchestra and many more. In 2017, he also began a world tour of Joe Hisaishi’s Symphonic Concert: Music from the Studio Ghibli Films of Hayao Miyazaki (visiting London, Paris, Melbourne, San Jose, Los Angeles, New York, Prague, Brussels and Lyon). The success of the tour is unparalleled. 

In recent years, he has actively worked as a classical music conductor and composed new works in a contemporary music style, including TRI-AD for Large Orchestra (2016), The East Land Symphony (2016), ad Universum (2019), Border Concerto for 3 Horns and Orchestra (2020), and Viola Saga (2023). Hisaishi has collaborated with a wide range of artists including Philip Glass, David Lang, Mischa Maisky, and Terry Riley.

Since 2014, he has been working as a producer and conductor, and holding contemporary music concerts with his JOE HISAISHI presents MUSIC FUTURE (also recorded as a live album).

In 2019, he also lead a concert series Future Orchestra Classics (FOC) and released a Beethoven Symphony recording that was given a Special Prize from 57th Record Academy Award Japan 2019. He has been appointed to two new positions: Composer in Residence and Music Partner with New Japan Philharmonic Orchestra from September 2020, and Principal Guest Conductor with Japan Century Orchestra from April 2021.  In 2023, the Deutsche Grammophon released their first Joe Hisaishi album, A Symphonic Celebration: Music from the Studio Ghibli films of Hayao Miyazaki, which reached No.1 on the Billboard chart. His unique input as a contemporary musical composer is highly appreciated, and his continuous enthusiasm for musical activities that go beyond ordinary creative work is appreciated worldwide.

RSC: My Neighbour Totoro (original production 2022/2023); The Mirror and the Light (Playful Productions/West End).

THEATRE INCLUDES: Lyonesse (Harold Pinter Theatre); Once on This Island (Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre); The Good Person of Szechwan (Sheffield Crucible); Straight Line Crazy (The Shed, New York/The Bridge Theatre); The Glow, Seven Methods of Killing Kylie Jenner (also Public Theater, New York/Woolly Mammoth, Washington DC), Living Newspaper Edition 7, Pah-La (Royal Court); Anna X (Lowry/West End); Marys Seacole, Blindness (Donmar Warehouse); Out West (Lyric Hammersmith); Inside (Orange Tree); The Band Plays On, She Loves Me (Sheffield Theatres); Dick Whittington (National Theatre); Rockets and Blue Lights (Royal Exchange Manchester); Faces in the Crowd, Mephisto, Dear Elizabeth and The Human Voice (The Gate); Equus (Theatre Royal, Stratford East/ETT/Trafalgar Studios/UK tour); Armadillo (The Yard); Reasons To Stay Alive (Sheffield Theatres/ETT/UK tour); One (Home/UK tour/international tour); Forgotten (Moongate/New Earth/Arcola/Theatre Royal, Plymouth); Hive City Legacy (Hot Brown Honey/Roundhouse); Snowflake (Kiln/from Fire Station Oxford); Fairview (Young Vic); Cuckoo (Soho Theatre); Nine foot nine (Bunker/Edinburgh Festival Fringe); Becoming Shades (VAULT Festival).

DANCE INCLUDES: HOME (Rambert2); Twice-Born (Scottish Ballet).

OTHER EVENTS INCLUDE: DIVA Exhibition (V&A); Guardians of the Galaxy: The Live Immersive Experience (Secret Cinema); Winter Light (commissioned by the Museum of the Home).

Awards: Olivier Award and WhatsOnStage Award for Best Lighting Design for My Neighbour Totoro, Knight of Illumination Award for Plays and Off West End Award for Best Lighting Design for Equus.

RSC: My Neighbour Totoro (original production 2022/2023).

Phelim is a founder member of Improbable and the company's co-artistic director.

THEATRE INCLUDES: 70 Hill Lane, Lifegame, Animo, Coma, Spirit, Sticky, Cinderella, The Hanging Man, Theatre of Blood (in collaboration with the National Theatre); Panic, Beauty and the Beast (in co-production with ONEOFUS); The Tempest (a co-production with Northern Stage and Oxford Playhouse); Opening Skinner's Box (a co-production with Northern Stage and West Yorkshire Playhouse); Lost Without Words (a co-production with the National Theatre); Tao of Glass (co-production with Manchester International Festival). Other credits as Director: the Olivier Award-winning Shockheaded Peter; Alex (Arts); The Ghost Downstairs (Leicester Haymarket); Dr Faustus, Improbable Tales (Nottingham Playhouse); The Servant of Two Masters, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, The Government Inspector (West Yorkshire Playhouse); Artistic Collaborator on She's Leaving Home (produced by 20 Stories High).

