Meet the cast

Meet the cast of Betrayal:

Eleesha Drennan headshot Credit Fairyodd

Eleesha Drennan (dancer) is a multi award winning choreographer and dancer based in London. She completed her training at the Northern School of Contemporary Dance and McMahon School of Ballet. She was an integral member of National Dance Company Wales from 2004-2013 and became House Choreographer in 2011. Awarded first prize for performance of Whiskers at the International Solo Dance Theatre Festival Stuttgart 2012 leading to an international tour, Eleesha is a recipient of the Sky Academy Arts Scholarship for the creation of Channel Rose.

Eleesha has worked with an exciting range of choreographers, including Ohad Naharin, Christopher Bruce, Itzik Galili, Nigel Charnock, Stephen Petronio, Stephen Shopshire, Angelin Preljocaj, Andonis Foniadakis and Stijn Celis.

www.eleeshadrennan.com

Ciara Hendrick headshot

Ciara Hendrick (mezzo-soprano) studied at Guildhall School of Music and Drama and Strasbourg Opera Studio. Recent engagements include Fortuna/Valetto, The Coronation of Poppea (Opera North, c. Laurence Cummings), Tweedledum in Will Todd’s Alice in Wonderland (Opera Holland Park), and the title role in Handel’s Susanna (The Early Opera Company, c. Christian Curnyn).

A lover of song repertoire, highlights include a recital for the National Gallery’s Facing the Modern exhibition with Sholto Kynoch and a recital at Handel House in honour of Handel’s 330th birthday. 2015 has seen Ciara make her harpsichord debut in The Devil to Pay on Brook Street (c.Laurence Cummings). Plans include Berlioz’s Les nuits d’été, Nerone in Handel’s Agrippina and a recital for the English Song Festival.

www.ciarahendrick.com

Merry Holden Headshot

Merry Holden (dancer) has worked extensively with leading opera companies in productions including: Candide (Opéra National de Lorraine); Medea; Parsifal; Turandot (English National Opera); Robert le diable (Royal Opera House); The Fairy Queen (Glyndebourne Festival).

Her live music and performance history also includes: The Merchant of Venice (Almeida Theatre); Nutcracker! (New Adventures / Sadler’s Wells & UK tour); Electric (Pet Shop Boys / World Tour / Hogmanay New Year’s Eve Concert at Edinburgh Castle); Museum of the Future (Icon Dance / British Museum); Plunge (NDCWales); Interwoven (LamatDance / Spain & Bulgaria). Film and music videos include: Elemental; E.N.D. (The Magic Numbers); Thursday (Pet Shop Boys).


Jimmy Holliday headshot

Jimmy Holliday (bass) started singing aged 6 at Lichfield Cathedral. He studied at The Royal College of Music, winning the inaugural Richard Van Allan Award and the 10th Hampshire Singer of the Year competition, and at the National Opera Studio. He frequently works with the UK’s leading choirs and ensembles, has given recitals at various UK festivals and is a regular oratorio performer.

Roles include Bottom, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Sarastro (RCM), Nick Shadow, A Rake’s Progress, and King Heinrich, Lohengrin (Ostrava Opera Company, Czech Republic). He made his ENO debut in Wolfgang Rihm’s Jakob Lenz. Recent projects include Colline, La Boheme (Opera North), Billy Jackrabbit, Girl of the Golden West (ENO) and Noya in Britten’s Noye’s Fludde for Charles Hazlewood’s Orchestra in a Field festival.

Kirsty Hopkins headshot

Kirsty Hopkins (soprano) read Music at Manchester University and continued her vocal training at Trinity College of Music, where she won the Elizabeth Schumann Lieder Prize.

Recent stage work includes Thomas Tallis at Sam Wanamaker Playhouse (Shakespeare’s Globe), creating the title role in Sally Beamish’s Hagar in the Wilderness and singing on stage in Rambert’s ballet Labyrinth of Love. Recent concert performances include Purcell Indian Queen (Harry Christophers), Handel Messiah (English Chamber Orchestra), Monteverdi Vespers for (OAE & I Fagiolini) and Soprano Evangelist in Arvo Pärt’s Passio (Hamburg Symphony Orchestra). Kirsty is also a keen consort/choral singer and a member of The Sixteen and Alamire. Plans include playing Ruth Ellis, the last woman to be hanged in the UK, in Charlotte Bray’s new opera Entanglement.

www.kirstyhopkins.com

Matt Long head shot

Matthew Long (tenor) was a successful treble soloist, singing the role of Miles in Britten’s Turn of the Screw for Italian Opera houses. He studied Music at the University of York and
won a scholarship to the Royal College of Music. Whilst there, he was a Susan Chilcott Scholar and a RPS Young Artist.

