Cast
Allison Harding
Allison Harding trained at Arts Educational Schools in London. Following her training she received her apprenticeship with The Birmingham Repertory Theatre’s ‘Young Company’ under the helm of Clive Perry.
Allison’s impressive West End Credits include ‘Baruska’ in Once at The Phoenix Theatre directed by John Tiffany, ‘Sister Mary Teresa’ in Sister Act at The London Palladium directed by Whoopi Goldberg and Anthony Van Last, ‘Queenie’ in From a Jack to a King at The Ambassadors and ‘Miranda’ in Return to The Forbidden Planet at The Cambridge Theatre, written and directed by Bob Carlton, which also was the first Actor Musician show to win Best Musical at The Laurence Olivier Awards.
Allison’s other Theatre Credits include ‘The Witch’ in Into The Woods directed by Cameron Menzies and ‘Ralph’ in Kiss Me Kateboth for NI Opera.
Allison’s Film and TV credits include ‘Head Washerwoman/featured Ensemble in Disney’s Beauty and The Beast directed by Bill Condon, Mamma Mia, Here We Go Again directed by Ol Parker and ‘Sal Pucino’ in CBBC’s Nova Jones directed by Fergus Costello.
Allison is currently recording Moth to A Flame, The Diaries of David E Thompson and Only Heaven Knowsby Alex Harding available on all audio platforms.
Last year Allison appeared in the MAC/Cahoots production of Cinderella in the role of the stepmother, ‘Maria’.
Sean Kearns
DIGITAL THEATRE: University of Wonder and Imagination (Cahoots NI);
THEATRE: includes Druid O’Casey (Druid), Mirror Ball (Replay); The Shop at the Top of the Town (The Mill at Newtownabbey); Propaganda (Lyric Belfast); The Cavalcaders (Druid); Into The Woods (NI Opera); The Grimm Hotel (Cahoots NI); The Last Ship (Northern Stage/USA/UK Tour); Bouncers (MAC); Crocodile Fever (Traverse, Edinburgh); A Street Car Named Desire (Lyric, Belfast); Elves and The Shoemaker (MAC); Doublecross (Lyric, Belfast/ Abbey, Dublin); Good Vibrations (Lyric, Belfast); The Last Ship, (UK Tour, Northern Stage); The Comedy About a Bank Robbery (Criterion Theatre, West End); Pinocchio (MAC Belfast/Cahoots NI); Wicked (Apollo Victoria, West End); The Commitments (Palace, West End); Billy Elliot (Victoria Palace, West End); The 39 Steps (Criterion, West End); Bedlam, Henry IV Parts 1 and 2, As You Like It and A New World (Shakespeare’s Globe); Measure for Measure (Almeida); Jack and the Beanstalk (Lyric Hammersmith); The Taming of the Shrew, The Merchant of Venice, God in Ruins and Macbeth (RSC); The Importance of Being Earnest (Abbey, Dublin); A Whistle in the Dark (Manchester Royal Exchange/Tricycle); Royal Supreme (Theatre Royal Plymouth); Hamlet, Weddins Weeins and Wakes, As The Beast Sleeps, Of Mice And Men, Juno and the Paycock, Sound of Music, Annie, The Crucible and Oliver (Lyric, Belfast); The Chairs, Ruby and Second Hand Thunder (Tinderbox); The Importance of Being Earnest and Pride and Prejudice (Gate Theatre, Dublin); Henry IV Part 1, In a Little World of Our Own and The Trojan Women (Peacock Theatre) and Romeo and Juliet (Kabosh).
TV: includes As the Beast Sleeps and Ballykissangel (BBC NI), Safe and Sound, Johnny Loves Susie, God’s Frontiersmen, Children of the North (BBC), The Governor (Samson Films), Extra Extra! (RTE) and The Last of the Dying Race (UTV/Ch 4).
FILM: includes The Quarry (Village Films) Puckoon (Studio Eight Prods/Bord Scannan na hEirean), Best (Best Films Ltd), Angela’s Ashes (David Brown Prods), Durango (Hallmark Prods), The Boxer (Hell’s Kitchen/Universal Pics), A Further Gesture (Ch 4 Films) and The Informant (Hallmark Ent).