OPERA INCLUDES: Philip Glass's Satyagraha (English National Opera/LA Opera); The Perfect American, the Olivier Award-winning Akhnaten, Mozart's Cosi fan tutte (Emglish National Opera/Metropolitan Opera, NY); Aida (Emglish National Opera);

BambinO (an opera for babies, co-produced with Manchester International Festival and Scottish Opera); The Hours (Metropolitan Opera, NY).

AWARDS: Phelim is a recipient of the International Society for the Performing Arts’ Distinguished Artist Award.

RSC: My Neighbour Totoro (original production 2022/2023). Hannah Miller has played a pivotal role as Deputy Head of Casting from 2003-2005 and as Head of Casting from 2008-2022.

Her theatre credits include being the Casting Assistant at the National Theatre, Casting Director for the Birmingham Rep, and freelance Casting Director for productions like Great Expectations and Brief Encounter.

She has also directed the 2023 ArtsEd Actors final year showcase and continues her collaboration with the RSC's Learning and National Partnerships team as a practitioner.

Hannah is also a Trustee of both Northampton Theatres Trust and Tamasha, and a member of the Casting Directors' Guild and an RSC Associate Artist.

RSC: My Neighbour Totoro (original production 2022/2023). Tom Morton-Smith is well-regarded for writing the 2015 play Oppenheimer, detailing the life of J Robert Oppenheimer. His work The Earthworks was part of the Royal Shakespeare Company’s Mischief Festival.

Other plays by Tom include Ravens, Salt Meets Wound, and Everyday Maps for Everyday Use.

RSC: My Neighbour Totoro (original production 2022/2023. Winner of the Olivier Award for Best Costume Design).

TRAINED: Kimie is an international costume and set designer who works across theatre, opera and dance. She studied theatre costume design at the École Nationale Supérieure des Arts et Techniques du Théâtre in Paris, and theatre design at Wimbledon College of Arts.

Kimie has worked extensively with the Akram Khan Company, including Vertical Road, Dust, iTMOi, TOROBAKA, Gnosis, Kaash, The Rashomon Effect, techne (for Sylvie Guillem, Life in Progress), XENOS, Chotto Xenos and Outwitting the Devil. She has worked internationally with many choreographers including Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, David Nixon, José Agudo and Didy Veldman, and companies including Ballet Vlaanderen, Rambert, Les Grands Ballets Canadiens de Montréal, English National Ballet, Northern Ballet, Lithuanian National Opera and Ballet, Royal Danish Ballet, Companhia Nacional de Bailado, Van Huynh Company and Yabin Studio.

THEATRE INCLUDES: Death Note (West End. Musical by Nick Winston); Rough Girls (by Kimberley Sykes. Lyric Belfast); Pas, Pas Moi, Va et Vient (TNP Beckett Festival).

OPERA INCLUDES: Turandot (by Daniel Kramer for Grand Théâtre de Genève/Tokyo Bunka Kaikan); The Return of Ulysses ( John Fulljames. Royal Opera); Tristan und Isolde (dir. Carmen Jakobi/Longborough Festival Opera).

Film Includes: Basho and Macbeth.

Kimie’s work has also been exhibited, including at the 2015 Prague Quadrennial and the V&A.

RSC: My Neighbour Totoro (original production 2022/2023). Bruce is Head of Music for the RSC and has been Music Director and Supervisor for 50 RSC productions including the global hit Matilda The Musical, the Guy Chambers and Robbie Williams musical of David Walliams’ book The Boy in the Dress, and Shakespeare Live, a BBC TV live broadcast from the Royal Shakespeare Theatre marking the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death in 2016 which was nominated for a BAFTA Television award.

TRAINED: Birmingham Conservatoire, Guildhall School of Music and Drama, and the National Opera Studio.

Since 2013, Bruce has supervised an RSC project releasing studio recordings of music commissioned for every Shakespeare play, which also include scores composed for previous Stratford productions throughout the twentieth century. The completed series will be a unique double survey of scores composed for the Shakespeare canon spanning 120 years, highlighting the significant longstanding and continuing contribution by the RSC to the commissioning of new music for the theatre.

RSC: My Neighbour Totoro (original production 2022/2023).

