Mark Rylance-Led FARINELLI AND THE KING Begins Tonight on Broadway

The critically acclaimed Shakespeare's Globe production of Farinelli and the King, starring three-time Tony Award-winner (Twelfth Night, Jerusalem, Boeing-Boeing) and Academy Award-winner (Bridge of Spies) Mark Rylance, begins tonight, December 5, 2017 in advance of an opening night on Sunday, December 17, 2017 at Broadway's Belasco Theatre (111 West 44th Street). The production plays a strictly limited engagement for 16 weeks only through Sunday, March 25, 2018.

Mark Rylance returns to the Belasco, where he triumphed with the Globe's double bill of Twelfth Night and Richard III. Mark Rylance won his third Tony Award for his performance as Olivia in Twelfth Night and was also Tony nominated for his performance in the title role of Richard III. Farinelli and the King is Mark Rylance's first return to Broadway since he won the 2015 Academy Award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role for Steven Spielberg's Bridge of Spies, and after his critically acclaimed performance in Christopher Nolan's Dunkirk.

FARINELLI AND THE KING is a new play by Claire van Kampen, directed by John Dove, designed by Jonathan Fensom, with musical arrangements also by Claire van Kampen.

Joining previously announced London cast members Sam Crane (1984, BBC's "Desperate Romantics") as Farinelli, Huss Garbiya (Some People, A Midsummer's Night Dream at Shakespeare's Globe) as Doctor José Cervi, Colin Hurley (Twelfth Night/Richard III) as John Rich, and Edward Peel ("London's Burning," A Midsummer Night's Dream at Shakespeare's Globe) as De La Cuadra, will be Melody Grove (Much Ado About Nothing, The Strange Undoing of Prudencia Hart) as Isabella Farnese and Lucas Hall (King Charles III, Tales from Red Vienna) as Jethro/cover Farinelli. The company also features Pete Bradbury (King Charles III, The Norman Conquests) as cover for the roles of Doctor José Cervi, John Rich and De La Cuadra, and Margot White (Love, Love, Love, Constellations) as cover for the role of Isabella Farnese.

Grammy Award-winning countertenor Iestyn Davies also stars as the singing voice of Farinelli. Mr. Davies has performed at the Metropolitan Opera House, Carnegie Hall, The Royal Opera House and La Scala. He also stars in the Metropolitan Opera's North American premiere of The Exterminating Angel in October. Davies will alternate performances with acclaimed countertenor James Hall, who has performed with the Academy of Ancient Music, La Nuova Musica, the Dunedin Consort, the Monteverdi Choir, the Binchois Consort, Classical Opera, Glyndebourne Festival Opera, and the Royal Opera House. The schedule of Mr. Davies and Mr. Hall's performances is available on the Farinelli and the King website. The singing voice of Farinelli will be covered by Eric Jurenas, who has performed with the Santa Fe Opera, The Glimmerglass Festival, Opera Philadelphia, Wolf Trap Opera, Michigan Opera Theatre, Juilliard 415, and The Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, among many others.

Sam Crane, Iestyn Davies, Huss Garbiya, Melody Grove, James Hall, Colin Hurley, Edward Peel and Mark Rylance are appearing with the support of Actors' Equity Association. The Producers gratefully acknowledge Actors' Equity Association for its assistance of this production.

Sonia Friedman Productions, Shakespeare's Globe and Paula Marie Blackjoin forces once again (Richard III and Twelfth Night) to bring this inspiring true story, featuring many of the exquisite arias by Handel first sung by Farinelli in the 1730s, to a magically transformed Belasco Theatre. Music will be played live on Baroque instruments by seven musicians in a gallery above the stage, lit almost exclusively by the glow of candlelight.

