Pip Piacentino
Committee Member
Actor: Play It Again Sam; Arsenic And Old Lace
Performance Director: The Accrington Pals, Fallen Angels; Dark of the Moon;

Pip fell in love with Britain when stationed here with the US Navy and decided to make it his home. His links with Kent, especially Deal, stretch back to 1964.

Pip first appeared on stage in New York when his father brought the three-year old Pip on stage to liven up his act. He is equally at home as an actor, director or playwright. A member of the South London Theatre Centre, he directed many plays for them including Peter Whelan’s "The Accrington Pals" which he also directed in April 2007 with Canterbury Players. Pip is to direct Canterbury Players in "Fallen Angels" by Noel Coward.

Lisa Nightingale
Committee Member
Assistant Director: Pint Sized Henry V
Stage Manager: Dark of the Moon
Actor: Two; Canterbury Tales; The Importance of Being Earnest
Lisa has been acting since a very young age. She studied at the Laine Theatre Arts school in Epsom Surrey and then gained a degree in Drama at Rose Bruford College of speech and drama. Theatre work includes;

Fanny in Far From the Madding Crowd., A tour of the south of France in which she played the Nurse in Romeo and Juliet. Polly in The Gut Girls at the ICA in London. Luce in The Comedy of Errors for the Nuffield Theatre Southampton. Mary in Low Level Panic.

Lisa helped found the 'IN A SPACE' theatre company in 1996 where she helped write and direct various plays; she is most proud of 'JANIS' a play of the life of Janis Joplin, which was performed in Brighton.

Lisa spent many years teaching drama at the Italia Conti school based in London. Lisa has recently joined the Canterbury players.

Derek Standing
President
Set Design & Construction

Some 42 years ago, Derek responded to an urgent advert from Canterbury Dramatic Society and although only 18 he got a job and even survived giving the cast a nightmare on his first set because he did not know that one has to add size glue to the powder paint.

Recent productions: RolePlay; The Birthday Party; The Accrington Pals; Play It Again Sam; Fallen Angels; Much Ado About Nothing; The Vortex; Night Must Fall; The Importance of Being Earnest; Barefoot In the Park.

Rehearsals

John Rye
Actor: Blue Remembered Hills; Much Ado About Nothing; Two; The Vortex; Dark of the Moon

John has always loved the stage especially musical theatre. He took lead roles in university productions of ‘Fame: The Musical’, ‘East’ & ‘A Midsummer Night's Dream’. He also directed successful performances of ‘Bouncers’ and an adult pantomime. Since moving back to Kent he has worked with Yellow Brick Road Theatre Company as well as the Really Promising Company in their shows ‘Promised Land’, ‘Kentish Tales’ & ‘The Mystery of Edwin Drood’. John made his Canterbury Players debut in 'Blue Remembered Hills' and loved every single second of working with the wonderful cast, crew and the fantastic support.

John moved back to kent after graduating in the summer of 2005 and is now working far too hard as a teacher at Chaucer Technology School. Recently he has worked with the Really Promising Company in their shows Promised Land and Kentish Tales, through which he has met Sarah Gooch and Sid Moon. He has also worked with Yellow Brick Road productions in a very well received performance of 100 last year.

John would like to thank the Players for their warm reception and he is looking forward to successful future productions.

Serena Sykes
Actor: Dark of the Moon

Serena has been into performing from a very young age having started with piano at age 5 and moving on to singing and acting in her teenage years. She has taken lead roles in Evita, After Juliet and most recently Oliver at the Winter Gardens where she took on the role of Nancy.

She is currently working with Ashcan Theatre Company on a production of Chekhov’s The Bear, alongside her role as Barbara in Dark of the Moon with Canterbury Players.

Serena studied for a short period with Stage 84 in the village of Idle, close to her hometown of Huddersfield and has an A-Level in performing arts along with Grade 8 in Piano and Oboe. She is currently working on taking performing to the next level and is hoping to make her mark in professional theatre.

Richard Vince
Actor: Dark of the Moon; Pint Sized Henry V; The Importance of Being Earnest

Richard thought he had achieved all his acting ambitions in his very first play, when he played a tree in a school production in Aladdin. Not one to take this early peak as a sign to get out while the going is good, he spent most of his school and university days appearing in and/or directing amateur productions on stage and film, as well as a brief stint as a supporting presenter on BBC Radio. During this time, he noticed a worrying trend where he started life being cast as naïve innocents and heroic roles before transitioning to almost exclusively villains, murderers and mad men. The pyschological and personality implications of this shift are ones he chooses to avoid….

