Carole has been involved in Drama, acting, directing and teaching since she was a student. She has a wide ranging experience of acting, which began with performing Children’s Theatre in schools, major outdoor Community Theatre productions and many stage roles. Since living in this area she has performed with Castle Players, Brownsea Open Air Theatre and most recently with BLTC. She loves to perform in Shakespearian roles last year playing Hippolyta with Wessex Actors Company in their first production of A Mid Summer Night’s Dream. She is delighted to be back this year performing the role of Mistress Page. “It will be great to work with Jo again and such a talented cast”
Since moving back to Dorset in 2000, Russell has appeared in several local productions including, Jeffrey Bernard Is Unwell, Canterbury Tales, Nicholas Nickelby, An Inspector Calls and more recently been seen in Mrs Warrens Other Profession, Bell Book and Candle and the Time of My Life for BLTC. In 2010 Russell was part of a touring version of Bouncers for Arena Theatre for whom he has also appeared in Popcorn, Metamorphosis and Pillowman. With Burnt Toast he is a regular contestant at their “A Night At The Improv” and was part of the companies version “Hancock’s Half Hour”. Russell has also appeared in several short films for students at Bournemouth University and has recently completed work on playing a Zombie in “Stalled” a comic horror which is due for general release later this year.
After training, acting and directing in the North West, John moved to London and then Dorset, primarily working as a teacher. For many years he led the young actors’ workshop at Lighthouse. Locally, he has played roles for Stages, Seachange, Churchill, WCT and BOAT. Whenever he’s in rehearsal John’s wife and daughters wake to the sound of lines being recited in the shower. He’s still happily married but his daughters have moved away. John’s delighted to be involved in WAC’s production and is sure it’ll be a lot of fun for actors and audience alike.
Dani Bright - Anne Page
Dani has been acting for
as long as she can remember. She initially trained with Big Little Theatre
School in Bournemouth before going on to London to train with the London
Repertory Company Academy.
Dani has recently appeared as Peter Quince & Prologue in A Midsummer Night’s
Dream, Liza in The Little Matchgirl and The Maid in new writing She Opened
the Door which toured the South of the UK though 2010/2011. She has also
appeared in various TV commercials and both short and feature films.
Dani is looking forward to her first production with WAC.
Chris Bunn - Frank Ford
Chris played the part of Peter Quince in WAC’s production of A Midsummer Nights Dream in 2011 and has been on stage with most of the WAC members before and says that it will be like old times, a very talented cast, crew and production team.
Chris has been a member of Castle Players for many years. His most memorable plays were Amadeus, Second from Last in the Sack Race (playing a multitude of parts) Oh What a Lovely War and of course you never forget the first time on stage, Jack and the Beanstalk in 1984. He has just finished playing the part of Bosun in the Castle Players pantomime of Voyage of the Galaxy Trader. Chris has also been involved with BOAT over the past seven years both on stage and off.
Paul's just finished a
sell out run in Comedy of Errors were he got rave reviews for his seven
minutes of monologue as the old man not a dry eye in the house. At Christmas
Paul was the m.c for the music of love singing group at the Malting Theatre
in St Albans and performed in Coriolanous in February
Naomi is thrilled to be back with WAC this year after playing Hermia in last years 'A Midsummer Nights Dream'. The role of Mistress Ford is very different and she can't wait to get started, once again getting sunburned, rained on and hopefully not spraining her ankle.
Naomi is involved in local amateur dramatic groups such as P&P Players and Castle Players notably Kelly in 'Game Plan', and Iriana in 'The Galaxy Trader', this years Castle Players Pantomime. She also has been active in variety shows and charity performances, singing and trying very hard to dance in time. She is very busy this year being involved with all of the Castle players plays acting for her fellows in the company. She hopes this summer is as enjoyable and fair as last years.
A newcomer to WAC, Chris
is excited to be joining the company and looks forward to a summer of
frivolities – and what better be good weather!
