Orange Tree Theatre Announces New Ot Associate Artists In First Cohort Under Artistic Director Tom Littler

Orange Tree Theatre has announced 10 new OT Associate Artists in the first new cohort since Tom Littler's appointment as Artistic Director. OT Associate Artists is a group of actors, directors, writers and creatives who have created work at the Orange Tree Theatre throughout its history.

The new OT Associate Artists announced today are Martin Crimp, Miranda Foster, Alice Hamilton, Chirag Lobo, Indiana Lown-Collins, Dorothea Myer-Bennett, Diane Page, Max Pappenheim, Kalungi Ssebandeke and Tam Williams.

Artistic Director Tom Littler said today, “As new Artistic Associates, Martin, Miranda, Alice, Chirag, Indiana, Dorothea, Diane, Max, Kalungi and Tam join a group drawn from different corners of the Orange Tree's life. Actors, playwrights, directors, designers, stage managers and more, they have all contributed to making the OT what it is today, and most of them have a rich history with the theatre that long pre-dates mine. Artistic Directors are custodians, but the DNA of a theatre resides in the community of artists who both make up its story and continue to tell that story. The OT's unique governance structure means that through our Artistic Trustee system, the voices of freelance artists are rightly woven into the fabric of the organisation. These ten remarkable artists have accepted the honorary position of Associate Artist, but in truth it is the OT that is honoured.”

The OT Associate Artists are theatre practitioners who have worked at the OT, and whose value to the theatre is recognised through these honorary positions. These unremunerated roles acknowledge the OT's long history as an artistically led organisation. Additionally, the OT enjoys an unusual governance structure which reserves several seats on the Board of Trustees for practising theatre artists, the Artistic Trustees. The Artistic Trustees are drawn primarily from the pool of OT Associate Artists.

These 10 new additions join the OT's current Associate Artists Sophie Acreman, David Antrobus, Carolyn Backhouse, Geoffrey Beevers, Edward Bennett, Vincent Brimble, Anthony Clark, Steven Elder, Oliver Ford Davies, Stuart Fox, Clive Francis, Vivien Heilbron, David Lewis, Corinne Meredith,  Christopher Naylor, Amy Neilson Smith, Isobil Nisbet, Diana Payan, Sule Rimi, Amanda Royle, India Semper-Hughes, Auriol Smith, Caroline Smith, Paula Stockbridge, Gillian Thorpe, Stephanie Turner, Matthew Walters, Timothy Watson and David Whitworth.

About the Artists

Martin Crimp is a British playwright whose 1997 play, Attempts on her Life (Royal Court Theatre), established his international reputation. His plays at the OT include Definitely the Bahamas, Dealing with Clair. His plays other plays include The Country, The City, In the Republic of Happiness (Royal Court Theatre), Men Asleep (Hamburg Theatre), Cruel & Tender (Chichester Festival Theatre, Young Vic), The rest will be familiar to you from cinema (Festival d'Avignon), When we have sufficiently tortured each other – 12 Variations on Samuel Richardson's ‘Pamela' (National Theatre) and Cyrano de Bergerac (Playhouse Theatre, BAM). In 2020 he was awarded the Nyssen-Bansemer Theatre Prize.

Miranda Foster has previously performed at the Orange Tree in Arms and the Man, Summer Again, Greenwash, Springs Eternal, The Marrying of Anne Leete, King Cromwell. Her other theatre credits include Boatman Town (Creation Theatre), The Long Song (Chichester Festival Theatre), Mr and Mrs Nobody, All's Well That Ends Well, Tonight at 8.30 (Jermyn Street Theatre), Dance Nation (Almeida), The Special Relationship, Shraddha (Soho Theatre), Hamlet (Globe to Globe world tour to 189 countries, Shakespeare's Globe), Romeo and Juliet, The God of Soho, The Bible (Shakespeare's Globe), Years of Sunlight, Madagascar (Theatre 503), Born in the Gardens (Rose Theatre and Theatre Royal Bath), Love You Too (Bush Theatre), The Criminals (Lyric Hammersmith), The People Downstairs (Young Vic), Blithe Spirit (Manchester Royal Exchange), The Cherry Orchard (Aldwych), A Doll's House (Leicester Haymarket), Gilgamesh, The Women, Schism in England, King Lear, Antony and Cleopatra, Neaptide, The Futurists, Pravda, The Government Inspector, Animal Farm, The Spanish Tragedy, The Fawn (National Theatre). For television, her credits include Sticks and Stones, Shakespeare Uncovered, The Trial of Gemma Lang, Rosemary and Thyme, Where the Heart Is, Dream Team, The Knock, The Turnaround, Sharman, Brotherly Love, The Contractor and The Merry Wives of Windsor.

