Dora Rubenstein, playing Gwen, the Glow Worm!

Dora trained at Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts and Arts Educational Schools in London.

You may have seen her on stage in: Swings & Roundabouts (Theatre Hullabaloo); The Ugly Duckling (Tutti Frutti USA tour); Aladdin (Oldham Coliseum); Around the World in 80 Days (York Theatre Royal); Love Bites (York Theatre Royal); Cinderella (Cast, Doncaster), or on audio with A Page A Day (Northern Stage); York Mystery Plays (York Theatre Royal/BBC Radio York); The Voices of Clifford's Tower (Gobbledegook Theatre/English Heritage).

Elizabeth trained at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama. She is currently playing Lavendar Mole in the UK Tour of Offie Nominated Money Go Round, and is filming an Interactive Sensory Puppet piece for U.K. Children’s Hospices and SEN schools. She also tours the country and beyond as a vocalist for the U.K. Brunch Club, and this Christmas will be heading to Halifax as Jill to help Jack chop down a Beanstalk!

You may have seen her on stage in: Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth (Theatr Clwyd); Rapunzel, Cinderella (The Production Exchange); Peter Pan (Illyria Theatre); Shake the City (Leeds Playhouse, Greenwich Theatre); Atalanta Forever, A Dog’s Tale, All Hands on Deck, Redcoats (Mikron Theatre Company); The Little Mermaid (Liverpool Everyman Theatre), or possibly on TV/in short films in: Life in Black (Strada Productions), Hang Shall I (CAST), Phoebe’s Green Christmas, Benson’s Christmas Letter (Embracing Arts).

Richard Galloway is a Northern Irish actor and co-founder of Buglight Theatre. He moved over to Leeds and trained as an actor at Bretton Hall and graduated in 2007, he has since had lots of fun in theatre productions up and down the country.

He has just finished the Yorkshire Kernel, a one man show with Bad Apple Theatre on a rural tour, and The Gold Tops. This year has also seen him work on children's musical with the Lyric Theatre in Belfast. Other theatre highlights include: Home Truths’ (Cardboard Citizens), Marching on Embers (Buglight Theatre) and one man show ‘The Life and Soul’ (Red Ladder )‘Entertaining Mr Sloane’(Plays the Thing), ‘Stones in his Pockets’(Contexture), ‘The Trials of Oscar Wilde’(Centre Stage)’.

On screen higlights include short films The Pardoners tale (NI Screen), The Tide” (Sleeping Dogs) and feature film ‘Black Daruma” (Far North Films).

DescriptionBradford born and based, Kat is a writer/actor and inaugural winner of the Kay Mellor Fellowship. In 2020 she was part of BBC Writersroom Northern Voices. In 2021 she was selected for SKY COMEDY REP - a writer’s scheme with Birmingham Rep Theatre and Sky.

For screen, her TV Drama The Crossleys made the BAFTA Rocliffe TV Drama Top 10 and is now in development in the US. She has original TV projects in development, at treatment stage, with Rollem, Dancing Ledge, Urban Myths, Warp and APC. She has a pilot commission with BBC3. Her script Ursula, developed with RED Productions, made The Brit List 2021.

Kat was in the writersroom for Day 1s (Matthew Vaughn, Doug Ellin, Hera Pictures). She was also in the writersroom for series two of Paul Abbott’s Wolfe for Sky Max. Her first television broadcast credit is the 2021 Christmas episode of Holby City. Her episode of The Dumping Ground for BBC Children’s will TX in 2022.

Theatre work includes: Aphra Behn (Shakespeare’s Globe); Jane Hair (Bronte Society); Shit but Mine (Paines Plough); Children of War (Sheffield Theatres); Whooosh (Pilot Theatre); and development of £1 Thursdays (Stockroom, formerly Out of Joint); Pick N Mix (Freedom Studios) and Cheap as Chips (Leeds Playhouse). text goes here

Keeley is an actor, director and theatre maker from Doncaster. She trained at Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts and in 2021 was selected to take part in The Young Vic Springboard training for directors.

