Team
Collaboration is integral to Tell Tale Hearts’ work. It is an important means for the artists to make connections, share their ideas/skills and explore the possibilities of exploiting cross art forms.
“Early childhood is a faraway place and theatre can be one of the many ways to try to reach it, because it is a ‘human’ language. It forces human beings to meet each other face-to-face, showing all kinds of diversities.”
Roberto Frabetti.
For a visual theatre show to work fluidly, the distinctions between the different contributing art forms must appear seamless.
Natasha Holmes - Director
Trained at Ecole d’ Philippe Gaulier and The City Lit, London. Natasha worked for 10 years as a performer & puppeteer in London working for many theatre companies & venues including; Theatre Rites, DNA, Little Angel Theatre, BAC and ACT based in Paris.
“To be able to ignite a child’s joy and imagination is a treasured experience, one I never take for granted and one that constantly inspires me to create more theatre. Children are the best possible audience an actor or director could hope for.”
Natasha Holmes - Director.
She co-founded Tell Tale Hearts in 1997 with Isabel Caballero and they toured internationally with the company, performing comic physical theatre shows for adults. In 2003 Natasha took over the role as sole artistic director of the company and changed the focus to an exclusively children’s theatre company, intent on raising the profile of theatre for early years. Since then the company has continued to chart unknown seas, embarking on fantastical journeys, always inviting the audience ‘on board’.
Sophia Lovell Smith - Theatre Designer
Sophia has extensive design experience with some of the UK's leading theatre companies including: Theatre Rites, Trestle, Quicksilver, Palace Opera and Oxford Playhouse Theatre.
"As a child I made dens and mud pies at the bottom of the garden, created miniature worlds with shells, seeds and flowers in a shoe box or a 'garden on a plate'. I still am having fun, only now they're called theatre sets with real people who like dressing up."
Sophia Lovell Smith - Theatre Designer.
Past productions include;
- 'Handa's Surprise' - The Little Angel Theatre, London
- 'Peacemaker' - M6 Theatre Company
- 'Sonya's Garden' - M6 Theatre Company
- 'Glow' - Theatre Centre
- 'In the bunker with the ladies' - Drill Hall
Other touring productions on the road last year include; ‘Master Juba’, GLYPT / Theatre Is & ‘In praise of Fallen Women’, by Fingersmiths. Sophia has just finished designing ‘Jemima Puddle Duck and her Friends’ for The Unicorn Theatre, London.
Michael Szpakowski - Sound Designer/Composer
Artist, composer & educator. He has worked professionally in the arts since 1977. His music has been performed in Russia, the United States and all over the UK, at venues including the Purcell Room on London’s South Bank and Birmingham Symphony Hall, and has been broadcast on BBC Radio 3 and the World Service.
"For me the beating heart of theatre is still the simple fact of the human being on stage; the body, the voice, and the immediacy of the human presence. Without that, nothing. The rest of us are there to support, to focus, maybe even to gild a bit, that fundamental magic. I guess that’s where my specialisms of music and video come in."...
..."Music’s been doing that thing since the birth of theatre, but the last twenty years have seen the sophistication & I hope, the subtlety too, of what we can do grow exponentially.
Video is a newcomer. Again if it’s used sensibly and doesn’t think it’s the guest of honour it can really help, and help in its own particular way, to heighten atmosphere, storytelling, humour, wonder. That’s what I try to do anyway."
Michael Szpakowski - Sound Designer/Composer.
His short videos have been screened in the US, Russia, Canada, China, Croatia, Turkey, Sweden, Finland and the West Bank and he has exhibited work in galleries in both the US and the UK. He is joint editor of the leading online video resource www.dvblog.org
Lars Jensen - Technical Production
Originally launched as a computer programmer, his voyage of discovery has taken him to many ports, notably those of theatre and boatbuilding.
“The taking part and sharing in a creative activity, surely ranks amongst the most satisfying and rewarding of experiences. I like to think our performances enable children to do exactly that.”
Lars Jensen - Technical Production.
He has worked for Horse & Bamboo, The Royal Court, Faulty Optic, Twisted I and The Faceless Company amongst many others and has now moored his barge ‘Simpol’ with the good folks of Tell Tale Hearts, where he keeps the ‘poop deck’ ship-shape. Lars is a skilled technical designer and inventive set builder who uses his talents in lighting design, electrical production and carpentry to create stunning performance environments.