Alice Hamilton has directed The March on Russia and German Skies at the Orange Tree. She is currently Associate Director at Hampstead Theatre where her productions include Out of Season, Nineteen Gardens, The Memory of Water, The Dumb Waiter, Paradise and Every Day I Make Greatness Happen. Her other theatre credits as a director includes One Who Wants to Cross (Finborough Theatre), Blood Wedding, Echo's End (Salisbury Playhouse), Something in the Air, Anything That Flies (Jermyn Street Theatre), While We're Here, Visitors (Bush Theatre),  Orca, Orson's Shadow (Southwark Playhouse), The Weatherman (Park Theatre), Eventide (Arcola and tour), Fear of Music (Up in Arms/Out of Joint tour), and At First Sight (Latitude Festival and tour).

Chirag Benedict Lobo is an actor, writer, and theatre maker of Goan descent. He has previously appeared in The Circle at the Orange Tree. As an actor, his theatre credits include Life of Pi (Wyndham's Theatre). His television credits include Endeavour; and for film, the upcoming Cycling for Love. Previously he was Creative Associate at the Jermyn Street Theatre, Associate Artist at Nouveau Riche and on the Advisory Board for Projekt Europa. As a writer, he co-wrote The Butterflies of Life (Jermyn Street Theatre, Footprint Festival) which was longlisted for the RSC's 37 plays award.

Indiana Lown-Collins is a theatre maker and director. She previously directed The Solid Life of Sugar Water at the Orange Tree (as 2022 JMK winner). She was Resident Associate Director at Shakespeare's Globe in 2023 where she directed Burnt At The Stake. Her other theatre credits include The Purple Princess, Romeo and Juliet (Guildford Shakespeare Company), The Last Supper (Fresh Direction ‘Replay Project' The Young Vic).  As an associate director, her credits include A Midsummer Night's Dream and As You Like It (Shakespeare's Globe) and The Light at the Piazza (In Concert, Alexandra Palace Theatre); and as an assistant director, Titus Andronicus, Julius Caesar (Shakespeare's Globe), All's Well That Ends Well (Jermyn Street Theatre), As You Like It, She Stoops to Conquer, The Merry Wives of Windsor, Twelfth Night, Robin Hood, Alice in Wonderland, Romeo and Juliet and The Legend of King Arthur (GSC). 

Dorothea Myer-Bennett is an actor, who has previously appeared in How He Lied To Her Husband, Overruled, While The Sun Shines, The Lottery Of Love, The Philanderer at the Orange Tree. Her other theatre credits include Nachtland (Young Vic), The Arc (Soho Theatre), Possession (Arcola Theatre - Offie winner), Leopoldstadt (Wyndham's Theatre), Creditors, Miss Julie (Jermyn Street Theatre), Rosenbaum's Rescue (Park Theatre), Holy Shit (Kiln Theatre), The Winslow Boy (Chichester Festival Theatre), Merchant Of Venice, Pericles (Shakespeare's Globe), Much Ado About Nothing, As You Like It, Arcadia, Two Gentlemen Of Verona, Richard III, The Cherry Orchard, King Lear, The Comedy Of Errors (Shakespeare at the Tobacco Factory), The Misanthrope (Bristol Old Vic), She Stoops To Conquer (Birmingham Rep), Hay Fever (Manchester Royal Exchange) and This Was A Man (Finborough Theatre). Her television credits include Juice, Chelsea Detective, Before We Die, Around the World in 80 Days, Jude the Obscure and Dead Man Talking; and for film, The Honorable Rebel, The Payback, The Orchard and The Mire Archive.