Theatre directing credits include: As Assistant Director- Fairy Poppins & The Naughty Winter Ghost for Leeds Playhouse, The Machine Stops with Big Telly Theatre.

As Associate Director- She Wolves- tour, The Miami Showband Story, The Grand Opera House and NI & Ireland tour. As director- Delicate Flowers, Single Story theatre- tour. Mutton R & D, Brave Words Theatre, Scriptworks, Cast Theatre, Young Writers Showcase, Cast Theatre, Alice In Wonderland, Sneaky Experience- outdoor tour, Jack & The Beanstalk (co-director), Buglight Theatre & Cre8 Theatre.

Callum Holt is an independent Producer based in Leeds but working across the UK. He supports a number of independent artists including Company K, Charlotte Jones, Sam Burkett, Excessive Human Collective and Northern Rascals, and has produced festivals and scratch nights for organisations such as Yorkshire Dance and Leeds City Council (Leeds Light Night). He also runs artist development programmes, most notably his What Next Workshops which aim to give early career artists the basic knowledge and skills they need to kickstart a freelance career in the arts.

The work he does varies greatly, but is underpinned by:

Supporting artists in establishing themselves and growing their careers

Advising on and supporting projects that involve making innovative live performance, in particular dance, live art, and musical theatre

Supporting projects that are socially engaged

He is particularly passionate about providing artists the support they need in order to make great projects, and in supporting projects that respond to social issues

Lu Herbert is a freelance Set and Costume Designer based in the North of England. They have a creative practice that embraces sustainability, vibrancy and play. Collaboration is a core facet of their design process. Lu has both a BA from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in Set and Costume Design, and an MA in Collaborative Theatre Production and Design from Guildhall School of Music and Drama.

Recent and upcoming works include Romeo and Juliet (Theatre Royal Plymouth), The Whispering Jungle (Mercury Theatre, UK Tour), Worlds Apart (Northern Stage), Maria de Buenos Aires (Northern Opera), Frida (Northern Opera UK Premiere), GLOW (CAST Doncaster, UK Tour) and TOXIC (HOME, Manchester).

Georgia is a freelance designer/maker of puppets and props, working across both theatre & children’s television.

She has a particular love of creating for children and younger audiences, often using humour and bright colours in her work.

Some recent credits include: Raven (Alphabetti Theatre), Hey Diddle Diddle (Kitchen Zoo), The Sorcerers Apprentice (Northern Stage), Professor Slugs House of Bugs (UK tour), Stockton International Riverside Festival , Rapunzel (Customs House South Shields), Cbeebies House Live and Whitley Bay Carnival. You can see most of her work on her website www.georgia-hill.com

Georgia is thrilled to be working with the team on Glow and has thoroughly enjoyed helping to bring Stan the stick insect to life!

As we get ready for rehearsals, we'd love to introduce to our Musical Director and Composer, Christella Latras!

Christella is a professional singer, songwriter, producer, composer, and musician.She formed the award-winning Vocal Performance group Caution Collective to develop the talent of local young singers and has performed as a Vandella alongside legendary Motown recording artist Martha Reeves on her European and UK tours for the past five years.

Christella has composed and Musically Directed several productions including Nine Night by Natasha Gordan,Searching for the Heart of Leeds and Queen of Chapeltown (Leeds Playhouse); Yellow is the Colour of Sunshine (Tutti Frutti); and award winning Windrush- Movement of the People (Dr Sharon Watson-Phoenix Dance).

She also featured as a guest singer in Sting and Katie Prince’s West End Production of Message in a Bottle, musically directed by Hamilton’s Alex Lacamoire. Christella has also toured and shared a stage with Jamiroquai, Tom Jones, Beverley Knight, Peabo Bryson, Billy Paul, Candi Staton, Benda Holloway, Kim Weston and Martha Walsh. In 2022, Christella composed her first Opera, POWER (Northern Opera)

Recently, Christella was commissioned by Leeds 2023 to compose the opening of the awakening for the launch of Leeds 2023 at Headingly Stadium.

