Shôn Dale-Jones studied Drama at the University of East Anglia (UEA) before training at Ecole Jaques Lecoq in Paris. Before forming Hoipolloi with Stefanie Müller, he dabbled in stand-up and street performance - this passion for connecting directly with audiences is one of the main features of his work.  

Shôn is Hoipolloi’s Artistic Director. Over the last twenty-five years he has worked as a writer, director, performer and producer, making well over twenty new live theatre and comedy shows, as well as making online digital work, radio and film. He has toured all over the world and won various awards, including BBC Audio Drama Award for Best Scripted Comedy Drama, two Scotsman Fringe First Awards and a Total Theatre Award. Alongside making live shows, he is currently developing work for BBC Radio Four. 

This conversation was recorded in November 2022, so some of the references are a little old.  It’s pretty much unedited & contain language, opinions or views that solely reflect the speaker.  

Thanks the final interview in this series, huge thanks to all my interviewees; its been such a pleasure.

John Biddle is a composer and sound designer based in Leeds.  Previously, as a singer, he worked with choirs such as Westminster Abbey and St Paul’s Cathedral, as well as for live broadcasts and recordings.  As a baritone soloist, he worked with world-renowned composers and ensembles.  As an actor he performed at many theatres, including the Bush, the Sheffield Crucible, Manchester Royal Exchange and the Traverse in Edinburgh, as well as in several radio plays on BBC Radio, including eleven series playing regular character Will in The Diary of Samuel Pepys.

Now focussing on composition and sound-design, he works with theatre companies across the UK, including recent shows with Leeds Playhouse, Sheffield Theatres and National Theatre Wales, as well as projects abroad with Conde Duque in Madrid, and L.A. Theatre Works in the US; he also writes music for radio, podcast & screen projects, including the award-winning podcast Dead Honest, and the up-coming BBC radio drama The Willows.

This conversation was recorded in October 2022, so some of the references are a little old.  It’s pretty much unedited & contain language, opinions or views that solely reflect the speaker.    

Next up, & last in this series, is writer, director, performer & producer, Shôn Dale-Jones.

Becky-Dee is a designer, making theatre to foster empathy, learning & community.  Collaboration is essential to her process to develop honest, visual storytelling & expression.  Her work varies from abstract to highly detailed, aiming to develop a specific atmosphere which is evocative, not didactic.

She trained at the National Institute of Dramatic Art in Sydney Australia, moving to London as a Drama Awardee from the BBMYS, to explore the role of a designer in immersive & devised performance. 

Amongst others, Becky has worked with Punchdrunk, Coney, Bazmark, Tangled Feet & Gecko Theatre.

This conversation was recorded in July 2022, so some of the references are a little old.  It’s pretty much unedited & contain language, opinions or views that solely reflect the speaker.  

My next guest in this series of storytelling interviews is composer & sound designer, John Biddle.

Paul Graham Raven is a writer & critical futures researcher, whose research is concerned with how the stories we tell about times yet to come, shape the lives we end up living.  

He is a writer of poetry & fictions, a consulting critical futurist & narrative designer & a literary critic & occasional journalist, with by lines including New Scientist, Wired UK, ARC Magazine & The Guardian.

 Published short stories include ‘Facing Kiruna’ in Phase Change; ‘Rust (City) Never Sleeps’ in Riffs Journal; Staunch in Cyber World & Best of British Science Fiction 2016, & ‘Los Piratas del Mar de Plastico’ in Twelve Tomorrows.

This conversation was recorded in June 2022, so some of the references are a little old.  It’s pretty much unedited & contain language, opinions or views that solely reflect the speaker.   

My next guest in this series of storytelling interviews is designer Becky-Dee Trevenen, making theatre to foster empathy, learning & community.

Liz Mytton is a coach and trainer, playwright, poet and theatre-maker.   She’s fascinated by history, including that of her own family, so Jamaica features significantly in her work – ‘Red Snapper’, about Jamaican families living under the shadow of the Cuban Missile Crisis; ‘Back Home’, about homophobia, loneliness and leaving Jamaica; and  ‘Across the Water’, the retelling of Jamaican activist Marcus Garvey’s meeting with the KKK.

