More about Jim

He has extensive experience as an actor, director and teacher and performed the role of Liam in INSIDE, co-directing the Roundhouse production. He directed Philip Osment’s Hearing Things and Can I Help You? for which he received an Offie nomination for Best Director.

He is a trainer for Leap Confronting Conflict and he has provided teaching, training and consultation for the Roundhouse, The Lyric Theatre Hammersmith, Cardboard Citizens and the NYT in peer mentoring & working with challenging behaviour and taught on BA and MA courses at Central SSD and Brighton University.

Jim cofounded Playing ON in 2010, with Philip Osment.

More about Rhian

Rhian first worked with Jim and Philip many years ago while a member of National Youth Theatre.

Having trained in Applied Theatre at Central School of Speech and Drama, Rhian spent several years working in casting, including at London 2012 Ceremonies as a cast coordinator.

In 2016 Rhian completed an MA in Creative Producing at Birkbeck, at which time she started work at Omnibus Theatre as Producer for Creative Learning.

She reconnected with Playing on in 2017 and has worked with them since 2018. She is also Producer at YESYESNONO.

More about Lucy

Lucy Richardson is a director, dramaturg and educator. Her work focuses on giving a platform to those under-represented in the theatre and in society. It spans professional theatre work and large-scale participatory projects. Recently she has made work with ex-offenders for Clean Break, refugees for Sanctuary Voices, and women with lived experience of mental ill health for Southwark Women’s Forum. She has become adept at working on zoom.

Lucy’s directorial work includes The Woman Who Cooked her Husband by Debbie Isitt in the West End, The Quick by Stephanie Jacob at the Tristan Bates Theatre and Heart Speak by Zawe Aston for Clean Break. The Strongbox by Stephanie Jacob won The Origins Award for Outstanding New Work at Vault 2018. Bare Knuckle – a one man about bare knuckle fighting in the traveller community – has been selected to be showcased at the United Solo Festival in New York later this year. Mid Life, a show about the menopause, will open at Bristol Old Vic and at High Tide early next year. Lucy was Associate Director of Project Phakama for many years making large scale, immersive, participatory performance in South Africa, Argentina, India and Lesotho and UK. Her book Phakama: Making Participatory Performance is published by Bloomsbury Methuen this year. Lucy has directed over 30 productions in Drama Schools and Universities and was Artistic Director for Lewisham Youth Theatre for 10 years.

More about Nishna

Nishna Mehta recently completed her MA in Theatre for Young Audiences at Rose Bruford College of Theatre and Performance, England. Having worked as a performer, director, light designer and operator, workshop facilitator, marketing manager and administrator for various theatre companies in Mumbai, India. Her mantra of doing theatre is “Make it happen”. She wishes to share the magic and joy of theatre with children across age groups and backgrounds throughout the world. The same joy that inspired her to be a maker as she grew older. She is the Champions Project Lead for the International Inclusive Arts Network and has also attended the ASSITEJ Next Generation residencies Augenblick Mal!, Berlin in 2015 and On The Edge, Birmingham in 2016. She is also a wildlife enthusiast, especially butterflies and will toss random facts during conversations.

More about Hannah

Hannah is a director/actor/writer. As a director, she is currently working on a new play to be performed in the Chichester Showroom. She directed the brilliant political show for kids, Kidocracy by Keith Farnam and the critically acclaimed The Burning Tower in association with Bush Theatre. She has worked extensively for Lyric Hammersmith including on their ground-breaking START programmes. She has delivered on theatre projects in both Rochester and Feltham YOI alongside the Artistic Director of Playing ON, Jim Pope. This includes a programme of work which led to the extraordinary play “Inside” by the co-founder of Playing ON, the late and great Philip Osment. She’s also delivered projects for the NYT and Roundhouse. In Comedy, she directed the multi-award winning, Womaz.

As an actor and writer, she is a founding member of the 5* sketch group Comedy Bitch and has worked repeatedly with the award-winning theatre company Tangled Feet and The Work Theatre Collective. She is the writer and performer of her one-woman show, The Clown, T & Me – the incredible story of an unexpected relationship and the power of creativity. The show successfully premiered at The Edinburgh Festival in 2017 and is now currently in further production talks. She has trained in Clown and Bouffon with the world renowned, Philippe Gaulier.

She is thrilled to be joining the incomparable Playing ON as an associate artist.

More about Joseph

Joseph is an Actor and Facilitator. He is passionate about the arts and its ability to inspire and positively transform lives. He completed the Represent course run by Playing On at the Roundhouse in 2012 followed by the year long Performing Arts course at Generation Arts. In 2013 he attended The Academy of Live and Recorded Arts where he completed the Three Year Acting BA (Hons) course.

More about Lucy

Lucy Shaljian is an actor, drama practitioner, workshop leader and training consultant with over twenty years experience devising and directing actors and non actors in theatres, schools, colleges, prisons and the NHS. Currently delivering work across the UK for Leap confronting conflict; creatively managing conflict within diverse sectors including schools, charities, councils and care home settings. Lucy is passionate about using drama to explore and transform lives

More about Peyvand

Peyvand is a Performer & Performance Maker born, bred and based in London. Peyvand seeks to make socially engaged work which activates an audience and prompts them to consider the world around them and their place within it. Their work often combines live action with puppetry, video, and direct address to the audience. Springing from her own experience as a woman of mixed immigrant & refugee heritage (Malaysian Chinese & Iranian), and growing up in one of the poorest parts of the UK , common themes include resistance, displacement, and memory. Recently Peyvand has begun to explore stop motion animation and working this into her practice, receiving their first film commission through MENA Arts UK to create a short animation celebrating the MENA+ diaspora.

Recent projects include: The Art of Uprising (MENA Arts short film), Dual دوگانه (Vault Festival 2020 Show of the Week award), Rich Kids: A History of Shopping Malls in Tehran (Fringe First award 2019), Marty & the Party (Milk presents)

Training: National Youth Theatre, Goldsmiths College University of London (BA (hons) Drama & Theatre Arts), Little Angel Theatre Performer's Puppetry

Associations/Residencies : Barbican Open Lab, Camden People's Theatre Starting Blocks, Soho Theatre Drag Lab, Soho Theatre Writers Lab, Theatre in the Mill Tech Play Learn, Little Angel Theatre