After a few years ‘out of the game’, he has started to make use once again of those creaky acting muscles and his studies in drama at the University of Kent and joined the Canterbury Players. He was thrilled to have been made to feel so welcome, forming many enew friendships, and to be cast in his "Dark of the Moon" (as the villain!). He is currently throughly enjoying working with the cast and crew of "Pint Sized Henry V" and "Importance of Being Earnest", where he gets to enjoy on set costume changes, multiple roles/accents, a rugby match, trivial behaviour, romance, comedy and sudden revelations. Or, as he calls it, Tuesday evening.

Mike Rivarno
Assistant Director: Dark of the Moon;
Actor: Roleplay; The Accrington Pals; Dark of the Moon;

Born in Southampton in 1967 and raised in the seaside town of Deal, Mike embarked on a love of the Arts at very early age, with the Cinema just down the road from his home and a family TV that for the most part was always available to him. The eldest of 3 kids to a single hard working mum he was left pretty much to his devices. Like a lot of kids at that time the films of Steven Spielberg and George Lucas were a constant source of entertainment and for Mike, inspiration.

In 1983 at the age of 15 the School he sometimes attended was putting together the first ever stage version of Alan Parker's Movie Musical ‘Bugsy Malone’ and Mike was awarded the role of Fat Sam Staccetto. The performance he gave is still mentioned to him to this day and the enthusiasm he received from people made him want to do a whole lot more, yet as he turned 16 and left the family home commitments to work and constantly changing his address restricted his ability to commit to the roles that came up in the local Dramatic groups.

It wasn’t until 1999, when he returned to his hometown of Deal that he was able to really get into a more regular pattern of drama, switching between the towns two rival groups he found himself performing in a lot of comedy farce and one or two pantomimes. In 2001 the town had a new group emerge and the chance to do some more dramatic work presented itself and Mike soon found himself performing in plays by authors like Harold Pinter, Debbie Isitt and Eugene O’Neil.

Having lived in the village of Ash since 2003 he has been working with Canterbury Players for much of that time and recently performed a play with Ashcan Theatre Company. He still gets the same buzz backstage now as he did way back in the summer of ’83 and is always looking forward to the next exciting challenge to present itself.

Selected work from the past:

On An Average Day 2009
The Accrington Pals 2007
Roleplay 2005
My Boy Jack 2005
Lord Arthur Savile’s Crime 2004
Hobson’s Choice 2003
Whose Life Is It Anyway? 2003
The Woman Who Cooked Her Husband 2002
Betrayal 2001
Abigails Party 2001
Bugsy Malone 1983

Sid Moon
Actor: Blue Remembered Hills; Two; Canterbury Tales; Dark of the Moon; Night Must Fall.

My first appearance on stage since leaving school was in 2006 when I appeared in the Canterbury Festival community opera "The Promised Land" performed at the Marlowe Theatre. It was there that I met members of Canterbury Players and finding them such a friendly bunch decided to join.

Since then I have been involved in productions every year, those being "The Palace of Varieties", "Blue Remembered Hills", " Two" and the "Canterbury Tales".

Elswhere I enjoy performing in musical productions and have been in " Titanic" with Herne Bay Operatic Society. "Kentish Tales", "Drood", "Rackrent" and " I've Looked in the Window at Diamonds" with the Canterbury based Really Promising Company.

I am thoroughly enjoying the "Dark of the Moon" and thank everyone involved for allowing me to be part of it.

Tessa Taylor
Actor: Much Ado About Nothing; Day After The Fair; Dark of the Moon; Night Must Fall; The Importance of Being Earnest, Barefoot in the Park.

Tessa has been a Drama teacher in London and Surrey. She trained in Cheltenham from 1960-63, performed at the Everyman Theatre, and then directed school plays at the Thorndike in Leatherhead.

Moving to Canterbury in 1991, she began teaching at Chaucer Technology School, joined Playcraft and played (among other rôles) Maggie in ‘Hobson’s Choice’ and Natasha in ‘Three Sisters’. In 2007 she completed her training for the Church and left Chaucer: from the stage to the classroom to the pulpit!

For the Canterbury Players, she took part in "Much Ado About Nothing", "Day After The Fair" , "Dark of the Moon" and Night Must Fall.