Nuala McGowan
Nuala studied at Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts. She is an actor/singer/musician and puppeteer with great comic timing. Her previous work includes: 'The Velveteen Rabbit' (Spinning Wheel Theatre); 'Teechers', 'Cooking with Elvis' and 'The Caucasian Chalk Circle' (Bruiser Theatre Company); Rough Girls (Lyric Theatre Belfast); 'Three's a Shroud' (GBL Productions); 'King Henry V' (Lazarus Theatre Company); 'The Snow Queen' (Anton Benson Productions). Film credits include: 'The Power' (Air Street Films/Altitude Films) and 'Rhonna and Donna' (Creative England/Dan Films/ BFI).
Daniel Rivers
Daniel Rivers is a versatile performer in both worlds of Musical Theatre and Classical voice.
He has recently completed his Masters in Music specialising in Vocal Performance at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance, in which he was under the tutelage of Helen Yorke and Jon Christos. While completing his studies, Daniel was awarded The Finzi Trust Scholarship.
Daniel's credits include performances in Northern Ireland and London. In September this year, he made his professional Opera debut when he joined the chorus of Tosca with Northern Ireland Opera, performed at the Grand Opera House, Belfast. Earlier in the year, he performed Veldar in Legends of Arahma, a new musical workshop at The Actors' Church, Covent Garden. Daniel has performed the role of Judge Roan in NYMT's Parade at The Other Palace and Ilya in the UK Premiere of Doctor Zhivago: The Concert at Cadogan Hall. He has also sung with the international theatrical vocal group, The Barricade Boys.
Training: Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance – MMus in Vocal Performance 2022, BA(Hons) Musical Theatre 2020
Daniel is excited to be back performing in Belfast this Christmas.
Katie Shortt
Katie is from Belfast where she trained at the Lyric Drama Studio before going on to train at Leeds Conservatoire in their BA Acting program, graduating in July 2023.
Most recently Katie has worked with Brunswick Productions in the development and productions of the one-woman play The Four Worst Things I’ve Ever Done, originally performed at the Accidental Theatre before successfully going on to this year's Edinburgh Fringe at Underbelly’s Bristo Square, and returning to the MAC Belfast in November.
Katie is also a singer and actor-musician- playing the flute, accordion, piano and whistle. Other theatre credits include Big Kids (dir. Kash Ashard, Stephen Joseph Theatre), Algorithm R&D (dir. Seon Simpson), Boys Will be Boys (dir. Erin Carter, Leeds Conservatoire), Crime and Punishment (dir. Deborah Newbold, Leeds Conservatoire).
Katie is represented by Infinity Artists.
Jack Watson
Jack Watson is from Armagh and trained at the Guildford School of Acting. In 2016, Jack was nominated for a Broadway World award (UK/West End) for the role of Rodion Raskolnikov in Crime and Punishment. Other Stage credits include; Jesus in Jesus Christ Superstar, Romeo in Romeo and Juliet, Nicholas Chatman in Punk Rock, Joseph Shaw in One Saturday before the war, Singer at The Olivier’s Awards in concert, and Cinderella’s Prince/The Wolf in Into the Woods. TV and Film credits include; Game of Thrones (HBO), Speak of the Devil (EWTN) and Torvill and Dean (ITV).
Creative Team
Lisa May
Lisa is the Artistic Director and Founder of Bruiser Theatre Company. Established in 1997, Bruiser produces innovative live performance, combining text and physical theatre techniques. Lisa coined Bruiser’s artistic policy of minimum set for maximum impact. Her style of direction focuses on the actors' ability to engage the audience, without relying on elaborate sets, costume and lighting. The actor is the central mechanism of performance, and Lisa's direction explores the essential dynamics of theatre: the actor, the audience and the space.
