Our artists and facilitators
Through the Wonderful Beast Arts Hub, our artists are available as workshoppers, performers and outreach facilitators, bringing their creative skills to specific projects, working in partnerships and collaborations and tailoring activities to specific needs.
We aim to enhance the wellbeing of young and old alike through interactive and creative experience.
Other benefits we can offer:
Fees are negotiable and depend on the nature of the work. e g time, structure, consultancy, and participating artists’ costs.
We aim to enhance the wellbeing of young and old alike through interactive and creative experience.
Other benefits we can offer:
- provide dramaturgical support involving research and interpretation about the work in question
- select relevant stories, music, poems etc with curriculum links
- offer storytelling activities to accommodate specific requests (eg schools, libraries early years groups, care homes)
- act as a fundraising consultancy for specific projects
Fees are negotiable and depend on the nature of the work. e g time, structure, consultancy, and participating artists’ costs.
ALYS KIHL
artistic director
Alys established Wonderful Beast in 1997 and has produced and directed nationally and internationally. In 2014 she formed the Wonderful Beast Singers, who participated in two community operas, and numerous productions. In 2018 she directed Pearls from the Grit for Poetry People. During Covid she instigated the children's podcast series Lockdown Tales, and Bubble Wrap (creative workshops on Zoom for over 65s).
Emma bernard
director and writer
Emma creates performance for stage, screen, site-specific locations and concert platforms. She has worked extensively for Streetwise Opera, most recently as Associate Artistic Director, and has collaborated with many organisations including Almeida Opera, Norwich Theatre Royal and the Barbican. Locally she facilitates and directs for companies including Cohere Arts and UnScene Suffolk. In 2022, Emma directed First the Dance Then the Feast for Wonderful Beast at Thorington Theatre.
http://www.emmabernard.co.uk/about
http://www.emmabernard.co.uk/about
emma close-brooks
arts consultant
Emma has been with Wonderful Beast since 2019. She edited and produced Lockdown Tales (2020), and project-managed Bubble Wrap (2021), and First the Dance, Then the Feast. As a freelance arts consultant she also works with individual artists, writers, and arts groups including Poetry People, Theatre if, and the Walter de la Mare Society, helping to transform creative ideas into reality across the visual arts, music, screen, and stage.
rob gildon
opera singer and workshop leader
Rob lives in Suffolk with four dogs, nine goats, nineteen chickens, four peacocks, bees and a tortoise. He has worked with Garsington, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, the Royal Opera House, among many others. He regularly leads workshops for Streetwise Opera and Snape Maltings as well as co-leading the Wonderful Beast Singers.
https://www.robertgildon.com/
https://www.robertgildon.com/
hilary greatorex
actor and storyteller
Hilary has performed in theatres all over the UK. Her work includes Alice in Wonderland, Treasure Island, The Merchant of Venice, Jekyll and Hyde and A Christmas Carol. She is also a regular participant at the Ink Festival in Halesworth. She has been in Coronation Street, Friday Night Dinner, Casualty, Waterloo Road and Doctors. She frequently works as a storyteller, workshop leader and mentor with children of all ages. Hilary has performed with Wonderful Beast several times, including in First the Dance Then the Feast (2022) and The Last Woodwose (2019), and co-led online workshops for Bubble Wrap (2021).
rosy may
dancer, choreographer and teacher
Of Jamaican heritage, Rosy has spent almost a decade studying and performing traditional West African movements. She has a background in theatre so storytelling is a common theme that she often fuses with her choreography. Being very respectful to different cultures and people is part of what makes her work engaging but also truthful.
https://www.rosymaydancer.co.uk/
https://www.rosymaydancer.co.uk/
dean parkin
poet and workshop leader
Dean is a writer, poet, playwright and workshop leader. Born in Lowestoft, he lives in Suffolk, where he runs workshops for all ages. He performs at festivals, venues and schools across the UK. He has written history books and run poetry festivals, and is the co-founder of a community interest company, Poetry People. In 2018-19 he wrote Pearls from The Grit, the successful touring theatre show, directed by Wonderful Beast’s Alys Kihl. Dean has two published poetry collections, The Swan Machine (2015), and The Bubble Wrap (2017). The latter lent its name to the Wonderful Beast's online workshop series Bubble Wrap, which Dean co-led. He has written three one-man shows including Dean’s Dad’s Ducks, which appeared at the Edinburgh Fringe. His new collection, Secrets Corner, will be published in the summer 2023.
https://www.deanparkin.co.uk/
https://www.deanparkin.co.uk/
martina schwarz
musician, award-winning composer, performer, and choir leader
Martina has collaborated with theatre-and film makers, puppeteers, and choreographers. Her music often brings her into schools, community and health settings as well as onto bigger stages, including the Arcola Theatre, Sadlers Wells, Laban Theatre, the Place, the Purcell Room, the South Bank Centre, the Grant Museum (UCL), Spitalfields Festival, Little Angel Theatre, Norwich Puppet theatre, RADA and Thorington Theatre (with Wonderful Beast). Martina has co-led online workshops for Wonderful Beast's series Bubble Wrap, and also released songbooks and CDs for children and young people through her project Learn Languages with Songs, and most recently songs about environmental protection “There is no PLANet B”. Always accompanied by her accordion, Martina’s catchy songs motivate and inspire young people worldwide.
www.martinaschwarz.net
www.learnlanguageswithsongs.net
www.martinaschwarz.net
www.learnlanguageswithsongs.net
anusha subramanyam
dancer, choreographer and teacher
Anusha is a champion for South Asian and inclusive dance. She has received numerous awards, including the Asian Women Achievement Award in Culture 2011. She curates the Dance Festival Croydon and frequently works with Wonderful Beast as performer (Little Red Chunni; Strange Fish; Six Swans), as Movement Director and Choreographer (The Last Woodwose (2019); and First the Dance, Then the Feast (2022), and as workshop leader (Bubble Wrap (2021)).
https://anushasubramanyam.com/
https://anushasubramanyam.com/