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Whole Hog Theatre in association with Park Theatre present the World Premiere of

The Garden of Words

Official Stage Production 
Based on the Anime from Makoto Shinkai/ CoMix Wave Films  
新海誠監督作品:「言の葉の庭」 

 

ADAPTED BY I WHOLE HOG THEATRE
DIRECTOR AND CO-ADAPTER I ALEXANDRA RUTTER
CO-ADAPTER I SUSAN MOMOKO HINGLEY
PRODUCER I SHUANG TENG
SET AND COSTUME DESIGNER I CINDY LIN
LIGHTING DESIGNER I RAJIV PATTANI
SOUND DESIGNER I NICOLA T. CHANG
COMPOSER I MARK CHOI
PUPPET DESIGNER, MAKER & DIRECTOR I MIKAYLA TEODORO
SET AND COSTUME DESIGN ASSOCIATE I KELLY LOI
ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR I CAROLINE YU
ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR I MEI MAC
ASSISTANT DIRECTOR/REIMI AKIZUKI UNDERSTUDY I KAT CLEAVE
ASSOCIATE AND MOVEMENT DIRECTOR I ISKANDER R.BIN SHARAZUDDIN
FIGHT DIRECTOR I HARUKA KURODA

 

Alexandra Rutter

Alexandra Rutter is a British theatre director & creative producer specialising in adaptation and Anglo-Japanese collaborative theatre. Based in Tokyo since 2015, she is a Daiwa Scholarship Alumna, was an Asiatic Society of Japan Young Scholar 2018 and is a speaker on inter-cultural work based on Japanese source material. Alex is a co-founder and artistic director of award-winning UK company Whole Hog Theatre (est. 2012) and an Associate Director of Nelke Planning, Tokyo specialists in “2.5 Dimensional” theatre that adapts anime, manga and video games where she has worked on titles based on Attack On Titan, Prince of Tennis and Madoka Magica franchise (Magia record).

Highlights include: Movement Director: St Matthew Passion by Bach, Ueno Bunka Kaikan Dec 2021; Puppet director & designer: MUSICAL Dorothy (from The Wizard of Oz), Kansai Television (Japan National Tour); Dramaturg: The Key site-specific opera based on Junichiro Tanizaki’s Novel winner of the Suntory Foundation of the Arts 19th Keizo Saji Prize (2019); Director/Performance script: Romeo & Juliet, Bunkamura Theatre Cocoon Tokyo 2023; Creative Director: Magia Record from Madoka Magica Franchise video game starring pop idol group Keyakizaka46, TBS Akasaka Act Theater (2018); Director: Princess Mononoke (world’s first stage production of a Hayao Miyazaki film with the kind permission of Studio Ghibli) 2013.

 

Susan Momoko Hingley

Writing credits include: Petal (Omnibus Theatre) and Baaba’s Footsteps (Vault Festival). She translates Japanese and German plays into English, including Onigoro Valley (Royal Court / New National Theatre Tokyo) and literal translations of The Good Person of Szechwan (ETT), Threepenny Opera (National Theatre), The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui (Donmar) and Puntila and His Man Matti (Royal Lyceum).

 

Shuang Teng

Shuang is a freelance producer who has worked across film and theatre.

Highlights include: The Receptionist feature film (selected for Raindance, Edinburgh, Durban, Asian American and Sochi International Film Festivals ); O Depford (The Albany/New Earth Theatre); 2 Complicated (Edinburgh/Brighton Fringe); The Sexual Joneses short film (selected for Kerry and Hamilton Film Festivals); Green short film (SciFi London 48 hour Challenge finalist).

 

Cindy Lin

Cindy Lin is an award-winning set and costume designer based in Los Angeles. Lin won best set design for Untitled Baby Play at the 2023 Stage Raw Awards, was part of the Old Vic 12 2020–21 cohort, a Royal Opera House bursary recipient in 2017, and a Linbury Prize finalist in 2015. Lin trained at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama and USC School of Cinematic Arts. Her film background combined with a passion for theatre gives her a unique approach to visual storytelling that inspires atmospheric design.

Theatre includes: 2:22 (West End, Ahmanson Theatre, and Her Majesty’s Theatre, Melbourne), Untitled Baby Play (Atwater Village Theatre), Free Play (CSUN), Screwdriver (Lyric Hammersmith), Actually (Trafalgar Studios), Dismantle This Room (Royal Court Theatre and Bush Theatre), Breathe (Bunker Theatre), Hurricane Protest Songs (Graeae), Electra (RWCMD).

Opera includes: Madam Butterfly (OperaUpClose), Faust Alberta, Orpheus and Eurydice (Opera in the City Festival).

Dance includes: Heist (Zoielogic).

 

Rajiv Pattani

Rajiv graduated from LAMDA in 2014 with qualifications in Stage Management and Technical Theatre.

