JAMES WILLIAMS – Music

James Williams is a theatre maker and composer based in the south of the County.  Companies he has worked for include Welsh National Opera, Theatre Royal Plymouth, National Theatre Wales, St David’s Hall, the Sherman Theatre, the Wales Millennium Centre, Give it a Name, Hijinx Theatre and Triongl.  He works regularly with the Musical Theatre students at Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama and directs their showcase.

For Pirates of the Carabina, James directed the circus theatre show Flown which won the Total Theatre award in the Edinburgh Festival and RUHM / Home which played at the Roundhouse and Brighton Dome.

He has composed many musicals including The Jolly Folly of Polly the Scottish Trolley Dolly, Shreds and several family musicals with Lesley Ross; Ninety-Seven, ‘nga Bunga the Stone Age Spectacular and Snow Queen with Scott Pryor and Vampyre with David Last.

James is an Associate Director of the Torch Theatre in Milford Haven where he has worked on every Christmas show since 1998

LESLEY ROSS – Book & Lyrics

Theatre includes: The 40 Minute Tempest (National Theatre, London), Inside Out – A Portrait of Ivor Novello (Theatre Y Byd National Tour), The Unfortunate Tale of An Egg (Theatre Royal York), The Ghana Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Tempest Project, The Shrew Interactive (Theatre Royal Plymouth), My Brother’s Conversion (Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama), Loving Peter Palmer (Little London Theatre) and The Gorgeous Lives of Seahorses (Made In Wales). Book & lyrics for The Jolly Folly of Polly The Scottish Trolley Dolly (Made In Wales / Ripley Theatre) Pick A Ticket! (Greenwich Theatre Musical Voices), Can You Keep A Secret?, Barry The Penguin’s Black & White Christmas, (Perfect Pitch), Jorinda & Jorindel (Welsh National Opera), Rumpelstiltskin (Everyman Theatre), Hansel & Gretel (Simply Theatre, Geneva) and The Sheep Chronicles (Various Companies). Also lyrics for Lia’s Guide to Winning The Lottery (Perfect Pitch) For Ripley Theatre: Beauty, Flat Mates, Manhattan Breast Company, Edinburgh Fringe First Nominees Diary of a Welshcake, Little Red and Eggplant, and the award winning Mad Margaret’s Revenge and Madam Butterfly’s Child.

TV and Radio include: Shared Mutual Experience (HTV Wales), Madam Butterfly’s Child (BBC Radio Drama) & Polly (Thorny Devil – In Production) A number of his family shows have become audio storytelling musicals including Barry the Penguin’s Black & White Christmas (narrated by Christopher Eccleston featuring Kerry Ellis & Michael Xavier), Rameo & Eweliet (narrated by Tony Maudsley, featuring Tyrone Huntley, Sharon D.Clarke & Julie Atherton) and The Sheep Chronicles Episodes Episodes I-III (narrated by Louise Jameson, Colin Salmon and Mark Bonnar)

GREG ASHTON – Director

Greg trained at the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama.  Directing credits include The Tempest Project and The Shrew Interactive (Theatre Royal Plymouth), Hansel & Gretel (Simply Theatre Geneva), Guys & Dolls, The Wizard of Oz, (Bridgend College) Little Red (JW Productions Brighton), The Addams Family Musical, Guys & Dolls (Cardiff Open Air Theatre Festival), Cinderella (Pendle Productions National Tour), Little Red (RWCMD) and Jorinda & Jorindel (Welsh National Opera Community Project). For Perfect Pitch Musicals he directed the audiobook Barry the Penguin’s Black & White Christmas featuring Christopher Ecccleston & Kerry Ellis and he is currently directing audio recordings of The Sheep Chronicles.  

As assistant director The Santa Claus Adventure (Jamie Wilson Productions), The Snow Queen, Alice in Wonderland (The Storytellers Blackburn), The Canterbury Tales (Dyffryn Gardens)  and Some Enchanted Evening (Drury Lane / televised by PBS America). He co-founded the award-winning fringe company Ripley Theatre and is an associate director of the Brighton Gay Men’s Chorus.