THE FROGS

Aitor Basauri

Founder, co-creator and performer of all Spymonkey shows to date. Performed in The Servant of Two Masters (Sheffield Crucible); Axomate (Seville Expo); Eulenspiegel and in Karl’s Kuhne Gassenchau’s Grand Paradis and Stau (Zurich).

Director of Little Prince (Donkey Productions); Un Vento Impetuoso for La Canoppia and Meci Y Me Fui (Pez Enraya). In 1999 he appeared in Circus Knie, the Swiss State Circus, and in 2000 formed his own company Punto Fijo, based in Bilbao. He appeared in Cirque Images’ 2003 series Solstrom for Bravo Cable Network and in Bertold Brecht’s Senor Carrera’s Rifles (Young Vic).

Directing credits include: Lily & Marlene (La Dinamica); Looking for Duende (Teatro Entre Escombros); Hondycops (Squadra Sua); Ferucchio Peru is Extraordinaire (Leebo Luby); Manifest Destiny (New York); Fabulous Bäckström Brothers (Finland); 600 Teatro (Spain); Gloriator (Skipstick Productions); NMIIDP (Simone Riccio); Herr Ist Immer Der Natur (Die Drei Auf Den Baum); Discombobulated (Publick Transport); Ramshackadelicious; Shake (The Last Baguette). Director of physical comedy for Chichester Festival Theatre’s Mack & Mabel (Chichester Festival Theatre) starring Michael Ball. Co-director of Orpheus in the Underworld at Vienna Volksoper operahouse which opens in 2023.

Aitor is an acclaimed teacher of clown, regularly holding Spymonkey masterclasses in London, New York, Berlin, Los Angeles and around the world, and for the Clown Doctors organisation in Germany, Austria and France.

Toby Park

Toby has performed and co-created all Spymonkey shows to date. He studied Drama at Hull University, and trained at Fool Time Circus School, Bristol, and with Philippe Gaulier and Monika Pagneaux in Paris. From 1994-97 he was co-musical director and actor with Karl’s Kuhne Gassenchau in Zurich; From 1998 to 2000 he was a member of the Improbable Theatre Lifegame company including an off-Broadway run.

Musical director and composer for Guy Dartnell’s Would Say Something; acro-dance-theatre Mimbre’s Sprung, Trip-Tic and The Bridge; site-specific pieces with Graeme Gilmour at Kielder Water Northumberland and Forth & Clyde Canal Glasgow, and with Phil Supple/The Electric Estate for the National Trust at Cragside Northumberland.

TV appearances include Sandi Toksvig’s Christmas Cracker starring Ronnie Corbett at the Royal Festival Hall (2009) and Cirque Images’ 2003 series Solstrom for Bravo Cable Network and BBC2 Hyperdrive.

Director of Fabulous Bäckström Brothers, a clown opera in Helsinki and Big Bang Siegfried (Hagen Philharmonic Germany) and Enter The Dragons (A&E Comedy).

Director of physical comedy for Mack & Mabel (Chichester Festival Theatre), Merry Wives of Windsor (RSC), Tartuffe and Jack Absolute Flies Again (National Theatre). Co-director of Orpheus in the Underworld (Vienna Volksoper operahouse) opening 2023.

Jacoba Williams

Jacoba trained at Italia Conti Academy of the Arts and the National Youth Theatre.

Theatre work includes: Twelfth Night for One Night Only, The Winter’s Tale, The Fir Tree, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Twelfth Night and Our Verse in Time (Shakespeare’s Globe, London); Where do we go from Here? (PentabusTheatre); Alice in the Universe (Oxford Playhouse); Bogeyman (The Pleasance, Ed Fringe); Before I was a Bear (Bunker Theatre & Soho Theatre); Gulliver’s Travels (Unicorn Theatre); Love Dance (Chiswick Playhouse); The Snow Queen (Stephen Joseph Theatre); When the Sea Swallows Us Whole (Vaults Festival) and Queens of Sheba – winner of The Stage Award (Vaults Festival/New Diorama/Underbelly/Camden People’s Theatre).

Television credits include Twelfth Night (CBeebies).

Short film credits include: The Vest, Highlife, Montague, Cleo’s Choice and Expiry Date.

Radio credits include Vergil (Audible) and Precious Little Thing (BBC Radio 4 & Talawa).

Joyce Henderson

Director

Joyce trained with Jacques Lecoq, Philippe Gaulier and Monika Pagneux in Paris.

Directing credits include Crave (Julie Cunninghame and Company) abd Revolting by Simon Startin (Exposure Disability Arts Festival). Joyce has also directed numerous devised productions with companies including Theatre Cap-a-Pie, Kicking the Moon Circus Company, Circus Space, CSSD, E15, GSA and Rose Bruford Acting Schools.

