Timberlake Wertenbaker – writer

(Read Timberlake’s blog post on writing Our Country’s Good here) As well as Our Country’s Good, for which she won the Olivier Award for Play of the Year, the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Foreign Play and the Evening Standard Award for Most Promising Playwright, Timberlake’s plays include Three Birds Alighting on a Field (Writers’ Guild Award, Best West End Play; Critics Circle Awards, Best West End Play; Susan Smith Blackburn Prize), The Love of the Nightingale (Eileen Anderson Central Television Drama Award), Galileo’s DaughterAfter DarwinThe Break of DayCredible Witness and The Grace of Mary Traverse.  Her translations include HecubaElektraFilumena and Phedre.

Max Stafford-Clark – Director

Max is Out of Joint’s Artistic Director, and a former Artistic Director of the Royal Court Theatre and the Traverse Theatre, as well as co-founder of the Joint Stock Theatre Group. A hugely influential director of new writing, his world premieres include Top Girls and Serious Money by Caryl Churchill, Shopping and F***ing by Mark Ravenhill, Rita Sue and Bob Too by Andrea Dunbar, and plays by Richard Bean, April De Angelis, David Hare, Timberlake Wertenbaker, Stephen Jeffreys, Sebastian Barry, Howard Brenton, Sue Townsend, Alistair Beaton, Jim Cartwright, Stella Feehily, Robin Soans and more. His acclaimed revivals of classics include Three SistersKing LearShe Stoops to Conquer and the world-touring Macbeth.

He has directed for the RSC, the National Theatre, Sydney Theatre Company and New York’s Roundabout Theatre and several of his productions have transferred to the West End, including the world premiere of Our Country’s Good, the hit comedy Feelgood, and last year’s 5-star revival of Top Girls.

Tim Shortall – Designer

Tim’s designs for Out of Joint and Max Stafford-Clark include Top Girls (with Chichester Festival Theatre), The Big Fellah (with Lyric Hammersmith), The Overwhelming (with the National Theatre, also at Roundabout NYC) and King of Hearts (with Hampstead). Designs in London & West End include: La Cage aux Folles (also Broadway – 2010 Tony nomination, directed by Terry Johnson); A New World – The Life of Thomas Paine (Shakespeare’s Globe); Sweet Charity (Menier Chocolate Factory & Theatre Royal Haymarket); Whipping It Up, Elton John’s Glasses, See How They Run, Telstar, Body and Soul (all West End). Other highlights include: Awake and Sing (directed by Michael Attenborough, Almeida), 900 Oneonta (Old Vic), Disappeared (Royal Court), Privates On Parade, The Colonel Bird, Broken Glass (for Rupert Goold); The Philanthropist (directed by David Grindley with Simon Russell Beale and then Matthew Broderick, Donmar Warehouse & Roundabout NYC). Dance includes: new works for Sadler’s Wells Royal Ballet, Scottish Ballet, Norwegian National Ballet, Dutch National Ballet. TMA award nomination Roots & RAI Prize/Prix Italia The Nightingale.

Johanna Town – Lighting Designer

Johanna was formerly head of lighting at the Royal Court. Her West End work includes the recent Betrayal, as well as Fat PigVia Dolorosa, Speaking in Tongues and Little Malcolm and his Struggle Against the Eunuchs. Among many shows at the Court she designed My Name is Rachel Corrie (plus West End and New York), RhinocerosMy ChildThe WinterlingTerrorismUnder The Whaleback. Johanna has designed many shows for Out of Joint (most recently Bang Bang Bang) and for many of the UK’s major venues. See her website: www.johannatown.co.uk

Andy Smith – Sound Designer

Andy is the resident sound designer at the Octagon Theatre Bolton and has collaborated with Out of Joint and the Octagon on Bang Bang Bang (also Royal Court – listen to the brilliant soundtrack of Congolese dance music here) and Mixed Up North. Other productions include Sweeney ToddRomeo and JulietA Streetcar Named Desire, The Price and more.

Gemma Hancock and Gemma Stevens – Casting

Gemma and Sam have cast theatre productions include many directed by Peter Hall, as well as Waiting For Godot (West End, dir. Sean Matthias); Blood and Gifts (National Theatre, dir. Howard Davies); David Grindley’s productions of What The Butler Saw and Abigail’s Party; Private Lives and Blithe Spirit for Thea Sharrock; and several seasons for the RSC. Their casting was nominated for an Emmy for a 2010 production of Emma, with other television work including Silent Witness, Inspector Linley, Holby City and EastEnders.

Des Kennedy – Associate Director

Des is Out of Joint’s Associate Director, and winner of the company’s directing award, as a culmination of which he directed How The World Began last year at the Arcola Theatre, London, with support from Out of Joint. Other theatre includes White Star of the North (Lyric, Belfast); The Prophet of Monto (Flea Theater, New York); The Great Ramshackle Heart (Old Vic New Voices/Public Theater, New York); Dying City (Project Arts Centre, Dublin); The Last Days of Judas Iscariot (Brian Friel Theatre, Belfast); Scenes from the Big Picture (Callan Theatre, Washington D.C, Helen Hayes nominated production and named one of the best 10 productions of the decade, Washington Post).