Mark Charles Smith
Actor: For Canterbury Players Gosforth's Fete; La Ronde; Fallen Angels; The Accrington Pals; Much Ado About Nothing; Arsenic And Old Lace; Dark of the Moon, Night Must Fall; The Importance of Being Earnest, Barefoot in the Park.
Sound Engineer for Blue Remembered Hills.
For Chilham Players: Seasons Greetings
For Kent Shakespeare Company: Twelfth Night.
A monologue orator for The Penis Monologues for the theatre company, Unfinished Business

Mark has appeared in a number of Canterbury Players productions, as well as end of year short films at universities in Canterbury and Hastings, as a film extra for various productions filmed in Kent including "The Other Boleyn Girl", "Wild Child", the 2011 production of "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy", as a player in a Chris Tarrant TV programme, as a major player in a KETV production called 'The Sea Shall Have Them' and recently took part in a pilot for a new sitcom aimed at getting onto the UK terrestrial channels.

Mark is looking for more TV and film work to get him out of the office once in a while.

My Facebook page.
Links to recent videos:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LY9qcWjPomk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwE-cdMAu88

Alison Rook
Actor: Dark of the Moon

This is Alison’s first role with the Canterbury Players (and possibly her last….) After appearing in plays at school, she did not do any acting for a long time. Instead, singing in a choir seemed to provide the performance fix. But in 2006 she took part in the chorus of ‘Promised Land’, at the Marlowe Theatre, part of the Canterbury Festival and a great experience. After that, Jill Ackhurst invited her to sing ‘Only a Faded Rose’, a tear-jerking spoof Victorian ballad, in The Palace of Varieties in Canterbury 2007. This was a great success, and led to her joining the Players.

Recent work with the company has been Prompt for The Vortex (2009) and the ongoing job of sorting out the company’s stage costumes, after some years of neglect. This has been good fun and Treasures Have Been Found. Some of them are appearing in this production, also Alison’s first outing as a costume person.

Charlotte Riding
Actor: Dark of the Moon; The Importance of Being Earnest

I have always enjoyed acting took part in school plays but really got into acting when I started studying at Canterbury College, where I left with a BTEC National Diploma in Performing Arts (Drama).

Dark of the Moon is my first show with Canterbury Players and I have loved every minute of it!!! Hopefully they will let me back to do more productions.

I would just like to thank all the players for being so welcoming. You're all great!!!!

Jo Purvis
Committee Member
Assistant Director: Day After the Fair
Actor: Canterbury Tales; Dark of the Moon; Pint Sized Henry V; The Importance of Being Earnest
Occasional Stage Manager: The Vortex

Jo has always loved the theatre and spent most of her childhood playing various Dickensian waifs and strays.

As a natural bossy boots, she relished the opportunity to hone her organisational skills as Assistant Director for Day After the Fair.

She made her first stage performance for the Players in the Canterbury Tales, whilst also reprising her key role of official tea-maker.

She is greatly looking forward to wearing yet another fabulous hat for her role in Dark of the Moon.

Phil Hadland
Actor: Arsenic And Old Lace; Dark of the Moon;

After school, many years of university studies, volunteer work and pot washing, Phil eventually moved to Canterbury for a job in the local museums service in 2008. His appearance in "Arsenic And Old Lace" is his first acting role since; when at the age of fifteen he read the voice of God in a contemporary play about the birth of Christ.

He enjoys many hobbies including painting, collecting fossils, playing bass guitar and football. Phil joined the Canterbury Players in the hope of meeting some interesting, like minded people and to get some experience of acting. To that end Phil feels he has been successful.

Jonna Seager
Actor: Dark of the Moon

I am one of those people who have sat in audiences and admired performances on stage and have longed to perform myself. However I have never attempted to make it happen until I went on honeymoon earlier this year. I was in Australia and took part in a role playing experience at Melbourne Gaol. I played the role of Ned Kelly's solicitor. I was then approached later that day and the following day by people who had witnessed my performance and recognised me. It was their suggestions that led me to audition for the Canterbury Players when I returned back to the UK.

Dark of the Moon will be my first stage performance. I am very much looking forward to this great opportunity and wish to thank the other members for their kind support and guidance.

Jim Akhurst
Actor: The Accrington Pals; Palace of Varieties; Fallen Angels; Arsenic And Old Lace; The Vortex; Dark of the Moon;

Jim was recently cast as the playwright Bertolt Brecht in “I’ve Looked in the Window at Diamonds”, a musical show about the life of composer Kurt Weill.  Brecht wanted to “keep the audience guessing at what will happen next” and Dark of the Moon has a few surprises for the audience.

