SALLY BANKS
Sally Banks lives in the borough of Newham and has been a regular visitor and supporter of Stratford East for over 22 years. She has been a Board Member for 14 years and a previous Chair of the Board. Sally works in local government as a Manager in Newham Social Services and has extensive knowledge of the issues in the borough.
TONY HALL Chair
Tony Hall became Chief Executive of the Royal Opera House in April 2001. He set up ROH2, a department under the former ballerina Deborah Bull, devoted to supporting new artists, and developing new audiences. He set up new initiatives to widen access to the Opera House - including big screen relays out of London, Paul Hamlyn weekends, and Travelex £10 Mondays. He has also brought new funding into the Royal Opera House – from the Arts Council, individuals and outside companies. Until 2001, he was Chief Executive BBC News; launched Radio 5 Live, Britain’s first 24 news and sport radio, BBC News 24, BBC News Online and BBC Parliament. He built the BBC news-gathering network to be a world beater. At present he is also a non-executive Director of H M Customs and Excise Board, and a non-executive Director of the Board for University for Industry. In April 2004 he was appointed Chair of the Sector Skills Council for the Creative and Cultural Industries. He has been an Honorary Visiting Fellow of Journalism at City University, a member of the Regeneration Through Heritage Steering Group, and was on the board for Race for Opportunity, and was a member of the Council for Brunel University. He is the author of King Coal (1981) – a history of the Miners Union, and Nuclear Power (1984).
SARAH ISTED Treasurer
Sarah Isted is the treasury of the Theatre Royal. Sarah is a chartered accountant and works as a director in the Government and Public Sector practice of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP. She specialises in central government and health work and has a number of clients in the culture sector. She has been involved with the Theatre Royal for a year and is enjoying the experience.
WASFI KANI OBE
Chief Executive, Grange Park Opera and Pimlico Opera. Wasfi played the violin in the National Youth Orchestra and went on to study music as St Hilda’s College, Oxford (1975-8). After 10 years in the City, programming and later designing financial computer systems for various institutions including Kuwait Investment office, Japan International Bank, Times newspapers, and British Telecom she started a small computer consultancy which gave her the flexibility to spend more time conducting. By 1993 she had made music her full-time career. In 1989 Wasfi founded the small-scale touring company Pimlico Opera, staging productions in unusual places such as banks, hospitals, country houses and, most notoriously, prisons. In 1992, whilst continuing to run Pimlico, Wasfi was made Chief Executive of Garsington Opera. In 1997 she left to create her own rural opera festival Grange Park Opera. Wasfi raised £4m to create a new theatre at The Grange and establish an Endowment Fund for the company. In 2003 Wasfi set up the Nevill Holt Opera Festival in Leicestershire at the home of David Ross, co-founder of Carphone Warehouse. The opera "portfolio" (Grange Park, Nevill Holt, Pimlico tour and prison) turns over about 2.75m. Wasfi received an OBE for services to music in the New Year’s Honour’s List 2002 and an honorary doctorate of music in 2007.
MURRAY MELVIN Company Secretary
Murray was a student with Joan Littlewood’s Theatre Workshop. His first appearance for the Company was as the Queen’s Messenger in Macbeth. At the end of the season at Stratford East he scored a great success in A Taste of Honey as Geoffrey, a role repeated both in the West End and later in Film. He has appeared in several other productions at Stratford East as well as various theatres in the West End and elsewhere in the UK. In addition to his work as an actor, he has also directed a number of shows and has appeared in many films, most recently The Phantom of the Opera, and TV programmes.
PAUL O LEARY Vice Chair
Paul O'Leary has managed and executive produced over one hundred theatrical productions both in the UK and overseas since establishing his own company in 1992. He is currently associated with Michael Codron Plays Ltd as General Manager of Productions & Consultant for Nederlander Theatres (Aldwych) Ltd. Prior to 1992 Paul was Production Manager at Theatre Royal Stratford East for three years, having earlier worked for both the scenic construction company Kimpton Walker Ltd and the Royal Adelphi Theatre London as Technical Manager. Paul is a Member of the Society of London Theatre.
