Within the framework of the UK-Russia Creative BRIDGE Program, Royal Central School of Speech and Drama (RCSSD) professors delivered a series of online lectures on the organization of production in UK theaters.
Leading experts in the theatre industry, producers of the West End and Broadway gave a series of workshops and lectures, where they discussed the following topics with students of the Production Faculty of GITIS:
The Role of the Creative Producer
Speaker: Becky Barber-Sharp
Becky Barber worked at Greene Light Stage (formerly Old Vic Productions) from 2007 until 2018. During this time her career highlights included working on the global productions of Billy Elliot: The Musical, numerous co-productions with The Old Vic Theatre Company including Noises Off, The Norman Conquests, Hedda Gabler, Kiss Me, Kate, and High Society, and Private Lives, Jerusalem, Sweeney Todd and The Pajama Game in the West End.
As an independent producer she was awarded the first Stage One start-up fund for her premiere of Sebastian Faulks’s Birdsong in 2010 and most recently produced Fox at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2019.
As Associate Producer and General Manager on behalf of Nica Burns, Becky was thrilled to work on the 2019 multi Olivier Award-winning play, Emilia, at The Vaudeville Theatre.
She is a member of The Society of London Theatre and The League of Independent Producers. With over fifteen years of experience in commercial theatre producing, Becky Barber brings passion for both the creative and business sides of the role.
Production and Creative process
Speaker: Brian Zeilinger-Goode
Brian Zeilinger-Goode is a two-time Tony Award-winning, eight-time Olivier Award and Emmy Award-nominated American producer based in London. Through his company Zeilinger Productions, Brian’s independent work in the West End includes: Queen Anne (Theatre Royal Haymarket), Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (Harold Pinter Theatre), The Glass Menagerie (Duke of York’s Theatre), Nice Fish (Harold Pinter Theatre), Dreamgirls (Savoy Theatre), 1984 (Playhouse Theatre), Oresteia (Trafalgar Studios), Bend It Like Beckham (Phoenix Theatre), The Elephant Man (Theatre Royal Haymarket), Hair (Gielgud Theatre), and others
On Broadway his credits include: Network (Belasco Theatre), 1984 (Hudson Theater), Dear Evan Hansen (Music Box Theatre), King Charles III (Music Box Theatre), The Elephant Man (Booth Theatre), The Cripple of Inishmaan (Cort Theater), I’ll Eat You Last: A Chat with Sue Mengers (Booth Theatre), Lucky Guy (Broadhurst Theatre), Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (Richard Rodgers Theatre), Death of a Salesman (Ethel Barrymore Theatre), Catch Me If You Can (Neil Simon Theatre), Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo (Richard Rodgers Theatre), and others.
Producer in the Subsidised Theatre
Speaker: Sarah Wilson-White
Senior Producer at FUEL, an independent producing company in the UK’s live performance sector. Fuel aims to present an adventurous, playful, and significant programme of live, digital, and multi-disciplinary work for a representative audience across the UK and beyond.
Prior to joining Fuel, Sarah worked as Producer for Farnham Maltings, delivering work nationally for Little Bulb Theatre, Victoria Melody, Up In Arms, and Jess and Joe Forever in co-production with the Orange Tree Theatre. Alongside Farnham Maltings I worked independently with artists such as Jammy Voo, and as Company Producer for Home Live Art. I’ve previously worked with organisations including The Old Vic, Camden People’s Theatre, Blind Summit, touring initiative House, and in 2015 I created the digital touring resource tour-finder.org. Outside Fuel, I am a regular visiting lecturer at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, and a proud Trustee of New Diorama Theatre and physical theatre company Rhum and Clay.
Roundtable — Digital Producing and key issues in the UK
Speaker: Sunita Pandya
Sunita has extensive creative, strategic and operational management experience across projects of varying scales, art forms, locations and producing models — on both national and international platforms. She is a multidisciplinary producer, curator and programmer specialising in theatre, live art, contemporary dance and event/outdoor theatre. As an Arts Consultant and producer for cross sector partnerships she has brokered connections with the arts and Heritage and Museum organisations. As Director of Artistic Partnerships, Planning and Administration, Sunita was in the Executive team at the Southbank Centre and prior to that was Executive Director at Wildworks. Projects in Sunita’s producing repertoire include the first presentation of War Horse, the 2007 The History Boys West End transfer as well as programming Battersea Arts Centre’s first One-on-One Festival, and Sadler’s Wells presentation of The Most Incredible Thing.
Speaker: Toby Coffey
Toby has over 20 years expertise in the digital arena from creative, technical, production and social perspectives. He is driven to create innovative ideas positive working culture where all members of a team feel valued and inspired to do their best. He is able to connect his design background and creative approach to projects with a producer’s mindset and technical skill. This places him in the ideal position generate sustainable digital strategies, to conceive projects and see them through to delivery.
His areas of expertise include digital strategy, online, user experience, cross-platform, app development, digital publishing, digital art direction, design, interactive installations, mobile, social media, augmented reality, transmedia and documentary production.
Speaker: Abdul Shayek
Recently appointed as Artistic Director of Tara Theatre, Abdul Shayek was the founding Artistic Director of theatre company Fio, prior to this he was an associate at National Theatre Wales. Abdul’s first show at Tara, ‘A Final Farewell’, is an audio walking project, telling the stories and celebrating the lives of local people lost during the pandemic and a major VR show, which will engage with older Bangladeshi women, commemorating the 50th anniversary of Bangladeshi War of Independence.
Abdul also works as a freelance opera director and has worked with English National Opera and is currently developing a new film project with Welsh National Opera and is Associate Director on a new opera called ’Migrations’.
He is a member of the British Council’s Arts and Creative Economy Advisory Group, vice chair of the National Alliance for Arts in the Criminal Justice System, as well as being a trustee of
GITIS is deeply thankful to Cultural and Education Department of the British Embassy in Moscow, which supported the program, and the Head of the Master’s program in RCSSD Jessica Bowles.