Over the last twenty-six years Lisa has directed all but one of Bruiser’s productions; most recently Mojo Mickybo (2021-23), Teechers (2022), The Trial (2019), The 39 Steps (Bruiser/Lyric Co-production 2019, 2016), The Colleen Bawn (Bruiser/Lyric Co-production 2018), The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole (2018), The Importance of Being Earnest (Bruiser/MAC Co-production 2017) and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, abridged (2017).
Lisa champions Bruiser's professional development and education programmes, committed to nurturing home-grown talent and making theatre accessible to all. She conceived Bruiser's critically acclaimed Arts Academy, Vital Connect Project and A Day with Bruiser curriculum-based study days. With a firm focus on providing the best education and training for the country’s talented young people, these programmes have trained and mentored hundreds of students, supporting them to reach their creative potential, and for many, helping them launch their careers.
Additionally, Lisa is a freelance artist, trained playworker, workshop facilitator, project manager and consultant. Her freelance directorial credits include the award-winning Chronicles of Long Kesh which wowed audiences and critics alike, completing several international tours and winning The Stage Award for Best Ensemble at the Edinburgh Fringe. Other freelance directorial projects include Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood, Jack and the Beanstalk and Sleeping Beauty for GBL at the Waterfront Hall, Belfast and The Market Place Theatre, Armagh, From the Shipyard to the Somme for Partisan Productions, and Flight for the Derry Playhouse.
Lisa has worked with many arts organisations including UAYD, Shakespeare Schools Festival, Sound Inventors, Queen's University and the Education Authority in varied and exciting drama-based projects. She was recently nominated for Best Director at the Irish Times Irish Theatre Awards and is also a previous winner of The Belfast Telegraph Woman of the Year in the Arts.
Stephen Beggs
Theatre acting credits include roles in The Cassandra of Ulster for Up The Lagan, The Wife and Me and My Sex Doll Ruby for Mark Kavanagh, Duck Variations for EastSide Arts Festival, Every Brilliant Thing for Action Trauma, Fast & Loose for Accidental Theatre, All Through The House for Tinderbox, Cinderella & Sleeping Beauty for GBL Productions, The Jazzabelles for Skinnybone Theatre, Reassembled, Slightly Askew for Shannon Sickels (including 2018/19 tours of Canada and Hong Kong), Mad North North-West for Mark Kavanagh, Closer for Replay, Frankenstein, Ghostbusters Retro, The Hound Of the Baskervilles and Brief Encounter for Wireless Mystery Theatre, Be Our Guest, Grazie Italia, Inventors, Squadron 304, RMS Olympic, 1916: Our History, Our Future and Belfast Bred for Kabosh, “Cooking With Elvis” for Bruiser, “Blackness After Midnight” for the ‘Titanic 100 Festival’, “Dinner”, “Flesh Dense” and “The Exercism Of Mary Rose” for Red Lemon, “The Gathering” for Theatre Abandon, “What The Butler Saw” & “Nobody Here But Us Chickens” for Rawlife, “Santaland Diaries” for C21, “Chasing The Whale’s Tale” for Sticky Fingers, “Collectors” for Trouble Joe, “The Crucible” and “The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui” at The Lyric Theatre, “Elegies For Angels, Punks & Raging Queens” at The Black Box, Belfast.
Film acting credits include “Haunted Ulster Live”, ‘Belfast 1912’ and ‘The Well Below The Valley’ all directed by Dominic O’Neill.
Writing credits include this year’s forthcoming “The Night Before Christmas” for the MAC; his self-performed solo shows “Ron’s World” for the MAC/Young at Art, “The King Of East Belfast” for Kabosh and “My Father’s Chair”; “Crossing The Lines” for Replay Theatre Company; “Hansel & Gretel” for the MAC; “Starship Streetwise’ and “Hood” for Streetwise Circus; “The Rise and Fall of the House of Oedipus” for the Seamus Heaney HomePlace; “Cuan Craic Radio Dramas” for Ards Arts; and twenty years of comedy scripts for Those Who Can’t.