FARINELLI AND THE KING premiered to rave reviews and played a sold out run at Shakespeare's Globe's Sam Wanamaker Playhouse in February 2015. The production later played a sold out engagement on the West End in Fall 2015, where it was the highest grossing show in the history of the Duke of York's Theatre, and received six Olivier Award nominations. Farinelli and the King marks the seventh theatre production that Sonia Friedman Productions has produced starring Mark Rylance, following Twelfth Night, Richard III, Jerusalem, La Bête, Boeing-Boeing (London and New York) and Nice Fish (London).

King Philippe V of Spain (Mark Rylance), plagued by insomnia, lies awake in his chamber. The Queen, desperate for a cure, hears of Farinelli - a castrato with a voice so divine it has the power to captivate all who hear it. Philippe is astonished when Farinelli sings, and begs him to stay. But will Farinelli, one of the greatest celebrities of his time, choose a life of solitude over fame and fortune in the opera houses of Europe? In its five-star review, The Independent hailed Farinelli and the King as "a pitch-perfect production by John Dove. Mark Rylance's Phillipe is like the love child of Stan Laurel and Hamlet."

Lighting design is by Paul Russell. UK Music Supervisor is Bill Barclay. Production Stage Manager is Evangeline Rose Whitlock. Stage Manager is James Latus. US Casting is by Jim Carnahan, C.S.A. UK Casting is by Matilda James. Production Management is by Aurora Productions. UK General Management is by Sonia Friedman Productions. US General Management is by Bespoke Theatricals.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS:

Mark Rylance (Philippe V) was born in England in 1960 and emigrated with his family to America in 1962. He lived in Connecticut until 1969 and then moved to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where he lived until returning to London in 1978. Mark trained at The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (1978-1980) under Hugh Cruttwell, and The Glasgow Citizens Theatre gave him his first job in 1980, a year in repertoire, a trip to the carnival in Venice with Goldoni, and an Equity card. Mark last appeared in New York at Brooklyn's St. Ann's Warehouse in 2016 in Nice Fish, which he co-authored with the Minnesota poet Louis Jenkins, and was directed by Claire van Kampen. The play was produced by The A.R.T. and St. Ann's, having originally been produced by Joe Dowling at The Guthrie Theatre and subsequently produced by Sonia Friedman for The Harold Pinter Theatre in London's West End. Mark last appeared at The Belasco Theatre in 2013 as the Countess Olivia in Twelfth Night, and Richard in Richard III. Both productions originated at Shakespeare's Globe Theatre. They were subsequently produced by Sonia Friedman and directed by Tim Carroll, Artistic Director of The Shaw Festival, Canada. He has also appeared on Broadway as Johnny "Rooster" Byron in Jerusalem directed by Ian Rickson (The Music Box); Valere in La Bête (The Music Box) and Robert in Boeing-Boeing (The Longacre), both directed by Matthew Warchus. He first played in NYC for A Theatre for a New Audience, Henry V and Touchstone, 1992-94. Recent film work includes Chris Nolan's Dunkirk, Steven Spielberg's Big Friendly Giant and Bridge of Spies. He is heard as Flop in "Bing Bunny" for the BBC and Thomas Cromwell in "Wolf Hall," directed by Peter Kosminsky, which was aired in America in 2015 on PBS. He will appear in Steven Spielberg's new film Ready Player One, due for release in 2018. Mark was the Artistic Director of Shakespeare's Globe Theatre (1996-2006) and during his career has acted in over 50 productions of plays by Shakespeare and his contemporaries. He is an honorary bencher of the Middle Temple Hall in London; trustee of The Shakespearean Authorship Trust; an ambassador of SURVIVAL the movement for tribal peoples; and a patron of PEACE DIRECT, working for non-violent resolution of conflict. In 2017, he was knighted by HRH Prince William for services to Drama.

