Creatives
J.B. Priestley – Playwright
J.B. Priestley was born in 1894 in Bradford, Yorkshire, son of a schoolmaster. He left Belle Vue School at 16 and worked in a wool office, beginning to write in his spare time. He volunteered for the armyin 1914 and served throughout the First World War, surviving the grim conditions of the trenches. He gained a grant to go to Cambridge, and launched his professional career with Brief Diversions, a collection of short pieces, which attracted attention in London.
After graduating, he moved to London with his first wife Pat and set up as a professional writer, reviewing, writing essays and literary biographies and reading for the publisher John Lane. His fourth novel, The Good Companions, came out in 1929 and was a huge success, followed by Angel Pavement in 1930. He entered the Theatre in 1932 with Dangerous Corner, and dominated the London stage during the 1930s with a succession of plays such as Eden End, I Have Been Here Before, Time and the Conways, When We Are Married, Johnson Over Jordan, and into the 1940s with They Came to a City, An Inspector Calls, The Linden Tree, Summer Day's Dream and The Glass Cage in 1958. During the Second World War he established a new reputation as a broadcaster.
A prolific writer he continued writing novels, notably Bright Day and Lost Empires, and an important list of non-fiction, English Journey launched him in a new role as a social commentator, Midnight on the Desert and Rain Upon Godshill were chapters of autobiography, Margin Released a memoir, Literature and Western Man the sum of a lifetime's reading, and three social histories The Prince of Pleasure, The Edwardians and Victoria's Heyday. Over all, he published more than 100 books - non-fiction, fiction and drama, as well as countless newspaper articles and reviews. He was married three times and had four daughters and one son.
He was a lifelong socialist of the old kind, yet never joined the Labour Party. He was a spokesman for the ordinary people, unashamedly middlebrow, patriotic and honest, and opposed to the class system. He turned down offers of a knighthood and a peerage, but gladly accepted the Order of Merit in 1977. He died in 1984.
Stephen Daldry – Director
Stephen Daldry is a multi-award-winning Theatre, Film and Television Director & Producer.
During his 40-year career he has directed theatre productions for London's West End & New York's Broadway, including Billy Elliot, The Inheritance and An Inspector Calls, winning multiple Olivier & Tony awards. In December 2023 Stranger Things: The First Shadow opened at London’s Phoenix Theatre to critical acclaim and won the 2024 Olivier Award for Best Entertainment Play.
Stephen has directed 6 major feature films which have all been nominated for major industry awards including OSCAR nominations for Best Picture & Best Director. His 2021 film Together, about the Covid-19 Pandemic, won the TV BAFTA for Best Single Drama.
Netflix’s global success, The Crown, which he served as Executive Producer, released the 6th & final season in December 2023, with Stephen back directing the last ever episode.
Stephen served as Producer on the opening & closing ceremonies for the London 2012 Olympics and was Artistic Director on Vogue World London in September 2023.
Stephen is the Chairman of refugee arts charity Good Chance and was the director of their award-winning sold-out production The Jungle and their most recent sold-out political drama Kyoto which premiered at the RSC in Stratford Upon Avon in June 2024.
He serves on the board of The Perlman Performing Arts Center in New York.
Ian MacNeil - Designer
Credits include: National Theatre: Top Girls, Machinal (Critics’ Circle Award), An Inspector Calls (West End/international - Olivier and Critics’ Circle awards), The Amen Corner and Angels in America (Broadway); Royal Court: Far Away, A Number, Via Dolorosa (West End/Broadway) and Plasticine (Evening Standard Award); Young Vic: Afore Night Come, Tintin, Vernon God Little and A Doll’s House (West End/BAM); Almeida: Festen (West End/Broadway – Evening Standard Award) and Little Revolution; West End: Billy Elliot – the Musical (Broadway/international - Tony Award) and Broadway: Betrayal.
Charlotte Peters - Associate Director
Charlotte is a stage and screen director whose work on An Inspector Calls has spanned tours across the UK and the US, as well as a West End run at the Playhouse Theatre.
Other stage direction includes: The Comedy of Errors (Handlebards’ national tour); Closure starring Roxanne McKee, Gemma Donovan, Peter Duncan, Susan Penhaligon and Joseph Thompson (Theatre Royal Windsor); Darker Shores starring Max Caulfield, Juliet Mills and Michael Praed (national tour); War Horse (National Theatre/UK and international tours); Cloakroom (Camden Fringe); Ultimatum (Edinburgh Festival Fringe); The Miracle Worker (Chelmsford Theatres); Timeless (Edinburgh Festival Fringe/national tour); Dance starring Saffron Coomber and Christopher Harper (King’s Head Theatre); Alexa: Cry Me a Dance (Ilkley Playhouse); King Arthur and Almost a Christmas Carol (Roses Theatre, Tewkesbury); How Love Is Spelt starring Michelle Collins and Nigel Boyle (Southwark Playhouse); Normality (The Other Palace); Birdsong (national tour); Sunday at the Musicals (Actors’ Church, Covent Garden/Leicester Haymarket); Caste starring Susan Penhaligon and Paul Bradley (Finborough Theatre); The Mouth of a Shark (VAULT Festival); and By My Strength (Women & War Festival).
