TWO STRANGERS (CARRY A CAKE ACROSS NEW YORK)

Dujonna Gift

Robin

Dujonna Gift plays Robin. Her theatre work includes the multi-Olivier Award-winning, smash hit musical Hamilton (Victoria Palace Theatre), Caroline or Change (Playhouse Theatre) and Motown: The Musical (Shaftesbury Theatre). Her film work includes Disney’s Snow White opposite Rachel Zegler.

Sam Tutty

Dougal

Sam Tutty plays Dougal. His theatre work includes the role of Evan Hansen in Dear Evan Hansen (Noël Coward Theatre) for which he won the Olivier Award for Best Actor in a Musical and Once on this Island (British Theatre Academy/Southwark Playhouse). For film, his work includes Four Minute Warning and Romeo & Juliet, and for television, Hollyoaks.

Jim Barne & Kit Buchan

Writers

Jim Barne has written music for films including The Ghost Trap, Worth, and the Oscar-nominated Living. He won the London Chamber Orchestra’s young composer competition, and Best New Score at the Horrorhaus Film Festival.

Kit Buchan’s poems have been published in Poetry Review, The White Review, Magma, Five Dials, Clinic, PERVERSE and The Best British Poetry anthology, and commended in the Poetry London and Ware Poets competitions.

Together they have won the Stage Debut Award and the Stiles & Drewe Prize for new musical theatre. Their second musical Catastrophe Bay was performed at the Bristol Old Vic in 2022, and is an NYMT production for 2024. They also write songs for their pop band, I Said Yes.

Tim Jackson

Director & Choreographer

Tim Jackson is a Director and Choreographer, and former Creative Associate of The Queen’s Theatre, Hornchurch. Tim recently choreographed the critically acclaimed Broadway production of Merrily We Roll Along with Daniel Radcliffe, Jonathan Groff and Lindsay Mendez, directed by Maria Friedman.

As Director: Kinky Boots (New Wolsey Theatre); The Hound of the Baskervilles (UK Tour); Treasure Island (Bolton Octagon); The Season (Royal & Derngate/New Wolsey Theatre); The Oliviers in Concert (Royal Festival Hall) and The Stable (Lyric Theatre).

As associate director: High Society (The Old Vic) and A Little Night Music (Tokyo).

As Choreographer: Merrily We Roll Along (Hudson Theatre/New York Theatre Workshop/Tokyo National Theater/Huntington Theatre/Harold Pinter Theatre/Menier Chocolate Factory); A Christmas Carol (Dominio Theatre); Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (Apollo Theatre); Stepping Out (Vaudeville Theatre); Saturday Night (Arts Theatre); Little Shop of Horrors (Manchester Royal Exchange); Oliver! (Watermill); The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13 3/4 (Curve Theatre) and Parade (Southwark Playhouse).

Opera includes: La Périchole (Garsington Opera) and The Marriage of Figaro (European tour).

Television includes: four Olivier Awards Ceremonies, Doctor Who, Let’s Sing and Dance for Comic Relief, BBC1’s New Year’s Eve.

Tim has a BA in Music from Oxford University specialising in Orchestration, and an MA from Mountview. He has MD/Arranging credits at Manchester Royal Exchange, Birmingham REP and in the West End. Tim works as a singing coach and recently coached Bill Nighy for his Oscar-nominated performance in Living. Developing Two Strangers (Carry A Cake Across New York) with Kit and Jim has been a true joy and a career highlight, and Tim would like to thank both of them, along with the many incredible theatre-makers who have contributed to this show’s epic journey from a single song to the musical you see here at Kiln.

Soutra Gilmour

Designer

Soutra Gilmour has received huge acclaim for her work, recognised with five Olivier Award nominations and two Tony Award nominations including Best Set Design for Betrayal and Best Costume Design for Cyrano de Bergerac.

