Staff

Artistic Director             
Jez Bond

Executive Director
Catherine McKinney


Creative Engagement

Creative Engagement Manager
Carys Rose Thomas


Development 

Head of Development

Ama Ofori-Darko

Development & Producing Coordinator
Ellen Harris


Finance

Finance Director
Elaine Lavelle      

Finance Officer
Nicola Brown     

Finance Assistant
Pinar Kurdik


General Management

General Manager
Tom Bailey

Deputy General Manager
David Hunter

Producer Programmer
Amelia Cherry

Access Coordinator
David Deacon

Administrator
Mariah Sayer

Duty Venue Managers
Leiran Gibson, Zara Naeem, Laura Riseborough, David Hunter, Shaun Joynson, Wayne Morris, 

Park Pizza

Supervisors
Luke Brock, Jahmar Bennett

Team Members
George Gehm, John Burman, Bradly Doko, Hugo Harrison, Alex Kristoffy, Julia Skinner, Maddie Stoneman, Eliyas Swart, Sion Watkins, Jessie Williams, Maria Ziolkowska

Sales & Marketing

Sales & Marketing Director
Dawn James

Head of Ticketing 
Matthew Barker

Marketing Manager
Anna Charlesworth

Marketing Assistant
Conor Gormally

Senior Box Office Supervisor
Natasha Green

Box Office Supervisors
Jacquie Cassidy, Belinda Clark, Gareth Hackney, Trelawny Kean, Kyanne Smith, Maddie Stoneman 
 

Public Relations
Mobius Industries


Technical & Building

Technical & Building Manager
Gianluca Zona

Interim Deputy Technical & Building Manager
Laurel Marks

Venue Technician
Michael Bird


Trustees

Ibukun Alamutu
Professor Kurt Barling
Hedda Beeby
Anthony Clare - Chair
Jonathan Edwards
Kathleen Heycock
Bharat Mehta
Victoria Phillips - Vice Chair
Joe Smith
Julia Tyrrell


Associate Artist

 

Mark Cameron

Creative Director Emeritus

Melli Marie

Founding President

Jeremy Bond † (1939–2020)


With thanks to all of our supporters, donors and volunteers.

 

 


Biographies

Jez Bond

Jez Bond | Artistic Director

Jez Bond is the Founder and Artistic Director of Park Theatre. He graduated Hull University with a BA Honours in Drama and was later awarded the Channel Four Theatre Director Bursary.

Directing at Park Theatre includes; the Whodunnit [Unrehearsed] series (involving a different celebrity guest each performance inc. Gillian Anderson, Damian Lewis, David Mitchell and Emma Thompson), Shakespeare, Tolkien & You (Ian McKellen’s one man show), the first ever English language production of the play La Cage aux Folles (translated by Simon Callow), Madame Rubinstein (starring Miriam Margolyes), Winner’s Curse (starring Clive Anderson), Building The Wall, Hurling Rubble at the Sun and Adult Supervision.

Outside Park Theatre, credits include; Oliver! (starring Rowan Atkinson), I Have Been Here Before (Watford Palace Theatre), Sleeping Beauty (Salisbury Playhouse), Canaries Sometimes Sing (Kings Head & France), A Season in South Africa (Old Vic) plus tours of Austria, Switzerland and Hong Hong.

Writing, and original scores, includes: the Whodunnit [Unrehearsed] series, Rapunzel, Sleeping Beauty and Jack & the Beanstalk, all co-written with Mark Cameron. He is currently developing a new comedy for the West End.

As a dramaturge he has developed a number of plays which have gone on to great success both in London and New York. In addition, having led the capital conversion of Park Theatre, Jez has been a consultant for a number of new build projects and guest speaker at various conferences around the world.

Having led the £2.6m conversion of Park Theatre, Jez has been a guest speaker at the Theatres Trust Conference: Converting Spaces, the RIBA Conference: 150 years of Engineering, Bruford on the Southbank: New Build / ReBuild and The International Theatre Conference in Colombia. He has also consulted on a number of new theatre buildings internationally.


Catherine  McKinney

Catherine McKinney | Executive Director

Catherine joins Park from Soho Theatre, where she was Deputy Executive Director.

She has 15 years theatre management experience of high-profile cultural buildings and operations, including Soho Theatre and the grade II* listed Almeida Theatre. She has worked for Arts Council England, Bow Arts, National Student Drama Festival and the Norfolk & Norwich Festival, as well as spending a couple of years underground managing the Shunt Lounge venue in London Bridge. Catherine is a trustee of Tangled Feet theatre company.

When not making theatre, Catherine enjoys running, cycling and gin, but not all at the same time.


Dawn James

Dawn James | Sales & Marketing Director

Dawn studied Modern Drama at Brunel University before starting her career in arts marketing. Before joining Park Theatre in July 2016, Dawn was Marketing Manager at Tricycle Theatre in Kilburn for two and a half years and has also previously worked at Polka Theatre, Akademi South Asian Dance and Watermans Arts Centre. Dawn is a Culture Hive Digital Marketing Academy 1.0 graduate, has twice participated in the Culture 24: Let's Get Real digital/ cultural research programme and spoken at the Culture 24/ Google Cultural Institute conference at BALTIC in Gateshead. Dawn has been an Arts Marketing Association mentor for many years and is an occasional guest lecturer at Brunel University. Dawn has a keen interest in all things vintage and loves nothing more than finding a fashion bargain at the vintage fair. 


Elaine Lavelle

Elaine Lavelle | Finance Director

Elaine has a solid financial background in the Theatre industry for over 30 years, being the finance director for producing houses and touring companies such as the English Shakespeare Co and the Young Vic, as well as on the more commercial side of the Theatre including arts marketing servicing companies.  Elaine has also worked as a freelance accountant offering finance and tax assistance to individuals and small companies predominately in theatre throughout 3 decades.  Juggling her busy schedule with a growing family Elaine loves travelling and cooking and says her favourite activity will always be laughing!