Sam Crane (Farinelli) Theatre includes: Farinelli and the King (Shakespeare's Globe, West End); 1984 (West End); Some Trace of Her, DNA, The Miracle, Dissonant (National Theatre); All's Well That Ends Well, Henry IV parts I & II, Bedlam, Othello (Shakespeare's Globe); The Shawl (Young Vic); Kebab (Royal Court); King Lear (WYP); Ghosts (Bristol Old Vic); The Humans (BAM); Eternal Love (ETT); The Lady from the Sea (Rose Kingston); Conquest of the South Pole (Arcola); Rabbit (Frantic Assembly); And Then There Were None (West End); A Little Requiem For Kantor (ICA). Sam received Ian Charleson Award Commendations for Ghosts and Othello. Television and film includes: "Desperate Romantics," "Call the Midwife," "Casualty," "Father Brown," "New Tricks" (BBC); "Poirot," "Midsomer Murders" (ITV); and feature The Christmas Candle. Radio includes: Macedonia, The Gambler, The Lady from the Sea, The Pretenders. Video Games include: Assassins Creed Syndicate (Ubisoft).

Iestyn Davies (Singing Voice of Farinelli) Praised as having "one of the most glorious sounds to be heard on the opera stage today" by the Express (London) and described as "superb" by The New York Times, Iestyn Davies is a Grammy Award-winning and Olivier Award-nominated countertenor whose other recent awards include the 2013 Critics' Circle Prize for Exceptional Young Talent and both the 2012 and 2014 Gramophone Recital Awards. Davies is a regular singer at New York's Metropolitan Opera House and Carnegie Hall as well as across the globe at The Royal Opera House in London and La Scala in Milan. A versatile performer equally at home on both the opera and concert stage, Davies has also sung for the Glyndebourne Festival Opera, Paris' Opéra Comique, English National Opera, Milan's Teatro alla Scala and at the Munich and Vienna Festivals. iestyndavies.com

Huss Garbiya (Dr. José Cervi) Theatre includes: Farinelli and the King(Shakespeare's Globe, West End); A Midsummer Night's Dream, Blue Stockings, The Frontline (Shakespeare's Globe); What the Animals Say(Greyscale Theatre Company); The Taming of the Shrew (RSC); Estate Walls(Oval House Theatre); The Comedy of Errors (Royal Exchange Manchester); Sus (Splice Productions); San Diego (Tron Theatre Glasgow); Ash Girl, Quarantine (Birmingham Rep); Made of Stone (Royal Court); Soloman and the Big Cat (Southampton Nuffield Theatre); The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner (Nottingham Playhouse); The Snow Queen (Manchester Library); Wise Guys (Manchester Contact Theatre). Television includes: "EastEnders," "Holby City," "Wire in the Blood," "The Grid," "Brief Lives," "Buried," "Clocking Off," "The Bill," "Extremely Dangerous". Film includes: Some Voices, Sex Lives of the Potato Men.

Melody Grove (Isabella Farnese) Theatre includes: Farinelli and the King (Shakespeare's Globe, West End); Light Boxes (Gridiron); In Lambeth (Southwark Playhouse); Much Ado About Nothing (Old Vic); The Strange Undoing of Prudencia Hart (National Theatre of Scotland); The Importance of Being Earnest (Lyric Belfast & Lyceum Edinburgh); Of Mice and Men (Lyceum Edinburgh); 2401 Objects (Analogue); Room, One Night Stand, One Thousand Paper Cranes (Tron Theatre); The Girls of Slender Means (Stellar Quines/Assembly Rooms). Film includes: Re-enactors (Roseline Entertainment); A Stately Suicide (Flyboy); Venus and the Sun (Ruby). Radio includes: Sovereign, The Antiquary, Tender is the Night, Vincent in Brixton, Lanark, The Grapes of Wrath, The Great Gatsby, The Call of the Wild, The Voysey Inheritance, A Case for Paul Temple, The Vanishing, Of Mice and Men, La Princesse De Cleves, and many short stories for BBC Radio 4. Audio books include: Desperate Remedies, The Child Inside, A Little in Love, Ann Veronica, Amy Snow, The Earth is Singing, The Ship, The Looking Glass House, Completely Cassidy and Ballet Stars. Melody is also a singer in her family band The Groves.