Theatre credits include: The Effect, Moon on a Rainbow Shawl, Twelfth Night, Les Blancs, Romeo and Juliet (National Theatre); My Brilliant Friend (National Theatre/Rose Theatre Kingston); A Doll’s House (Hudson Theatre, New York); Merrily We Roll Along (Menier Chocolate Factory/NYTW/Hudson Theatre, New York); Assassins (Menier Chocolate Factory); Further than the Furthest Thing, Bull (Young Vic); The Secret Life of Bees, Macbeth, Reasons to be Pretty (Almeida Theatre); Running with Lions, Out West, Angels in America (Lyric Hammersmith); To the Streets (Birmingham Hippodrome); Pinter at the Pinter, The Lover/The Collection, Cyrano De Bergerac (BAM, New York/Harold Pinter Theatre); & Juliet (Shaftesbury Theatre/Stephen Sondheim Theatre, New York); Evita (Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre); Timon of Athens (RSC/TFANA, New York); Guys  and Dolls (Royal Exchange Manchester); The Band’s Visit, Knives in Hens, Inadmissible Evidence (Donmar Warehouse); Piaf (Donmar Warehouse/Teatro Liceo); The Seagull, Apologia, Richard III, The Maids, The Homecoming, Macbeth (Trafalgar Transformed); The Guards at the Taj (Bush Theatre); Pitchfork Disney, Killer (Shoreditch Town Hall); Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (Crucible/Northern Stage); I See You, The Pride (Royal Court); Reasons To Be Happy (Hampstead Theatre); Urinetown (St James Theatre); The Crucible, Duchess of Malfi (Old Vic); The Birthday Party (Sheffield Crucible/Northern Stage); The Caretaker (Crucible/Tricycle); Our Friends in the North, Ruby Moon, Son of Man (Northern Stage); The Commitments (The Palace Theatre) and From Here to Eternity (Shaftesbury Theatre).

Opera credits include: Breaking the Waves (Scottish Opera); Jack the Ripper (ENO); The Turn of the Screw (Regent’s Park); Quartett, Iris (Royal Opera House/Opera Holland Park); Carmen, Saul, Hansel and Gretel, Anna Bolena, Don Giovanni, Cosi Fan Tutte (Opera North); Mary Stuart, The Birds and Trouble in Tahiti (ETO).

Jack Knowles

Lighting Designer

Jack Knowles trained at the Central School of Speech and Drama.

Selected theatre credits include: Sunset Boulevard (Savoy Theatre); Patriots, Best of Enemies (Noel Coward Theatre); Caroline, or Change (Studio 54, New York/Playhouse Theatre); The Importance of Being Earnest (Vaudeville Theatre); Beginning (Ambassadors Theatre/National Theatre); Romeo and Juliet, Top Girls, Cleansed (National Theatre); Barber Shop Chronicles (National Theatre/World Tour – Knight of Illumination Award); The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (Gillian Lynne Theatre/UK Tour); Spring Awakening, The Duchess of Malfi, Carmen Disruption (Almeida Theatre); Private Lives, Committee (Donmar Warehouse); Venice Preserved (RSC); Glass. Kill. Bluebeard. Imp, The End of History, Instructions for Correct Assembly (Royal Court); The Girl on the Train (Salisbury Playhouse); The Greatest Play in the History of the World (Traverse/Trafalgar Studios/Royal Exchange/UK Tour); Light Falls, The Producers, A Streetcar Named Desire (Royal Exchange); Anna Karenina (Sheffield Theatres) and Wonderland (Nottingham Playhouse).

Opera credits include: La Bohéme (Gothenburg Opera).

Tony Gayle

Sound Designer

Tony Gayle is a leading UK sound designer and recently received an Olivier Award for Best Sound Design for the RSC’s My Neighbour Totoro.