Over the past few years, Jim has played the roles of Fred in Noel Coward's Fallen Angels, Arthur Boggis in The Accrington Pals, Doctor Einstein in Arsenic And Old Lace and, most recently, Bruce Fairlight in The Vortex.

Jill Akhurst
Director – Palace of Varieties; Bazaar and Rummage; Night Must Fall.
Director's Assistant The Accrington Pals
Singer of saucy songs; Actor Fallen Angels; Two; Arsenic And Old Lace; The Vortex; Dark of the Moon

I directed Night Must Fall twenty years ago in London, where it was a great success.  I had a good cast then, but I've got an even better cast now.  This is a superbly written play which, with good actors, cannot fail to keep the audience in a state of suspense right up until the last moment

Jill recently appeared at the Gulbenkian as Clara in The Vortex by Noel Coward and has sung the part of Lotte Lenya in “I’ve Looked in the Window at Diamonds” for the Really Promising Company.

One of her favourite roles was as Aunt Abby in Arsenic And Old Lace for the Canterbury Players in October 2009.

Tony Johnson
Actor: RolePlay; Much Ado About Nothing; Arsenic And Old Lace; The Vortex; Dark of the Moon; The Importance of Being Earnest, Barefoot in the Park.

Over the past forty years, Tony has appeared in more than 50 Plays, often in leading roles and twice winning Best Actor awards.
Since joining Canterbury Players in 1990, he has appeared in many of our Productions and  made his Shakespeare debut with us, as Malvolio in "Twelfth Night" and later as Leanato in Much Ado About Nothing.

Since then, he has played the homicidal maniac Jonathan in Arsenic And Old Lace, the elderly 'maiden gentleman' in Noel Coward's The Vortex, the hog-farmer Mr Allen in Dark of the Moon and more recently, the judge in the opening scene of Night Must Fall.

Natalie Johnston
Actor: Dark of the Moon

Nathalie’s love for the theatre first started at the age of 3 when she was awarded a special diploma for her interpretation of “My Little Pony”. After 10 years of training with several theatre schools, including Sylvia Young’s, she then went on to become a devoted member of Kingston University’s drama group, winning an award for Shakespeare’s "The Tempest".

She has truly loved all the roles she’s been lucky enough to play. However, a recent delve into the world of Shakespeare (playing Beatrice and Lady Capulet) was without doubt one of her most enjoyable acting experiences so far. In 2007, together with a fellow acting colleague, she established "Why Not Theatre Company" in Copenhagen, Denmark. It soon became one of Denmark’s leading English-speaking theatre companies producing a variety of international plays from Ayckbourne to Athol Fugard. Her recent move back to England and her “need” to connect with anything in the thespian world has lead to her finding The Canterbury Players. She is thoroughly enjoying her role in their current production, Dark of the Moon.

Sebastian Spaul
Actor: Dark of the Moon; Pint Sized Henry V

I studied acting, singing and dancing at Kent Youth Theatre - a professional acting school in Canterbury for about two years - receiving a number of auditions for television including 'Johny and The Bomb' and 'In The Break'. I aslo studied Theatre studies through GCSE and have just finished two years of A level Theatre Studies and Film Studies. In particular I enjoy comedy acting from Tommy Cooper's hat sketch to Little Britain.

Other than Drama I have a great love for Martial Arts and have been doing Bujinkai Karate since I was about 6. I also play drums, classical and electric guitar and am learning to speak Spanish as there is quite a lot of Spanish in my family!

Dark of the Moon is my first production with the Canterbury Players but I hope to continue performing with them.

Geoffrey began his acting career as Professor Theophilus Brainwave in a sci-fi play at his junior school in the 1930s.

After being Secretary of his college dramatic society at university, he became a junior school teacher and over his career directed more than twenty plays on the school stage.

Retiring to Canterbury in 1989, he joined the Canterbury Dramatic Society in 1998 for a production that never reached performance.

As Secretary, he helped to bring about the reuniting of C.D.S. with Playcraft in 2003 and established the pattern of regular performances before the public at the Gulbenkian Theatre, the Whitstable Playhouse and other venues.

He has appeared in seven productions of the group and directed the performance of the play ‘597’ connected with the unveiling of the statues, in Canterbury, of Ethelbert and Bertha by Prince Michael of Kent in May 2006. Geoffrey appeared as Signor Antonio in Much Ado About Nothing and Mr Witherspoon in Arsenic And Old Lace.

