Crime and Punishment

Trudy was born and raised in Manchester and trained at the Guildford School of Acting, where she played the role of Elmire in Molière’s Tartuffe; Movie Star Barbara in the European debut of Robert O’Hara’s Barbecue and Cleopatra in Antony and Cleopatra. 

She was a Spotlight Prize 2024 finalist and will feature in the upcoming 2026 feature film Finding Emily. 

Niall’s theatre credits include: Breaking the Code (Royal and Derngate); The Book of Will (Shakespeare North Playhouse);The Railway Children, The Gaul (Hull Truck); The Tempest, Henry V, A Midsummers Night Dream, Macbeth (The Rose Theatre York); Elton John’s Glasses (Watford Palace Theatre); Othello (Stafford Shakespeare Festival); Witness for the Prosecution (Theatre Mill); Private Lives (Bolton Octagon) and Bedroom Farce (Salisbury Playhouse). 

TV credits include: The Marlow Murder Club (Masterpiece); Fool Me Once (Netflix); Emmerdale, Vera, Coronation Street (ITV), The Rising (Sky1); Casualty and Waterloo Road (BBC). 

Film credits include: Starve Acre, Nicole and O.J and Rita, Sue & Bob Too. 

Joanne is an alumnus of the Northern School of Contemporary Dance. Her performance career started with Kokuma Dance Theatre Company, which opened opportunities to work and perform with national and international African and Caribbean artists. 

Joanne has worked extensively as Movement Director for Tutti Frutti Productions and Red Ladder Theatre. As a Rehearsal Director, Artistic Consultant, and Mentor, Joanne has worked with artists, choreographers and companies including Tavaziva Dance, Gerrard Martin Dance, Phoenix Dance Theatre, Sharon Watson, Verve 24, Verve 26, ME Dance, Alethia Antonia, and Uchenna on their production of Our Mighty Groove which opened the new Sadler’s Wells East Theatre. Also, the Company of Others production Grief Floats which takes place at King Edward’s Bay, Tynemouth in the North Sea, and Dandyism by Patrick Ziza, where she spent 3 weeks in Sao Paolo Brazil as Rehearsal Director. 

Joanne was also the Artistic Consultant for Northern Colour, an NPO funded project at NSCD for artists of the global majority. 

Lara Booth is a costume and set designer with a passion for inventive storytelling. As a designer she aims to explore space and create environments and costumes that will serve the actors and the story as well as bringing an immersive experience to the audience. Lara trained at Bristol Old Vic Theatre School graduating with Distinction in 2004.  

Lara has collaborated on devised pieces as well as text-based works and her creations range from small scale touring theatre to large scale opera productions. Lara is one of a select group of female industry professionals from the North of England to be enrolled on the Women in Film and TV mentorship programme 2024 and has designed costume on her first feature film last year.

Selected credits include: Iron People (Northern Broadsides); Miracle on 34th Street (HOME); Beowulf (Proper Job Theatre/ Kirklees Year of Music); Rhondda Rips It Up! (Welsh National Opera) and Rigoletto and Don Pasquale (Longborough Festival Opera).

Lara is a regular guest designer for Manchester School of Theatre, recent credits include: Seasons Greetings, Love and Information and Twelfth Night.

Film credits include: Learning to Breathe Under Water and State of Us.

Recent designs include: A Good House (Royal Court); Death of England (Sohopl@ace); The Other Boleyn Girl (Chichester Festival Theatre); The Sound of Music (Pitlochry Theatre); Witness for the Prosecution (London County Hall); And Then There Were None (National &International Tour); The Gifting (Leeds Year of Culture); Noah’s Flood (Slung Low/MIF); 42nd Street (Théatre du Chatêlet, Paris); Tarantino Live (Riverside Studios); Touching the Void (Bristol Old Vic/Duke of York’s London/Tokyo); Macbeth (West Yorkshire Playhouse); Sweeney Todd (Welsh National Opera/La Monnaie, Brussels); The Car Man, Lord of the Flies (Matthew Bourne’s New Adventures/Royal Albert Hall, Sadler’s Wells, national & international tours); Carlos Acosta Classical Farewell (Royal Albert Hall); The Driver’s Seat (National Theatre of Scotland);The Shawshank Redemption, Footloose, Twelve Angry Men, Dial M for Murder, High Society, Wonderful Town (national tours). 