As sound designer, theatre credits include: Disney’s AIDA (Holland); Sylvia, The 47th (Old Vic); Newsies (Troubadour, Wembley Park Theatre); My Neighbour Totoro (RSC at the Barbican Theatre); Kinky Boots (New
Wolsey Theatre); Playboy of the West Indies (Birmingham Rep); Legally Blonde (Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre); Running with Lions (Talawa/Lyric Hammersmith); Spring Awakening, And Breathe… (Almeida Theatre); The Wiz (Hope Mill Theatre); Get Up, Stand Up! The Bob Marley Musical (Lyric Theatre); A Place For We (Talawa/Park Theatre); Blue/Orange (Theatre Royal Bath); Gin Craze! (Royal & Derngate); The Living Newspaper, Shoe Lady (Royal Court); Poet in da Corner (Royal Court/ UK Tour); Beautiful – The Carole King Musical (UK Tour); Salad Days (UK Tour); American Idiot (UK Tour); Songs For Nobodies (Wilton’s Music Hall/Ambassadors Theatre); Floyd Collins (Wilton’s Music Hall); The Wild Party (The Other Palace) and Lazarus (King’s Cross).

As associate sound designer, theatre credits include: Jersey Boys (Trafalgar Theatre/UK Tour); Dear Evan Hansen (Noel Coward); Tina – The Tina Turner Musical (Aldwych Theatre/ Lunt-Fontanne Theatre, New York/Hamburg/ Utrecht); Beautiful – The Carole King Musical (Aldwych Theatre); Here Lies Love (National Theatre/Seattle Rep); The Book of Mormon (Prince of Wales/European Tour); Disney’s Aladdin (Prince Edward Theatre/Germany); The Girl from the North Country (Old Vic/Noel Coward); Groundhog Day (Old Vic); Matilda The Musical (International Tour) and Spring Awakening (Hammersmith Lyric/Novello).

Awards: Best Sound Award for My Neighbour Totoro – 23rd Annual WhatsOnStage Awards, Black British Theatre Awards (BBTA) Light & Sound Recognition Award – 2019 & 2021

Other: Wise Children Trustee, Stage Sight Co-Director, Founder of The Audio Cartel.

Sean Green

Musical Director

Sean has a classical music degree from Birmingham University and completed a postgraduate diploma in Musical Direction from the Mountview School of Theatre Arts in 2009.

As musical director, theatre credits include: Brokeback Mountain (Soho Place); Sylvia (Old Vic); Get Up, Stand Up! (Lyric Theatre); Turn Up (Cadogan Hall/Online); Aladdin (Newbury Corn Exchange); Priscilla Queen of the Desert (UK Tour); Leave To Remain (Lyric Hammersmith); Jack & The Beanstalk (Hastings/Qdos); Twelfth Night (Young Vic); Live Birds Flying Home (Royal Court Liverpool); Sleeping Beauty (Chatham/
Jordan Productions); The Wedding Singer (UK Tour); One Love: The Bob Marley Musical (Birmingham Rep/Playful Productions); Murder Ballad (Arts Theatre); The Buskers Opera (Park Theatre); Into the Woods (Royal Exchange Theatre Manchester); Soul Sister (Hackney Empire/Savoy Theatre/UK Tour); Britain’s Got Bhangra (UK Tour for Rifco Arts); Little Red Riding Hood, Five Guys Named Moe, Aladdin (Theatre Royal Stratford East); Buddy Upstairs (Gatehouse); Pages: Promised Land (Union Theatre) and the 400th Production of Honk! (George Square 1, Edinburgh Festival). Sean was also Musical Supervisor/Orchestrator of The Wiz (Hope Mill Theatre).

Alongside the Musical Direction credits he has also workshopped: This is a Love Story (Vicky Graham Productions); Hot Fuzz the Musical (Mark Rubenstein); Sylvia (ZooNation/ The Old Vic); Studio 54 (McGill Productions); One Love: The Bob Marley Musical; The Sorcerer’s Apprentice; Leave Hitler to Me Lad (Duck Egg Theatre Company/UK Tour); Laila (Rifco Arts); Material from the Diary of Me (Perfect Pitch/Stuart Matthew Price/Musical Theatre Academy) and Fanny Hill (Jermyn Street Theatre).

