Actor Biographies
PETER BANKOLÉ
Peter’s theatre credits include the 2008 season at Shakespeare’s Globe, appearing in A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Timon of Athens. Prior to this he toured with Headlong in Rough Crossings. For the Royal Shakespeare Company he has appeared in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, As You Like It, The American Pilot, Venus And Adonis, and Season Of Migration To The North. Also a UK tour of Sing Yer Heart Out For The Lads for Pilot Theatre and Nakamitsu at the Gate Theatre.
His television and film credits include The Trial Of Gemma Lang, Casualty, Doctors, The Rotter’s Club, and The Bill.
Peter studied at Rose Bruford College, and is comfortable teaching acting, drama technique, and text work.
THUSITHA JAYASUNDERA
Thusitha’s theatre credits include Crime and Punishment, War Horse, and The Caucasian Chalk Circle at the National Theatre. She was part of the Summer 2006 International Writers Festival at the Royal Court Theatre and Tim Supple’s International Tour of Grimm Tales. Thusitha has also appeared in Twelfth Night and As I Lay Dying at the Young Vic Theatre and many productions at the Royal Shakespeare Company including The Comedy of Errors, Cain, Peer Gynt, and Pentecost.
On television, Thusitha has been featured in Above Suspicion, Doctors, Goodnight Sweetheart, and The Bill in a reoccurring role. Film credits include Dave McKean’s Signal to Noise and April Gladstone’s The Tempest where she was nominated for the Ian Charleson Award. Radio experience includes Midnight’s Children for the BBC World Service, and Arabian Nights for BBC Radio 4.
STEPHEN RASHBROOK
Stephen trained at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and then joined the Royal Shakespeare Company to play Sebastian in Twelfth Night, also appearing in Othello, The Merry Wives of Windsor, Julius Caesar, The Knight of the Burning Pestle, Peter Pan, and in the original award winning production of Nicholas Nickleby (directed by Trevor Nunn and John Caird) which played in London and on Broadway. He has worked extensively in television and radio and appeared in London’s West End in Hamlet directed by Jonathan Miller, in Alan Bennett’s Forty Years On, and The Lady in the Van and as Sinatra in The Ratpack –Live from Las Vegas. His work at the National Theatre includes Hamlet directed by Richard Eyre, Luther directed by Peter Gill and The Winter’s Tale directed by Nick Hytner. He has led workshops for the National Theatre, the English Shakespeare Company, and the RSC’s Prince of Wales Summer Shakespeare School. He has just completed a run as Judge Turpin in Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd at the Union Theatre London and was recently in Salt Lake City appearing as Frank Sinatra in The Ratpack- Live from the Sands.
Stephen previously toured with AFTLS in 1993 in The Tempest. He enjoys applying his experiences as an actor to questions in the classroom especially discussions on how an actor responds to a script.
JOANNAH TINCEY
Joannah received a degree in English Literature from the University of Sheffield and trained as an actor at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA). Her favorite roles at RADA included Lady Touchwood in The Double Dealer, Tamora in Titus Andronicus, and Sandra in Touched. She was a winner of the 2007 Carleton Hobbs Award for BBC Radio which resulted in five months on the BBC Radio Drama Company where roles included Lena in Dr. Zhivago, Edwina Little in Fortunes of War, Amy in Callisto, Kate in Slipstream, and Harriet in Suing Mr. Spargo. This year she has been proud to work on the Restoring the Repetoire project for the Theatre Royal in Bury St. Edmunds, where she recently played Lady Priory in Wives as they Were Maids as they Are. She has recently recorded the part of Ann Welch in Ukemi production's version of The Deep Blue Sea by Terrence Rattigan, and Zadie in It Says on the Tin for BBC Radio 4.
Teaching experience includes running drama and literature workshops for schools and youth groups, and most recently for the children's hospital school at London's Great Ormond St. Hospital. She has delivered a range of workshops designed to improve access to literature by using drama games to explore character and text. Joannah also enjoys developing devised work in response to pictures, photographs or objects, using poetry to generate drama, and looking at the components of building a character/character study.
CHARLIE WALKER-WISE
Charlie trained as an actor at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) after completing a Political Science degree that included a year in Washington D.C. He has played on London’s West End, on television in the UK as well as in regional theatre across the UK. Favorite parts include Leontes in The Winter’s Tale, Jack in Charley’s Aunt, and Edward in Someone Who’ll Watch Over Me. He is a founding teacher for City Acting in London who teach business people acting skills both for fun and for professional development. He also runs workshops for RADA Enterprises, the commercial arm of RADA.
Charlie is also a founding member of The Factory whose revolutionary production of Hamlet directed by Tim Carol is courting offers for a September run in New York City.
Charlie is comfortable teaching politics, verse, presentation skills, drama, directing, Shakespeare’s sonnets, and voice.