About The Prologue

Part mood-setter, part disclaimer, part plot-spoiler, Shakespeare often sends out an actor on stage to “shhh” the audience and tell us what we’re about to witness. Most modern theatre-goers will know the general plot, if not the detail of this story. If the Elizabethan Prologue’s lines could be heard over the groundlings jostling for position in the pit, or the wealthier spectators checking that they were visible as they took their seats, the 14 line sonnet actually packs in a lot of information: “We’re in Verona; there’s a feud; lovers will die; their sacrifice will bring peace. Oh, and it’s going to take 2 hours”. Useful stuff, in the absence of a program. But all of that can be encapsulated in “fasten your safety belts, this is going to be a bumpy ride” 

About the writer

Up and coming writer Will Shakespeare entered Shake it Up as a complete unknown and is delighted to have been selected as a winner. Born in Stratford-upon-Avon in 1564, Will looks forward to progressing his career in the centuries to come.

Company

Biographies

Harriet Benson

Treading the boards and gracing the celluloid has been Harriet’s life. However, over the years, the Petersfield Shakespeare Festival has provided another discipline – sometimes performing in puddles and dying in downpours! Whatever the weather, Harriet is a dedicated participant of the Festival and has been involved since its conception.

She has sung, danced and acted her way through her career: from angels to nuns, doctors to nurses and tarts to friars, her roles have been both challenging and varied. Just before lockdown, her most recent project was filming Series 4 of The Crown but she is sworn to secrecy for now!

Joy Brook

Joy trained at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Theatre includes Good People, The Railway Children, The Wind In The Willows, The Pitmen Painters, Key For Two, Vita And Virginia, A Dangerous Corner, A Murder Is Announced, Confusions, Dial M For Murder, The Holly And The Ivy, Four Knights In Knaresborough, Pool Death, An Ideal Husband, Time And The Room, The Boys From Syracuse. Television includes The Bill, Emmerdale, Eastenders, Peak Practice, The Thin Blue Line, Band Of Gold, Dalziel and Pascoe, The Government Inspector – The David Kelly Story, The Lavender List, Heartbeat, Free Agents, Hotel Babylon, MI High, Doctors.   

Twyla Doone

Twyla’s theatre experience includes extensive work with the award winning Chichester Festival Youth Theatre, in which she has performed lead roles in both the Festival and Minerva Theatre. She has trained under both LAMDA and TRINITY exam boards and has a background in classical and contemporary dance. In 2016 she co-produced Romeo & Juliet at King’s College Chapel, where she played Juliet. Under the direction of Jake Smith she played Rosalind
for Petersfield Shakespeare Festival’s production of As You Like It in July 2017 and Princess Katherine in Henry V in 2018. She is delighted to be a part of PSF online however much she hates self-tapes!

Crispin Glancy

Crispin has just completed the Foundation Course in Acting at RADA. He has been an active member of Petersfield Youth Theatre, playing many roles including Sky Masterson in Guys and Dolls and Fagin in Oliver! For PSF Crispin has played Young MacDuff  (Macbeth 2014), Juno (The Tempest 2016), Silvius (As You Like It 2017), Herald (Henry V 2018) and Hortensio (The Taming of the Shrew 2018). Other credits include Chris/ Daryl in F Off for National Youth Theatre,  KiKi/ Villeneuve in Beauty and the Beast for Chichester Festival Youth Theatre, Morrie in the National Youth Music Theatre’s Brass and Foster in Forty Years On at Chichester Festival Theatre. 

William Glancy

Will qualified as a Chartered Surveyor in 1979 and immediately formed a rock band. Two Two released three singles and an album, Bikini Atoll, with Chiswick Records. In 1985, Will was building his recording studio and working at Chichester Festival Theatre designing sound for shows including Jane Eyre, Born Again, The Wizard of Oz, The Merry Wives of Windsor, Silver King, My Mother Said and the Royal Baccarat Scandal. West End credits include 70 Girls 70 and A Man for All Seasons with Charlton Heston. Touring credits include The Sound of Music and the English Shakespeare Company. Will has also toured the world as a sound designer for comapanies such as Shell, Nissan and Vodaphone. 