He has been a member of the celebrated chamber choirs, The Sixteen and Tenebrae. Matthew’s debut solo disc with the LPO and accompanist Malcolm Martineau, Till the Stars Fall, was released this year; gems from the English song repertoire sit alongside folk songs in celebration of some of Britain’s finest music. Matthew is a keen follower of wildlife conservation and enjoys spending time with his cat, Florence.

www.matthew-long.co.uk

Martha McLorinan headshot

Martha McLorinan (mezzo-soprano) was born in Shrewsbury and studied at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama.  She has received prizes from the Thelma King Award and Royal Over-Seas League.

Roles include Notary’s Wife and Anna in Strauss’s, Intermezzo and Lotinka in Dvorak’s The Jacobin (Buxton), Third Lady in Die Zauberflöte (BBC Radio 3), Alto 2 soloist in Stockhausen’s Mittwoch Aus Licht (BBC Proms), and Tenth Ewe in Birtwistle’s Yan Tan Tethera (Britten Sinfonia).  Solo concert platform highlights include Handel’s Messiah at Symphony Hall (CBSO/Simon Halsey) and Cadogan Hall (ECO/Nigel Short), Brahms’s Liebeslieder Waltzes at Kings Place (The Sixteen/Harry Christophers), Bach’s Magnificat in Malta (OAE/James Burton) and Duruflé’s Requiem (Ex Cathedra/Jeffrey Skidmore).  Plans include Elgar’s The Music Makers at Tewkesbury Abbey.

www.marthamclorinan.com

Luke Murphy headshot

Luke Murphy (dancer) graduated from Northern Ballet School in 2006, and immediately joined Matthew Bourne’s New Adventures, performing in Edward Scissorhands, The Car Man, Nutrcracker!, Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty and Lord of the Flies, on both national and international tours; he has played principal roles, was Dance Captain for the 2014 tour of Lord of the Flies, and features on the DVD recordings of Swan Lake and Sleeping Beauty.

Outside of New Adventures, Luke has worked with choreographer Dougie Thorpe (Mad Dogs Dance Theatre) on the creation of work that went on to become Beast, and choreographer Drew McOnie in association with ReBourne for the Queens Jubilee celebration, held in the grounds of Buckingham Palace.

Simon Palmer headshot

Simon Palmer (dancer) graduated from the Northern School of Contemporary Dance in Leeds, before touring with their post-graduate dance company Verve. He developed an interest in physical theatre, object manipulation and puppetry, performing extensively and internationally with both Tilted Productions and Theatre-Rites.

Other theatre includes The Drowned Man: A Hollywood Fable for Punchdrunk, Mucky Pup for Theatre Alibi, Time for Tea for Wet Picnic, The Weirdy Beardies, The Nerdy Birdies and The Librarians for Pestiferous Theatre. As a dancer, Simon has worked with Hofesh Shechter, Fin Walker, Arthur Pita, Kim Brandstrup, Luca Silvestrini and Shobana Jeyasingh.

Lukasz Przytarski

Lukasz Przytarski (dancer) was born in Gdynia, Poland, and graduated from Rambert School of Ballet and Contemporary Dance in 2013.
He has worked with choreographers such as Kerry Nicholls, Mark Baldwin, Itzik Galili, Vivien Wood and Hubert Essakow. He has performed at the Print Room Theatre, Lilian Baylis Studio and Linbury Studio (ROH) in London, Dance City in Newcastle, Durham Cathedral, Warsaw National Theatre and Baltic Opera House in Gdańsk.

He moved back to Poland in 2014, where worked with Uri Ivgi & Johan Greben in Bytom. He also joined Nowy Teatr in Warsaw, where he performed Claude Bardouil’s Exhausted/Wyczerpani.

RebeccaRosierheadshot copy

Rebecca Rosier (dancer) is also writer and musician, and is originally from Bath. She studied Creative Writing and Dance at Roehampton University, London.

She has worked as a dancer and choreographer for numerous companies across the UK, as a songwriter and performer in the musical duo Bim, and as a writer for advertising. Rebecca is particularly interested in the intersections between art forms, and explores the lines through film and stage work.

GregSkidmore headshot

Greg Skidmore (baritone) enjoys a varied musical life, totally obsessed by 16th and 17th century music. Originally from Canada, the English choral tradition drew him to the UK and, after studies at Royal Holloway, London, he spent six years as a cathedral Lay Clerk, at Wells then Gloucester, and Christ Church, Oxford. The University of Oxford also briefly distracted him with doctoral research in musicology, but his current mix of solo, consort, and choral work, alongside a burgeoning conducting career, is now his focus.

He regularly performs with the Tallis Scholars and Gabrieli the Consort; his solo engagements have included Ex Cathedra, Irish Baroque Orchestra, OAE and CBSO. When not making music, Greg is a gadget geek and a fan of American basketball.

www.gregskidmore.co.uk

Not forgetting our team of covers:

Rebekah Jones, Nico Miglorati, Elspeth Piggott, Rosana Ribiero and Ben Rowarth

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