Jonathan Heron

Artistic Director

Jonathan is based at Warwick University as a Research Associate. Fascinated by what happens to text in performance, he has used Ovid, Shakespeare, Gogol, Eliot, Beckett, Pinter, Barker and Kane to explore this process. He was assistant director to Robin Midgley on Middleton's The Witch (RADA) and to Peter Czajkowski on Rozewicz's The Card Index (White Bear and BAC). He observed Northern Broadsides staging Antigone and Northern Stage creating their Beckett/Pinter/Mamet season. He is a qualified Drama teacher and spent four years working in schools. He founded Fail Better in 2001 and has directed all our productions.

Ric Watts

Core Member

Ric Watts is an independent theatre producer based in Manchester. He is the producer of Analogue Productions and theimaginarybody Film and Theatre Ltd, and artistic associate of queerupnorth International Festival. Recently produced shows include: Mile End by Analogue; FIT by Rikki Beadle-Blair for queerupnorth and Stonewall; Food by theimaginarybody; and Particularly in the Heartland by The TEAM. Ric has previously worked as a producer for PANDA and Your Imagination, and has produced for Cartoon de Salvo, Kazuko Hohki, Ridiculusmus, Michael Mayhew, Fail Better Productions and BAC. Current work includes Beachy Head by Analogue, two new commissions for queerupnorth, Voices of Dissent by Ben Mellor and numerous projects for Schtanhaus.

Nomi Everall

Core Member

Based at the Pegasus Theatre, Oxford (home of Oxford Youth Theatre), Nomi works as a technician and arts education practitioner, as well as freelancing as a designer, illustrator and in a variety of technical roles. Nomi has been designer with Fail Better since 2002, designing all our productions since Crave. Her design credits include: for Pegasus Theatre: Journeys to Freedom, Twaddle Babble Jabber and Pap, Voices, Volpone, Rhinoceros (with Network of Stuff) and Garden Of The Senses (Oxford Literary Festival); for Oxfordshire Touring Theatre Company: Head Over Heels and Spring Forward, Fall Back. Nomi is currently Company Stage Manager for Gelede Dance.

David Tanqueray

Core Member

David has recently been appointed as a Trainee Production Manager for The Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. Previously David has worked as a freelance Stage Manager, Scenic Carpenter and Technician. Recent work with the RSC has included King Lear & The Seagull (New London Theatre) and The Tempest & Antony and Cleopatra (Novello, London). Other recent work includes The Hired Man (on tour); Blondel (Pleasance, London); Time for the Good Looking Boy (Gulbenkian, Canterbury); Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (Lakeside, Nottingham and on tour); Not Now Bernard and Other Monster Stories (on tour). When not on the theatre scene, he is co-director of Aero51, a company making inflatable equipment for the events industry, and of Pure-Lanyards.

Robyn Smith

Assistant to the Artistic Director

Robyn Smith is based at the University of Warwick, in the Academic Office. She is the founding trustee of a new charitable trust designed to support emerging practitioners within the arts, and has directed a number of theatre and short film productions since 2000. She recently directed a short film extract through Orange Highway Productions, previously directing Statements After An Arrest Under The Immorality Act in 2004 and Blood Wedding in 2003, as well as a workshop production of her own play Tragasia, still to be developed into a full script. She was assistant to Irene Musameci on Warwick Arts Centre's WUDS production of Anna Karenina in 2003, and to Sue Gibbons on Caucasian Chalk Circle at Chichester Festival Theatre's Minerva space in 2001. She spent four years studying English and Theatre at Warwick, and hopes to continue her study and practice both through postgraduate study and through practical projects or apprenticeships in the future.

Company of Previous Fail Better Productions

Cast

Alexandra Mackenzie (Pinter Double Bill)
Antonio De Gregorio (Echo and Narcissus)
Ben Crystal (Stasis)
Ben Lambert (Phaedra's Love)
Chris Tester (Crave, Head r.r., Stasis, Diary of a Madman, Persephone r.r.)
Finnian O'Neill (Echo and Narcissus)
Fiona Marr (Echo and Narcissus)
Gary Abrahams (Head, Phaedra's Love)
Helen Bradbury (Crave, Phaedra's Love, Persephone r.r.)
Ian Oxlade (Pinter Double Bill)
Jonathan Broke (Stasis, Persephone r.r.)
Joseph Brack (Crave)
Lucie Collins (Pinter Double Bill, Crave)
Lucinka Eisler (Echo and Narcissus)
Matthew Landers (Head, Phaedra's Love)
Steph Pötschke (Phaedra's Love, Persephone r.r.)
Zoë Simon (Echo & Narcissus, Head, Phaedra's Love)

Crew

Adam Barber (Crave)
Chris Price (Echo and Narcissus)
Claire Hilton (Head, Phaedra's Love)
Dave Thwaites (Stasis, Diary of a Madman)
Giles Burden (Head, Phaedra's Love)
Ruth Carney (Crave)

Media

Adam Skuse (Production photography: A Kind of Alaska)
Charlie Moss
Dave Thwaites (Film and Production photography: Stasis, Diary of a Madman)
James Johnstone - A7 Communications (Website design)
Louise Rowley (Photography: Crave, Head, Phaedra's Love)
Peter Jan (Production and Publicity photography: Echo and Narcissus)
Rob Gilbert (Production photography: Stasis)
Sam Antha (Publicity photography: Diary of a Madman)

Core team members of Fail Better Productions

Jonathan Heron

Artistic Director

Ric Watts

Core Member

Nomi Everall

Core Member

David Tanqueray

Core Member

Robyn Smith

Assistant to the Artistic Director

Company of Previous Fail Better Productions

Cast

Crew

Media

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Fail Better Productions