Jen is an independent Bradford-based theatre-maker and director with a specialism in creating socially engaged work, regularly collaborating with people in post-trauma recovery. Alongside Jen's independent practice, she is the Founder and Co-Artistic Director of Displace Yourself Theatre who use the power of theatre to share stories of displaced communities; encouraging audiences to consider how we can all be active in challenging social injustice.

An experienced facilitator and movement practitioner who threads theatre-making, somatic movement, breath work and yoga into her offerings, with an interest in body-mind integration, therapeutic movement and living life connected and in collaboration with nature. A lover of being in community, Jen holds space for other artists to journey into their own processes, to feel empowered to respond to internal impulses and express free from judgement. She founded the Wellbeing for Artists Network in Bradford as a support for artists to deal with the precariousness and uncertainty that comes from working in the industry.

Jen trained as an actor at East 15 Acting school and has been creating, directing, and performing ever since including at venues such as Soho Theatre, The Albany London, The West Yorkshire Playhouse and festivals including Latitude, Audio Farm and Kilowatt Festival in Italy. Jen has directed new writing at the New Wimbledon Studio and The Edinburgh Fringe Festival, where one of her directed plays was nominated for an NSDF Award. Whether teaching Acting students or in the rehearsal room, Jen embeds a fun, nourishing and trauma conscious process that empowers creatives to listen to themselves, each other and speak their truth.

Chris is a Freelance Lighting Designer, Stage Manager and Production Manager. He has been involved in over 250 productions across the country. Chris is passionate about creating and developing theatre and he is delighted to be working on Glow again, having worked on the R&D a few years ago. This is Chris’s 4th production with Buglight Theatre.

Tom is a Production Manager experienced in working across physical and digital spaces to provide technical solutions that facilitate authentic storytelling. Tom’s work sees him working with companies and festivals across the country to deliver memorable and high quality events, and he is always striving to develop new solutions to push the boundaries of what an audience might expect.

Tom has recently worked with companies including National Theatre, Sheffield Theatres, Site Gallery, The University of Sheffield, Sheffield Hallam University, ThickSkin, Common Wealth, Barrel Organ, Cement Fields, Pilot Theatre, Megaverse, RivelinCo, Roots Touring, Andro & Eve, Paperfinch Theatre, Roots Mbili Theatre, Thunder Road, Migration Matters Festival, Cambridge Literary Festival, Sheaf Poetry Festival, SICK! Festival, WOW Festival, Estuary.

Having trained at East 15 Acting School and The Grotovski Institute in Poland Mike now works as a musician, physical theatre practitioner and creative workshop facilitator. Mike is the Co-Artistic Director of Bradford based Displace Yourself Theatre and has also worked with companies such as Riding Lights, Odd Doll and Uncanny. Mike has worked as the theatre and music associate at Mind the Gap Academy and continues to teach music and performance to learning disabled artists. Mike is also a Sound Healing Practitioner, offering therapeutic sound sessions around Yorkshire.

Benjamin Wilson is a blind actor, theatre maker and access consultant. He spent five years as the Ramps on The Moon Agent For Change at Sheffield Theatres and co-founded both creative audio description company Hear The Picture and theatre company Brick Wall Ensemble. He recently received a commendation at the National Theatre and Sunday Times‘ prestigious Ian Charleson awards.

His credits as an actor and creative include Ramps on The Moon’s productions of Oliver Twist and Much Ado About Nothing, Leeds Playhouse productions Macbeth and Road. Sheffield Theatres production of Guys and Dolls and with his company Brick Wall Meic On The Mic and Henry 5 for which Extant provided support through the Tim Gebbels bursary.

Ben takes up the first of two Artistic Director trainee posts which Extant has created to run over the next 3 years as part of Extant Evolve. We were pleased to receive 11 applications from visually impaired candidates from across the UK, and though we could only offer 1 traineeship this round, we are offering to those who applied, support in other ways through the Company’s artist development programme. The second TAD opportunity will go live in the Summer of 2024.

I am a freelance Makaton Tutor and I have an amazing daughter who has Down Syndrome.

I am licensed by The Makaton Charity as a freelance Makaton Tutor - I can deliver Makaton training to anyone, anywhere in the UK.