Cast Biographies
Daneka Etchells plays Beatrice
They trained at The Academy of Live and Recorded Arts (ALRA).
Theatre credits include: The Welkin and All of Us (National Theatre); Alice in Wonderland (HOME/Stockroom); Come To Where I Am (Paines Plough); Acting Leader (Northern Stage); Northern Girls: Lemon Top (Pilot Theatre); Moth to the Flame (Theatre by the Lake); Tinsel Tunes (Octagon Theatre Bolton); BURNOUT (Live Theatre); Miss Julie (CAST); Isolation (The Customs House); The Comedy of Errors (Petersfield Shakespeare Festival); Under The Market Roof (Junction 8 Theatre).
Film credits include: Supernova and I Asked Your Dad If He Could Do It.
Lee Farrell plays Verges
Lee attended Belgrade Youth as a teen and went on to graduate from University of Wales, Trinity St David.
Theatre credits include: Common (National Theatre); Lessons in Love and Violence (Royal Opera House); Misfits (The Space Theatre); Terry Pratchett’s® Wyrd Sisters (The Old Joint Stock Theatre/UK Tour); Diablo and Blood (Belgrade Theatre).
Laura Goulden plays Margaret
Laura is co-founder of Handprint Theatre and studied at the University of Reading and the International School of Corporeal Mime.
Theatre credits include: Moonbird (Handprint Theatre/Edinburgh Festival Fringe); A Tale of Two Houses (also Handprint Theatre); In The Willows (Metta Theatre); The Snail and the Whale (Tall Stories); Punk Rock (Prime Theatre); Fantastically Great Women Who Changed the World (Kenny Wax); Mavra/Pierot Lunaire (Royal Opera House); Stig of the Dump (Storyhouse).
Amy Helena plays Seacole
Amy trained at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, graduating in 2021.
Theatre credits include: Robin Hood (Cumbernauld Theatre); Antigone (Storyhouse Theatre); Class Act, and Dinosaurs in Love (Traverse Theatre); Like Flying (National Theatre of Scotland).
Short Film credits include: Diagnonsense and No Hero.
Karina Jones plays Antonia
Karina is a visually-impaired actor, aerial circus artist, voice coach and theatre maker. Karina trained at Liverpool Hope University, Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, and Green Top Circus in Sheffield.
Theatre credits include: Macbeth (Leeds Playhouse); Curtain Up (Theatre Clwyd); As You Like It and Measure for Measure (Royal Shakespeare Company); Wait Until Dark (Original Theatre Company/UK Tour); The Tragic Life and Triumphant Death of Julia Pastrana (Hope Mill Theatre); In Water I’m Weightless (National Theatre Wales); Flower Girls (Graeae Theatre Company/ New Wolsey Ipswich); On Blindness (Paines Plough/Frantic Assembly/Graeae); Crystal Clear (The Lowry); The Fly (Royal Exchange Manchester).
Circus theatre credits include: Weighting (Extraordinary Bodies/National Tour); Opening Ceremony of the World Cerebal Palsy Games (solo routine); show creation work with Circus Oz, Melbourne.
Television credits include: Foreign Skies (Channel 4); Off Their Rockers and The Bill (ITV).
Radio credits include: SoloParentpals.com (BBC Radio 4).
Kit Kenneth plays Balthasar
Kit is a recent graduate of the Rose Bruford College. Much Ado About Nothing marks his professional debut.
Theatre credits whilst training include: London Road by Alecky Blythe; Nell Gwynn by Jessica Swale.
Leo Long plays Oatcake
Leo Long is a musician who has performed with the London Youth Folk Ensemble and National Open Youth Orchestra.
Television credits include: Professor T (ITV4) Film credits include: I Used to be Famous (Netflix).
Other credits include: commissioned by Barbican Guildhall as a Barbican Young Creative to contribute to the project Subject to Change - New Horizons.
