TMT—Company

He lives with Andrew, his partner of 47 years and counting.  As you can tell he’s probably a terrible big head but surprisingly approachable.  His website www.markbunyan.com desperately needs updating but his YouTube channel, https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3IgrRy7d7Aw5Z5yY9VSNew is better tended.

Mark Bunyan was an out gay cabaret performer to start with, then wrote a youth musical JUST GOOD FRIENDS which played to packed houses and was named Best Musical of 1982 by City Limits magazine.   This led to various other musicals with various degrees of success.   (The most recent, BEING COLONEL BARKER (www.beingcolonelbarker.com) and DEFINING DR MINOR (www.definingdrminor.com) were workshopped at the Royal Academy of Music and have their own websites.   Websites will be soon available for www.emyntrudeandesmeralda.com,  www.unburiedtreasures.com and www.trueromances.com.    

His stage play, DINNER, won the international playwriting competition —and had a successful run—at the Warehouse Theatre, Croydon.  In 1995, he was canonised by the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, as St Mark of the Musical Tendency, for his contribution to gay liberation which included, in 1983,  co-founding, with the late Brian Kennedy, the Pink Singers, now the oldest LGBT+ Choir in Europe.

A short documentary about him, MARK BUNYAN, VERY NEARLY ALMOST FAMOUS, was a selection at the San Francisco International Gay Film Festival in 2013 and is available to watch online for 99p (get some friends round and charge them 20p each) at https://vimeo.com/ondemand/mark.

Mark served as a local magistrate from 1995 to 2019, won two national gold medals for trampolining in the over-60s category for the British Gymnastics association and has recently started flying trapeze.

Mark appears in Episodes 10, 11 and 19

Mark is an actor/writer based in Liverpool. He can be seen on Amazon Prime in 2020’s “While We Wait” and stars in Rusty Apper’s “Artefacts of Fear” (October 2021). His crime comedy novels are available through Amazon, more details at www.markporter.weebly.com. To be honest, the words ‘cult hero’ and ‘international mega star’ spring to mind—if not quite now, then very very soon!

If you’d like to treat Mark to a cup of coffee (or a beer), just click here

When Jane Vicary isn’t eating oysters in Whistable she lives in the Lake District and walks the fells. She is a freelance Voice and Text Coach and Director having previously been Head of Voice at ALRA North and the Arden School of Theatre in Manchester. She trained at the Central School of Speech & Drama, wrote her dissertation on Voice and Gender which was published in the VASTA Journal of 2004 and has pursued the glories of a simple life ever since.

Christopher’s recent acting credits include Davie McD/Sam/Tobias Grenfell in Tell Me A Story, produced by Kibo Productions for Zoom; Squire Bogey (and others) in Jack and the Beanstalk, with M&M Theatrical Productions; God in It’s Aboot Adam, at last year’s Edinburgh Fringe; Various characters in The Sherlock Holmes Experience, at Madame Tussaud’s, London; and Fairy G/Sugar Plum in Bad Cinderella, at the Cockpit Theatre, in December 2018.

In April 2021, alongside fellow producer Mark Hunter, he co-wrote, co-directed and was Musical Director on Robin Hood: A Virtual Pantomime, which took place on Zoom, and was very well received.

Christopher has written a new musical – Star Streaker: The Musical –which he hopes to revive in the not so distant future!

Support Christopher by donating a beer.

Joanna Cazden is an actor and singer/songwriter in California USA. She has an MFA from CalArts (favorite role: Puck in MSND) and has also appeared in dramatic roles with the Seattle Lyric Theater, and Sholem Community Players; music credits include several national tours in the 1970s feminist music movement, six solo albums, an ensemble CD with Pete Seeger, and a season as music director for Boston’s Caravan Theater. She is also a licensed speech pathologist specializing in vocal arts rehabilitation, and the author of Everyday Voice Care: The Lifestyle Guide for Singers and Talkers. Her pandemic-era songs “COVID Hard Times Come Again No More,” and “When the Whole World Opens Up Again,” can be found on all music platforms and at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8UDIaxfQ5I5_WxOnFFqrag; contact www.joannacazden.com.

Amy Stoller—BethAnn

Amy Stoller (BethAnn) spent her first act as an actor and is now enjoying her second act as a dialect designer/coach and dramaturge. You can learn lots more about her and her work at www.stollersystem.com.

Bibi—Honey the dog

Bibi is the Stoller System Client Morale Officer and is delighted to be making her podcast debut.

Morag is part of the Voice Studio International where she has been developing her practice of Nadine George Voicework since 1994.

Morag is a Lecturer in Voice and Speech at East 15 Acting School. Her Voice and Accent coaching with professional actors includes work with BBC TV, Radio 4 and the National Theatre of Scotland. 

Morag trained initially at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and following a busy and varied dual acting-teaching career for 25 years she decided to immerse herself full-time in her passion for voice work and went to study at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama on the MA Voice Studies programme.

She has performed in over 50 professional productions for stage, radio and screen – with companies including the BBC, Scottish Screen, National Theatre of Scotland, Citizens Theatre, The Traverse, The Tron and Dundee Reparatory Theatre. She was a regular with The Arches Theatre Company, Glasgow for a decade and featured weekly on the BBC Radio Scotland magazine programme “Shredded Week”.

Frances is a vocalist, actor, voice actor and audio producer. She has just published her production of The Chavman Chronicles written by Db Morgan available on Audible and is soon to release a new album with Project Sparrow. You can access her back catalogue of music with Tracing Arcs on Spotify, iTunes and Amazon.

Also, look out for Frances as Shelly Bass in “MorrisMen” an urban revenge feature film due for release in 2022.