James Hall (Singing Voice of Farinelli) sings with a wide range of distinguished companies around the world, including Royal Opera House, Glyndebourne Festival, BBC Proms, Academy of Ancient Music, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Classical Opera, the Dunedin Consort, Monteverdi Choir, Early Opera Company, La Nuova Musica, London Handel Festival, Opéra Royal de Versailles, Festival de Beaune, Opera de Lyon and Bayerische Staatsoper. He has worked with a variety of conductors including Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Ian Page, George Petrou, David Bates, Laurence Cummings, Richard Egarr, Christian Curnyn, Stephen Layton, John Butt, and Masaaki Suzuki. His recent roles include Brett Dean's Hamlet (Guildenstern) for Glyndebourne on Tour; George Benjamin's Written on Skin (the Boy/Angel 1, cover) for The Royal Opera House; Monteverdi's L'Orfeo (Pastore III) for Bayerische Staatsoper; Handel's Riccardo Primo (Oronte) for London Handel Festival; Mozart's Apollo et Hyacinthus (Zephyrus) with Classical Opera; Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream (Oberon, cover) with Glyndebourne Festival Opera, and the world premiere of David Bruce's Nothing (Johan), also for Glyndebourne. Recent concert appearances include Handel's Giulio Cesare (Nireno) with Early Opera Company, Unsuk Chin's Cantatrix Sopranica with Silbersee and Asko|Schönberg in the Netherlands, Bach's Cantatas with the Academy of Ancient Music, Handel's Ottone (Adelberto) with Orchestre Il Pomo D'Or in France, Handel's Dixit Dominus at St John's Smith Square in London, as well as Bach's St Matthew Passion and St John Passion, Handel's Israel in Egyptwith La Nuova Musica, Bach's B Minor Mass at St Alban's Abbey, Handel's Jephtha (Hamor) with Stephen Layton and the Academy of Ancient Music, Handel's Messiah with the Leeds Philharmonic, and Mozart's Requiem with the Singapore Symphony Orchestra and Masaaki Suzuki.

Lucas Hall (Jethro/cover Farinelli) Broadway: King Charles III. Off-Broadway credits include Tales from Red Vienna (Manhattan Theatre Club); Beyond the Horizon (Irish Rep); The Merchant of Venice, Othello and All's Well That Ends Well (Theatre For a New Audience); Edward the Second (Red Bull Theater); and The Hasty Heart (Keen Company). Regionally, he has performed across the country in world premieres and classics at the Goodman Theatre, The Old Globe, La Jolla Playhouse, Chicago Shakespeare Theater, Arena Stage, The McCarter, and Westport Country Playhouse, among others. TV credits include "Codes of Conduct," "Elementary," and "Unforgettable." Lucas trained at the North Carolina School of the Arts under Gerald Freedman.

