Anne Hancox
Committee Member
Actor: RolePlay; Play It Again, Sam; Fallen Angels; Bazaar and Rummage; Two; The Vortex.

Anne's early performances were all in music theatre. Later came a shift to straight drama.

Her involvement with Canterbury's long-established amateur theatre group Playcraft for 21 years and now, with The Canterbury Players has provided a wealth of acting opportunities.

She has enjoyed numerous leading roles ranging from Nora in Ibsen's "A Doll's House", Katharine in Shakespeare's "The Taming of the Shrew"; the drunken and shameless Arabella in Ayckbourn's "RolePlay" and Julia 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.

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.

Liz Findlay
Actor: Play It Again Sam; Much Ado About Nothing;
Stage Manager The Birthday Party, La Ronde, The Accrington Pals, Gosforth's Fete; Play It Again Sam, Fallen Angels, Blue Remembered Hills; Two; Arsenic And Old Lace; The Vortex; Night Must Fall.

Liz joined the players in 2005 as prompt for Roleplay, rose to the position of chief of teapot bearing and has been stage managing since then in Pinter's "Birthday Party", Ayckbourne's "Gosforth’s Fete", Schnitzlers "La Ronde", Whelan's " The Accrington Pals" and Woody Allen's Play It Again Sam in which she also took the part of Vanessa.

Liz is trained in Fine Art and has exhibited locally. She designed the posters for Fallen Angels, and Blue Remembered Hills, Much Ado About Nothing and The Vortex.

Liz is going into business for herself, as a fully qualified Blue Badge tour guide, for which www.kent-and-sussex-tours.co.uk is the website.

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

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.

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.

Phil Gittins
Actor: The Glass Menagerie; Desire Under the Elms; The Birthday Party; Much Ado About Nothing; Arsenic And Old Lace; Canterbury Tales; Pint Sized Henry V

From early school performances in “Joseph and his Technicolour Dreamcoat” and “The Jungle Book” to a Sixth Form review in which he played Ben, one of the “Flower Pot” men, Phil has a long held passion for acting, performing and filmmaking.

He came to Canterbury in 1994, to study Radio, Film & Television at Christchurch University College and following several college films and local productions he joined the Players in 2002 for the role of Tom in “The Glass Menagerie”.

A teacher of English, Media and Film studies, Phil enjoys cinema / filmmaking, writing and watching football in his spare time.

Phil is excited at his first Shakespearian role!

Peter Fox
Actor: Arsenic And Old Lace; The Vortex.

Peter has previously worked behind the scenes on "Bazaar and Rummage" for the Canterbury Players, in set production and assistant stage manager capacities. He is also a budding young singer-songwriter, having played his first ever public gig in September 2009. Peter dreams of one day writing for the big screen, that's if the music thing doesn't take off!

Robert McGregor
Actor: Arsenic And Old Lace; The Vortex.

Robert woke up one day and decided to 'give acting a go'; as it happens, the Canterbury Players company was able to accommodate him.

Robert's only previous acting experience was over 30 years ago in a school production of Ubu Rex (Ubu Roi). He seems to remember forgetting his opening lines but doesn't think anyone noticed.

He mentions, by way of an aside, that he is not suffering from a mid-life crisis, although he also tells us that he has recently started riding a motorbike.

Adam Summers
Actor: Much Ado About Nothing; Two; Day After The Fair; Canterbury Tales
Assistant Stage Manager: Arsenic And Old Lace
Assistant Stage Construction and Lighting Engineer: Bazaar & Rummage

Adam joined the Canterbury Players as a result of an email that asked him to come along to an audition for 'Much Ado About Nothing'. The rest as they say is history.

Adam has always loved drama and as a result, studied the subject at college. He has appeared in a number of productions, where he has played roles such as Hatch in 'The Sea', Algernon in 'The Importance of Being Earnest' and Napoleon in a musical version of George Orwell's 'Animal Farm’.

He is greatly looking forward to future productions with the Players.

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.

Ellie Gee
Actor: Much Ado About Nothing; Two; Canterbury Tales; The Importance of Being Earnest

Ellie is excited to be seen on stage with Canterbury Players for the first time as Hero, in ‘Much Ado about Nothing’ having previously hidden back stage in ‘Blue Remembered Hills’ and ‘Fallen Angels’.

Before moving to Canterbury for University however she appeared in both ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ as Helena and ‘Romeo and Juliet’ as the Prince at Wokingham Theatre.

As a trainee primary school teacher Ellie enjoys telling people what to do and hopes one day to convert her experience with five year olds into directing actors.

Mike Ayris
Actor: La Ronde; Play It Again Sam; Arsenic And Old Lace; Day After The Fair; Night Must Fall.

Michael has been with the Canterbury Players for many years, first acting in Sailor Beware at the old Marlowe. He went on to study theatre at the Rose Bruford College and worked professionally for a time. His love of acting keeps him in touch with the society and he is always open to new challenges.