Tom has worked with a diverse range of directors around the world in theatre, TV, film, opera and dance. Collaborations include Peter Brook, Sally Wainwright, Phelim McDermott, Simon McBurney, Jonathan Kent, Diane Paulus, Chen Shi-Zheng, Yuri Possokhov, James McDonald, Simon Godwin, Maria Friedman, David Leveaux, Deborah Warner, Phyllida Lloyd, Tom Morris, Fiona Shaw, Nicholas Hytner and Pierre Audi.

THEATRE INCLUDES: Broadway: Long Day’s Journey into Night (starring Jessica Lange); The Testament of Mary (Fiona Shaw); All My Sons (starring John Lithgow and Dianne Wiest); The Glass Menagerie (starring Jessica Lange); Fiddler on the Roof (starring Alfred Molina, TONY nomination); Cyrano de Bergerac (starring Kevin Kline); Medea (starring Fiona Shaw). West End: Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (starring Imelda Staunton); A Christmas Carol (starring Jim Broadbent); Sinatra (musical).

BALLET & OPERA INCLUDES: Cinderella (The Royal Ballet); The Hours (Metropolitan Opera); The Nutcracker (Atlanta Ballet); Anna Karenina (Joffrey Ballet); Cosi Fan Tutte, The Death of Klinghoffer, Eugene Onegin (ENO/Metropolitan Opera co-productions); Akhnaten (ENO/LA and Met Opera); Aida (ENO/Geneva/Houston Grand Opera); Riders to the Sea, St John Passion (English National Opera); Thebans (ENO/Theater Bonn); Messiah (ENO/Opera Lyon).

SCREEN INCLUDES: The upcoming series Renegade Nell (Disney +); Gentleman Jack (HBO/BBC. RTS nominations for Best Costume Design for both seasons); To Walk Invisible (BBC); Gloriana, A Feast at Midnight, Christie Malry’s Own Double Entry, Richard II, Twelfth Night, Just William, The Helen West Casebook, The Late Michael Clark, and several years of Production Design for MTV Europe.

RSC: My Neighbour Totoro (original production 2022/2023); The Tempest (RSC/Barbican)

THEATRE INCLUDES: Tammy Fey, Spring Awakening (Almeida); Dancin, Mean Girls, Betrayal (Broadway); Back to the Future, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child (West End/Broadway); Frozen, Les Miserables (International); Sweet Charity (Donmar/Broadway); Bat out of Hell (West End/International); Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (Broadway/West End/Tour); Jagged Little Pill, In the Body of the World (American Reparatory Theatre/Broadway); American Psycho (Broadway/Almedia);  (Broadway); Chimerica (Almeida/est End); Master and Margarita, All My Sons, Shunkin (Complicite).

OPERA INCLUDES:The Hours (The Met);The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny (Royal Opera House); Missa Solemnis (LA Phil); Benvenuto Cellini, Death of Klinghoffer, Death in Venice, Damnation of Faust, Don Giovanni, (English National Opera); Hänsel und Gretel, Zäuberflote, A Dog’s Heart (DNO, Amsterdam); La clemenza di Tito, Mr Brouček (Opera North); Les Pêcheurs de Perles, Béatrice et Bénédict, Turn of the Screw (Theatre an der Wien); Rinaldo, (Glyndebourne).

DANCE INCLUDES: Cinderella (The Royal Ballet); Anna Karenina (The Joffrey Ballet); The Nutcracker (Atlanta Ballet); The Feeling of Going (Skånes Dansteater/Malmö Opera)

MUSIC INCLUDES: Declan Mckena (Reading/Leads, 2023); Lewis Capaldi (2022 Tour); Azimuth (Al Ula); Music of the Spheres (Cold Play); 17 Going Under (Sam Fender); Life is Yours (Foals); Herbert Grönemayer (20th Anniversary Concert); Midnight Feeling (Mark Ronson); Fortnight (J Balvin, Fornightmares), W Hotel Instillation (Guangzhou, China): Rolling Stones Exhibitionism (International).

OTHER: Finn has won two Olivier’s, a Tony, three Drama Desk’s and four What’s on Stage Awards. He is an Honourary Fellow of The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama.

RSC: My Neighbour Totoro (original production 2022/2023).

TRAINED: Andrea holds a BA (Hons) Business with Psychology (2017, Dublin Business School), an MSc International Marketing (2018, King’s College London), and a BA (Hons) in Technical Theatre and Stage Management, specialising in Video (RADA, 2021).