Colin Hurley (John Rich). Theatre includes: Dream Play (Baz Productions); The Tempest (Norwich & Norfolk Festival); Farinelli and the King(Shakespeare's Globe, West End); Twelfth Night and Richard III (New York, West End & Shakespeare's Globe); Anne Boleyn (UK Tour & Shakespeare's Globe); One Snowy Night (UK Tour); All's Well That Ends Well (Shakespeare's Globe); Hamlet & The Seagull (The Factory); Henry VIII (Shakespeare's Globe); Boiling Frogs (The Factory); 50/50 (The Factory & Hampstead Theatre); Romeo and Juliet (Shakespeare's Globe); Equus (Theatre Royal Bath & UK Tour); Hamlet (The Factory); I Am Shakespeare (Chichester Festival Theatre & UK Tour); In Extremis (Shakespeare's Globe); Much Ado About Nothing (Shakespeare's Globe); Measure for Measure (US Tour); Troilus & Cressida and The Winter's Tale (Shakespeare's Globe); Here's What I Did With My Body (The Pleasance); The Woman in Black (The Fortune Theatre); Twelfth Night and The Golden Ass (Shakespeare's Globe); Three Sisters Two (The Orange Tree); A Month in the Country (RSC); Remember This (National Theatre); Hamlet (RSC); Camino Real (RSC); Mary Stuart, Richard III, King Lear, Wild Oats and The Good Person of Sezchaun (National Theatre); Lootand Sailor Beware (Lyric Hammersmith); The Dumb Waiter (Salisbury Playhouse); Sunday's Children (Derby Playhouse); Macbeth (Watermill Theatre); Comedy of Errors (Bristol Old Vic); Hello and Goodbye (Custard Factory); Henry V, Edward III and Wotchit Sailor (Theatre Clywd); A Midsummer Night's Dream and Great Expectations (Wolsey Theatre, Ipswich); Hamlet, She Stoops to Conquer and Britannicus (Salisbury Playhouse); The Tempest (Chester Gateway); Antigone (Communicado). Television includes five episodes of "Flowers" (Kudos for Channel 4); "The Gingerbread Man" (Channel 4); "David Copperfield" (BBC); "The Bill" (Thames Television/ITV); "Peak Practice" (Central Television); "Holby City" (BBC); "Eastenders" (BBC). Film includes Black Pond (Black Pond Productions); Henry V (Renaissance Films).

Edward Peel (De La Cuadra) Theatre includes: Farinelli and the King (Shakespeare's Globe, West End); Eternal Love, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Blue Stockings, Troilus and Cressida (Shakespeare's Globe); Anne Boleyn(Shakespeare's Globe and UK Tour); Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (UK Tour); Horse Marines (Drum Theatre); On A Shout, Nellie Toast (Hull Truck Productions); Enemies (Almeida Theatre); Easter, Manek (Oxford Stage Company); Gong Donkeys (Bush Theatre); Sergeant Musgrave's Dance (Oxford Stage Theatre); An Inspector Calls (National Theatre); Falling, A Collier's Friday Night(Hampstead Theatre); All Credit to the Lads (Sheffield Crucible Theatre); Sugar Sugar (Bush Theatre); Richard III (Northern Broadsides); Richard III (RSC); The Dragon, Twelfth Night, DH Lawrence Trilogy, The Changing Room (Royal Court Theatre). Film includes: O Lucky Man!, Britannia Hospital, Force Ten from Navarone, Lassiter, Shogun. Television includes: "Doctors," "Nicholas Nickleby," "Clocking Off," "Juliet Bravo" (BBC); "Ripper Street" (Tiger Aspect For BBC); "Hollyoaks" (Channel 4); "The Royal Today," "Emmerdale" (Yorkshire Television); "The Bill" (Fremantlemedia); "London's Burning" (LWT); "Hillsborough," "Cracker" (Granada Television). Voice over includes: "Little Princess" (Channel 5).

Pete Bradbury (Cover Dr. José Cervi, John Rich, De La Cuadra) Broadway: The Cherry Orchard, Long Day's Journey Into Night, Hughie, King Charles III, The Elephant Man (also West End), Casa Valentina, Cyrano, Picnic, Mrs. Warren's Profession, That Championship Season, The Norman Conquests, A Man For All Seasons, Present Laughter, Hedda Gabler, The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial, The Herbal Bed. Off-Broadway: Christmas Carol, Tom Durnin, The Overwhelming, The Violin, Snakebit, among others. He has extensive credits in regional theatre. TV: "The Blacklist," "Deception," "Shades of Blue," "Boardwalk Empire," "Homeland," "House of Cards," "Sally Hemings," multiple editions of "Law & Order," "Rubicon," among others. Web: "Darwin."

