United!

The Company

RICHARD KURT (Author)

Richard Kurt is 33, and first visited Old Trafford when he was six years old. He taught history and politics before becoming a full time author in 1994. He has written and co-written 9 books about Manchester United, as well as the definitive work on the genesis of the group Oasis. He is currently deputy editor and writer for the nation’s top two fanzines United We Stand and Red Issue. He also runs the extensive United news service on the Internet.

He is a well known fan activist and has also worked as a film documentary script writer and has contributed on the subject of Manchester United to numerous television and radio programmes.

RICHARD WILLIAMS (Director)

Richard has been Artistic Director of Contact Theatre Company, Manchester, the Oxford Stage Company, Unicorn-Arts Theatre, London, and Liverpool Playhouse. He has worked in most of the theatres in the country as well as in the West End, The Royal National Theatre and abroad. During the past twenty years he has directed over 250 productions ranging through Shakespeare, Brecht, new plays, music theatre and opera. His production of HAMLET opened at Elsinore Castle before a world tour, and he produced THE SEAGULL with Jonathan Pryce and Vanessa Redgrave in the West End. He has worked extensively in the commercial sector as well as in The States, Canada and in Europe.

KIERON SMITH (Performer and co-adaptor)

Kieron has supported Manchester United for over 30 years. He trained at the Arts Educational Drama School. As an actor he has worked in theatres all over the country including Mercury Colchester, Belfast Lyric and The Liverpool Playhouse as well as many national tours. His London appearances include the West End, The Mermaid and Lyric Hammersmith, Sadlers Wells, Westminster Theatre, Unicorn Arts Theatre and The Queens Theatre. He has been in productions as varied as Bouncers, To Kill A Mocking Bird and The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe. On TV and radio he has worked on Coronation Street, The Return of Sherlock Holmes, Perfect Scoundrels, Sentenced, Gullivers Travels, Each Way Yankee and The Hostage. As a director he has worked with Vanessa Ford Productions. He was an Associate Director with the Liverpool Playhouse and Director of productions for the Unicorn Arts Theatre. He has written and directed for the City of London Festival and he also writes and directs the stunt show for Legoland, Windsor.

JANEY GARDINER (Set and Costume Design)

Janey trained at Central St. Martins School Of Art and was Associate Designer at the Redgrave Theatre, Farnham, from 1991 - 1993. Productions included A Comedy Of Errors; Happy Family and a national tour of Don't Rock The Boat. Other regional theatre work has been with the Contact and Library theatres in Manchester, and Caravan and Elsie and Norm's Macbeth for the Liverpool Everyman. Her torung work has included BlackTheatre Co-op; Carib and Third Party Productions.

Janey has taught and designed for all the major drama school and her design for dance work has included Duende for Suraya Hilal at the Queen Elizabeth Hall and Caribbean Suite, Connecting Vibes and As Close As a Breath for Iriel Dance Theatre.

Her most recent major work has included Mary Seacole for the Linbury, Royal Opera House and Life On Mars - a large-scale multi-media production for Legoland America, Denmark and England.

Janey is Area Leader in Theatre Design at Wimbledon School Of Art Foundation Department.

ARNIM FRIESS (Lighting and Projection Design)

Initially trained as a photographer and after receiving an MA in Scenography at Birmingham Institute of Art and Design, Arnim specialises in designing dynamic performance environments, blending different media like slide and video projection, lighting and sculptural set-objects. His work has been seen in the UK, Germany, Italy, Canada, the USA and Denmark.

Projects include bricks-in-space spectacle 'Life on Mars' at Legolands worldwide, the appearance of hundreds of angels inside St Pauls Cathedral for the City of London Festival, 'My beautiful laundrette' for Snap Theatre, 'Angels in America' at the Sheffield Crucible, award winning 'Rumblefish' and 'Lord of the Flies' for Pilot Theatre, 'Oliver' at the Liverpool Playhouse, Mozart's 'Mass in C-minor' for the Birmingham Royal Ballett, 'Amour' for Oval Theatre London and the Theatre Centre Toronto, 'The Wall' and 'Satyagraha' for Midlands Arts Centre, 'Shot through the heart' amongst others for Pentabus Theatre, 'Metropolis' and 'The Importance of being Earnest' for Kaos Theatre, and 'Hard Day's Night' for Hull Truck Theatre Company.

Other work includes exhibition design, lighting an MTV video for trash metal stars 'Cradle of Filth' and a 360 degree AV installation in Sheffield's 'The Republic'. He also works as a photographer and graphic designer.

MARK BLOXSIDGE (Sound Design)

Mark Bloxsidge has been creating and designing sound in professional theatre
for more than twenty years. Previous shows for Vanessa Ford Productions
include the Chronicles of Narnia – The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, The
Voyage Of The Dawn Treader, The Magician’s Nephew and The Horse And His Boy
and most recently the successful adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit,
for which he composed the music. Other recent work includes soundtracks for
a series of Astronomy videos, two puppet shows with Sooty and 14 different
shows for Legoland, Windsor. Mark is currently at the Barbican Centre,
working with artists as varied as James Brown, Ravi Shankar, Karlheinz
Stockhausen, Herbie Hancock and the London Symphony Orchestra.

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