THEATRE INCLUDES: For Tonight (Adelphi); Chess (The Muny, USA); Bob Fosse’s Dancin’ (San Diego, USA); Spring Awakening (Almeida); Beauty and the Beast (Disney, UK/Ireland tour).

BALLET: Cinderella (Royal Opera House, London).

OPERA: Magic Flute (Bergen National Opera, Norway).

LIVE MUSIC INCLUDES: Mariah Carey (LA & Las Vegas, USA), Liam Gallagher (Knebworth, 2022), Becky Hill (Summertime Ball 2022), Foals (Life is Yours, 2022), Years & Years (2022), Sam Fender (17 Going Under, 2022)

OTHER: Andrea is an award-winning Video and Projection Designer based in London. Her work as a designer and animator spans across theatre, opera, live music and dance in Europe and overseas. With a hands-on approach and keen interest in cinematography and directing, Andrea revels in creating content that is captivating as well as story driven.

RSC: My Neighbour Totoro (original production 2022/2023).

Will is an Olivier nominated Orchestrator, Arranger and Composer.

THEATRE INCLUDES: As Composer: Pygmalion (Old Vic); Noises Off (Haymarket); GOOD (Pinter); The Corn is Green (National Theatre). As Arranger or Orchestrator includes: The Drifters Girl (Garrick, vocal arrangements); Wicked (Hamburg); Amélie (Munich); The Band Plays On, Guys and Dolls (Sheffield Crucible); Committee (Donmar Warehouse); West End Men (Vaudeville); From Here to Eternity (USA).

As Music Supervisor includes: The Drifters Girl (UK tour); The Secret Life of Bees (Almeida); Guys and Dolls, The Band Plays On (Sheffield Crucible); From Here to Eternity (USA); A Christmas Carol (Associate, Broadway).

As Musical Director includes: The Drifters Girl (Garrick); Standing at the Sky’s Edge (Sheffield Crucible); A Christmas Carol, Mood Music, The Divide (Old Vic).

OTHER ARRANGER/ORCHESTRATOR CREDITS INCLUDE: Dame Shirley Bassey, Paloma Faith, Cerys Matthews, Bryn Terfel, Stella McCartney (Paris Fashion Week), Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, BBC Concert Orchestra, BBC Big Band, Hamburg Symphoniker, Stockholm Sinfonietta.

TRAINED: École Nationale Supérieure des Arts de la Marionnette (ESNAM) in Charleville-Mézières, France.

Basil is a third-generation puppeteer who creates iconic, visionary puppetry worlds with a remarkable range of style and scope appearing in intimate nightclubs to large orchestra halls. He is a sought-after collaborator for theatre, ballet, opera, dance and film. His unique approaches have been recognised with multiple awards and fellowships and have furthered contemporary artistry and the technical craft of puppetry. Basil is known for revitalising puppetry as a serious and sophisticated art form through his experiments with materials, techniques and uses in both narrative and abstract works. Basil’s shows range from productions of classic stories to abstract visualisations of orchestral music and are informed by puppetry traditions from around the world.

ORIGINAL WORK INCLUDES: Symphonie Fantastique (1998) which featured abstract materials in a tank of water to simulate imagery and characters to music, Petrushka, Doguagaeshi, Rite of Spring, Hansel & Gretel, Arias with a Twist, La Bella Dormente nel Bosco, Sisters Follies, A Streetcar named Desire (La Comédie Française, also co-director), and most recently Jean-Joseph Cassanéa de Mondonville’s Titon et l›Aurore at the Opera Comique and The Book of Mountains and Seas by composer Huang Ruo in Copenhagen, New York City and soon to be at Koorbiennale Amsterdam. He contributed to the magic of Alfonso Cuarón’s Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, creating the Dementors. Basil’s honours include Obie, Henry Hewes and Doris Duke Performing awards, multiple UNIMA and Bessie Awards, a Guggenheim fellowship and a MacArthur Fellowship.

Since 1999 he has served as Artistic Director of the Dream Music Puppetry Program in New York City.

RSC: My Neighbour Totoro (original production 2022/2023).

TRAINED: You-Ri is a Japanese actress, movement director, voiceover and acting teacher. She TRAINED in Kabuki dance and Butoh in Japan, and also TRAINED at LAMDA, Le Coq and Michael Chekhov in the UK, Europe and US. She explores the meeting points between the East and West.