Eric Jurenas (Cover for the Singing Voice of Farinelli) has worked with several groups as a featured artist, including The Wiener Staatsoper, The Santa Fe Opera, The Glimmerglass Festival, Opera Philadelphia, Opera Lafayette, Wolf Trap Opera, Michigan Opera Theatre, American Bach Soloists, among others. Highlights of 2016-2017 season include engagements with Salzburger Festspiele (Adès' The Exterminating Angel), Berlin Komische Oper (Ayres' Peter Pan, Reimann's Medea), Wiener Staatsoper (Reimann's Medea), Royal Opera at Covent Garden (Mozart's Mitridate, re di Ponto), and Badisches Staatstheater Karlsruhe (Dorman's Wahnfried). An avid competitor around the country and the world, Eric has received awards from several vocal competitions, including a prestigious award from The Sullivan Foundation, 1st place in the Handel Aria Competition, The International Competition's Hertogenbosch, 1st place in the Hal Leonard Online Vocal Competition, Dayton Opera Guild Competition, Kentucky Bach Choir Competition, and the Bel Canto Chorus of Milwaukee Competition. He is a proud recipient of a Novick Career Advancement Grant. He received his Masters degree from The Juilliard School and his Bachelors from the College Conservatory of Music (CCM) at the University of Cincinnati. He is a student of Dr. Robert White Jr., William McGraw, and George Gibson.

Margot White (Cover Isabella Farnese) Favorite credits include: Love, Love, Love (Roundabout); Dirty Dancing (Tour); Constellations (MTC), Aaron Sorkin's The Farnsworth Invention; Rosmersholm (The Pearl, opposite Austin Pendleton); The Traveling Lady (E.S.T, dir. Horton Foote); Pericles (Red Bull); Love Goes to Press! (Mint Theatre); Unspeakable (Apollo); Talley's Folly (The McCarter w/ Richard Schiff), "Unforgettable," "L&O: CI," "Blue Bloods." Upcoming films: The Leftovers, Ask for Jane.

Claire van Kampen (Playwright, Musical Arrangements) trained at the Royal College of Music, where she was awarded a John Land Scholarship. Studying music theory with Dr. Ruth Gipps, and piano performance with Peter Element, she also specialized in the performance of 20th-century music, premiering many works by today's leading composers. She has subsequently developed an international career as a composer/performer, writing and playing for theatre, television and film soundtracks and the concert hall. Following the opening of Shakespeare's Globe in 1997 she was Mark Rylance's Associate Artistic Director. In addition, she was the Founding Director of Theatre Music, creating both period and contemporary music for more than 35 of the Globe's productions. She has continued to be the Globe Associate for Early Modern Theatre Music since 2007, creating music for nine productions directed by Dominic Dromgoole. Claire has become a theatre specialist on music and text of the 16th and 17th centuries, on which she lectures and broadcasts regularly for television and radio. During her time at the Globe, Claire has continued to work in the U.S. where amongst other award-winning productions she created original scores for Matthew Warchus's Broadway productions of True West(2000), and Boeing-Boeing (2008), which won and was nominated for many Tony Awards. Other productions in the U.S. have included As You Like It (Theatre for a New Audience); Hamlet, The Seagull (A.R.T. Cambridge, MA.); Peer Gynt, Nice Fish (Guthrie Theater, Minneapolis); La Bête, (Broadway/West End); Richard III and Twelfth Night (Shakespeare's Globe/West End/Broadway). Recent film includes: Anonymous (dir. Roland Emmerich); Days and Nights (dir. Christian Camargo) and Wolf Hall (historical music arranger; dir. Peter Kosminsky) for BBC/PBS. Claire is also writing a book specifically on music in The Globe Theatre. Awards: The Vero Nihil Verius Award for Distinguished Achievement in the Arts, conferred upon her by Concordia University (Portland, Oregon, U.S.A) and the 2007 Sam Wanamaker Award for her founding work during the opening ten years at Shakespeare's Globe.