Ruth Cameron.
Actor: Much Ado About Nothing; Bazaar and Rummage; Arsenic And Old Lace; The Vortex; Night Must Fall

Ruth was a singing, dancing, and acting child and won the best actor prize for Lady Macbeth at age 16. Despite gaining a provisional place at the Hampstead School of Drama, she did not follow an acting career. In the 1980s Ruth co- produced a school pantomime with the writer John Larr and took part in local sketches, but then did not return to drama until 2006 when she joined the Canterbury Players; Ruth has been involved in most productions since. This includes singing in Marie Lloyd songs in "Palace of Varieties", being an attendant in "Much Ado About Nothing" and performing the outrageous, yet poignant part of the blaspheming vulgarian Margaret Gittings in "Bazaar and Rummage" the 'innocent' murderess in “Arsenic And Old Lace” and the shocking socialite Florence in Noel Coward’s “The Vortex”.

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.

Nigel Banks
Actor: Much Ado About Nothing; Two; Canterbury Tales; The Importance of Being Earnest

Nigel comes from a theatrical family & is an experienced actor, director & teacher. He spent over 15 years in Cumbria appearing in over 50 productions at The Brewery Arts Centre, Kendal playing everything from God in the Medieval morality play ‘Everyman’, to The Devil in a large scale community show called ‘The Bogeyman’. Other favourite roles include Lysander in ‘A Midsummer’s Night Dream’, Jerry in ‘Zoo Story’ & Canon Throbbing in ‘Habeas Corpus’. In 1985 he directed his first full length show, ironically, ‘Bazaar & Rummage’ by Sue Townsend which is to be performed by the Players in 2009. Other directorial credits include O’Casey’s ‘Shadow of a Gunman’, Arthur Miller’s ‘The American Clock’, Middleton & Rowley’s ‘The Changeling’, Brian Friel’s ‘The Loves of Cass McGuire’ & Jim Cartwright’s ‘Two’.

The Pinnacle of his Cumbrian theatrical career was adapting, directing & acting in a production of ‘Hamlet’ which toured to India in 1994. Doing two performances in the same evening in 34C heat, wearing RSC hired costumes certainly qualified for the “Acting under Difficulty” heading - & that was before the Delhi Belly started taking its toll amongst the cast!

Nigel moved to Kent in 1996 & joined Playcraft. His first role with them was Mr Smith in Ionesco’s ‘The Bald Prima Donna’ directed by Stewart Ross. He then played the title role in ‘Macbeth’ appearing opposite Sarah Gooch & ‘An Inspector Calls’. His final show for Playcraft was ‘Waiting for Godot’ by Samuel Beckett in 2000 in which he played Lucky.

The experience of acting in a small cast production of a challenging piece of drama alongside Alan Pope & Brian Ross led indirectly to the formation of Ashcan Theatre Company with which Nigel has been closely associated ever since. He has played the roles of Michael in ‘Someone to Watch Over Me’ by Frank McGuinness, Geraldo in ‘Death & the Maiden’ by Ariel Dorfman, George in ‘Duck Variations’ by David Maet & most recently in March 2008, Yvan in ‘Art’ by Yasmin Reza. He also directed Pinter’s ‘Old Times’ for the Company & ‘On An Average Day’ by John Kolvenjach.

He is delighted to be making a return to the Gulbenkian stage in ‘Much Ado About Nothing.’.

Laura Brown
Actor: Angela in "Blue Remembered Hills"

Laura has adored performing for as long as she can remember and grabs at all opportunities of ‘Treading the boards’.

Laura has trained in musical theatre since the age of 14 with the Kent Youth Theatre and the BRIT School of Performing Arts before gaining a variety of credits to her CV. These include leading roles in professional pantomimes at the Marlowe Theatre, tremendously fun summer seasons singing and dancing in holiday venues, and show cases at the London Palladium and the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane.

Her most recent credits include:
Dorothy in ‘The Wizard of OZ’, Shelby in ‘Steel Magnolias’ and the title role in ‘Cinderella’ with the Up The Creek pantomime society.

Performing as Angela in ‘Blue Remembered Hills’ will be Laura's debut production with the Canterbury Players. She is grateful for the opportunity to perform with such a talented group of actors and she would like to thank the cast and crew for welcoming her so warmly.

Until April 2006, James (Jim) had spent the past 20 years or so on an acting break between career engagements, latterly running his own management consultancy, training and coaching business, People Scope.

In his first acting life - primarily for the Cambridge University Players, at Uni in Birmingham, and the Goodrich Theatre, Putney - he got to play in different stuff: including a panoply of Shakespeares (Much Ado, As You Like It, Merchant of Venice, Hamlet), Beckett (Krapp's Last Tape), Bennett, Simon Gray, Pinter, Edward Bond, Athol Fugard et al.

In late 2005, Pinter's the Birthday Party - in all its non-sequitury weirdness - re-appeared and he started again....

Ben Holliday
Actor, Night Must Fall.

Ben Holliday has been acting for around twelve years with numerous Kentish groups. He started out as a sallow youth with the Young Arden Theatre group in Faversham and Kent Youth Theatre in Canterbury. After passing through the gulf of adolescence, he became involved with The Arden Theatre Group, Grass Roots, The UKC Drama Society, the Herne Bay Playmakers and the Kent Shakespeare Company. Recent roles have included 'director' and 'Sir Henry' in 'Hound of the Baskervilles', 'Caliban' in 'The Tempest' and 'Gus' in 'The Dumb Waiter'.

In his spare time, Ben enjoys playing the bass guitar in his folk-rock band, Green Diesel.

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!!!!

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.

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.

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.