Winner of the TMA Best Lighting Design for Dial M for Murder (West Yorkshire Playhouse) and Beyond the Horizon (Royal and Derngate, Northampton). 

Theatre includes: Macbeth (RSC); Anastasia (Det Ny Teater, Copenhagen); Macbeth (an undoing) (Theatre for a New Audience, New York); Sweat (Royal Exchange, Manchester); Single White Female (JAS Theatricals, UK & Ireland Tour); Around the World in 80 Days, Robin Hood (The Dukes, Lancaster); Jeeves & Worcester, 39 Steps (Salisbury Playhouse); Habibti Driver, Jungle Book (Bolton Octagon); Noises Off, The Whitby Rebels, Dracula (SJT, Scarborough); Gangs of New York, Faustus, Romeo & Juliet (Storyhouse, Chester); Life is A Dream, Scent of Roses (Edinburgh Lyceum); Constellations, Famous Five, Robin Hood (Theatr Clwyd); A Skull In Connemara, Aladdin (Oldham Coliseum); Tom, Dick & Harry (The New Vic); Guards at The Taj (Theatre By The Lake); Singin’ In The Rain, 42nd Street (Kilworth House Theatre); The Girl on The Train (Barn, Cirencester); Midsummer Night’s Dream, Our Country’s Good (Tobacco Factory, Bristol); Cherry Jezebel (Liverpool Everyman).

Film/TV includes: The Jury Series 2 (Channel 4); So Awkward (CBBC); Blank (KenMor Films); Zero Hours (Mordecai Films).

Rose specialises in set and costume design for performance. She won The Linbury Prize for Stage Design 2019 and Best Designer at The Stage Debut Awards 2020 for her site specific sculptural set for Dr Korczak’s Example (Leeds Playhouse). Her winning sculpture design The Tree is currently on display at The National Theatre.

Previously for Northern Broadsides: Beyond These Walls and The Aftermath. 

Credits include: A Christmas Carol (Sheffield Crucible Theatre), Escaped Alone & What If If Only, Brief Encounter (Royal Exchange Theatre), Rough Magic, Midsummer Mechanicals, Macbeth (Shakespeare’s Globe) A Passionate Woman (Leeds Playhouse); The Trial Of Josie K (Unicorn Theatre); A Christmas Carol (Bridge Theatre); Silence (Donmar Warehouse and Tara Theatre); Folk (Hampstead Theatre); Peter Pan (Octagon Theatre Bolton); Othello (National Youth Theatre) and The Ugly Duckling (Sherman Theatre).

Laurie took up his role as Artistic Director of Northern Broadsides in June 2019. Credits for Northern Broadsides include: Christmas Broadsides, Quality Street, Beyond These Walls, Beyond These Walls, As You Like It and Iron People. 

Between 2012 and 2016 Laurie was Artistic Director and Chief Executive of the National Theatre of Scotland (NTS) for whom he directed The James Plays trilogy by Rona Munro. They premiered at the Edinburgh International Festival in 2014, where he won a Herald Angel, before transferring to the National Theatre in London, where they won the Evening Standard and Writers’ Guild Awards for Best Play. In 2022, Laurie returned to Scotland to direct James IV: Queen of the Fight. Also for NTS he directed his own adaptation of Muriel Spark’s The Driver’s Seat, and The 306: Dawn. 

Previously he was Artistic Director of Royal & Derngate, Northampton, where he directed the European premieres of Tennessee Williams’ Spring Storm and Eugene O’Neill’s Beyond the Horizon, both transferring to the National Theatre, London, and winning him the 2010 TMA Award for Best Director and a nomination for Best Director at the Evening Standard Awards. He also directed new versions of The Bacchae, Blood Wedding and Hedda Gabler as part of the London 2012 Cultural Olympiad, Frankenstein (with Frantic Assembly), The Duchess of Malfi, Follies and The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie. 

He has directed for theatres around the UK including the Traverse, Birmingham Rep, Salisbury Playhouse, Lyric Hammersmith, The New Vic, Leeds Playhouse, The Menier Chocolate Factory, Hampstead Theatre and The Bridge Theatre. 