John Dove (Director) His previous directorial work for Shakespeare's Globe includes: Dr. Scroggy's War, Blue Stockings, All's Well That Ends Well, Anne Boleyn, In Extremis, Measure for Measure (LA and New York Tour) and The Winter's Tale (Tour). Recent directorial work includes: Pressure (Royal Lyceum/Chichester Festival Theatre); Eternal Love, Anne Boleyn (English Touring Theatre, TMA Award); The Clean House (Lee Dean and Jenny Topper Productions); Observe the Sons of Ulster Marching Towards the Somme(Hampstead Theatre); Death of a Salesman, All My Sons, A View From the Bridge, The Price and The Man Who Had All the Luck (Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh). John was Associate Director at Hampstead Theatre, where amongst others he directed Bold Girls (Evening Standard Award), My Boy Jack, The Good Samaritan and Flight into Egypt. He has also directed at the Royal Court, The Old Vic, The Lyric Hammersmith, the Bush Theatre and Theatre Royal Stratford E15, as well as directing in Denmark, France, USA, and Germany. He is an Artistic Associate of the Royal Lyceum Theatre Edinburgh.

Jonathan Fensom (Designer) Previous work for Shakespeare's Globe includes: Pericles, Measure for Measure, King John, Julius Caesar, Globe to Globe Hamlet (World Tour), The Duchess of Malfi, Gabriel, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Henry V, King Lear (small-scale tour), The Globe Mysteries, Hamlet (small-scale tour), Henry IV Parts 1 & 2, King Lear and Love's Labour's Lost. Other theatre includes: As You Like It (Shakespeare Theatre, Washington DC); Pygmalion (UK tour); The Jacobin (Buxton Festival Opera); The American Plan (Bath/London); The Accrington Pals (Royal Exchange, Manchester); The Thrill of Love (St James Theatre); Our Boys (West End); The Goat, or Who is Sylvia? (Traverse Theatre); Six Degrees of Separation (The Old Vic); Brighton Beach Memoirs (Palace Theatre, Watford); Philadelphia, Here I Come! (Gaiety Theatre, Dublin); A Midsummer Night's Dream (Canada); Rain Man, Some Girls, Twelfth Night, Smaller, What the Butler Saw, East (West End); Swan Lake(San Francisco Ballet); Journey's End (West End, Broadway); The American Plan, Pygmalion (New York); The Homecoming, Big White Fog, Becky Shaw(Almeida Theatre); Happy Now?, The Mentalists, Burn/Citizenship/Chatroom (National Theatre); Rapture, Blister, Burn, In the Club, Born Bad, In Arabia We'd All Be Kings, Abigail's Party, What the Butler Saw (Hampstead Theatre); Duck, Talking to Terrorists, The Sugar Syndrome (Royal Court Theatre); Kindertransport, Breakfast with Emma (Shared Experience); The Tempest(Tron Theatre); Crown Matrimonial (Guildford/Tour); The Faith Healer (The Gate, Dublin/Broadway); God of Hell (Donmar Warehouse); National Anthems(The Old Vic); M.A.D., Little Baby Nothing (Bush Theatre); Be My Baby (Soho Theatre); Small Family Business, Little Shop of Horrors (West Yorkshire Playhouse); My Night With Reg, Dealer's Choice (Birmingham Repertory); After the Dance, Candide, Hay Fever (Oxford Stage Company); So Long Life(Theatre Royal Bath) and Wozzeck (Birmingham Opera and European tour). Jonathan was Associate Designer on Disney's The Lion King, which premiered at the New Amsterdam Theatre on Broadway and has subsequently opened worldwide. His set design for Journey's End was nominated for a Tony Award in 2007. The production won the Tony Award for Best Revival. Jonathan won the UK Theatre Award for Best Design in 2013.