Theatre direction credits include productions for GBL Productions, The C.S. Lewis Festival, Eastside Arts Festival, Powerstone Entertainment, Streetwise Community Circus, Ursula Burns, c21, Spring Lane Productions, Greenwood Theatre Company, Festival of Fools, Belfast Community Circus, Skewiff Theatre Company, Ponydance, Belfast Actors’ Studio, Block One Theatre Company, The Tyrone Guthrie Society and South Bank Playhouse.
Radio work includes “Stranded”, “It Ain’t What You Do”, “The Keepers” and “Don’t Make Me Laugh”, all for BBC Radio Ulster.
Stephen was Line Producer for the MAC’s 2015 Christmas show ‘Rumpelstiltskin’ and was Assistant Producer on ‘Hatch’, The MAC’s 2013 Christmas show.
He has been a Board member of Tinderbox Theatre Company since December 2018 and Chair since December 2019.
Stephen was Manager of Bruiser Theatre Company from 2002 to 2013.
He facilitates theatre and drama workshops for a wide range of schools and community groups. He is a founding member of comedy writing and performing team Those Who Can’t and is also the MC for “Pigeon & Plum” Vaudeville Circus Cabaret. Stephen also develops and performs walkabout characters for a variety of public and private events.
Garth McConaghie
Garth has worked extensively as a Composer, Sound Designer, Musical Director, Arranger and Music Producer for studios, theatre, film and television. Garth's work has been performed and broadcast all over the UK, Ireland and internationally as part of theatrical productions, exhibitions, art installations, television and radio.
Recent TV/Radio Credits include: Derry Girls (Hat Trick Productions, Channel 4), Flight (BBC1 / BBC4), My Mother and Other Strangers (BBC 1), Malaria, (BBC Comic Relief), Days Like This (BBC NI, nominated for IFTA), Wee Wise Words (BBC NI), Not Now Farley (BBC Learning Zone), On the Air (BBC NI), Ulster Volunteers (RTE), A Year in Sex City (DoubleBand Films/BBC1).
Theatre Credits include: Mirrorball (Lyric Theatre, Belfast), Rebus: A Game Called Malice (Queen’s Theatre, Hornchurch), The Gap Year (Lyric Theatre, Belfast), X’ntigone (Prime Cut Productions / MAC, Belfast), The Border Game (Prime Cut Productions), A Night in November (Soda Bread, Chiswick Playhouse), Mojo Mickybo (Bruiser), In the Name of the Son (GBL Productions), A Christmas Carol (MAC Belfast), Rebus: Long Shadows (Birmingham Repertory Theatre), The Miami Showband Story (GBL Productions, Grand Opera House, Belfast, Gaiety Theatre, Dublin), Bouncers (Big Telly / MAC Belfast), Spud! (Lyric Theatre, Belfast), Freak Show (Big Telly), Tamed (Southwark Playhouse, London), The Elves and the Shoemaker (MAC Belfast, Cahoots NI), A Night In November (Lyric Theatre, Belfast), Penguins (Cahoots NI, Birmingham Repertory Theatre), Under the Hawthorn Tree (Cahoots NI, MAC Belfast), Hansel & Gretel (MAC Belfast), Aladdin (SSE Arena, Belfast), Nivelli's War (Cahoots NI, New Victory Theater, Broadway, New York, Lyric Theatre, Belfast), The Faerie Thorn (Big Telly), Madame Geneva (Macha Productions), Pinocchio (MAC Belfast, Cahoots NI), Macbeth (YMT:UK, Lyric Theatre, Belfast, Edinburgh Fringe Fesꢀval, RADA Studios and Sadler's Wells Theatre), Christmas Eve Can Kill You (Lyric Theatre, Belfast), Shh! We Have a Plan (Cahoots NI, touring China, 2019), Egg, (Cahoots NI, touring USA, 2016), The Scarlet Web (Big Telly), Mistletoe & Crime (Lyric Theatre, Belfast), Sometimes There's Light [Sometimes There's Dark] (Moving Dust, Asylum, London and touring, 2014), God of Carnage (Prime Cut Productions), Crazy (GBL Productions), My English Tongue, My Irish Heart (Green Shoot Productions), Forget Turkey (Lyric Theatre, Belfast).