Lux Pyramid

Orchestrator

Lux Pyramid is a multi-instrumentalist, producer, songwriter and orchestrator based in London.

Songwriting collaborations include Yungblud, Mimi Webb, Plan B, L Devine, Miranda Cooper, Vintage Culture, Oliver Nelson, Emily Burns and Catherine McGrath. Recently Pyramid has written and co-produced two singles from Suki Waterhouse’s debut album, I Can’t Let Go, and has had songs worked on and recorded by Rita Ora, Marshmello, Tiesto, and Zara Larsson.

As well as multiple classical No.1s for Universal Records, fashion film soundtracks for Mario Testino and Victoria’s Secret, Pyramid has worked on Hollywood movies at Hans Zimmer’s Remote Control Productions in LA and co-produced and mixed several film and theatre projects with long-time collaborator Charlie Fink of Noah And The Whale. The Lorax and Cover My Tracks both enjoyed successful runs at the Old Vic.

Julia Horan CDG

Casting Director

For Kiln/Tricycle: The Wife of Willesden
(also BAM/ART Boston), Girl on an Altar,
Pass Over, Red Velvet (also Garrick Theatre/
St Ann’s Warehouse).
Recent theatre credits include: School Girls;
or the African Mean Girls Play, Tipping the
Velvet (Lyric Hammersmith); Tambo & Bones
(Theatre Royal Stratford East); A Little Life
(Harold Pinter Theatre/Savoy); Romeo &
Juliet, The Clinic, A Streetcar Named Desire,
Macbeth, The Duchess of Malfi, Three Sisters,
The Wild Duck, Machinal, The Writer, The
Treatment, Oil, Uncle Vanya, Medea, Game,
Mr Burns, Before the Party (Almeida Theatre);
The Doctor (Almeida/Duke of York’s/Park Ave
Armory, New York); The Twilight Zone (Almeida
Theatre/Ambassadors Theatre); Summer and
Smoke, Mary Stuart (Almeida Theatre/Duke
of York’s Theatre); Oresteia (Almeida Theatre/
Trafalgar Studios/Park Ave Armory); Hamlet,
Chimerica (Almeida Theatre/Harold Pinter);
Sons of the Prophet (Hampstead Theatre); The
Jungle (Young Vic Theatre/Playhouse Theatre/
Curran, San Francisco/St Anne’s Warehouse,
New York); A View from the Bridge (Young Vic/
Wyndham’s Theatre/Kennedy Centre, New
York); The Events (Actors Touring Company/
Young Vic); Blood Wedding, Jesus Hopped the
‘A’ Train, Fun Home, Yellowman, Wings, Life of
Galileo, Once in a Lifetime, Blue/Orange, The
Trial, Ah, Wilderness, Man, Happy Days, Public
Enemy, The Shawl (Young Vic); The Inheritance
(Young Vic Theatre/Noel Coward Theatre);
Yerma (Young Vic Theatre/Park Ave Armory);
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (Young Vic Theatre/
Apollo Theatre); Appropriate (Donmar
Warehouse); All About Eve (Noel Coward
Theatre); Harry Potter and the Cursed Child
(Palace Theatre); The Inheritance (Young Vic
Theatre/Noel Coward Theatre); Yerma (Young
Vic Theatre/Park Ave Armory); Cat on a Hot
Tin Roof (Young Vic Theatre/Apollo Theatre);
Obsession, Hamlet (Barbican); City of
Glass (59 Productions); Martyr (ATC); Hope,
The Internet is Serious Business, Wolf from
the Door, Adler & Gibb, Birdland, Khandan,
The Mistress Contract, The Pass, Pigeons,
Gastronauts (Royal Court Theatre); The Nether
(Royal Court/Duke of York’s Theatre); Spring
Awakening, The Seagull (Headlong); A Doll’s
House (Duke of York’s Theatre/BAM) and The
Lighthouse Keeper (Birmingham Contemporary
Music Group).
Recent television/film credits include:
Together (BAFTA Winner Single Drama),
Hamlet, Why It’s Kicking Off Everywhere,
The Exception, Departure and The Trial –
A Murder in the Family

