Artistic Directors
Lindsay Rodden Writer, Dramaturg
Lindsay Rodden is a writer and dramaturg. She was born in Edinburgh, and raised in Liverpool and Buncrana, Co.Donegal, where her family is from. Lindsay is currently Writer-in-Residence at Northumbria University and Live Theatre, Newcastle, where she is developing a new play.
In 2017 she adapted The Story Giant by Brian Patten for the inaugural Everyman Company season. Other writing for theatre includes Cartographers (Theatre by the Lake); work with women playwrights’ collective Agent 160 including A Modest Proposal (Theatre 503 / The Arches, Glasgow / Chapter Arts Centre, Cardiff) and Sunday Morning, Dandelion Seeds (Wales Millennium Centre); verbatim play Ends (Liverpool Everyman / tour); Man With Bicycle, ’73 and Writing in the Dark (The Miniaturists); and The Almond Tree (State of Wonder).
Lindsay was invited to join the Royal Court’s inaugural National Writers’ Group, and Dublin International Theatre Festival’s prestigious artist programme The Next Stage. For some years Lindsay was Literary Associate for Liverpool Everyman & Playhouse. As well as running the writing programmes, Everyword festival and new work development, Lindsay was the dramaturg on many of the theatres’ productions, including Bright Phoenix and Hope Place (Liverpool Everyman); Scrappers and Held (Liverpool Playhouse Studio). She has worked as a dramaturg in both Ireland and the UK, most recently on Tiergarten (Metal, Liverpool) and Narvik (Box of Tricks, touring 2017).
‘A magic journey of storytelling’★★★★★ Reviews Hub (On The Story Giant)
Lizzie Nunnery Writer, Singer
Lizzie’s first play Intemperance (Liverpool Everyman, 2007) was awarded 5 stars by The Guardian and shortlisted for the Meyer-Whitworth Award. She co-wrote Unprotected, winner of the Amnesty International Award for Freedom of Expression (Everyman/Traverse Edinburgh, 2006). The Swallowing Dark (Liverpool Playhouse Studio/Theatre503 2011, Inis Nua Theatre Philadelphia USA Sept 2017) was shortlisted for the Susan Smith Blackburn Award, as was her play with songs Narvik (Box of Tricks National Tour Jan-March 2017, Norwegian Tour with Nordland Theatre Autumn 2018). Narvik was also nominated for Best New Play in the UK Theatre Awards 2017. Recent work includes play with songs The Sum (Everyman, May-June 2017) with the theatre’s new rep company, The People Are Singing (Manchester Royal Exchange Studio, April 2017), The Snow Dragons (National Theatre, Connections Festival, July 2017), and Horny Handed Tons of Soil (Unity Theatre Liverpool, July 2017, National Tour Spring 2018) a live poetry and music piece, commissioned to mark the 50th anniversary of the publication of The Mersey Sound anthology. She has written extensively for BBC radio and is also a poet, singer and songwriter, performing with producer/composer Vidar Norheim.
A talent worth celebrating.’ ★★★★★ The Guardian (On Intemperance)
Associate Artists
Gemma Kerr Director
Gemma is a freelance director based in London. Her work includes Liars (Almanac Arts, Cornerstone Theatre, Liverpool), Macbeth (Omnibus Clapham); Clothes Swap Theatre Party by Gabriel Bisset-Smith, Tim Price, Evan Placey, Alison Carr & Ben Ellis (Derby Theatre), Scarberia by Evan Placey (York Theatre Royal) Airswimming by Charlotte Jones (Courtyard Theatre); Hitting Town by Stephen Poliakoff (Southwark Playhouse). She runs High Hearted Theatre with writer Marcelo dos Santos, creating original work for non-conventional theatre spaces. Productions for the company include Lovers Walk (Brighton Fringe Festival and Southwark Playhouse), Cheer up, this is only the Beginning (Liverpool Everyman and Playhouse), This Place Means (Greenwich + Docklands International Festival). Gemma is an Associate Artist at Omnibus in Clapham, and Associate Director of Forward Theatre Project.
‘This smart and deeply atmospheric production…A bewitchingly original interpretation’ ★★★★ Time Out (On Macbeth)
Vidar Norheim Composer, Sound designer, Musical director
Vidar Norheim is a multi-instrumentalist and producer originally from Norway. He studied BA Music at Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts where he is now a lecturer. He has written for and performed in numerous Almanac shows including Liars, Radical City and Radical Liverpool. Further theatre credits as composer and sound designer include Narvik (Box of Tricks, National tour 2017), The Sum (Liverpool Everyman, 2017), Pages from My Songbook (Royal Exchange Studio, 2014), and Cheer Up, this is only the Beginning (Liverpool Playhouse, 2011). For Narvik and The Sum he also took the role of Musical Director. In Autumn 2014 he performed in Bright Phoenix at the Liverpool Everyman. Vidar has worked on live projects with Willy Russell, Tim Firth and Frank Cottrell Boyce. Radio and TV composition credits include The Singer, an afternoon play for BBC Radio 4 and Monkey Love, a 3 Minute Wonder for Channel 4. He is currently writing his first full length film score for the feature film A World After. In 2011 he was named as Norway’s most promising song-writing talent, winning a place at Song:Expo in Trondheim alongside many of the world’s leading songwriters and producers. 2016 saw the release of his solo debut EP, Blind Carbon Copy, which was released on labels in Japan, Norway and the UK.
‘Narvik is not like anything else I have heard in the theatre… the stage is turned into a percussive instrument.‘ ★★★★ The Observer
Martin Heslop Writer, Sound designer, Composer
Martin Heslop is a writer, composer and sound artist based in the North East. He collaborates across art forms, with poets, playwrights, film makers, visual artists, composers, actors and dramaturgs. He has written words and music for publication, for release on record and for performance. His theatre credits as composer and sound designer include Narvik (Box of Tricks, National tour 2017) and Cheer Up, this is only the Beginning (Liverpool Playhouse, 2011). In Autumn 2014 he composed the live soundtrack for play with songs Bright Phoenix at the Liverpool Everyman.
‘Achingly lovely live music’ The Times on Bright Phoenix
Almanac Arts 