Chris Hollis

Chris is an actor, writer, trainer and director who studied at Webber Douglas after reading English at St. Andrews. Theatre: MAMMA MIA!, RSC: Les Liaisons Dangereuses, Twelfth Night. What the Butler Saw, Ivanov, Much Ado About Nothing, Richard III, Murder in the Cathedral, The Nightingales, My Cousin Rachel. Chichester Festival Theatre: Translations, The Tempest, The Relapse, The Royal Baccarat Scandal. PSF: A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Macbeth, The Merry Wives of Windsor, Henry V, The Taming of the Shrew. Directing: West Side Story, Oh What a Lovely War!, Grease, Honk, Just So, Guys & Dolls. TV: Das Boot (Series 2), A Touch of Frost, EastEnders, The Bill, Life Begins, Brookside, A Serpent in Eden, Take A Girl Like You.

Sam Hollis

Sam is about to go into his last year on the BA Acting course at ArtsEd. He has performed with PSF since 2014 and roles include Botswain (The Tempest 2016), Orlando  (As You Like It 2017), Montjoy/Duke of Bourbon/Sir Thomas Grey (Henry V 2018) and Dromio (A Comedy of Errors 2019) .Whilst training his theatre credits include Love and Information, The Colour of Justice and Uncle Vanya. He is a member of the National Youth Theatre of Great Britain as well as Petersfield Youth Theatre, which saw him in productions such as Miss Saigon, Just So and West Side Story. Other credits include The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, Guys and Dolls, Chatroom, Blue Remembered Hills and Woyzeck. Film: Skin as Mark, a short film for Channel 4 Random Acts.

Jessica Marsh

Jessica Marsh is a freelance photographer and picture researcher based in Petersfield. She studied Photography at Leeds Arts University, specialising in photobook design. She has worked for Hearst UK, doing picture research for the magazines; Good Housekeeping, Red and Prima. Before this she interned at the picture agency ArenaPal and You magazine. This is Jessica’s sixth year working with the Petersfield Shakespeare Festival.

Katie Solly

Katie trained at Guildford School of Acting after gaining a degree in French & Drama from Queen Mary and Westfield College, London University. She went on to perform in the Edinburgh Fringe, Brighton Festival, Canterbury Festival amongst others and various short films before taking a break to have her family. She moved into youth theatre, working with the Yvonne Arnaud Theatre touring schools before opening her own theatre group, ACTion Drama which ran for 15 years. She also runs Schools’ Shakespeare workshops for PSF. She teaches LAMDA speech and drama and RADA Shakespeare awards at St Catherine’s, Bramley. Katie first joined Petersfield Shakespeare Festival in 2014 and has played Mistress Quickly, Lady MacDuff, Gonzala, Audrey, Alice and Solinus in last year’s production of The Comedy of Errors.

Ed Taylor- Gooby

Ed trained at East 15 Acting School and since then he has worked extensively in theatre. Credits include: Macbeth in Macbeth, Trigorin in The Seagull, Mr Toad in Toad of Toad Hall, Hastings in Richard III, Rob in Contentment, Michael in Dancing with Angels, John in the Coventry Mysteries, Albert in Ostrich Feathers, as well as numerous commercials. For the Petersfield Shakespeare Festival: Macbeth in Macbeth, Page in The Merry Wives Of Windsor, Benedick in Much Ado About Nothing, Malvolio in Twelfth Night and Benvolio in Romeo & Juliet. Ed is currently Head of Drama at The Royal School in Haslemere.  

Alastair Gavin

Alastair is a keyboardist, composer and arranger. He has composed for theatre, dance and TV/film. He has worked as a keyboardist for artists ranging from Mari Wilson to Michael Nyman and on various West End shows – until Aug 2016 he was assistant musical director for Mamma Mia! in the West End. In Nov 2018 Warner Chappells released his album Weathered Stone, ambient electronic music made with vintage analogue instruments. His next albums for this project, composed on two writing retreats in the Red House, Aldeburgh, awarded by the Britten Pears Foundation in 2019, are due for release later this year. With his wife poet Cheryl Moskowitz he runs the All Saints Sessions poetry & electronics performance series in North London. www.alastairgavin.com