A regular partaker in local dramatics - he has previously performed
with BOAT, Bournemouth Little Theatre Club and Arena Theatre.
He hopes one day to forge a career in the performance industry.
Jon has been involved in theatre and drama since he was a teenager, both as an actor and a director. He has played many Shakespearean leading roles including Macbeth and amongst his other credits are parts as diverse as Quasimodo, Mosby in the Elizabethan ‘Arden of Faversham,’ John/Judas in ‘Godspell,’ First Voice in ‘Under Milk Wood,’ Inspector Thomas in ‘The Unexpected Guest’ and Chief Bromden in ‘One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest.’ Jon has performed in venues as varied as The Globe Theatre, Rochester Castle and the British Council Theatre in Athens. He was in WAC’s inaugural production last year, enjoyed it enormously and is looking forward to working with many of the ‘founders’ again.
Mike is looking forward to being in another production by Jo after appearing as Snug in last years 'A Midsummer Night's Dream'. He has appeared in numerous musicals and plays. The Pirate King in 'Pirates of Penzance' and Sir Joseph Porter in 'HMS Pinafore' rank as two of his most memorable. On a more serious note he was Andrew Crocker Harris in 'The Browning Version, the prosecuting council in 'Cause Celebre' Dr Armstrong in 'Then there were None' and Peter in 'Blue Remembered Hills'. He has also appeared many times as the 'Dame' in pantomime - from Nanny Goodbody to Widow Twanky.
We are all looking forward to seeing his cheery face at rehearsals and brightening up the tent!
Kyle has been
acting since 2009 and has been performing locally ever since. He has worked
with many theatre company’s including ‘Arena Theatre’, Burnt Toast, Off The
Wall, Orb Theatre and studied a Btec course of performing arts. He has
played many roles including Macbeth in ‘Macbeth’. Donald in ‘Blue Remembered
Hills’, Eddie ’in a View From The Bridge’, Billy in ‘Herons’, Cletis in ‘Lonestar’,
Fleshcreep in ‘Jack and the Beanstalk’ and Michael in ‘Festen’. Kyle is
currently doing a foundation degree course in Contemporary Theatre.
Jeremy is God's gift to the acting profession. At an local level at least. It is only a matter of time before a talent scout spots him and he is offered a lucrative stage, screen or CBBC role. Its been over 20 years now, but he continues to live in hope. Having moved from Kent to Leicestershire to Somerset to Buckinghamshire and in 2008 to Dorset, he has found drama an invaluable way of introducing himself to the local community. He might even make a real friend one day. Having been scandalously overlooked for numerous leading roles around the country ( what do they know?), he has had some early success in winning parts in Dorset. Unfortunately the circuit is now getting to know him so an enforced retirement probably beckons. WAC is one of those rare groups that has deigned to give Jeremy a second chance after his spit and a cough debut in "A Midsummer Night's Dream" last year. This is probably because the loud and obnoxious over the top attributes often required of open air theatre suit his offensive personality so well.
Like most people Paul first encountered Shakespeare's work at school and instantly become beguiled by The Bard's use of characters, language and imagery. Having studied performing arts at Canterbury University Paul took up a profession as a teacher; working with people with learning difficulties at first before ending up as a Maths and English teacher at the Bournemouth and Poole College. His love of Shakespeare never died and he has appeared as Lysander in "A Midsummer Night's Dream", Andrew Aguecheek in "Twelth Night", Mercucio in "Romeo and Juliet" and as Kent in "King Lear". Although this is his first appearance for WAC he sincerely hopes it will not be his last.
After appearing as Titania in last year's production of A Midsummer Night's Dream, Linsey is delighted to be back again this year as Mistress Quickly and says that she's looking forward to sharing a tent with some lovely people once again!
Appearing in the pantomime 'The Voyage of the Galaxy Trader', directing 'One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest' in April and baring all in Calendar Girls (directed by Jo) in November, all for Castle Players, is certainly going to keep Linsey busy this year!