Company Movement credits include: Bleak Expectations (Criterion); Noises Off (Lyric Hammersmith); Amedée (Birmingham Rep); King Lear (Old Vic); Mother Courage (National Theatre); Julius Caesar (Barbican); The Taming of the Shrew, A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Royal Shakespeare Company); The Misanthrope, King Lear (West Yorkshire Playhouse); Grimm Tales (Leicester Haymarket) and assisting on the Olympic Games Opening Ceremony, London 2012.

Opera movement work includes: The Marriage of Figaro (Aix Festival); Between Worlds (Barbican); Dido and Aeneas (Vienna Festival, Opera Comique and DNO); Messiah (ENO); Death in Venice (ENO & La Monnaie Bruxelles); Fidelio (Glyndebourne); Alfred (Early Opera Company) and Mazeppa (UCL Opera). As an actor, Joyce has worked with companies including Complicité, 7.84, Shakespeare’s Globe, Birmingham Rep, National Theatre, Abbey Theatre, Belgrade Theatre Coventry, Scarlets, Chichester and The Right Size.

Carl Grose

Writer

Carl Grose’s plays include Grand Guignol, Superstition Mountain, Gargantua, Horse Piss For Blood, The Kneebone Cadillac, 49 Donkeys Hanged and The No-Brainer. For twenty-six years he worked with the internationally acclaimed Cornish theatre company, Kneehigh, as writer, actor and co-artistic director.

Writing for Kneehigh includes Tristan & Yseult (with Anna Maria Murphy), Hansel & Gretel, The Wild Bride, The Tin Drum and Dead Dog in a Suitcase (and other love songs) – a new Beggar’s Opera. He has also written for BBC TV and Radio, as well as the Young Vic, Soho Theatre, the Royal Shakespeare Company and companies such as Told By An Idiot, Vesturport, Gyre and Gimble, o-region and Spymonkey.

He wrote the book and co-lyrics for Bristol Old Vic’s hit musical The Grinning Man, Princess & Peppernose, a short film directed by Joe Wright for Ridley Scott Associates and, most recently, a new version of Robin Hood for Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre.

Lucy Bradridge

Set & Costume Designer

Lucy Bradridge trained at Leeds University (English Lit) followed by post grad in Advanced Theatre Practice at Central School of Speech and Drama.

She has been an associate artist with Spymonkey since 1998 and has designed all its productions except A Christmas Carol. Lucy designed Spymonkey’s first children’s show last year earning her an Offie nomination. Her many collaborations with the clown director Cal McCrystal include Alan Ayckbourn’s Mr Whatnot (Royal & Derngate, Northampton); Bubonic Play and Hello Dalai (Piggy Nero); Between a Rock and a Hard Place (Cambridge Footlights); and Fitzrovia Radio’s Dracula (Mercury Theatre, Colchester).

Her design credits also include: AutoBoosh (The Mighty Boosh); the clown costume design for Cirque du Soleil’s Varekai and Zumanity; Heroes (Company FZ); Moonjourney by Alice Lowe; Trials of Hercules (New Art Club) and Gloves On and Our Dancing Feet (Ragroof Players).

Television credits include: Orcadia, Comedy Lab and The Last Chancers (Channel 4).

Film credits include: The Wild and Wycked World of Brian Jones, Out of Water and Queen Bee.

Amy Mae

Lighting Designer

Training: University of Winchester (BA (Hons) in Stage Management and Performing Arts); RADA (Postgraduate Diploma in Stage Electrics and Lighting).

For Kiln: Girl on an Altar, Retrograde, Mlima’s Tale.

Theatre credits include: Girl on an Altar (Abbey Theatre); They (Manchester International Festival); Falkland Sound (RSC); A Passionate Woman (Leeds Playhouse); Say Yes to Tess (Leeds Playhouse / Camden People’s Theatre); How a City Can Save the World, Wildfire Road (Sheffield Theatres); Shut Up, I’m Dreaming (National Theatre / Schools Tour); Rockets and Blue Lights (National Theatre /  Royal Exchange); The Boy with Two Hearts (Wales Millennium Centre / National Theatre); The Strange Undoing of Prudencia Heart (Royal Exchange); Mountains: The Dreams of Lily Kwok (Royal Exchange Theatre /  UK Tour); Vincent in Brixton (RADA); When We Dead Awaken (Coronet Theatre); seven methods of killing kylie jenner (Royal Court Theatre); Half Breed (Soho Theatre / Assembly Rooms Theatre); The Playboy of the Western World (Gaiety Theatre / Market Place Theatre / Arts Centre, Armagh / Lyric Theatre, Belfast / English Touring Theatre /  The Royal Theatrical Support Trust); Noises Off (Lyric Hammersmith); [Un] Leashed: Sense of Time (Birmingham Royal Ballet); The Memory of Water (Nottingham Playhouse); The Trick (Bush Theatre / UK Tour); Wild East (Young Vic); Start Swimming (Young Vic / Summerhall, Edinburgh); Hansel and Gretel (Rose Theatre); The Fishermen (Edinburgh Fringe / Arcola Theatre / UK Tour / West End); Br’er Cotton (Theatre503); Othello, Jekyll and Hyde, The Host (NYT Rep Season 2017); The Ugly One (Park Theatre); Babette’s Feast (The Print Room) and Sweeney Todd (Harringtons Pie and Mash Shop / West End / Off-Broadway).