Claira Vaughan

Associate Director

Claira Vaughan is a choreographer, associate director and movement director for stage, screen and large-scale events. Claira is the creator and Artistic Director of Rumour Mill, a Cabaret & Burlesque show, and of ‘Post
Olympic Dance’. She is a workshop facilitator for ‘Connections’ at The National Theatre.

Claira is extremely excited to be Associate Director to Tim Jackson for Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York).

Theatre credits include: Teenage Dick (Donmar Warehouse); The Beautiful Game, Spongebob the Musical, The Wedding Singer, Disney’s Freaky Friday, Lysistrata Jones (Arts Educational); Flashdance (Italia Conti) and The Prince and The Pauper (The Watermill Theatre).

Film and television credits include: Pennyworth (Season 1–3); The Great (Season 1–3); The Crown; Bohemian Rhapsody; Lady Chatterley’s Lover; GameFace; Breathless; There’s Something About Movies; Strictly Come Dancing and History of a Pleasure Seeker.

Large scale movement credits include: The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee (Windsor Castle); London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Opening and Closing Ceremonies (London); Sochi 2014 Winter Olympic Opening and Closing Ceremonies including audition tour (Russia); Saudi Cup (Queens Park FC); FA Cup Final – Opening Ceremony 2018 (Wembley Stadium) and Islamic Solidarity Games 2017 (Azerbaijan).

As associate choreographer, credits include: People, Places & Things (UK Tour); A Christmas Carol (Dominion Theatre); Botticelli in the Fire (Hampstead Theatre); Venice Preserved (RSC); As You Like It (Regents Park Open Air Theatre); Dusty – The Musical (UK Tour); The Little Stranger (Pathe); Stepping Out (Vaudeville Theatre/UK Tour); Crazy for You (UK Tour/Watermill Theatre); Cabaret (Arts Educational); The Tailor Made Man (Arts Theatre); A Man of No Importance (Royal Academy of Music) and The Rocky Horror Show (Ambassadors Theatre Group/UK Tour).

As resident choreographer, credits include: High Society (Old Vic).

Jessica Mensah

Kiln-Mackintosh Resident Assistant Director

For Kiln: Mlima’s Tale, Retrograde, The Wife of Willesden, Girl on an Altar.

Jessica Mensah is currently the KilnMackintosh Resident Assistant Director. She has trained on programmes such as: Stonecrabs Theatre Young Directors Programme (2021), the RTYDS placement at tiata fahodzi (2019) and the Young Vic’s Introduction to Directing programme (2017).

She studied BA Theatre & Performance at Guildford School of Acting, University of Surrey. Her short film I Stand Proud was nominated for two FFTG Awards & screened as part of the festival in 2021. Jessica is also the host and founder of the YouTube channel and podcast called Living in our 20s.

As Director, theatre credits include: Yerma (Lyric Hammersmith); House (Southwark Playhouse); The Life of Olu (Soho Theatre/Theatre Peckham/Golden Goose Theatre); DRUM (Omnibus Theatre); Tales from the Frontline – part 4 (Talawa) and Signed, Sealed, Delivered (National Theatre).

As Assistant Director, theatre credits include: School Girls; or the African Mean Girls Play (Lyric Hammersmith); The Snail House (Hampstead Theatre); Typical (Soho Theatre) and Queens of Sheba (Edinburgh Fringe/New Diorama).