Gerard McDermott plays Leonato
Theatre credits include: Richard III (Kronborg Castle, Denmark); Frankenstein (Royal Exchange, Manchester); Reasons to be Cheerful (Graeae); Merry Wives of Windsor, King John and Antony & Cleopatra (Northern Broadsides); Blood Wedding (Graeae/Derby Theatre/Dundee Rep); Crows on the Wire (Verbal Arts); Bunny’s Vendetta (Blue Eagle Productions); Being Tommy Cooper (Franklin Productions); Fool for Love and Richard III (Riverside Studios); Calendar Girls (West End/Chichester); Blasted (Soho Theatre); The Bells (National Tour); Marley (Vasa Theatre, Stockholm); Whistle Down the Wind (West End); Neville’s Island (Dukes, Lancaster) and Northern Trawl (Remould Theatre Company).
Television credits includes: Father Brown, Doctors, Casualty, and EastEnders (BBC); Vera (ITV).
Film credits include: Set the Thames on Fire, Eyes and Prize.
Radio credits include: Life and Fate, Gormenghast, The Idiot, Clare in the Community, and One Flat Summer (as a member of the BBC Radio Drama Company).
Taku Mutero plays Claudio
Taku is an alumnus of Drama Studio London, where he trained on the three-year Professional Acting course, graduating in 2019.
Theatre credits include: The Prophetic Soul (Salisbury Playhouse); Salome (The Bunker Theatre); Lazy Ace (Her Majesty’s Theatre).
Other credits include: Child Soldier: When Boys and Girls Are Used in War (Narrator, Listening Books).
Fatima Niemogha plays Donna Joanna
Fatima who is deaf and of British-Nigerian heritage is a BBC Class Act alumnus, and hails from London.
Theatre credits include: Antigone (Storyhouse Theatre); The Tempest (Graeae); Medicine’s Monstrous Daughters (Vital Xposure); Small Island (National Theatre); Mirror Mirror (Oily Cart).
Television credits include: I Hate Suzie (Sky); Something Special (BBC); Supersonic (BSLBT).
Caroline Parker plays Dogberry
Theatre credits include: Oliver Twist (Ramps on The Moon/Leeds Playhouse); Cinderella (CAST); Twelfth Night (Southwark Theatre).
Television credits include: Moving On, Doctors, Murphy’s Law, Switch (BBC).
Film credits include: If I Don’t Lose, I’ll Lose (BSLBT Zone film, winning three Best Actress awards, including Cannes Film Festival).
Other credits include: I Am What I Am (2012 Paralympic Opening Ceremony, signed alongside Beverley Knight). In the cabaret circuit, Caroline performs her unique style signed songs. She gave a TEDx talk on Singing Without Her Voice.
Dan Parr plays Don Pedro
Dan trained at Arts Educational School. He is one of the founders of Hear The Picture, an actor-led audio description company, exploring creative access in theatre.
Theatre credits include: Lava (Soho Theatre); The Big Corner (Bolton Octagon); Road (Royal Court); The Kitchen Sink (The New Vic); Around The World In 80 Days, Hamlet, A Christmas Carol, Europe, Road, Romeo and Juliet, Kes (Leeds Playhouse); Weald (Finborough Theatre); Hamlet (Barbican); Britannia Waves The Rules, Scuttlers, Pages From my Songbook (Royal Exchange Theatre); Wanted! Robin Hood (Library Theatre); DNA (The Lowry Theatre).
Television credits include: Silent Witness, The Musketeers, Rocket’s Island, Casualty, The Crimson Field, The Village (BBC).
Film credits include: 2.0 Lucy, The Rise of the Krays, The Fall of the Krays and Halcyon Heights.
Shreya M. Patel plays Ursula
Shreya is a disabled actor, writer and early career director.
Theatre credits include: The Fairy Who Fell off The Christmas Tree (She Productions); The Secret Garden (Carole Wears Productions); Searching for the Heart of Leeds (Leeds Playhouse).
Television credits include: Then Barbara Met Alan (BBC 2) and the upcoming Perfect (Dave).
Lois Pearson plays Alternate Ursula/Swing
Lois recently graduated from Guildhall School of Music & Drama.
Theatre credits whilst training include:Road, AnnaKarenina, and Emilia.
For Sheffield Theatres, credits include: Oliver! and A Dream.