At the Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, where he was the Associate Director to Alan Ayckbourn, he directed over 20 new plays including Villette (with Frantic Assembly) and a micro-musical season. He was the Trainee Assistant Director at The Palace Theatre, Watford, where his production of J. B. Priestley’s Dangerous Corner began life before transferring to the Garrick Theatre, West End. 

Martin has over two decades experience working across theatre, live events, and music.   

He recently worked on several major projects for Bradford City of Culture 2025, managing large-scale public events and installations. He was also recently Production Manager for Transform Festival in Leeds and delivered a site-specific dance production as part of Manchester International Festival. In Bradford, he supported a local performance project in partnership with SpinArts.  

Recent highlights include his long-term role at The Piece Hall in Halifax, where he managed large outdoor concerts, installations, and community celebrations, and touring internationally as Production Carpenter for Six the Musical. He also previously served as Head of Technical & Operations at Square Chapel Arts Centre, and as Production Manager on the 2020 tour of Northern Broadsides’ Quality Street and their 2025 community performance, Iron People.   

This year, Martin is working on a transfer of a contemporary dance show to a disused prison in Amsterdam. Also, an opening celebration in Barcelona with building projection and community dance. He is also involved in the preparations of a large charity event for UNICEF.    

Martin runs his own company, Reverse Triangle Event Production Ltd.  

Steph Connell is a freelance Producer working in theatre and events across the UK. Her experience includes producing theatre, digital and outdoor work across new writing, circus, dance, children’s theatre and musicals as well as artist development and community engagement. She is currently Senior Producer for ThickSkin and Producer for Sleeping Warrior Theatre Company as well running her own company Steph Connell Productions and was Senior Producer on Northern Broadsides’ Iron People. 

Previous roles included Executive Producer for Glasgow-based company Wonder Fools (2018 – 2024), Artist Development Coordinator at the Tron Theatre and Stage One Producer at the Citizens Theatre. Steph has also worked Al Seed Productions, Amy Golding & Hamzeh Hussien, Frantic Assembly, Raw Material, Artichoke, National Theatre of Scotland, Greenwich and Docklands International Festival, Gate Theatre, and the National Centre for Circus Arts. She has an MA in Arts and Cultural Management from Queen Margaret University and is a graduate of the Clore Emerging Leaders Course in 2017. 

Martina is a props and costume technician who brings a wonderful mix of technical skill and heart to the arts. She’s had the pleasure of collaborating with brilliant designers like Tom Piper, Leslie Travers, Simon Higlett, Madeleine Boyd, Joanna Parker, Hayley Grindle and Tom Paris.

Her career highlights include Costume and Props Management for Red Ladder, Spin Arts and Southpaw Company. Prop making and dressing experience spans major productions for Leeds Playhouse, Opera North and Garsington Theatre. As a West Yorkshire Ambassador for Adult Learners and a dedicated supporter of SEN students, she is aiming to bridge the gap between high-level technical craftsmanship and inclusive, eco-conscious creative practice. 

Scott studied Production Design and Technical Arts at the National Theatre School of Canada and has worked professionally across a wide range of theatre disciplines for over 20 years, touring extensively throughout the UK, Europe, Australia, the USA and Canada. 

Recent credits include: Technical Stage Manager on The Last Laugh (UK Tour, Jamie Wilson Productions), Showdown (UK Tour, Upswing Aerial) and Buffy Revamped (UK Tour, Seabright Live Ltd.).

Production Manager credits include: Soweto Gospel Choir (European Tour, Andrew Kay & Associates), Volpone / Pinter 5 (Royal Central School of Speech and Drama), the Edinburgh Jazz & Blues Festival and the Assembly Festival during the Edinburgh Fringe. 

Other credits include: Company Stage Manager on Black Is the Colour of My Voice (UK & Australia Tour, Seabright Live Ltd.), Sherlock Holmes and the Valley of Fear (UK Tour, Blackeyed Theatre), Deputy Stage Manager on Beauty and the Beast (Evolution Productions, Sheffield Lyceum), and Stage Manager on Drowntown (UK Tour, Rhiannon Faith Company).