Cast and Creative Team

Director - Adel Al-Salloum

As Director Adel brings the production together. It is her job to bring out the best performance from the actors and tell the story of the play in the most compelling way.  Theatre is a collaborative process and it is the director's job to put together a great team of people; the actors, writer, sound designer, stage manager... and work with all of the different elements such as the text and sound to make the magic of theatre happen.  

Writer  - Satinder Chohan

Satinder is a writer, who loves playing with words, creating stories and escaping on epic adventures to far-away places, spaces and even, other planets in her imagination - and the real world when she can. She mostly writes for the stage but has also begun writing for radio, film and especially novels that might one day be found in the libraries in which she has always loved losing herself to read and write.

Composer  -  Craig Vear

Craig Vear is a composer, music maker and sound designer.  He is fascinated with creating with sound.  He has had lots of adventures including  spending three months in Antarctica as a Composer in Residence.  He has created the sound and music for many theatre and performance shows including  creating the immersive sound design for The Railway Children, which won an Olivier Award.

ISABELLA – Sally Ann Staunton

Just like Arinta’s journey Sally Ann’s biggest adventure has been leaving her small town of Barrow-in-Furness Cumbria to find acting work all over the country and the world. Having trained in Lancashire, Sally journeyed down to London through tunnels and pathways to find acting jobs that excited her.

She found herself travelling with wonderful productions and performing in many children’s touring shows. Flying to Hong Kong, Singapore, America, Canada and Alaska with Tutti Frutti’s The Boy Who Cried Wolf and Tall Stories  The Gruffalo’s Child.

PABLO / THE BANISHED BOY - Reece Carter

Reece is a Leeds Lad born and bred. His biggest adventures have included, slaying Vikings and hunting witches at The Dungeons in York.  He also studied  in Liverpool where he got to shake hands legends such as Davy Jones (Bill Nye) and a real life Beatle (Paul McCartney).  Now he  journeys as Pablo with his trusted friend Isabella to save the whole island of Joya from the evil Demon, Yote.

DA – Dave Higgins

Dave is a world class, drummer and percussionist.  He is also a poet, actor, educator, artist and father.   

Dave has been Involved in creating and delivering a wide range of innovative arts projects since the mid 1980's.

Stage Manager  - Kate Bosomworth

Kate is the Stage Manager for the show. She looks after the actors and the show, organising rehearsals, making props, setting up technical equipment, making sure the show runs smoothly and speaking to all the different departments which make the show work.

The Girl of Ink and Stars is based on an original novel by Kiran Millwood Hargrave

About the Author - Kiran Millwood Hargrave

Kiran Millwood Hargrave is an award-winning poet, playwright, and bestselling author.  Her debut, The Girl of Ink  and Stars won the overall Waterstones Children’s Book Prize 2017 and the British Book Award’s Children’s Book of the Year. It was shortlisted for numerous awards including the Jhalak Prize, the Branford Boase Award and the Little Rebels Prize.

 Her second novel The Island at the End of Everything was shortlisted for the Blue Peter Award, the Costa Children’s Book Award, and longlisted for the CILIP Carnegie Medal 2018. The Way Past Winter won the Blackwell’s Children’s Book of the Year. Her debut novel for adults, The Mercies, ‘unquestionably the book of the 2018 London Book Fair’ (The Bookseller), was won at auction by Picador.

 Kiran lives by the river in Oxford with her husband, Tom, and their cat, Luna.

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