Daniel Steinbach
Actor: Dark of the Moon; The Importance of Being Earnest; Pint Sized Henry V
Stage Manager: Canterbury Tales

Daniel is originally from Trier in Germany, and has been living in the UK for over four years. He works at the Cathedral as a glazier and conservator of stained glass. He has a passion for music, art and his German (aka ‘proper’) bread.

He has acted back home as a teenager, in roles such as Professor Dr. Hiccup in The Dream Eater by Michael Ende.

He joined the Players earlier this year as Stage Manager for The Canterbury Tales, and is looking forward to his first acting role with the group in The Dark of the Moon.

Ian is one of the major stalwarts of the Canterbury Players, working hard behind the scenes to ensure everything runs smoothly: organising sponsorship; publicity; ticket sales; venues; taking part in the choice of performances and a great deal more besides.

His first production, as a director with the Players, was Alan Ayckbourn's "Seasons Greetings". This was a joint production between Playcraft and Canterbury Dramatics Society, before their merger into The Canterbury Players. Since then, he since been involved in one way or another with virtually every - if not all - productions. This includes directing "When we are Married" in November 2004; Harold Pinter's "The Birthday Party" and later, Alan Ayckbourn's "Gosforth's Fete", here giving a few of the newer members the opportunity to take their first tentative steps on stage - after which they have never looked back.

Gill Moon
Actor: Dark of the Moon; Night Must Fall.

This is Gill's first attempt at acting since joining the Canterbury Players in 2007 when she appeared in Palace of Varieties.

Gill met several Canterbury Players members while appearing in the community opera Promised Land which was part of the 2006 Canterbury Festival. This venture led to the forming of The Really Promising Company in which Gill has appeared in several shows.

She also appeared on stage as a slave with Ellen Kent's Moldovian Opera Company in Aida at the Marlowe theatre, and as a dead sailor singing Bright Eyes with the Spy Monkeys at the Gulbenkian Theatre in 2009.

This play appealed to Gill because of the fun of a barn dance and the church revival scene. So she was tempted to have a go!

Since joining Canterbury Players Gill has made many good friends and shared a lot of memorable times. She is thoroughly enjoying being part of Dark of the Moon production.
Gill

Becky Lamyman
Actor: Dark of the Moon; Pint Sized Henry V;
Assistant Director/Stage Manager. The Importance of Being Earnest

Dark of the Moon will be Becky's first foray into grown up theatre, with her previous experience being focussed around school plays, including "Trolls", "The Wiz" and "Do We Ever See Grace?" where she played an 11 year old suicidal clown. This role clearly traumatised her and she gave theatrics a wide birth until her third year studying Classics and English at the University of Kent where she directed/produced and acted in the student Christmas panto.

Becky currently works at Christ Church Students' Union and joined the Players in the summer of 2010 helping out backstage at the production of "The Vortex".

She is thrilled at joining the cast of the "Dark of the Moon", and hopes to do the Players proud. 

Becky would like to take this opportunity to thank the Players for their warm welcome.

Sally Brown
Director: The Importance of Being Earnest.
Actor: Two; Arsenic And Old Lace; The Vortex; Dark of the Moon;
Stage Manager: The Canterbury Tales

Sally first acting role was as Narrator in the Nativity play Babushka. She was offered the lead, but refused on the account that she would have to wear a dress. Dresses were for girls.

She has stuck to her principles and has played roles such as Puss in Boots (shorts & fur), Frauline Kost in Cabaret (dressing gown) and Edward in Henry VI (fetching trouser suit with deadly weapon accessorises). Only since joining the Players in 2009 has she been cast as a female character requiring a dress.

Sally studied drama at Aberystwyth university, and her career as a Performing Arts Teacher eventually moved her down to Kent a couple of years ago. Trying to ‘make it’ as an author, she is currently studying for a MA in Creative Writing and teaching English in Canterbury.

Sally recently directed 'The Importance of Being Earnest' which was enjoyed greatly by cast, crew and audience alike.

Tracy Bolton
Actor: Dark of the Moon

Carmen Leandro
Actor: Dark of the Moon; Night Must Fall.

Carmen played 60 year old Claire Zachanassian in “The Visit” at Barton Court School in February.  She has also played Estella in “Great Expectations” at Kent College.  After her performance as a witch in “Dark of the Moon” for the Canterbury Players last year, she has come down to earth with the part of Dora, Mrs Bramson’s young maid in Night Must Fall.

Tamsin Worrad
Prompt: Dark of the Moon