Diane Page is returning to the Orange Tree this year to direct the UK premier of Kate Attwell's Testmatch having previously directed Yellowman and Statements After An Arrest Under The Immorality Act (as 2021 JMK winner). Her other theatre credits include The Tempest, Julius Caesar (Shakespeare's Globe), Lost and Found (Royal Opera House) and Out West (co-director, Lyric Hammersmith Theatre). 

Max Pappenheim is a sound designer and composer. He has previously worked with the Orange Tree on Uncle Vanya, The Circle, Outside, Amsterdam, Humble Boy, The Lottery of Love, Sheppey, Blue/Heart, Little Light, Buckets, The Winter's Tale and The Distance. His other theatre credits include The Night of the Iguana (Noël Coward Theatre), Cruise (Apollo Theatre), Shed: Exploded View (Royal Exchange), A Doll's House Part 2, The Way of the World (Donmar Warehouse), Nineteen Gardens, Blackout Songs, Linck and Mülhahn, Labyrinth (Hampstead Theatre), Crooked Dances (RSC), Henry V (Shakespeare's Globe, Headlong), Hamlet (Bristol Old Vic), Macbeth (Chichester Festival Theatre), The Children (Royal Court and Manhattan Theatre Club), Ophelias Zimmer (Royal Court), Feeling Afraid As If Something Terrible Is Going To Happen, Old Bridge (Bush Theatre), The Homecoming and My Cousin Rachel (Theatre Royal Bath). His Opera and Ballet credits include The Limit (Royal Ballet), The Marriage of Figaro (Salzburg Festival), Miranda (Opéra Comique, Paris), Hansel and Gretel (BYO, Opera Holland Park), and Scraww (Trebah Gardens). He is also Associate Artist of The Faction and Silent Opera.

Kalungi Ssebandeke is an actor, writer and director. At the OT he has directed Meetings (2023 JMK winner), written Prodigal and performed in Blood Knot.  He is currently Carne Associate Director at Theatre503 and in the summer will be directing The Great Privation, Those Who Trespass (Bristol School of Acting). As an actor, his theatre credits include We Need New Names (New Perspectives and Fifth Word), Othello (Watermill Theatre), Duchess of Malfi (Almeida), Image of an Unknown Young Woman (The Gate Theatre), We are Proud to Present… (Bush Theatre), One Monkey Don't Stop No Show (Kiln, Sheffield Theatres, UK tour), There's Only One Wayne Matthews (Sheffield Theatres), The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui (Lyric Hammersmith). His television credits include Skins, The Well and Dubplate Drama. His writing credits include Assata Taught Me (Gate Theatre); and for film, Marriage Plan. Kalungi is also the founder and course leader of Direct Your First Play, a short online directing course. 

Tam Williams is an actor who has previously appeared at the OT in The Lottery of Love, Factors Unforseen and The Private Ear. His other theatre credits include The Fantastic Follies of Mrs Rich, Miss Littlewood, The Park (RSC), Sunny Afternoon (Hampstead Theatre), Strangers on a Train (Gielgud Theatre), Chariots of Fire (Hampstead Theatre, Gielgud Theatre), The Rivals (Theatre Royal Bath), A Midsummer Night's Dream (Rose Theatre Kingston), Twelfth Night, The Taming of the Shrew (The Watermill Theatre, Old Vic, RSC, National tour, International tour), The Winter's Tale (The Watermill Theatre, National tour, International tour), Macbeth (Albery Theatre), Time and the Conways (Theatre Royal Bath, National tour), Much Ado About Nothing, A Midsummer Night's Dream (Regents Park Open Air Theatre), Remember This (National Theatre), Chimes at Midnight (Chichester Festival Theatre), Birdy (Lyric Hammersmith) and The Matchmaker (Chichester Festival Theatre). His television credits include Killer Net, A Dance to the Music of Time, Silent Witness, Martin Chuzzlewit, Unforgettable; and for film Blithe Spirit, Petrichor, Dragonheart Vengence, Hurricane, Spectre, 1242 Gateway to the West, Anorak of Fire, Cold Enough for Snow, The Trench, and War Poem.

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