Matthew Barker

Matthew Barker | Head of Ticketing

Matt studied English at the University of York, then Acting at Central School of Speech and Drama, after which he spent twelve years treading the boards, working in the west end and regional theatres, as well as touring internationally with companies such as Propeller and The Reduced Shakespeare Company. Since deciding to enter the world of theatre ticketing full-time, he has worked at Hampstead Theatre, with TodayTix, and with KX Tickets, setting the box office for a brand-new venue, Troubadour Wembley Park Theatre. As a North London resident, he is tremendously excited to be joining Park Theatre and can’t wait to be a part of its next chapter.

Matt is unhealthily obsessed with movies and Newcastle United. He has been playing guitar for twenty years, somehow not managing to improve in the last nineteen.


Mariah Sayer

Mariah Sayer | Administrator

Mariah has a background in classical music, from playing the piano and the violin from a young age and has danced since eight years old. After studying 3D art and design, she undertook a PGDip in Community Dance at Trinity Laban and actively engaged in schools and community projects as a Community Dance Artist. Mariah returned to Trinity Laban to complete her MA Scenography (Dance) and, subsequently, designed several installations and screens for performance events.

Mariah has twelve years of experience in the motion picture industry, within film production, sales and distribution; she assisted producers, managed international film festivals and market attendance, marketing activities and events.

Mariah enjoys living a healthy lifestyle, and her passion is a fusion of jazz music and the Argentine tango.


Mark Cameron

Mark Cameron | Associate Artist

Mark began his career as an astonishingly average stand up comedian before winning a scholarship to drama school; a huge relief for him but more so for comedy club audiences throughout the UK. Since then he has appeared regularly on stage and screen and works extensively as a voice-over artist for both radio and television.

Television credits include regular characters in: Tina and Bobby, Coronation Street, Steel River Blues, Eastenders, Emmerdale, Doctors and guest roles include: Good Omens, Brief Encounters, The Royals, Law and Order, Casualty, Holby City, Waterloo Road, The Roman Mysteries, Vincent, The Royal, Fifty Five Degrees North.
  
Theatre includes four recent productions at Park Theatre: Dean Walsh in HURLING RUBBLE AT THE Moon, The Great Gazumbees in RAPUNZEL and Nurse Ottom in Sleeping Beauty all directed by Jez Bond and The Daftas Ceremony Host in Park Theatre Review directed by Sean Mathias. Other credits include: The Dame in Sleeping Beauty (Salisbury Playhouse), Chancer in Mathematics of the Heart (Theatre 503 and winner of Brighton Fringe Festival Best Play), Dorante in The Game of Love and Chance (National Tour), Alfredo in The Breakfast Soldiers (Contact Theatre, Manchester) Tom in Life Imitates Art (Camden Peoples’ Theatre), Johan in The Bergman Project (Tristan Bates Theatre), Harcourt in The Country Wife (The Gatehouse), Scott in Blue Funk (Old Red Lion) and Petruchio in The Taming of the Shrew (Shakespeare in the Park).

Film includes: Norman Hunter in The Damned United, John in Tomo (Sundance Film Festival Winner). D.I. Hackman in Scar Tissue, The Boss in The Boss, (Reed Festival short film winner). 

As a writer he has co-written Sleeping Beauty, Jack and the Beanstalk (both published by Methuen) and Rapunzel (published by Playdead Press) all with Jez Bond, the Artistic Director of Park Theatre and all performed at Park. 

Jez and Mark’s latest collaboration, Whodunnit Unrehearsed will play at Park Theatre before transferring to the Edinburgh Festival as a co-production with Avalon and BBC Arts.

Mark has just finished Ozymandias, an independent feature film about an ageing Orson Welles coming to terms with his mortality, co-written with BAFTA and EMMY winner John Hay.  Eddie Izzard is set to star.


Melli Marie

Melli Marie | Creative Director Emeritus

Melli is an actress, theatre practitioner and choreographer. Melli is the Co-founder and Creative Director Emeritus of Park Theatre in Finsbury Park, which opened in May 2013.

Melli fell in love with the stage at age four learning ballet, tap and jazz. She joined youth theatre companies, performing at outdoor and indoor theatres. She went to The University of South Carolina where she graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Theatre and English and as a postgraduate student she went to the University of Hull for a Master of Arts in Theatre Production. During and post university Melli lead drama workshops for young people in Los Angeles, Delaware, Hong Kong and London. Between 2005 and 2011 Melli co-lead the New End Theatre Academy in Hampstead.

In 2001 Melli hit London’s fringe theatre scene. Simultaneously, she started a voice career playing roles in radio plays for BBC. She progressed into television and film work and has worked non-stop in the gaming industry, voicing hundreds of characters, as well as performing in motion capture. As a commercial artist Melli can be seen in adverts around the globe. Melli has choreographed for musical theatre and pantomimes, such as Oliver! at Summer Fields School in Oxford – where actor Rowan Atkinson played ‘Fagin’, prior to his West End run.

For Park Theatre, as Creative Director and Associate Artistic Director, Melli was responsible for many aspects of the company. Melli curated the Park 90 seasons, co-curated the Park 200 seasons, designed, launched and ran the Creative Learning Programme and curated art exhibitions for the gallery space featuring work of both local and foreign artists -often as a parallel to the work onstage. Melli created and lead Script Accelerator, a new writing programme at Park Theatre with the aim to support emerging practitioners and novice theatre makers. Several Script Accelerator’s plays would go on to have full productions in Park 90.