Monday’s Child by Brendan Murray

Following a degree in Drama at Huddersfield Polytechnic, Brendan trained as an actor at Drama Studio London before working in regional repertory, theatre for young people, commercial touring, fringe and television.

In 1997 Brendan was awarded an Arts Council Bursary and nominated for a Writers' Guild of Great Britain Award for Best Children's Play and was runner-up for the John Whiting Award in 2000. In 2001 he won The Brian Way Award and in 2009 The Writers' Guild of Great Britain Award for Best Play: Children & Young People. He was the Visiting Gulbenkian Fellow at King's College Hospital (2002-03) and Artistic Director of Oxfordshire (Touring) Theatre Company from 2003 to 2008.

Like the good northerner he is, he lives in Brighton.

Dom loves writing music, playing music, recording music and listening to music. As a boy he was a chorister at Canterbury Cathedral, singing everyday for five years and sometimes making records and being on the TV. Later he went on to play lots of jazz and was a finalist in The Daily Telegraph Young Jazz Musician of the Year. Then Dom went to university to learn more about music and since then has been lucky enough to be able to pay the bills just by doing something musical. He has written music for lots of different people -from Atomic Kitten to Opera North and the BBC to a feature film starring John Rhys-Davies. His music has been played on national television and radio and in theatres throughout Europe. Dom is Director/Producer for the record label Jellymould Jazz and also plays the triangle.

Joanne trained at the Northern School of Contemporary Dance in Leeds. She then worked with Kokuma dance company in Birmingham which enabled her to work with some of the best African and Caribbean tutors, Koffi Koko, Peter Badejo, H pattern and Patsy Ricketts to name a few. She has 18 years performance experience working for a variety of companies including Ace Dance and Music (contemporary/African fusion), Foot in hand (disabled and able bodied dancers) and tutti frutti (children’s theatre). Joanne went on to become movement director with Red Earth Theatre based in Derby for 5 productions and then returned to tutti frutti as a choreographer for their autumn show Silly Billy and has been with the company ever since.

Joanne has been a rehearsal director since 2004 working with companies such as State of Emergency and Rosie Kay with who she was rehearsal director for four seasons between 2005 and 2010. She was rehearsal director for Tavaziva dance during the critically acclaimed 2004 production ‘Bophelo’ in which the company toured to Zimbabwe as part of the Harare International Arts Festival. She returned to Tavaziva as rehearsal director for ‘Tavaziva Ten’ in autumn 2014.

Artistic Director, Chair of PYA England

I have held the position of Artistic Director at tutti frutti since 2005 and have directed all but one production in partnership with York Theatre Royal, touring nationally and internationally and co-producing the Little Feet Festival of Children’s Theatre and the First Words writers’ development programme

Before working with tutti frutti I was Artistic Director of Red Ladder Theatre Company, and previous to this; Merseyside Young People’s Theatre Company in Liverpool. Over the years as a freelance director work has included; Everyman Theatre Liverpool, Crucible Theatre Sheffield, Hope Street Ltd, Oxford Stage Company, Unity Theatre Liverpool, European Stage Company, Theatre Royal Stratford East, and Contact Theatre Manchester. I currently live in Leeds with my partner Mark and two sons Louie and Eliot.

Erika Poole originates from Stoke-on-Trent. Over the years Erika’s acting roles have been many and varied, though predominantly in theatre and often for children.

She has worked with acclaimed physical theatre company Told by An Idiot in ‘Shoot Me In The Heart’, ‘Aladdin’, and ‘Beauty and the Beast’, co-devised and toured ‘Not With That Hand’ with Annie Fitzmaurice and Paul Hunter. Erika worked with artist Mark Storor on ‘For the Best’ at the Unicorn Theatre, a piece generated by the insight of children attending the Evelina Hospital School. She subsequently toured with the Birmingham Stage Company playing the horrid Gran in ‘George’s Marvellous Medicine’ and then appeared as Olive in ‘From Newbury with Love’ with Red Cape Theatre. In 2012 she again collaborated with Annie Fitzmaurice for Coal’s production of ‘Johnny Come Lately’ under the direction of John Wright in which she played the toxic mum, Maureen. Most recently she helped develop ‘In-Kind’ alongside artist Sarah Cole and a group of carers from Islington, which was a person-to-person performance in a military ambulance giving a glimpse of life as a carer.

It was great fun to be working with Tutti-Frutti on such a lovely piece as ‘Monday’s Child’ with Josie Cerise and to experience the joys of touring once more.

Play Space Coordinator