SHANNEN OWEN
Shannen has a BA (Hons) in Drama, an MA in Arts Management as well as a PGCE. She has been a teacher of Drama for 15 years in Newham and the Head of Drama at St Angela’s School for 8 years. At present she is an Advanced Skills Teacher (AST) in Drama and supports new and experienced Drama teachers in different schools, develops arts projects and carries out training for teachers in voice, classroom presence and management and Accelerated Learning.
MARK PRITCHARD
Mark is the longest serving Board Member of Pioneer Theatres, including a spell as acting Chair. He worked with Joan Littlewood for 10 years starting with Oh! What A Lovely War and in various capacities including Production Manager, Set and Lighting Designer. He has pursued a successful career as a Lighting Designer, lighting over 40 productions in the West End and working at most of the major regional theatres, throughout Europe, in the U.S.A., Canada and Australia. He has also worked at drama schools including RADA, LAMDA and Central, both in a designing and teaching capacity. Together with Joan Littlewood, Mark is responsible for resolving the problems of the freehold of the Theatre Royal Stratford East and forming the Theatre Workshop Trust, to hold the freehold. He is the Chair of Theatre Workshop Trust and of Stratford East Trading Ltd, the trading subsidiary of Pioneer Theatres Ltd.
JANE STORIE
Jane was appointed Head of Business Development of the Royal Opera House in January 2002 after 12 months in the role of Development Manager. Before that she was Development Manager at the Hayward Gallery and Senior Development Manager for the Cancer Research Campaign. She has been a fundraiser for 13 years. Jane lives in North London with her partner and is passionate about the transforming nature of the arts.
MATTHEW XIA (DJ Excalibah)
At the delicate and tender age of 18 Excalibah was plucked from relative obscurity (pirate radio) by the BBC and catapulted to lofty heights as the first signing to 1Xtra. As a DJ he is well known for promoting fresh UK talent and even filled in for the legendary John Peel. He has played to rooms full of sweaty people all across the world and has been resident at London’s biggest clubs, Fabric and Ministry of Sound as well as currently running his own night at Herbal in Shoreditch once a month. Radio credits include: shows on BBC Radio 1, BBC Asian Network, BBC 6Music and BBC 1Xtra. He won “Best Radio Show” and “Best Radio Presenter” in the hip-hop press for 2003, 2004 and 2005. Excalibah can currently be heard worldwide on Pyroradio.com. Releases include: production for Shameless, Willow, Dom G, Loudmouth, TB and English as well as mix CDs and compilations for: the NSPCC, the BBC, Rising Styles, Alize, HHC, Big Dada & Dat Sound. Writing credits include: monthly columns for Hip Hop Connection and Big Smoke; articles for The Sunday Telegraph, Knowledge, SOS and IDJ. In 2008 Excalibah was accepted onto the post graduate Ethnic Diversity Work Placement Scheme at The Guardian. Film and theatre credits include: Tube Tales, Aeroplane Man, Spoke Fest, 10 Poet Slam and Da Boyz which he composed and musically directed; Jean Genet’s The Blacks (Time Out *****) which he co-directed, composed and starred in. He has also written music for Origin; Unknown, Medea and The Snow Queen (all at Theatre Royal Stratford East). He composed and directed the short film Cool Charm Corrected, which won funding from the Hitchcock Foundation. Currently Excalibah is working on projects for Theatre Royal Stratford East, Soho Theatre and the New London Orchestra. Excalibah has lectured and directed workshops and projects for Cardboard Citizens, Soho Theatre, Theatre Royal Stratford East, Central School of Speech and Drama, Arts Council England and the NAYT. He is the youngest member of the Board of Directors at Theatre Royal Stratford East.