Awards: Scotsman Edinburgh Fringe First Award; Knight of Illumination Award

Selected credits include: The Trial of Josie K (Unicorn Theatre); Akedah (Hampstead Theatre); Beauty and the Beast (Mercury Theatre); Amma VR Experience (Tara Theatre); Death Drop: Back in the Habit (Garrick Theatre/UK Tour); A Single Man (Park Theatre); Alice in Wonderland (Mercury Theatre); The Importance of Being Earnest (English Touring Theatre); Bridgerton (Secret Cinema); Mad House (Ambassador’s Theatre); Mog the Forgetful Cat (Royal & Derngate/Old Vic); Robin Hood (Bristol Old Vic); Death Drop (Garrick Theatre/Criterion Theatre/UK Tour); J’Ouvert (Harold Pinter Theatre/BBC); One Jewish Boy (Trafalgar Studios/West End/UK Tour); Typical Girls (Sheffield Crucible Theatre); Scenes with Girls, Living Newspaper (Royal Court Theatre); Isla (Theatre Clwyd); Tuck Shop West End (Garrick Theatre); Patricia Gets Ready (Pleasance Theatre/UK Tour); Gentlemen, Pipeline, A Fantastic Bohemian, Lovesick (Arcola Theatre); Reimagining (Almeida Theatre); Last Easter (Orange Tree Theatre); Mission (The Big House); One Under with Graeae Theatre Company (Plymouth Drum/UK Tour); Superstar, Anything is Possible if You Think Hard Enough About It (Southwark Playhouse); New Views (National Theatre); Silence (Mercury Theatre/UK tour); Together, Not the Same (Sadler’s Wells Theatre); Great Expectations (Geffrey Museum); The State of Things (Brockley Jack Studio);

As associate – The Manor (National Theatre); Gunpowder Immersive Experience (Tower Hill); War of the Worlds Immersive Experience (56 Leadenhall Street); A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Tobacco Factory); Apollo 13 (Original Theatre Company); Dust (New York Theatre Workshop).

Beth Duke

Sound Designer

For Kiln: Retrograde.

Selected credits include: The Trial of Josie K (Unicorn Theatre); Akedah (Hampstead Theatre); Beauty and the Beast (Mercury Theatre); Amma VR Experience (Tara Theatre); Death Drop: Back in the Habit (Garrick Theatre/UK Tour); A Single Man (Park Theatre); Alice in Wonderland (Mercury Theatre); The Importance of Being Earnest (English Touring Theatre); Bridgerton (Secret Cinema); Mad House (Ambassador’s Theatre); Mog the Forgetful Cat (Royal & Derngate/Old Vic); Robin Hood (Bristol Old Vic); Death Drop (Garrick Theatre/Criterion Theatre/UK Tour); J’Ouvert (Harold Pinter Theatre/BBC); One Jewish Boy (Trafalgar Studios/West End/UK Tour); Typical Girls (Sheffield Crucible Theatre); Scenes with Girls, Living Newspaper (Royal Court Theatre); Isla (Theatre Clwyd); Tuck Shop West End (Garrick Theatre); Patricia Gets Ready (Pleasance Theatre/UK Tour); Gentlemen, Pipeline, A Fantastic Bohemian, Lovesick (Arcola Theatre); Reimagining (Almeida Theatre); Last Easter (Orange Tree Theatre); Mission (The Big House); One Under with Graeae Theatre Company (Plymouth Drum/UK Tour); Superstar, Anything is Possible if You Think Hard Enough About It (Southwark Playhouse); New Views (National Theatre); Silence (Mercury Theatre/UK tour); Together, Not the Same (Sadler’s Wells Theatre); Great Expectations (Geffrey Museum); The State of Things (Brockley Jack Studio);

As associate – The Manor (National Theatre); Gunpowder Immersive Experience (Tower Hill); War of the Worlds Immersive Experience (56 Leadenhall Street); A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Tobacco Factory); Apollo 13 (Original Theatre Company); Dust (New York Theatre Workshop).

Simone Murphy

Choreographer

Choreography credits include: Happily Ever Poofter, Reclaiming Harry (Rich Watkins Productions – Edinburgh Fringe/Adelaide Fringe/Prague Fringe); The Wizard of Oz (Fisher Theatre & Alderford Lake); Naia (Tristan Bates Theatre) and assistant choreographer on Around The World in 80 Days (St James Theatre).

Performance credits include: Cool Rider (Lyric Theatre/Duchess Theatre); The Dreaming (Union Theatre); Wind in the Willows (UK Tour); The Jungle Book (UK Tour); The Polar Express (Warner Bros); and Lazy Town Live (Cartoon Network). Simone is excited to be working with Spymonkey for the first time.