Jonathan Lewis

CO Artistic Director

.Jonathan has worked extensively as an actor, writer and director for over 20 years, and has won a number of awards for his work. His first play was Our Boys – which he also directed at the Soho Theatre, Derby Playhouse and at the Donmar Warehouse – for which he won the Writers’ Guild Award for Best New Fringe Play, TAPS new Television Writer of the Year, and was nominated for the Lloyds Bank Playwright of the Year. Our Boys was revived in a major West End production in the Autumn of 2012, and was nominated for a number of awards including Best Revival and Best Acting Ensemble at the Evening Standard Awards as well as the What’s On Stage Awards. He also wrote and directed A Comedy of Arias at The Pleasance, Edinburgh as part of a Pick of the Fringe season at the New Ambassadors Theatre in London’s West End, as well as his own play All Mouth at the Menier Chocolate Factory. He has co-written and performs I Found My Horn which has played at theatres and festivals up and down the country (also Copenhagen, Lisbon, Abu Dhabi, New York, LA and at the Laguna Beach Playhouse). He also directed The Club by David Williamson and Chris England’s hit shows, Breakfast with Johnny Wilkinson (Menier Chocolate Factory and Edinburgh Fringe) and Twitstorm at the Park Theatre. He is currently working on a trilogy for the theatre entitled Education, Education, Education. Part one, called A Level Playing Field, premiered at the Jermyn Street Theatre in April 2015. Part two, The Be All and End All, premiered at York Theatre Royal in May 2018.

Lilly Howkins

Director of Dance

Lily is resident choreographer for Theatre Sotto Voce, with whom she has been working on a new children’s musical, Behind Enchanted Windows, developing the choreography through an R&D process at the Unicorn Theatre. Previous movement direction and choreography includes: Our Boys (PQA Venues); Honk! and H. R. Haitch (The Union Theatre); Caste, Our American Cousin (The Finborough Theatre); By My Strength (R&D with Brickdust Theatre); The Tinderbox (Charing Cross Theatre);The Blues Brothers Summer Special (The Hippodrome); Ecstasies Within (The Southbank Centre and Latitude Festival); The Blues Brothers Xmas Special (The Arts Theatre); Murder In Whitechapel (Tristan Bates Theatre); Arnika (The Bridewell Theatre); Shirleymander (The Playground Theatre); Jack and The Beanstalk, Puss In Boots, Robin Hood (Greenwich Theatre). Lily was the co-director and choreographer for the physical theatre piece Hood! (Edinburgh Fringe Sell-Out Award with Peculius Theatre) and has assistant directed for Our Boys and Jack and The Beanstalk. Last year she choreographed Buxton Opera House’s pantomime Sleeping Beauty, and is looking forward to returning this year with Dick Whittington.

Iain McCallum

Head of Public Relations and Media

Iain is a Senior Communications and Media Specialist with a successful track record in Television, Media, The Arts, Fashion and Lifestyle Brands. He was, for 15 years Head of Press and PR at Tiger Aspect Productions where he was responsible for fully integrated PR, Marketing and Social Media campaign across Drama, Entertainment, Comedy, Factual, Features, Children and Animation and Corporate.

Iain’s work is noted for its ability to break away from the tried and expected. Through this approach he has cultivated the ability to give voice to a broader spectrum of individuals with the result that his work stands apart thanks to approachability and dynamism. This has resulted in extensive coverage and a plethora of awards amongst them, BAFTA, BAFTA Craft, Rose D’Or, British Comedy Awards, Broadcast and Broadcast Digital Awards, RTS, International Emmy and Ivor Novello.

Damian Cruden

CO Creative Director

Cruden trained at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama in Glasgow, 1982–1986. He then worked for the Tron Theatre and the TAG Theatre Company, and was tutor for the Scottish Youth Theatre. Moving to England, he became co-artistic director for the Liverpool Everyman Youth Theatre, then associate director for Hull Truck in the early 1990s. He was artistic director at York Theatre Royal between 1997 and 2019. His departure from York Theatre Royal was announced on 22 February 2019 simultaneous to the announcement that he would take the role of artistic director of Shakespeare's Rose pop-up theatres in York and Blenheim Palace.

Karl Tearney

Poet in Residence

As a newcomer to poetry and writing Karl has made quite an impact with his very succinct and thought provoking style.  Encouraged by Emma Willis MBE after he’d sent her a thank you poem, Karl’s work has been coveted by many. His work has included appearances at festivals and readings around the country.  He is hugely passionate about encouraging other sufferers of mental issues to look toward the Arts as a means of therapy.

He took part in the first Mayfair and St. James’s Literary Festival launched in November 2018, during which Karl performed his poem ‘ War not War’, alongside Alicia Vikander and Felicity Kendall, as part of the Josephine Hart Poetry Hour - Poetry of the Great War in St. James’s Church London, as well as being invited to read this powerful, short work on BBC Radio 3 during Remembrance week.

BBC and Channel 4 News both covered Karl’s work shown at the  'Art in the Aftermath’ exhibition in Pall Mall, London, featuring a wall covered in hundreds of his poems titled ‘The Writings on the Wall’. Response to his work and requests for a book were so overwhelming that he has decided to publish ‘ Second Life’, an insight into the healing power of poetry produced with such urgency by this extraordinary man. Karl writes a poem almost every day and has written over 700 since he came to words as his healing.

Stewart Hill

Director of Art

My life changed irrevocably the moment the shrapnel exploded into my brain.  I suffered a severe Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) whilst commanding B Company, 2 Mercian in Afghanistan in 2009. After three years of rehabilitation, I was medically discharged from the Army in March 2012; an end to my career after 18 years of service; an end to a life I loved. I attempted to find a new identity but have struggled. My motivations and desires to succeed within my abilities have not changed, but I have had to significantly reduce my ambitions because of my brain impairments. These cognitive difficulties fundamentally restrict what I can do in ‘work’ terms. My brain's capacity to process information, to plan, to organise, to make decisions is severely reduced.

I have been forced to search for a new identity and found rehabilitation and a joy for living through other means: art, theatre work, writing, singing and participating in charitable causes.

My involvement in charitable work opened yet another door to my recovery, beginning in 2012 when I was asked to speak at events held by the Poppy Factory, the On Course Foundation and the Army Benevolent Fund. I had received support from these military charities during the early period of my recovery and transition into my new life, and – despite my chronic fatigue and memory difficulties – it was very easy for me to speak on their behalf.

My sense of self, confidence and well-being grew out of these speaking events, and I realised how beneficial the talks were to myself and others. I now speak at engagements throughout the country and abroad, offering insights on leadership and the importance of positive thinking to our lives.

I am always delighted when audience members approach me after a talk to unveil their own concerns, worries or traumatic experiences. I have suffered physically, neurologically and psychologically. Yet I have learnt a great deal since my injury, and do not want to waste these very important lessons.

My ambition is to be the best artist and professional speaker I can be.

I am trying to give hope, comfort and inspiration to myself and others.

Phil Spencer

Director of Film

Phil has served in the Royal Marines for 10 years and has deployed on multiple operational tours across the globe. Most recently, he has been training recruits at the Commando School of Excellence but due to old injuries sustained in Afghanistan is now facing medical discharge. This has reignited Phil's lost love for the arts and has set him on his journey which has led to the Soldiers’ Arts Academy.

Phil has a keen interest in writing and acting and was in the award winning production of Soldier On.