She has provided wordsmith services to the Belgrade theatre’s young company production of ‘Rise’ and their National Theatre Connections collaboration for ‘Like There’s No Tomorrow’, worked with Talking Birds Theatre on several projects on location in Coventry as well as writing poetry for the opening ceremony of Coventry’s City of Culture celebration.    Other works include ‘Southside Stories’, ‘Shame Shanties’ and most recently the co-created ‘Motherhood in a Climate Crisis.’

This conversation was recorded in May 2022, so some of the references are a little old.  It’s pretty much unedited & contain language, opinions or views that solely reflect the speaker.  

My next guest in this series of storytelling interviews is Paul Graham Raven, a writer & critical futures researcher, whose research is concerned with how the stories we tell about times yet to come, shape the lives we end up living.  

Ann Light is a design research & interaction theorist, writing about participatory design, collaborative future-making & transformations to sustainable futures through changing cultures.  Her work addresses themes of social & ecological justice; the co-making of futures & the politics of design.  She specialises in participatory practice & the social impact of technology, bringing a background in arts, humanities, AI & human-computer interaction to bear on innovation in social processes, culture & wellbeing.  She is currently investigating how creative practices can promote transformations to sustainability. 

Ann co-leads Creative Practices for Transformative Futures & Social Justice in the Digital Economy, is Professor of Design & Creative Technology at University of Sussex, & Professor of Interaction Design, Social Change & Sustainability at Malmö University in Sweden.

This conversation was recorded in June 2022, so some of the references are a little old.  It’s pretty much unedited & contain language, opinions or views that solely reflect the speaker.  

 My next guest in this series of storytelling interviews is coach, trainer, playwright, poet & theatre-maker, Liz Mytton.

Tanya Vital is a graduate of RADA & National Youth Theatre, working for 2 decades in TV, film, stage & voice-over.  She has featured in many award-winning shows, including DC’s Pennyworth, Red Sparrow, Emmerdale, Casualty, Brief Encounters & more.  

She trained in playwriting & produces live artistic events, launching the 1st Leeds MonologueSlam UK in 2011.  She has co-produced countless micro-short films, with Chicken Shop Shakespeare featured at The British Library.

Tanya is the founder of award-winning, digital arts platform Vital Culture UK, dedicated to championing under-represented artists in the UK’s north.  Recent productions include How Covid Stole Christmas, Women in Gaming with Twitch partner Geeky Cassie & Women’s History in Horror, with Gemma Hurley, Dr Alison Peirse & Sampira.  She was recently announced as one of the top 100 CreaTech Ones to Watch companies by the Creative Industries Council in September 2021.

‘Tanya is a one-woman arts festival,’ Dan Stubbs NME

This conversation was recorded in April 2022, so some of the references are a little old.  It’s pretty much unedited & contain language, opinions or views that solely reflect the speaker.  

My next guest in this series of storytelling interviews is Janet Vaughan, Designer & Co-Artistic Director of Coventry-based, Talking Birds.

Rhys Jarman is a London based designer working in Theatre Opera & Television.  

His designs for Gecko Theatre include The Wedding, Institute, Missing & The Dreamer; Nassim & Time of Your Life, produced with the BBC.

He was one of the winners of the 2007 Linbury Biennial Prize & in 2016 won the One Drama Award Shanghai Modern Drama Valley for best Stage Design. 

This conversation was recorded in April 2022, so some of the references are a little old.  It’s pretty much unedited & contain language, opinions or views that solely reflect the speaker.  

My next guest in this series of interviews about storytelling is multi-talented ‘one-woman arts festival,’ Tanya Vital

Nick Walker is a writer, producer & director.  He has written widely for radio, including 3 series of the cult sci-fi show The First King of Mars, starring Peter Capaldi & 6 series of the Nordic noir series Annika Stranded.  A television version of Annika, adapted by Nick, was first broadcast in 2021.

He is the author of two critically acclaimed novels Blackbox (‘His characters are brilliant, his dialogue sparkles & it’s hilarious’ The Guardian) & Helloland (‘Walker deserves to be huge,’ Time Out).  Nick has also worked for many independent theatre companies & venues as a playwright, including commissions for The Belgrade Theatre & Oxford Playhouse.

This conversation was recorded in March 2022, so some of the references are a little old.  It’s pretty much unedited & contain language, opinions or views that solely reflect the speaker.  

Next up:  Designer Rhys Jarman, working in Theatre, Opera & Television.