THEATRE INCLUDES: As Movement Director/Coach/Choreographer and Director: Dido and Aeneas, Temple Middle Hall (Temple Festival); Magic Flute (New National Theatre, Tokyo); Madam Butterfly (ENO); Pacific Overtures (Menier Chocolate Factory); Illyria (Theatre Royal Bath); Richard III, A Midsummer Night’s Dream (East 15); The Crucible, Our Country’s Good (New National Theatre Tokyo, Drama Studio); A Midsummer Night’s Dream (NAHDA, Cairo, Egypt). You-Ri has worked in theatre, film and TV as an actress in the UK and her unique style, deeply connected with the body, has been much appreciated by many theatre companies such as: Watermill Theatre Newbury, dreamthinkspeak, Volcano Theatre, Theatre503, Southwark Playhouse, New Earth Theatre, StoneCrabsTheatre, Dash Arts, amongst others and beyond the border of culture. As Cultural Consultant: George Takei’s Allegiance (Charing Cross Theatre); Pacific Overtures (Menier Chocolate Factory).

TEACHING INCLUDES: LAMDA, BADA, East 15, ALRA, Rose Bruford, ArtsEd, Fourth Monkey, LDA, New National Theatre Tokyo Drama Studio. You-Ri’s tailor-made workshop, ‘Freeing the Inner Voice – Body and Expression’, has been in constant demand worldwide for many years.

Kenichi Yoda is Producer at the NIPPON TV’s live entertainment division.

Among other theatre shows and events, his previous work includes Japan’s first major original arena show the DRAGON QUEST Live Spectacle tour and Joe Hisaishi’s concerts.

Yoda is also a member of the Studio Ghibli Board of Directors from October 2023.

Griselda Yorke is Executive Producer at the Royal Shakespeare Company where she has oversight of all staged productions. She works alongside Denise Wood as Executive Producer of Matilda The Musical. Shows she has produced while at the RSC include Gregory Doran’s international tour of King and Country and the musical of The Boy in the Dress.

Before joining the RSC Griselda was Executive Producer for the pioneering immersive theatre company, Punchdrunk. Previously Griselda was Executive Director at Cheek by Jowl, producing and touring productions in three languages in the UK and around the world. Prior to that she was a Producer at the Barbican Theatre where projects included Robert Wilson and Tom Waits’ The Black Rider and Merce Cunningham’s Events. She has worked in New York, with Pomegranate Arts. Griselda sits on the Board of Improbable.

Led by Phelim McDermott and Lee Simpson, Improbable is an award-winning theatre company that defies categorisation. At the heart of our artistic practice is improvisation. Whether in performance, rehearsal or development, the practice and philosophy of improvisation is at the core of our creation process.

The breadth of Improbable’s experience is unrivalled and we occupy a vital space in the landscape of UK and international theatre, working with a huge range of partners nationally and internationally across sectors and scales. Other recent on-stage collaborations and projects have included: The Hours, Metropolitan Opera; Akhnaten (Olivier Award winner for Best Opera Production, Grammy Award for Best Opera Recording), English National Opera; Perfect Show for Rachel created by Zoo Co at Barbican (winner Off West End Award, Access); An Improbable Musical, Royal & Derngate, Northampton; Tao Of Glass, with Factory International, Perth Festival, Ruhrfestspiele Recklinghausen, Hong Kong New Vision Arts Festival and Carolina Performing Arts – University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in association with Naomi Milgrom AO. We were awarded Producer of the Year at The Stage Awards in 2023. 

Beyond our work on stage, we use Open Space Technology to create and hold diverse and deeply democratic spaces that bring communities together to work on urgent issues. We do this for the theatre sector through our Devoted & Disgruntled programme and work with other sectors and organisations through Open Space For Hire and Improbable For Business. Improbable is a core supporter of M/Others Who Make, an international network for women and non-binary people who care about creating, and create whilst caring.

Nippon Television Holdings, Inc. is a media and content company whose core operation is broadcasting. At the nucleus of its businesses is the subsidiary Nippon Television Network Corporation, Japan’s first commercial television broadcaster that hit the airwaves in 1953.

Celebrating its 70th anniversary this year, the country’s leading linear platform enjoys widespread support from viewers, propelling it to win the annual Triple Crown Title for the 11th consecutive year in 2021 by ranking No. 1 in individual viewer ratings across all three timeslot categories. In October 2023, NIPPON TV acquired the shares of Studio Ghibli, making it a subsidiary. As part of the same group, NIPPON TV continues to support Studio Ghibli.