Cameron Ritchie - Fenton
This is Cameron’s first production with WAC and is really looking forward to being a part of the play as well as the wonderful experience ahead. He had previously studied the Btec first and is now on his 2nd year of the National diploma at the Bournemouth and Poole College. He has played Albert in ‘Albert make us laugh’, Simon in ‘Caucasian chalk circle’, Reecey in ‘Our house’, as well appearing in short films at the college, last year he also played the part of Pindarus in Brownsea Open Air production of ‘Julius Caesar’ which was great taste of Open Air Theatre and can't wait to begin this one.
Scott has been involved in local theatre for about 20 years. His first appearances were with B.O.A.T (Merchant of Venice – Solanio) and B.L.T.C. performing in various plays. He later followed this with more B.O.A.T and has played “Clown” in A Winter’s Tale, “Lennox” in Macbeth and “Lucio” in Measure for Measure (where he met his wife, Becker). He appeared at Castle Players as “Henry Pratt” in Second from Last in the Sack Race and performed the role of “Les” in Arena Theatre’s very successful production of Bouncers, this was followed with (also for Arena) "Willy" in Blue Remembered Hills and "various roles" in The 39 Steps.
Scott played Francis Flute in our production of "Midsummer Nights Dream" last year. His role also doubled up for that of Thisbe. He enjoyed the experience so much, he decided to come back for more and was delighted when he was offered the part of Sir John Falstaff. He hopes he can do justice to the faith put in him by our Director and very much hopes that you all enjoy the show.
Jerome has been acting all his life. Usually quite badly. He took part in several memorable amateur productions at York University between 1996 and 1999, none of which he can now remember. For the last ten years he has been a regular performer at Shaftesbury Arts Centre where he is frequently the pantomime villain. This summer he played Fagin the the Arts Centre's much proclaimed production of' 'Oliver'.
Following on from WAC’s 2011 start-up production of ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ Jo has decided to direct another of Shakespeare’s greatest comedies for our second season. Buoyed up by the huge critical acclaim for the ‘Dream’, Jo’s hoping to entertain lots more of you with the wonderfully entertaining and inspired words of Will in ‘The Merry Wives of Windsor’, where (as always, he says) the women come out on top!
Jo last directed ‘Wives’ in 2004 for Brownsea Open Air Theatre, when he was pleased to achieve both ‘Best Director’ and ‘Best Comedy’ awards at the Echo ‘Curtain Call Awards’.
Having single-handedly
made all the costumes for A Midsummer Night's Dream last year, we're
delighted that Pauline has agreed to help out again for The Merry Wives.
Pauline has her own costume business 'Quick Changes'.
Steve is very lucky to have such a lovely wifey! So lucky in fact, that he has decided to DO sound for Jo this year just so he can be with her more. Well, if you can't beat 'em, join 'em.
Steve used to tread the boards but finds he can never remember the lines these days so tends to stick behind the scenes doing sound and stuff. His sincere hope is that he will get at least one sound cue right at some point during this year's run.
Eve Puttick
has been involved with drama since she was a member of Bournemouth's
Richmond Hill 18-40 club many years ago before getting married to Jo and
joining Castle Players in Lytchett Matravers, where they live. Has mainly
been involved backstage on props and prompting, and was in charge of props
for the Corfe Castle Millennium's 'A Midsummer Night's Dream'. She also
catered for the BOAT and Brownsea opera audiences for fourteen years in her
professional capacity of Apple Catering.
She claims she's mainly famous for her panto appearances as a tree, an
elephant and as the oldest and smallest (at 5') of the dwarves in Castle
Players' 'Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, with husband Jo (at 6'4") being
the tallest!
She's honoured to be both Properties Manager and Front of House Manager
for WAC.
Anthea used to tread the Boards - last appearing in Panto with the New Forest Players in 1992 - but a difficulty in committing lines to memory has resulted in stints 'on the book' ever since. She's pretty good at paraphrasing her own lines but finds it less taxing to keep others on the straight and narrow.