The Team

Paul Hart

Paul Hart has trained as a professional director at Rose Bruford College, and has a range of theatre credits both in the capacity of a director and as a performer. These include productions of Much Ado About Nothing, A Midsummer Night's Dream,A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum, The Comedy Of Errors, Alice in Wonderland (John Doyle Award), Women of Troy and as the Scarecrow in The Wizard Of Oz at Folkestone's Leas Cliff Hall. TV credits include The Basil Brush Show (BBC), Henry VIII (ITV) and The Maze (Sky TV).

Theatre Directing includes A Doll's House, Three Sisters and a short film entitled Turn. For 'The Works he has co-directed 'Clouds' and 'Wasps' and directed both 'Othello' and 'The Tempest'. Paul is a founder member of The Works Theatre Company, during which time the company's work has also had directorial input from, amongst others, Chichester Festival Theatre's former artistic director Steven Pimlott.

Andrew Goy

Andrew Goy has extensive experience as a director and performer, and has taken a number of lead roles in prominent productions, including Benedick in Much Ado About Nothing, Stephano in The Tempest, Lysander in A Midsummer Night's Dream. His other credits include roles in Albert Speer, Scrooge The Musical, Equus, Ghetto, and Lord Of The Flies. He has been working with The Works Theatre Company since its foundation, having played Iago in Othello, Strepsiades in Aristophanes' Clouds and Procleon/Sosias in Wasps. He also co-adapted and co-directed these Aristophanes works, while his other directing credits include The Fifteen Minute Hamlet, Old Town Ghost Tours and Wit Tank.

Tarek Merchant

Tarek has been trained as an actor-musician at Rose Bruford College, and has worked variously as an actor, musician, composer and musical director. As an actor, he has taken lead roles in Oliver!, Me and My Girl, Fiddler On The Roof, and the title role in Candide at the Edinburgh Festival. In 2004, he composed and staged an award-winning new musical The Perfect Present, before writing the score for a new children's musical, Wilde Tales. Tarek holds a first class degree in music from York University, an ABRSM diploma in piano, and has worked as a musician and musical director with Opera North, Youth Music Theatre UK, and Thrift Theatre. With The Works Theatre Company, he has played Ferdinand/Caliban/Gonzalo in The Tempest and written the score for Wasps

Marie Maton

Marie has trained as a stage manager and has extensive experience as an educational practitioner. She has recently worked on various high profile productions including The Crucible, Stoning Mary and Aladdin. With The Works Theatre she has collaborated on the theatre in education production of The Tempest and its accompanying educational workshops, and is already involved in bringing Romeo and Juliet to schools in the coming year. She is also heading the generation of a brand new educational project entitled Magical Myths which the company will be bringing to the primary school sector in 2008.

Alison Downes

Alison has acquired a BA Hons in Music Technology from Rose Bruford College and has been managing the technical demands of The Works Theatre productions including for the touring production of Wasps and the Schools educational tour of The Tempest. As well as being sound technician for these shows, she has composed the scores for several short films and theatre productions such as India Song, and has worked as a sound operative at key London venues including The New Players Theatre.

John Doyle

John Doyle has been artistic director at several regional theatres where he has staged more than two hundred professional productions during a thirty year career. He has been a crucial influence in the development of actor-musician work in the UK and America.

For the past ten years, John has been associate director of the Watermill Theatre, a 216-seat performance space in the English countryside of Berkshire.

His 2004 staging of Stephen Sondheim's Sweeney Todd moved from the Watermill to the West End of London in 2005 (first to Trafalgar Studios and then the Ambassadors Theatre). In November 2005 he re-mounted Sweeney on Broadway, with Michael Cerveris playing the "demon barber" and Patti LuPone as his pie-baking accomplice, Mrs. Lovett.

He them moved to the Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park to reinvent Sondheim's Company with a cast led by Raúl Esparza — again with actors who sing, dance and provide their own musical accompaniment. This production moved to the Ethel Barrymore Theatre on Broadway opening officially on November 29, 2006. In 2007, it won the Tony, Drama Desk, Outer Critic's Circle and Drama League Awards for Best Revival of a Musical. Doyle also staged an actor/musician version of Mack and Mabel staring David Soul and Janie Dee in London's West End.