Theatre Royal Stratford East Senior Management

	KERRY MICHAEL Artistic Director Kerry was appointed the Artistic Director and Chief Executive of Theatre Royal Stratford East in September 2004 after being the Associate Director for the past 6 years. Kerry has vowed to uphold the theatre's commitment to develop new work and to provide a platform for those voices underrepresented in the ever-changing communities of the East End of London. His debut play as Artistic Director was The Battle of Green Lanes written by Cosh Omar. Set amongst London's Cypriot community, it provided an early example of Kerry's commitment to those unheard voices. More recent Stratford East directing credits include various new plays including Jamaica House by Paul Sirett, which had a site specific performance on the top floor of a tower block in Stepney, new musicals Make Some Noise and One Dance Will Do, Sammy and Come Dancing by Ray Davies. Other credits include co-directing the Jonzi D hip hop show Aeroplane Man and an adaptation of Jules Verne's 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea. His recent directing credit, The Harder They Come has obtained wide critical acclaim transferring to the Barbican Theatre, West End and Internationally. Most recently he directed the Barbican co-production of the John Adams' Opera I Was Looking At The Ceiling And Then I Saw The Sky. He has also has credits at the Edinburgh Festival; the King's Head, the Gate Theatre, a season of new work at Theatro Technis, programming the re-opening season at Greenwich Theatre and a residency at the Contact Theatre in Manchester. In 2007 the theatre won an Olivier Award for ‘Boy Blue Ent's Pied Piper' and in the same year the theatre was also nominated for ‘presenting a powerful season of provocative work that reaches new audiences'. (In 2008 Kerry's production of Cinderella was also nominated for an Olivier). For many years now the theatre has seen its work both transfer and tour nationally and internationally. In 2008 Kerry lead a consortium partnership to pilot the International Festival for Emerging Artists (IFEA) which saw forty-eight emerging artists from all over the world come together in East London to collaborate. In 2009 he launched OPEN STAGE a landmark initiative giving audiences completely power over the theatre's programme for the first six months of 2012. He is a board member of Stratford Renaissance Partnership, a public/private partnership regeneration board; a trustee of Discover, which provide creative, play and learning opportunities for children and their carers in Stratford; a member of Equity's International Committee for Artists Freedom and chair of Stratford Rising, a consortium of Arts, Education and Cultural organisations based in area working together within the 2012 agenda.
	MARY CAWS Executive Director Mary joined Theatre Royal in August 2009, having previously managed three producing theatres: The Dukes Playhouse, Lancaster, the Young Vic, London, and most recently, Watford Palace Theatre from 2001 to 2006. She led the latter through an £8.8m capital project which refurbished the Grade II listed building. At Dance Umbrella from 1989 to 1997 she produced international contemporary dance festivals and UK tours by international artists. She has managed touring drama and dance companies Tara Arts, Union Dance & Method & Madness. As a consultant Mary has also worked with a range of companies including The Cholmondeleys, Shobana Jeyasingh Dance Company, and Forest Forge Theatre Company, and was engaged by Theatre Projects Consultants to work on capital projects in Europe and the UAE.
	JAN SHARKEY-DODDS Head of Youth Arts & Education Jan started her professional life as a youth worker in 1984 with responsibility for developing drama work. She specialises in participatory theatre structures for learning and understanding. Jan worked freelance until landing a fulltime job with Greenwich and Lewisham Young People’s Theatre, where she worked as an actor/teacher, TIE Director, Trainer, Youth Arts Worker and Education Officer over 14 years. She then moved to Oval House as Head of Arts in Education until taking up her post at Theatre Royal Stratford East in August 2004. She has worked extensively as a trainer providing Continued Professional Development in the arts, community and education sector. Her training work has taken her to the Czech Republic, Taiwan, India and Lewisham.
	PAUL CANOVA Head of Finance Paul joined Theatre Royal in October 2003 from VPL, a licence fee collecting society set up by the record industry, where he was employed as Financial Accountant. Previously he had spent 17 years with the UK subsidiary of the Japanese electronics company Casio, where he started as Management Accountant and was responsible for the installation of the company’s first computerised system. As the company expanded he managed the regular hardware and software upgrades and was appointed Casio UK’s first IT Manager. Paul was raised and educated in Hackney and is a graduate of The Open University. He is a member of the Association of Accounting Technicians.
	ALI FELLOWS General Manager Ali  joined Theatre Royal Stratford East in September 2008. In 1990 she graduated from Middlesex University with a Degree in Drama before working in stage management for several years for companies such as Trestle Theatre Co., Actors Touring Company, LIFT, London Mime Festival, Laban School of Contemporary Dance and Forest Forge Theatre Co. In 1999 she stopped touring and took up the role of Assistant Production Manager at the Donmar Warehouse Theatre, and in 2003 she went on to become Production Manager and then Head of Production & Operations at Watford Palace Theatre. She is thrilled about taking on the role of General Manager, from a career development point of view, but also because Stratford East and the work it does is so very exciting - particularly in this period as we head towards 2012.     ALIX HEARN Head of Marketing and Sales Alix graduated with a Drama degree from Manchester University in 2000. She began her  arts marketing career at the Royal Court Theatre in Sloane Square where she spent a busy but brilliant three and a half years. She then became Marketing Director at the Tricycle Theatre working on a range of shows and events including The 39 Steps which transferred to the West End. Alix then moved to Watford Palace Theatre to head up the sales and marketing team there. After leaving Watford, Alix has since worked freelance on a range of marketing campaigns and projects for different venues and companies including Lift Festival, the Bush Theatre and most recently the Southbank Centre. Alix is looking forward to working with her team on communicating the theatre's work and developing audiences leading up to 2012 and beyond.

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