Recent credits include: Strategic Love Play (also Tour), Hungry (Soho Theatre/ Paines Plough Roundabout); Hairy, Let’s Build! (Polka Theatre); The Flood (Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch); SMOKE (Southwark Playhouse/3Heart Canvas); Yellowfin (Southwark Playhouse); Alice in Wonderland (Poltergeist Theatre Co & Brixton House); Yellowman, Statements After an Arrest Under the Immortality Act, OUTSIDE (Orange Tree Theatre); Supernova (also Tour), Wolfie (Theatre 503); The White Card (Northern Stage/Leeds Playhouse/ Birmingham Rep/Soho Theatre/HOME Manchester); Mog the Forgetful Cat (Royal & Derngate Northampton/Tour); Pilgrims (Guildhall School of Music and Drama); Sorry, You’re Not a Winner (Paines Plough Tour); Winners (Theatre on the Downs, Wardrobe Ensemble); Final Farewell, Sawaat (Tara Theatre); Hunger (Arcola); Dirty Crusty (Yard Theatre); Dismantle This Room (Royal Court Downstairs); Nassim (also Edinburgh Traverse/International Tour); Babylon Beyond Boarders, Leave Taking, Ramona Tells Jim (Bush Theatre).

 

Nicola T. Chang

Nicola T. Chang is an award-winning composer/sound designer for stage and screen. She was the Composer/ Sound Designer on the 2020/21 Old Vic 12 cohort and a current BAFTA Connect Member (Film Composer). She was a co-winner of the Evening Standard Future Theatre Fund (Audio Design) in 2021, and has received three Off West-End Awards in Sound Design.

Selected theatre credits include: For Black Boys Who Have Considered Suicide When the Hue Gets Too Heavy (Apollo Theatre West End/Royal Court/New Diorama), My Neighbour Totoro (RSC/ Barbican), Kerry Jackson (National Theatre), Derren Brown’s Unbelievable (Criterion West End/Mercury Colchester/ Manchester Palace), Top Girls (Liverpool Everyman), Of the Cut (Young Vic), The Ministry of Lesbian Affairs (Soho Theatre), The Swell (Orange Tree Theatre), Macbeth (Leeds Playhouse), All Mirth and No Matter (RSC), White Pearl (Royal Court), Dziady/ Forefather’s Eve (Almeida Theatre), 15 Heroines (Jermyn Street Theatre/Digital Theatre), Miss Julie (Chester Storyhouse), Funeral Flowers (Camden Roundhouse/ Hackney Empire/UK Tour), Wild Goose Dreams (Theatre Royal Bath), Little Baby Jesus (Orange Tree Theatre), The King of Hell’s Palace (Hampstead Theatre), The Death of Ophelia (Shakespeare’s Globe), Summer Rolls (Park Theatre), The Tempest (Orange Tree Theatre), No Man’s Land (Square Chapel Halifax) and A Hundred Words for Snow (Arcola Theatre).

Selected film credits include: Mei (Sundance 2022), Baked Beans (2022), Twitching (2022), The Fight in the Dog (2022), The Bicycle (2022), Devi (2022), IRL (2021), LAID (Cannes Shorts: Best Sci-Fi, New York Film Festival 2021), Getting Away with Murder(s) (2021), Seafruit (2020), A Dose of Happiness (2019), Boundaries (2019), You Wouldn’t Adam and Eve It (2019), Postcards from the 48% (2018) and The Perfect Dinner (2017). More information at www.nicolatchang.com.

 

Mark Choi

Mark is a composer, arranger, orchestrator and classically trained pianist from the Royal Academy of Music. He holds a MA (Distinction) in Orchestration for Film, Games and TV from Thinkspace Education (University of Chichester) and a BSc in Computer Science from Clare College (University of Cambridge). Currently, Mark is a BAFTA Games Connect member and was also a juror for the 2023 BAFTA Games Awards. Since 2015, he’s had the great privilege of serving as Resident Composer at Whole Hog Theatre. He has also been commissioned by Trinity Music London (Faber Music) and made contributions to both the EMI and BMG production music catalogues. As an arranger, Mark was nominated twice for a Game Music Remix Award (2021, 2023) and also won Videri String Quartet’s Quarantets competition held in 2020. Additionally, he has been one of the resident arrangers for the London Video Game Orchestra since its inception in 2019. As a performer, he has played at venues such as the Royal Albert Hall, Hyde Park (O2 Wireless), Southbank Centre and the Jazz Cafe.

Selected video game credits: Empire of the Ants (Tower Five/Microids), Breezy Bay (Talewind), Path of Kami (Captilight), Hiboka (Flying Carpets Games), TBA (Lovewish Games), TBA (Teazelcat Games).

Selected theatre credits: Romeo and Juliet (Theatre Cocoon, Bunkamura), Tristan and Isolde (DDD Aoyama Cross Theatre).

