THE LETTERS PROJECT- Summer 2021

Moi Tran is an Artist/Performance maker/Researcher and Designer, her practice explores the intersections between Contemporary Art and Live Performance. Tran’s work includes as set & costume designer for Theatre, Film, Dance and Opera. She is founder of East Asian Ticket Club, an engagement platform for the BESEA community. Recent Theatre include: Chiaroscuro(Bush);White Pearl(Royal Court);Dear Elizabeth(Gate); Summer Rolls (Park); Under the Umbrella (Belgrade/Tara Arts);Deluge (Hampstead). Recent Art Performance include: The Bolero Effect - (VCCA Vietnam ,Hanoi);The Circuit- A Movement Scenario (Prague Quadrennial/OvalSpace/SPILL Festival);Three Women and a Duck (Vietnam, Laos, Thailand);The Other day you sat too far away from me( Henry Moore Courtyard);SLEEP( Live Art Development Agency, Royal Court). Recent Awards/Commissions include: ArtHouse Artist in Residence;SPILL Festival; Curator Encounter Bow Chisenhale Dance; British Council Vietnam 2019;Arts and Culture Fellowship SEA 2019; OV12 Artist 2018.

Erin is a London-based set and costume designer and interactive installation designer from China. She has a strong interest in interdisciplinary theatre and performance making and she works across installations, plays, musicals, dance, digital theatre, devised theatre. Erin’s digital artwork specialises in digital art Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality experiences. Her VR installations Chamber404 is exhibited in Ars Electronica 2020 x Interactive Architecture Lab, Bartlett School of Architecture. Her recent theatre projects include, The House Never Wins (Kill The Cat Theatre), Freedom Hi, Asian Pirate Musical (PaperGang Theatre), devising interactive performance Money Funny Sunny (Cheeky Chin TC), touring musical Tokyo Rose (Burnt Lemon Theatre). She has also worked as an assistant designer to on Faces In The Crowd (Gate Theatre) Does Her Bomb Look Big In This (Soho Theatre), Summer Roll (Park Theatre) and so on.

Devika is a Stage Manager in London and holds a BA in Theatre Practice: Stage Management from the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama. Credits as SM on Book include: Blue Door (Ustinov at TRB), Kettle of Fish (The Yard), Ali and Dahlia (The Pleasance). As DSM: Can’t Wait for Christmas! (Orange Tree), Aladdin (Oxford Playhouse). As ASM: Wake (Birmingham Opera), Pity (Royal Court), Another World (NT), Les Miserables (Pimlico Opera), The Mother (Tricycle).

Lavinia Serban is a MA graduate of the Collaborative Theatre Production and Design Programme at Guildhall School of Music and Drama and has been working in the industry since she graduated in 2016. She believes theatre has the power to bring people together in a sharing experience that can be life changing. She enjoys seeing inspiring shows that rise questions whether is a piece of new writing or a contemporary staging of the clasics. She also likes eclectic shows that give the audience an amazing experience by combining different types of art (dance, physical theatre, circus) using innovative lighting, sound and stage technology.

Ellen is Artistic Director at the Gate Theatre. Previous credits at the Gate include – Dear Elizabeth (2019), Effigies of Wickedness (2018), The Unknown Island (2017) and Idomeneus (2014). Other credits include Our Town (Regents Open Air) and The Wolves (Stratford East); Othello (Sam Wanamaker Playhouse at the Globe); the Lyric’s annual pantomime – Aladdin (2016) and Cinderella (2015); The Rolling Stone (Orange Tree Theatre and Manchester Royal Exchange); The Remains of Maisie Duggan (Abbey Theatre, Dublin); The Glass Menagerie (Headlong); Anna Karenina (Manchester Royal Exchange); Henry the Fifth (Unicorn Theatre); Glitterland (Secret Theatre/Lyric Hammersmith) and Ivan and the Dogs (Actors Touring Company/Soho Theatre) – nominated for an Olivier Award. Ellen was formerly part of the Secret Theatre Company at the Lyric Hammersmith. She trained as an assistant to Katie Mitchell and Marianne Elliott. She was awarded an International Artists’ Development Award (ACE/British Council) in 2012.

Hannah Ringham is a co-founder and performer of the UK award winning performance collective SHUNT.  Her recent theatre credits include Islands (Bush Theatre), The Architects (Shunt), The Present (Unicorn Theatre, Battersea Arts Centre), Cadavre Exquis (2012), Contain Violence – Site Specific (Lyric Hammersmith), Ooogly Boogly (2008), Tropicana (Shunt). She has performed and toured internationally with many other companies including Tim Crouch, Kassys (a collaborative performance with Kassys, The Nature Theatre of Oklahoma and Nicole Beutler), Caroline Horton, Adam Broomberg and Oliver Chanarin.

Nina Bowers is an Actor and Theatre Maker, Her theatre credits include THE HISTORIES (Shakespeare's Globe) THE WOLVES (Theatre Royal Stratford East) directed by,Ellen McDougall; THE MAGIC FLUTE (Aix-en-Provence Festival) for Complicité,directed by Simon McBurney; CRAVE (The Pit, Barbican) directed by Julie Cunningham; TWILIGHT: LOS ANGELES 1992 (The Gate Theatre) directed by Ola Ince and TOMORROW I'LL BE TWENTY (regional tour) for Complicité,directed by Catherine Alexander. Nina also collaborated with Ellen and Hannah on the making of DEAR ELIZABETH at The Gate. She is a member of DIRTY RASCALS THEATRE COLLECTIVE and has written and performed two original shows: NINA TALKS ABOUT HER VALUES and AN EVENING WITH THE MANTIS FROM ATLANTIS both at Camden People’s Theatre.

Yasmin Hafesji is Associate Director at the Gate. She was a member of the Young Vic Introduction to Directing Programme 2017, led by Natalie Abrahami. As director, theatre includes: George (Gate Generations, Gate Theatre); LETTERS (Gate Theatre Online, Co-Director), Rhino(s) (Lyric Evolution Festival, Lyric Hammersmith); Rashida (Fresh Direction: Replay project, as part of the Young Vic Directors Program, Young Vic, Maria); Two Heads and a Hand & The Jokers (Shubbak Festival Staged Reading, Gate Theatre); A Little Iraqi (The Upsetters Takeover Festival, Bunker Theatre); Watch Me Dance! (White City Youth Theatre Summer Project, Bush Theatre); Young Writers Group Showcase (Bush Theatre, Studio). As assistant director, theatre includes: Women Beware Women (Globe Theatre); Fairview (Young Vic Theatre); Dear Elizabeth (Gate Theatre); The Mob Reformers (Lyric Hammersmith).