Why not donate a cup of coffee (or a glass of wine) to help support Frances, and the podcast.

When not on stage, Judi teaches communication courses at Bucks County Community College and lives with her two Border Collies and “Border Cat” in New Hampshire.

John Warner—Jonathan

Sarah-Ann Hassel—Carol

Sarah-Ann Hassall (Sarah Macdonald) is an actor living in Lincolnshire who first worked in professional theatre in the nineties. She toured in plays from Pantomime to Priestley, before creating her own Theatre-In-Education company, taking a range of genres into schools and doing workshops. This led to a spell as a Teacher of Drama and English. She has also presented stories for children, poetry, voice work and radio and audio dramas and during lockdown, including several with Make It Write, performance company in the North West, where she met and worked with Flloyd Kennedy.

 She has performed in on-line plays and showcases around the country, as well as performing in a short film as part of the 2020 SOfa festival in Lincolnshire. She is co-founder of LincsCameraAction (LCA) a new company dedicated to creating and producing work by and for fellow creatives in the county.

Roy supplied over 50 character voices for 10 unabridged audio books of the Redwall series, by best-selling Liverpool author, Brian Jacques and can often be heard on BBC Radio 4; credits include ‘Cobwebs’ and ‘Brief Lives’, ‘The Sad Story of Jim Thorpe’, ‘William Quilliam: The Sheikh of Liverpool’ and ‘The Strange Case of Oliver Cromwell’s Head’ plus two appearances on the Radio 4 show Pick of The Week.

Judi Raff Lehrhaupt was born into the theatre world. Her great grandfather sang for the Russian Opera Company in Kiev and her parents were very much involved in all the arts throughout their lives. Judi graduated from NYU with a degree in Theatre Education, Directing and received her Master’s Degree in Speech Pathology from Columbia University.

She has acted, danced, directed, choreographed and taught theatre classes over many years. Combining degrees in Speech Pathology with her love of voice and speech, Judi works as a Voice Specialist in her private practice, as well as an accent specialist (put it on, take it off). She is  a member of VASTA. She ran a drama school for many years and worked at Bristol Riverside Theater as the assistant to the Artistic Director and Voice Coach.

John is a Brisbane (Australia) based actor, director, producerr. His company, Trocadero Productions is known for its site specific Shakespeare productions, and for his satirical reviews and musicals. Among his roles are Henry in Henry V, Edmund in King Lear, Trigorin in The Seagull, The Bastard in The Life and Death of King John, Aaron in Titus Andronicus, and John in A Life in the Theatre (the latter directed by Flloyd)

He is presently working on his fourth play, 0 is for Orson, and preparing a new outdoor production of Cyrano de Bergerac.

She is keen to collaborate and create with other fellow professional creatives throughout the country and is delighted therefore to be working with Flloyd on ‘Am I Old Yet’?A sample of Sarah-Ann’s work can be found on her Youtube page ‘Sarah-annacts’ Sarah-Ann Acts – YouTube  and her Facebook page under Sarah-Ann Hassall.

Roy Carruthers—Dimitri

Born and raised in Liverpool, England, Roy experienced life in a variety of jobs, before he came to acting after graduating from University as a mature student at the age of thirty-eight. Previous theatre credits include: the MI5 agent in ‘By The Waters of Liverpool’ (Empire Theatre, Liverpool), as panto villains Abanazar (Dubai Media City), the Sheriff of Nottingham and King Rat (Gracie Fields Theatre, Rochdale), Tony De Vito in ‘Lennon’s Banjo’ (Epstein Theatre), Victor Franz in Arthur Miller’s ‘The Price’ (Liverpool Unity Theatre), Frank in ‘Ladies Night’, Slater in ‘Funny Money’ and Santa in ‘Night Collar’ (Royal Court Theatre, Liverpool), The Fourth Wall (Old Red Lion, Islington) and Mafioso (Hill Street Theatre, Edinburgh).

On TV he appeared in ‘Longford’ (Granada), ‘Good Cop’ (BBC TV) and as Frank in the Feature Film Sparkle (Magic Light Pictures).

Chris Darwin—Uncle James

Chris has been acting for 50 plus years. Has been fortunate enough to have worked with some really good directors such as Chris bond, Alan Dossor, Noreen Kershaw, Philip Saville, Terrance Davies and Christine Ezard, to name a few. Had three wonderful years with the Liverpool Everyman theatre, on the road and in-house. Lots of tv work: Coronation St, Emmerdale, Lenny Henry show (twice), Hollyoaks, Heartbeat, Boys From the Blackstuff and lots more. 

Also actor/director with the Vauxy Theatre. Likes doing new plays with new writers. Did a silent movie, “Docker and the Rose”A wonderful experience. Also,Trafford Tanzi at the Mermaid Theatre, in the  Westend. 

Mark Kydd—Uncle Gary

Dundee-born, Mark studied at Queen Margaret University, where he won the Ian Richardson voice prize. Since graduating, he has worked extensively as an actor, director and writer. Mark and Flloyd first worked together during the 1990s, on “The Golden Age”, “Pericles” and “Iphigenia In Tauris”. His recent credits include “Enlightenment House” and “A Game Of Death And Chance” (Sonsie Productions), “Sherlock Holmes: The Final Reckoning” (Twisted Thistle), “The Lost Lending Library” (Punchdrunk/Imaginate) and a site-specific promenade play called “Macallan Pioneers”. Television includes “Taggart”, “Outlander” and “Clique 2”.

Mark’s self-penned solo show “There Were Two Brothers” toured Scotland in 2015 and he’s currently writing a new play with the working title “Still Martin”