Studio Ghibli was founded in 1985 by animated film directors Isao Takahata and Hayao Miyazaki, and has produced twenty-four feature-length films. Most Studio Ghibli films ranked number one at the box office in Japan in the year in which they were released. The Studio’s SPIRITED AWAY (2001), HOWL’S MOVING CASTLE (2004) and PRINCESS MONONOKE (1997) are among Japan’s top 10 grossing films. Studio Ghibli films have garnered numerous awards and critical acclaim from film critics and animation specialists around the world. SPIRITED AWAY was awarded the Golden Bear as the Best Feature Film at the 2002 Berlin International Film Festival and won the 2002 Academy Awards® for Best Animated Feature Film. In October 2001, Studio Ghibli, in conjunction with The Tokuma Memorial Cultural Foundation for Animation, founded the Ghibli Museum, Mitaka, designed by Hayao Miyazaki. THE WIND RISES (2013), THE TALE OF THE PRINCESS KAGUYA (2013), WHEN MARNIE WAS THERE (2014) and THE RED TURTLE (2016) have earned the studio four consecutive nominations for the Academy Awards® for Best Animated Feature Film. EARWIG AND THE WITCH, was an official selection for the 2020 Cannes Film Festival. The studio’s latest film ThE BOY AND THE HERON, released in Japan on July 14, 2023, has been awarded the Golden Globe, BAFTA and the Academy Award® for Best Animated Feature in 2024. The studio will receive Honorary Palme d’or at the 77th Cannes Film Festival.

The Royal Shakespeare Company is a theatre and learning charity that creates world class theatre, made in Stratford-upon-Avon and shared around the world, performing plays by Shakespeare and his contemporaries, as well as commissioning an exceptionally wide range of original work from contemporary writers. Our purpose is to ensure that Shakespeare is for everyone, and we do by that unlocking the power of his plays and of live performance and out learning and education work throughout the UK and across the world.

We believe everybody’s life is enriched by culture and creativity. We have trained generations of the very best theatre makers and we continue to nurture the talent of the future. Our transformative Learning programmes reach over half a million young people and adults each year, and through our Creative Placemaking and Public Programme we create projects with and for communities who have not historically engaged with our work. We are a leader in creative immersive technologies and digital development.

We have a proud record of innovation, diversity and excellence on stage and are determined to grasp the opportunity to become an even more inclusive, progressive, relevant and ambitious organisation.

We have one of the UK’s largest arts learning programmes, working with over 1,000 schools each year to broaden access to high quality arts learning and transform experiences of Shakespeare in schools. Through our national partnership programme with schools and regional theatres we target areas of structural disadvantage, including 26 areas of multiple deprivation across the country, from Cornwall to Middlesbrough. Research shows that our approaches to teaching Shakespeare support the development of reading and writing skills, accelerate language acquisition and development, raise aspirations and improve student attitudes to school and learning in general. They also foster well-being, self-esteem, empathy, resilience and tolerance and promote critical-thinking, creative, analytical, communication and problem-solving skills.

We are committed to being a teaching and learning theatre and we are the only arts organisation to have been awarded Independent Research Organisation status. We create world class theatre for, with and by audiences and theatre makers of all ages. We provide training for emerging and established theatre makers and arts professionals, for teachers and for young people. We share learning formally and informally. We embed training and research across our company, work and processes.

We recognise the climate emergency and work hard to embed environmental sustainability into our operations, creative work and business practice, making a commitment to continually reduce our carbon footprint.

Keep Your RSC supports our mission to create theatre at its best, unlocking Shakespeare and transforming lives. Thousands of generous audience members, trusts and foundations and partners supported Keep Your RSC since 2020, alongside a £19.4 million loan from the Culture Recovery Fund, we are thrilled to be welcoming audiences back. It will take time to recover, to reopen all our theatres, and many years to repay the loan and the support and generosity of our audiences is more important than ever. Please donate at rsc.org.uk/donate.

The RSC is supported using public funding by Arts Council England

The work of the RSC is supported by the Culture Recovery Fund

Miranda Curtis CMG – Lead Production Supporter of the original production and the 2023 production of My Neighbour Totoro

New Work at the RSC is generously supported by The Drue and H.J. Heinz II Charitable Trust

The RSC Acting Companies are generously supported by The Gatsby Charitable Foundation

TikTok £10 Tickets sponsored by TikTok