Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

In his training at Rose Bruford College of Speech and Drama, Michael received a BA Hons in Theatre Directing, and spent his third year assisting Patrick Sandford at the Nuffield Theatre in Southampton working on a range of work from classic Tom Stoppard to new writing to Panto!

After leaving drama school Michael assisted Mark Thomson at the Royal Lyceum Theatre for a season. Michael has also directed at the Oran Mor with the winner of the Orange Playwriting Award, “Magnum Opus” and the acclaimed “Burns on the Solway”.

Other previous theatre includes: Over the Mountain by Roy Williams (Creek Road Studio Theatre), Tom Jones (Lillian Bayliss Theatre), The Finishing School by Claire Luckham (Nuffield Theatre, Southampton).

For Rapture Theatre, Michael has directed: Death and the Maiden, The Dumb Waiter, Some Kind of Love Story, Shadowlands, Taking Sides, Clara, An Evening with Gary Lineker, Boys’ Life, Grace, Death of a Salesman, A Kind of Alaska, Habeas Corpus, Rat in the Skull, Oleanna, Macbeth, Perfect Days, Bold Girls, Shang-a-Lang, Assassins, Betrayal, Mr. Peters’ Connections, Insignificance, Speed the Plow, Simpatico, Boy Gets Girl, Your Turn to Clean the Stair, The Old Neighborhood, The Sailmaker, Richard III, Double Top, Boston Marriage, Twisted, Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune, Proof, Misery, Blue/Orange, Damages, The Collection, Frozen, Broken Glass, Shining City, Betrayal 2008, Last of the Red Hot Lovers, Hamlet, Gagarin Way, The Sash, The Collection, Shang-a-Lang 2013, Uncle Varick., All My Sons , The Last Yankee , Democracy, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf , A Streetcar Named Desire, The Ten Pound Look, The Browning Version , A Kind of Alaska ( 2019) , The Red Lion and Clybourne Park.

Frances Collier is a Glasgow based Theatre and Film designer. She graduated from Birmingham City University in 2008 with a 1st class BA Hons Degree in Theatre Design and the Live Nation Event Design Student of the Year Award. As a new graduate she worked for the Birmingham Opera Company on both Idomeneo, and Othello, as well as for the Birmingham School of Acting.

For Rapture: The Red Lion and Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

Other Theatre: Arches:LIVE - RISK, Techfest Aberdeen, the Aberdeen Students Show - Mary Torphins, Sleepless in Seaton, Acorn Theatre - Animal Farm, Theatre Modo - Pandemonium Pirate Parade (Peterhead), Live Wire Productions (various), and GlasGAY - Lady Fingers and Empire Biscuits. Her design work for Pitlochry Festival Theatre includes Rope, Communicating Doors, A Chorus of Disapproval, Present Laughter, Perfect Days, The Yellow on the Broom, Improbable Fiction, and Pyrenees.

Film: production design on Isabel’s Last Day, and GlaswAsian Tales, costume design for Writers Block, The Quiet, the feature film SOLIS, and Whistle My Lad, for which she was nominated for the BAFTA Scotland New Talent Design Award.

She designed Stafford Festival Shakespeare’s 2016 production of Othello and The Tempest.

Mark trained at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art.

For Rapture: The Red Lion

Theatre includes: Lawrence After Arabia, (Hampstead Theatre), Waiting For Godot, (Royal Lyceum, Edinburgh), The Distance, Democracy, The Daughter-in-Law, Winter’s Tale, Wonderful Tennessee, (Sheffield Theatres), Democracy, (Old Vic), Elling, (Trafalgar Studios), Woman in Mind, A Christmas Carol, (Birmingham Rep), Waiting For Godot, Time and The Conways, (Royal Lyceum, Edinburgh), Three Sisters, (Tron Theatre), The Glass Menagerie, (Dundee Rep), Peter Pan, (Bristol Old Vic), The Importance Of Being Earnest, (Nottingham Playhouse), Educating Rita, A View From The Bridge, (Liverpool Playhouse), Little Platoons and The Knowledge, (Bush Theatre), The Philanderer, Widower’s Houses, Orange Tree.

Recent Opera includes: Don Giovanni, (Nationale Reisopera Netherlands), Le Nozze di Figaro, (Los Angeles Opera), Hansel and Gretel, (Scottish Opera), Tannhäuser, (Teatro Real, Madrid), Pirates of Penzance, Iolanthe, Mikado, (Gielgud Theatre, London), Tannhäuser, (Los Angeles Opera), Lysistrata, (New York City Opera/Houston Grand Opera), Die Fledermaus, Orlando Finto Pazzo, Shorts, Six-Pack, Family Matters, (Tête à Tête), Le Nozze di Figaro, (Opera Zuid, Netherlands), Manon, Die Fledermaus, (English Touring Opera), Ariadne auf Naxos, Albert Herring, Aldeburgh, La Fanciulla del West, (Norma, Opera Holland Park), Nitro, (Royal Opera Linbury Theatre).

Recent Dance includes: Tenebre by Hubert Essakow for Deutsche Ballett am Rhein, Dusseldorf, Stepmother, Stepfather by Arthur Pita for The Place/Headspace Dance.

Sound design/Composer credits: The Hour, (Alon Ilsar), Without a Hitch, (Room 2 Manoeuvre), Coriolanus Vanishes, International Waters (Fire Exit), Blackout (Showroom/Tron), Blackbird (Citizens Theatre), Who Cares (Royal Court), Milk, Swallow, The Devil Masters, Quiz Show, Spoiling (Traverse Theatre), Magic Sho, Josephine Bean, Huff (Shona Reppe) Kind of Silence, Smokies (Solar Bear), Pondlife, Martha, The Little Gentleman, The Voice Thief, White, Kes (Catherine Wheels), Up To Speed (Imaginate), My Friend Selma, Invisible Army, (Terra Incognita), Robin Hood (Visible Fictions), My House, A Small Story (Starcatchers), Peter Pan (Sherman Cymru), Mikey and Addie, Littlest Christmas Tree, Rudolf, Mr Snow, The Little Boy that Santa Claus Forgot (Macrobert), Skewered Snails, He-La (Iron Oxide), The Infamous Brothers Davenport (Vox Motus/Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh), One Thousand Paper Cranes (Lu Kemp), To Begin, The Tin Forest (NTS) and Sanitise (Melanie Jordan).

Creator/Director: Kind of Silence (Solar Bear)