Richard P. Peralta plays Friar Francis
Richard P. Peralta is a deaf Filipino- American playwright/performer who studied theatre at DePaul University (Chicago), Mountview, and New Earth Theatre’s Actors Academy.
For Sheffield Theatres, credits include: Coriolanus and Showstopper! The Improvised Musical (both as a member of Sheffield People’s Theatre).
Theatre credits include: Wendy and Peter Pan (Leeds Playhouse); Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading (Hilmi Jaidin Musicals); Miss Saigon, Roman Holiday, Singin’ in the Rain (The Muny); Hear Me Now, Volume 2 (playwright, Tamasha Theatre).
Guy Rhys plays Benedick
Guy trained at the Drama Centre.
For Sheffield Theatres, credits include: Rock/Paper/Scissors
Theatre credits include: Mother Courage (Headlong); The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui and St Joan (Donmar Warehouse); Pomona (Orange Tree); 24 Hours Of Peace and A View From The Bridge (Royal Exchange); Bird (Sherman Theatre); Beyond These Walls (Northern Broadsides); Aesop’s Fables, Grimm Tales, Not Now Bernard, My Father Odysseus and Jason & The Argonauts (Unicorn); Wendy & Peter Pan (Royal Shakespeare Company); Star Cross’d (Oldham Coliseum); Rafta Rafta (Octagon Theatre Bolton); A Streetcar Named Desire (Theatr Clywd); The Ramayana, Murmuring Judges and Transmissions (Birmingham Rep); The Allotment (New Perspectives/ Edinburgh); The PowerBook and Mother Courage (National Theatre); Hijra (Leeds Playhouse); Mrs Dalloway (Arcola); Romeo & Juliet (Chichester Festival Theatre).
Television credits include: The Witcher: Blood Origin (Netflix); The Ipcress File (BritBox); The First Team, MotherFatherSon, The Crimson Field, Holby City, Outlaws, Sorted, Doctors and Dalziel & Pascoe (BBC); Disability Benefits, Fallout and No Angels (Channel 4); Emmerdale, Fat Friends, The Last Detective, A&E, Big Bad World 2 and The Bill (ITV).
Film credits include: The Festival, Mary, Queen Of Scots and How To Build A Girl.
Radio credits include: Relativity, Schreber, Zola: Sex, Blood & Money and Kukutis in the Dark.
Ciaran Stewart plays Conrade
Ciaran trained at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, graduating in 2018.
For Sheffield Theatres, credits include: Tribes.
Other theatre credits include: A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Shakespeare’s Globe); Pop Music (Paines Plough); Junkyard (Headlong Theatre).
Television credits include: Traces, and Dream On! (BBC).
Claire Wetherall plays Hero
Claire graduated from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland with a BA in Performance in BSL and English in 2021.
Theatre credits include: Faith (Royal Shakespeare Company / Coventry City of Culture Trust); The Red Tree (Red Earth Theatre); These Bridges (Deafinately Theatre).
Credits whilst training include: The Assumption (The Royal Conservatoire of Scotland / Solar Bear); The Coat, Glory On Earth, and Tanya: A New Musical (The Royal Conservatoire of Scotland).
Television credits include: BOAT (Film4); BSL on-screen interpreter (ITV Signpost).
Benjamin Wilson plays Borachio
Benjamin is an actor, theatre maker and audio description consultant, and trained at Birmingham School of Acting (now Birmingham Royal Conservatoire).
He has been the Ramps on the Moon Agent for Change at Sheffield Theatres for the last five years. He also co-founded award-winning theatre company Brick Wall Ensemble and creative audio description company Hear the Picture.
For Sheffield Theatres, credits include: Guys and Dolls (Associate Director).
Other theatre credits include: Macbeth, Oliver Twist, and Road (Leeds Playhouse); Henry 5, and Mike On The Mic (Brick Wall Ensemble productions); The Misanthrope (Birmingham Hippodrome); Richard II (Venture Wolf); Dial M For Murder (The Blue Orange Theatre); Pop-Up Shakespeare (Front Room Productions); Macbeth (Shakespeare Birthplace Trust).