Screen direction includes: The Fall starring Sara Stewart, Adrian Lukis, Alex Kingston and Tyger Drew-Honey (live broadcast at Riverside Studios); Marcus Brigstocke’s The Red, Peter Barnes’ Billy and Me starring Jon Culshaw, Rachel Wagstaff’s award-winning, five-star adaptation of Sebastian Faulks’ Birdsong, and Torben Betts’ Apollo 13: The Dark Side of the Moon starring Tom Chambers, Michael Salami and Christopher Harper (all for Original Theatre Online); Peter Pan and Cinderella (Panto Live); A Moment’s Peace (Hope at Home) and Reasons starring Stevie Martin and Saffron Coomber (BFI).
Charlotte also co-runs the theatre company Brickdust and is an associate artist of Original Theatre.
Sebastian Frost - Sound
Theatre designs include: Something Rotten, Oklahoma (Theatre Royal Drury Lane); My Fair Lady (Leeds), Branwen Dadeni (Frân Wen), Candide (WNO), A little Night Music (Leeds), Migrations (WNO), The Last Ship (UK and USA tours), Torch Song (Turbine Theatre), 170 Days in Nanjing (Nanjing Opera), Memoirs of a Sailor (Kuwait), Kiss Me Kate (WNO), Jekyll & Hyde (Old Vic), An Inspector Calls (UK tour), White Christmas, Annie, A Christmas Carol (Leeds), Calamity Jane (Watermill & UK tour), The Witches (Curve), If Only (Chichester), The Lion, The Witch & The Wardrobe (Kensington Gardens), Decade (Headlong), Antony & Cleopatra (Chichester), Little Shop Of Horrors (Birmingham), The Magic Flute (Duke of York’s), The Common Pursuit, Take Flight, Total Eclipse (Menier), Trainspotting (UK tour), Tonight’s The Night (Victoria Palace), Boy Band (Gielgud), Kat And The Kings (London, New York, Cape Town), Summer Begins (Donmar), and Fame (UK tour). Other work includes immersive sound designs for Secret Cinema’s The Empire Strikes Back, Star Trek, Madame Tussaud’s and the Queen’s Golden Jubilee celebrations. In 2008, he received the first ever Best Sound Design of a Musical Tony Award nomination for Sunday in the Park with George on Broadway.
Stephen Warbeck - Composer
Selected theatre scores include Paradise, Translations, This House, The Red Lion, The Silver Tassie, The Plough and the Star, The Veil, Machinal (National Theatre); Wolf Hall, Bring up the Bodies, Alice in Wonderland (RSC); Jerusalem, The River, Rat in the Skul l(Royal Court); Lyonesse, Uncle Vanya, Rosmersholm, The Birthday Party, Betrayal (West End); A Voyage Around My Father (Theatre Royal Bath/UK Tour); and at many other theatres, including productions for Shakespeare¹s Globe and the Almeida.
For his Film and TV work Stephen won an Academy Award for Shakespeare in Love and a BAFTA for Henry IV (The Hollow Crown). His other film scores include The Last Rifleman, The Children Act, Captain Corelli’s Mandolin, Polisse, Mon Roi, The Other Man, Proof, Two Brothers and Jeanne du Barry.
He co-directed and scored the feature film The Man in The Hat and writes songs for his band The hKippers.
Rick Fisher - Lighting Designer
Born in Philadelphia, Rick Fisher has lived in the UK for many years. He first lit this production of An Inspector Calls in York in 1990 and then again at the National Theatre in 1992. He is the winner of two Olivier Awards for Best Lighting Design and two Tony and Drama Desk Awards for An Inspector Calls and Billy Elliot (Broadway).
Recent theatre includes: Consent (National Theatre and West End); Mood Music (Old Vic); Peter Pan (Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre); Mata Hari (Tokyo); The Woman In White (Charing Cross Theatre); Cell Mates (Hampstead); Man to Man (national tour, New York); Rent (St. James Theatre, national tour).
Also: Billy Elliot the Musical (Australia, Japan, Tokyo, West End, UK tours, Holland, Broadway, US tour); Sunny Afternoon (Hampstead, West End, national tour); The Audience (West End, Broadway); The King and I (Paris, Chicago); Sweeney Todd (Paris, San Francisco, Houston); Judas Kiss (West End, Toronto, New York); Chariots Of Fire (Hampstead, West End);
Previous theatre includes The Merchant of Venice (Royal Shakespeare Company, Stratford); The Sound of Music (Buenos Aires); Tiger Country (Hampstead); Tribes (Royal Court); Rope (Almeida Theatre); Much Ado About Nothing (Singapore); Family Reunion, Betrayal, The Philanthropist, Old Times (Donmar Warehouse); Landscape With Weapon (National Theatre); Jerry Springer the Opera, Blue/Orange (National Theatre/West End); Far Away (New York); A Number (Royal Court).
Current and recent opera productions include: Don Carlo (Los Angeles); Madam Butterfly (Santa Fe); Falstaff (Dallas); The Monteverdi Trilogy ( UK, US, Europe); The Last Savage, Wozzek, La bohème (Santa Fe Opera); Turandot (ENO); Tsarina’s Slippers (Royal Opera House); Peter Grimes (Washington/Oslo); Betrothal in a Monastery (Glyndebourne/Valencia); Madam Butterfly, Albert Herring, Billy Budd, Radamisto, Daphne, Tea, Peter Grimes (Santa Fe); The Fiery Angel, Turandot (Bolshoi); A Midsummer Night’s Dream (La Fenice); Wozzek (Royal Opera House); Gloriana, La bohème (Opera North); The Little Prince (Houston/New York/San Francisco).
Dance includes Matthew Bourne’s Swan Lake (London/Los Angeles/Broadway/World Tour).