Diana Ennis
Diana is a Belfast-based set and costume designer working in theatre, opera, TV and Film. She trained at the Bristol Old Vic. Her recent work includes costume design on 3 seasons of the RTS Ireland nominated Best Children’s CBBC show Nova Jones (Jam Media). Also, costume design on season 1 of Bafta nominated and RTS NI winning CBBC’s Silverpoint (Zodiak Kids). She is currently designing the costumes for a newly commissioned 10-part series the Finklestorms (Black Dog) to be aired next year.
Her film credits include costume designer on Nightrider (Village films dir. Stephen Fingleton) Shooting for Socrates (new black films dir. James Erskin) Stumpy’s Brae (Six Mile Hill dir. Chris Baugh) and The Music Room (Big Fish productions dir. Mick Gordon)
She is returning to the MAC to design set and costume after previously designing for their Christmas shows on Cinderella (MAC/Cahoots dir. Paul McEneaney), The Untold Truth of Captain Hook (Replay dir. Janice Kerroghan), A Christmas Carol (the MAC, dir. Sean Kearns), Elves and the Shoemaker (MAC/Cahoots, dir. Paul McEneaney)
She previously designed both set and costume in the MAC for their productions of Bouncers (MAC/Big Telly dir. Zoe Seaton) Abigail’s Party (dir. Richard Croxford) and The Importance of Being Ernest (MAC/Bruiser dir. Lisa May)
Her recent theatre credits include set and costume design for Mirrorball (Replay, dir. Janice Kerroghan) and for Opera, costume design on La Bohème (NI Opera, dir. Cameron Menzies)
Her design work has been exhibited with the ISSSD in 2019.
Fergus Wachala-Kelly
Fergus is an award-winning illustrator, animator and theatre maker. His work has a distinct style that blends the literal with the surreal. Fergus’ illustration work has featured in the international publication, Leaders in Contemporary Illustration. His animation work has featured in HEAVE, Bird about Town, Bird’s of Passage in the Half Light, A Farther Shore, and Project Children. Fergus was a MAKE 2021 artist supported by the Dublin Fringe and is currently developing work as Part of Tinderbox Theatre Companies ‘Incubate’ Programme. He also recently created the video design for c21's Expecting and Cre8's Sleeping Beauty which launched the first ever Deaf Arts Festival NI at the Mac this year. Fergus has been a collaborator on Colm McCready's debut solo show Scaredy Fat presented by SkelpieLimmer which ran at the Edinburgh Fringe and Dublin Fringe this year having been selected as part of the Pleasance National Partnership program in association with the LET award and the Lyric Theatre Belfast.
Natalie Murphy
Natalie is from Belfast and graduated from the University of Ulster with a BA Hons in Drama in 2011. She has worked as a Stage Manager and Production Manager in Northern Ireland for over 10 years and has toured the U.K., Ireland and Europe. She has worked with many local theatre, dance, festival and arts organisations in Belfast and for venues such as The Lyric and the Grand Opera House. Natalie has worked with the MAC consistently since it first opened in 2012 with “Titanic: Scenes from the British Wreck Commissioner’s Inquiry” and is delighted to be back working with the MAC for Christmas.
Adam Ashford
Adam is from Bangor NI and trained in professional dance and musical theatre at Urdang Academy graduating in 2016 with a BA Honors Degree.
Since then he has worked as a dance artist on stage and screen across the UK and USA. Recent credits include movement artist in The Watchers (Warner Bros and Blinding Edge Pictures, New Line Cinema (Ishana Night Shyamalan)), dancer in The History of Tom Jones: A Foundling BBC (Arthur Pita), dancer in Disenchanted on Disney+ (Adam Shankman) and has recently finished a tour of the Netherlands as Pierrot in The Showman is Coming (Peter Corry Productions).
Choreography credits include the UK theatre tour of Essentially Cher 2022-present and the music video for Superhuman Love by UNAM.
Adam is returning to the MAC this year after choreographing the Belfast School of Performing Arts’ well-received senior youth production of The Producers last summer and is delighted to be making his professional choreography debut in The Night Before Christmas.
