TRESTLE PROGRAMME

PLACE

The Temperance Hall, Billingham

a village in Yorkshire

TIME

Thursday evenings from Aug to Dec 2017

(and later March 2018)

The Company

Jilly Bond (Denise)

Jilly has been an actor for 35 years, after training at Bristol Uni and  Drama Studio.  She’s frequently heard on Radio 4 (including The Archers) and recently played a botanical researcher in the audio-drama Land Skeins, for the Bush/Paines Plough (nominated for an OnComm) She’s performed on stage throughout Britain and Germany, including the National as a climate scientist in Island; English Theatre of Hamburg, as Mrs Warren in Mrs Warren’s Profession and Emilia in Othello and the Finborough, in two new plays about Brexit & genocide. She’s very happy to be in a comedy this time, and so looking forward to playing Trestle to a live audience after performing to an empty auditorium for the livestream from The Maltings Theatre back in March. She is also an award-winning audiobook narrator.

Timothy Harker (Harry)

Timothy Harker came late to the acting profession, graduating from Drama Studio London in 2014. Theatre includes: Witness For The Prosecution (London County Hall); An Honourable Man (White Bear – nominated for an ‘Offie’ Award for Best Male Actor); Consumables (King’s Head and Vault Festival); Incident At Vichy (Finborough and King’s Head); Confessional (Southwark Playhouse); Montgomery & Push Up Daisies (Hope Theatre); A Chaste Maid In Cheapside (Rose Playhouse); Ball Bag (Stockwell Playhouse); The War Of The Worlds Immersive (Old Metal Exchange). TV includes: Peaky Blinders; Coronation Street; Feel Good; The Other One. Film includes: The Village In The Woods.

Matthew Parker (Director)

Matthew is a freelance theatre director and former Artistic Director of The Hope Theatre. He won the Best Artistic Director Award at the 2017 Off West End Awards and has received 6 Best Director nominations at the Off West End Awards for work between 2015-19. Directing whilst at The Hope includes: The House Of Yes, Thrill Me: The Leopold & Loeb Story (winner of 2 OFFIE Awards), The Lesson, Foul Pages, Brimstone and Treacle, Her Aching Heart (Best Play, Spy In The Stalls Awards), Steel Magnolias (Best Off West End Production, Break A Leg Awards), Sea Life, Antigone and Lovesong of the Electric Bear (transferred to The Arts Theatre, West End & winner of 2 OFFIE Awards).

Other Directing includes: Brainville At Night (UK Tour/Old Red Lion), Thark (The Drayton Arms) The Cherry Orchard, A Scent of Flowers, A Woman Alone (all Jack Studio Theatre), Ward No.6 (C Venues/Camden People’s Theatre) Mary Rose  (Jack Studio/Riverside Studios), The Possibilities (Tristan Bates), Two (Dispense Theatre) and The Late Edwina Black (Sheringham Summer Rep). Matthew made his London directing debut at the Jack Studio Theatre in 2010 with his physical theatre adaptation of A Woman Alone and was later Associate Director at The Jack staging various shows with his company DogOrange and also appearing on stage in their 2019 production of The Invisible Man. He made his directing debut with The Maltings Theatre in 2020 with his fast and feisty adaptation of Henry V. Trestle is his second show with The Maltings where it previously played as a live stream in April this year, gaining an OnComm nomination for excellence in online theatre. He’s delighted it is now coming into London and to The Jack.

In addition to Trestle Matthew also has two other shows with The Maltings this summer; The Comedy of Errors plays at The Roman Theatre Open Air Festival, St Albans, from June to July and runs in rep with Peter Pan in which he plays Smee and Nana the dog. More info on his work can be found at www.matthewparker.net

Stewart Pringle (Writer)

Stewart is a writer and dramaturg, born and bred in the north-east of England and now living in London.  His plays include Trestle (winner of the Papatango Prize 2017, nominated for the 2021 OnComm Awards), The Wooden Meadow (Finborough Theatre, Vibrant Festival), The Ghost Hunter (Pleasance & UK Tour) and The Horror! The Horror! (Wilton’s Music Hall).

Recently he authored a trilogy of short plays in collaboration with the Wall Street Journal and the National Theatre. He is currently under commission from Papatango and Big Finish productions. Outside of writing, Stewart is a dramaturg at the National Theatre, and previously worked as associate dramaturg at the Bush Theatre, and artistic director of the Old Red Lion Theatre (OffWestEnd Award 2016, Best Artistic Director). He has also written for publications including New Scientist, Time Out and Exeunt Magazine.

Simon Nicholas (Set Designer)

As a Co-Founder of OVO, Simon pioneered the innovative use of film in the company’s work, including Romeo and Juliet, The New World Order, The Ladykillers, Betrayal and the lockdown Zoom sensation, Twelfth Night Live. He has also integrated film into the musicals Chess and Jesus Christ Superstar and, most recently, for Sir Trevor Nunn’s Beckett Triple Bill at London’s Jermyn Street Theatre. For the last five years, Simon has built the theatre inside the remains of the Roman Theatre of Verulamium for the annual festival. He has created the sets for dozens of OVO shows including the award winning production of As You Like It, which gave him the challenge of creating a life-size VW campervan

Delga Martineau (Costume Designer)

Delga has been a dressmaker and seamstress for over 25 years. She will start her training as a theatre costumier later this year. She has previously worked on costume and scenic dressing for OVO’s productions of As You Like It, The 39 Steps, On Behalf of a Madman, The Removal Service and the current open-air production of The Comedy of Errors at the Roman Theatre of Verulamium, also directed by Matthew Parker.

Laurel Marks (Lighting and Stage Manager)

Laurel has been an Actress, Stage Manager, Producer and Lighting Designer since graduating Fourth Monkey Training Company in August 2017. She is an Associate Artist of The Jack Studio Theatre and The Hope Theatre. She is also a Company Member of Arrows & Traps Theatre Company.

Credits: Producer – The Hope At Home Series (The Hope Theatre, Online) & Float (Short Film). Lighting Designer – Trestle Dir. Matthew Parker (The Jack Studio Theatre), Talking Gods (Arrows & Traps TC, Online), Before I Am Lost Dir. Ross McGregor (Etcetera Theatre). Actress – Chaplin: Birth Of A Tramp, TARO & Gentleman Jack Dir. Ross McGregor (The Jack Studio Theatre). Stage Manager – Kes, Lifeboat, Precious Little & As A Man Grows Younger Dir. Kate Bannister (The Jack Studio Theatre). The White Rose Dir. Ross McGregor (The Jack Studio Theatre), Dracula and Jekyll & Hyde Dir. Ross McGregor (The Jack Studio Theatre & Mill Studio, Guildford), This Show Does Not Contain Nuts Dir. Amanda Sharkey (Clapham Grand), Charles Darwin: Collapsing Creation Dir. Jessica Jefferies (The Jack Studio Theatre), The House Of Yes Dir. Matthew Parker (The Hope Theatre) & Deputy Stage Manager on Lord Of The Flies Dir. Ricky Dukes (Greenwich Theatre).