Sonia Friedman Productions (SFP) (Producer, UK General Management). SFP is a West End and Broadway theatre Production Company responsible for some of theatre's most successful productions of recent years. Sonia Friedman OBE and her company have initiated and produced more than 160 new productions. The company has won numerous Olivier and Tony Awards including a record-breaking nine Olivier Awards for Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. Farinelli and the King is the seventh theatre production that SFP has produced starring Mark Rylance, following Twelfth Night, Richard III, Jerusalem, La Bête, Boeing-Boeing (London and New York) and Nice Fish (London). Current and recent SFP productions in New York include 1984 (currently playing at the Hudson Theatre), King Charles III, Ghosts, The River, The Mountaintop, La Cage aux Folles, and The Norman Conquests. Forthcoming New York productions include Harry Potter and the Cursed Child and Travesties, both due to open in 2018. In London, current SFP productions include The Ferryman, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child and Dreamgirls, and receNT Productions include Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Travesties, The Glass Menagerie, Funny Girl, Hamlet (starring Benedict Cumberbatch) and The Book of Mormon. For a full list of SFP's theatre credits, visit soniafriedman.com.

Shakespeare's Globe (Producer) Founded by the pioneering American actor and director Sam Wanamaker, Shakespeare's Globe is a vibrant organization and reconstructed open-air theatre on the bank of the River Thames dedicated to the exploration of Shakespearean, Elizabethan, Jacobean, and contemporary theatre. Through an ambitious and lively theatre season, a dynamic and varied education program and a rich and interesting exhibition, the Globe has become a significant part of the national and international theatre landscape. Under the Globe's prior artistic directors, Mark Rylance and Dominic Dromgoole, and current artistic director Emma Rice, the theatre has worked its way through Shakespeare's canon, providing a huge wealth of insight into each play when it is produced afresh within the architecture for which Shakespeare originally wrote. Emma Rice is stepping down in Spring 2018, when Michelle Terry will become the Globe's artistic director. Neil Constable has been Chief Executive of Shakespeare's Globe since 2010. The Globe has always been internationally driven, having been built by an American; welcoming international audiences into its oak embrace throughout its life and taking its work back out into the world including many theatre tours and workshops in the US. In 2014, Shakespeare's Globe presented its newly constructed Sam Wanamaker Playhouse - an archetype of a Jacobean indoor theatre, completely unique amongst London venues and enabling Shakespeare's Globe to present theatre productions all year round. In 2016, the Globe celebrated the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's death, welcoming President Barack Obama, and seeing the return of the two-year world tour of Hamlet, during which the company travelled over 300,000 km, playing 293 performances at 202 venues in 197 countries, covering almost every country on earth. The Globe also created The Complete Walk, a series of short films, featuring scenes from every one of Shakespeare's plays. The series, which was screened for free along the bank of the Thames, featured some of the UK's finest actors and included footage shot in the real locations of the plays, from Athens to the Ardennes, Vienna to Verona, Towton to the Tower of London.

Paula Marie Black (Producer) is a Tony Award, Olivier Award and Helpmann Award-winning producer who dedicates her efforts in theatre to women directors, playwrights and all those without a voice. Currently running on Broadway: Lead Producer, The Great Comet. Past productions: Fun Home (Tony Award for Best Musical), Hedwig and the Angry Inch (Tony Award for Best Revival of a Musical), Eclipsed, On The Town, Of Mice and Men, Twelfth Night/Richard III, Romeo and Juliet, The Trip to Bountiful, Hands on a Hardbody. West End: Nice Fish, Dead Funny, Nell Gwynn (Olivier Award for Best Comedy), The Scottsboro Boys (London Evening Standard/Critics Circle Award for Best New Musical), and Made in Dagenham, devoted to "equal pay for equal work" for all the women in the UK and around the world. Tours: Matilda (Australia), Hedwig and the Angry Inch (USA), and Nell Gwynn ?(?UK?)?. Paula is a longtime supporter of the La Jolla Playhouse in California and proudly established Paula Marie Black Women's Voices in the Art of Theatre, an endowment in perpetuity benefiting women as directors, playwrights and book (of a musical) writers.

Photo Credit: Simon Annand