Jordan Nelson
Jordan Nelson graduated from Southampton Solent University in 2016, and has worked as a Stage Manager since. Most recently he worked as Stage Manager on Bruiser Theatre Company’s Complete Works of William Shakespeare: Abridged and Production Manager on The Man Who Swallowed a Dictionary (Green Shoot Productions).
He has been the Company Stage Manager at Cabaret Supperclub for several years working with Cabaret, singing, drag, burlesque, and tribute performances both as a Stage Manager and technician. He has worked with a variety of theatre companies including the all-Ireland tour of Mojo Mickeybo, I AM MAURA, The Shop at The Top of the Town at Theatre at the Mill, The Lyric: Young Playwrights, and A Simple Journey.
Seána Green
Seána has been working in a freelance capacity in the theatre and events industry in one form or another for the past ten+ years and has been keeping herself busy with various projects since graduating from her post-grad in 2016, including film, venue, and event management and producing/production management, and she is happy to be returning to the MAC for The Night Before Christmas, for Christmas since the MAC’s production of Hansel and Gretel in 2017.
Recent credits include Billy Boy (SM, Eastside Arts, Film and restage 2021; Eastside Arts Festival, Feile an Phobail and Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2022 NI and Irish tour 2023); Sadie (ASM, Lyric Theatre, 2021); Body Politics (SM, MACHA Productions, 2021); Music of William Wallace film (ASM, NI Opera, 2021); Dungeons and Dragons (2nd Unit AD PA, August Street Films and Paramount, 2021); Rough Girls (ASM 2, Lyric Theatre, 2021); 2 Royal Avenue Venue Manager (2021-2022); Acting Out (SM, Time to Shine/Wheel Works, 2022); Drawing the Rings of Steel (SM team member, Kabosh, 2022); International Food Exhibition (Event team member, 2022); Cristal Palace (SM/Event crew member, Transe Express/Belfast International Arts Festival, 2022); Festival of Fools (Venue Manager, 2022); Translations (Dresser, Lyric Theatre, 2022); Lies Where It Falls (SM, 2022); After Melissa (SM, Powerstone Ltd, 2022); Producer Internship with Ulster Touring Opera (2023); NI Science Festival (Event Manager, 2023); Agreement (ASM cover, Lyric Theatre, 2023); Cork St. Patrick’s Day Parade (Event SM, SmallWorld, 2023); The Compass Project (SM, Grand Opera House, 2023); Festival of Fools (Venue Manager, 2023); Tech cover (Various, Queen’s University, Belfast 2023); The Belfast Mela 2023 (SM, Belfast 2023); Lies Where It Falls (SM, restaging, The Lyric Theatre, 2023).
James C. McFetridge
James has been working as a lighting designer for over twenty-five years. His earliest designs were in the Lyric Theatre, Belfast and included Stones in his Pockets, which he re-lit in the West End, and then on Broadway. His design was also used in various Irish, UK, US and World tours.
He has had one other West End show (Alone it Stands, Duchess Theatre), and has lit shows in Canada, Australia, Russia and New York, and his designs have toured across the UK and Ireland. In 2023 he won the Irish Times Irish Theatre Award for Best Lighting for the Lyric production Big Man.
Other recent lighting designs include: The Price (Gate Theatre, Dublin); Anne Boleyn, Romeo and Juliet, Big Man, The Gap Year, and Dracula (Lyric Theatre, Belfast); Brendan at the Chelsea (Acorn Theatre, New York); Can’t Forget About You (Tron Theatre, Glasgow); Project Children (Brassneck); The Trumpet and the King (Terra Nova Productions); Teechers, Mojo Mickybo, The 39 Steps, The Colleen Bawn and Cabaret (Bruiser Theatre Company); The Elves and the Shoemaker, Under the Hawthorn Tree (Cahoots NI); Les Miserables, The Producers (BSPA); Bridesmaids of Northern Ireland, The History of the Peace… According to My Ma (GBL Productions); The Man Who Swallowed A Dictionary, In The Name of the Son, Two Sore Legs (Green Shoot Productions).