Sweet Nothings by Raegan Payne

Raegan Payne is an award-winning, published playwright from Kentucky (US). She studied Shakespeare with BADA and improv/sketch writing at The Groundlings in Los Angeles, before graduating with a master's degree from The University of Cambridge. She is now a postgrad researcher in Playwriting at the University of Essex. Raegan is a member of the Dramatist Guild, Actors' Equity, and SAG-AFTRA. Her plays have been produced all over the world from Lagos to LA, including at The Pleasance and Theatre 503 in London. Raegan has won the McNerney Playwriting Award, was awarded the Helene Wurlitzer Foundation Grant, and was an O’Neill and Reva Shiner Comedy Award finalist. She tries to make playwriting accessible to everyone with 2-min tutorials on TikTok and Instagram @TheCambridgeTea

Ed Hulme is a director and educator from Manchester, who completed his MA in Theatre Directing at Royal Holloway trained by the acclaimed director Katie Mitchell. He has directed at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre, Othello and Measure For Measure as part of the Sam Wanamaker Festival. His directing credits include classical works such as The Comedy of Errors (The Other Palace), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (The Nines), additionally he has assistant directed on Trevor Nunn’s production of The Two Gentlemen of Verona, and the Royal Shakespeare Company’s  FE:The Tempest (dir. Aileen Gonsalves). He has worked as an educator for over ten years, directing and teaching at drama schools including Arts Ed, Drama Studio, Italia Conti, ALRA. In addition to his classic work his credits include Constellations (Tristan Bates Theatre; **** Remote Goat), The Bear and The Proposal (The Other Palace, *****) and developed new play Sardines and Other Fish (Soho Theatre) where he worked as dramaturg and director.

Olivia Gillman is a theatre director, and consultant for the National Theatre. From 2012-2017 she was the artistic director (theatre) for Grammy Award winning music producer Charlie Andrew's In the Woods Festival, creating immersive Alice in Wonderland experiences that were featured in The Evening Standard. Olivia's interests in comedy and naturalism and new writing have lead her to collaboration with Six the musicals original producer Tom Bevan, directing political theatre in Ibsen's An Enemy Of The People at The Bush and - most recently - co-authoring The National Theatre's Katie Mitchell, Practitioners in Practise with the director.

Nikki is an actor-writer-director, who delights in taking comedy seriously, but not herself. Nikki taught acting at The Poor School for many years, while running fringe theatre companies across London and has performed and directed for venues across the city, including Theatre503, The Union Theatre, Southwark Theatre and more. In 2023 her writer-performer two-woman show, TWO, showed at The Crouch End Festival and received rave reviews and a sold-out run at the Herne Bay Little Theatre. Nikki is currently writing a sitcom and also working on collection of comedy-drama monologues for performance later this year. Follow @Ful_Hue_Theatre on Instagram for details of upcoming productions. 

Training: Arts Educational Schools.

Credits includes:  AGAINST ALL ODDS: ALL OR NOTHING (short film), SAMSUNG GALAXY & FEAST BOX (Commercial)

Theatre includes: BROKEN Play (Riverside Studios) PRINCE DAVID Rehearsed Reading (Barons Court Theatre), MERCS Rehearsed Reading (The Cockpit Theatre), THE GREAT FIRE OF LONDON (Trunk Theatre) & ALI BABA & THE NAUGHTY THIEVES (Strode Theatre)'

Training: BA Hons, Art Educational.

Theatre credits include: Year 10 (Edinburgh Fringe) Macbeth (Uk Tour) Wild Weekend (Vienna’s English Theatre) Julius Caesar (The Lion & Unicorn Theatre)

Since graduating from ArtsEd in 2017 Lily has been working in stage and screen.

With a passion for new writing, she is regularly involved in a wide range of

rehearsal and development projects commissioned by Optik Theatre and has

appeared in new works Chitta Vritti (The Cockpit), Design Her (The Bunker Theatre) and David Duchovny’s Sperm (Richmond Annexe). In recent years, she has toured with Vienna’s English Theatre, playing various roles in Sean Aita’s Musical adaptation of The Little Prince. Lily’s screen work has most recently

included; A Guide to Life (Peninsula Films), F*ck My Life (Get Pulped Films),

Propositioned on Instagram: The Dark Side Of Influencing (BBC) and

Sumotherhood (Feature Film). She is delighted to be cast in Raegan Payne’s Sweet Nothings at Barons Court Theatre and to once again be directed by Ed Hulme.

Jack Crutch trained at Arts Ed and this will be his theatre debut since graduating. Other work includes Masters of the Air for Apple TV