Mikayla Teodoro

Mikayla is a puppet designer, maker, and director from the Philippines, currently based in London. She trained at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama where she graduated with an MA in Design for Performance with a specialisation in Puppetry. She is the Artistic Director and co-founder of Philippines-based company Puppet Theater Manila where she and her team aim to introduce puppetry to the Philippines by training Filipino puppeteers, telling Filipino stories, and using Filipino materials. Included in their body of work is creating walkabout puppet shows including “Where Now Carabao?” and “Gus the Bangus.” She has worked in puppetry departments in various aspects for theatre, film & TV, and stop-motion.

Theatre credits include: Idiots Assemble: Spitting Image the Musical (Phoenix Theatre), My Neighbour Totoro (RSC/Barbican), Spirited Away (TOHO Imperial Theatre), The Lion King (International Tour), Life of Pi (Wyndham Theatre), Madagascar: A Musical Adventure (Maybank Performing Arts Theatre), The BFG (BSM Arts Centre) Little Shop of Horrors (Cardiff Everyman Festival).

Film/TV credits include: Doctor Who (BBC), His Dark Materials S3 (HBO) Big Cook, Little Cook (Dot2dot Productions), Roald Dahl’s Marvellous Children’s Charity (Roald Dahl Story Company), Little Oilers Club (Young Living).

Stop-motion credits include: Night of the Living Dread (National Film and Television School), Two Black Boys in Paradise (One6th Animation Studio).

 

Kelly Loi

Kelly is a production designer and maker based in London. Trained at the University for the Creative Arts where she earned a first class honours degree in Design for Film, Theatre and Performance. She has since worked in various roles for stage, film, music video, festival and ESEA community events.

Selected works include Aiyaa (Omnibus Theatre), The Herring Girls (HighTide), Brutal & Breakable (National Film & Television School), Papergang Theatre and Shy God (Moi Tran). With a background in Fine Art and love for storytelling, particularly from unheard voices, she approaches her practice with a curious and perceptive lens.

 

Caroline Yu

Caroline Yu trained as a director at LAMDA. Prior to this, she directed extensively at the ADC Theatre, where she was the Director’s Rep of the Cambridge University Amateur Dramatic Club.

Assistant Director credits include: Untitled F*ck M*ss S**gon Play (Royal Exchange Theatre/Young Vic Theatre), NDT Untapped and Fringe First Award Winner This Is Not A Show About Hong Kong (New Diorama Theatre/Edinburgh Fringe Festival); Lemons, Lemons, Lemons, Lemons, Lemons (Harold Pinter Theatre); Cinderella (Theatre Royal Stratford East); 4000 Miles (Chichester Festival Theatre).

Directing credits include: Origins Award winner Walking Cats (VAULT Festival);Yen (LAMDA); Unexpected Item in the Bagging Area (Underbelly, Edinburgh Fringe); Footlights Pantomime: The Gingerbread Man (ADC Theatre); Essentially Black (Camden Fringe); Baby, What Blessings (The Park Theatre). 

 

Iskander R.Bin Sharazuddin

Iskandar is an award-winning playwright, theatre-maker, movement practitioner, and puppeteer. He is the Joint Artistic Director of British East and Southeast Asian theatre company Ellandar Productions and an Associate at Headlong Theatre. Iskandar was awarded the Soho Theatre Tony Craze Playwriting Award for The Life of Cardboard and long-listed for the Bruntwood Playwriting Prize Top 100. His play Post-Mortem (Assembly Festival) blends physical storytelling with text and in 2020 was invited to the Blue Room Theatre, Perth and Holden Street Theatres, Adelaide in Australia as part of their international programming.

As a Movement Director selected theatre credits include: Turandot (Arcola Theatre), harmony. 天人合一 (The Pleasance), Worth (Arcola Theatre / Chester Storyhouse / New Earth Theatre), A Play for the Living in a Time of Extinction (Headlong / Barbican), Blackout Songs (Hampstead Theatre, Olivier Award Nomination, Affiliate Theatre), Satyagraha & Così fan tutte (both for English National Opera / Improbable / West End), and Associate on The Climbers (Theatre By The Lake). Iskandar was the Dance Captain / Resident on How To Train Your Dragon: Live (Dreamworks SKG / Global Creatures / US & International Tour). In 2023 he assumes the role of Resident Director on My Neighbour Totoro (RSC / Barbican). As a dance-dramaturg his dance-theatre work (un)written • (un) heard, co-conceived with Iona Kirk and directed by Jessica McVay was awarded the International Dance & Physical Theatre Award at Fringe World Festival Western Australia 2020. He was formerly Associate Artist & puppeteer for outdoor arts company, Puppets with Guts and co-conceived work for international touring, the BBC Proms, Greenwich Docklands International Arts Festival, Lyric Hammersmith, and the National Theatre River Stage. Iskandar has taught movement and improvisation for Guildhall School of Music & Drama and Arts Educational Schools London. 

 

Haruka Kuroda

Intimacy and fight director Haruka Kuroda is a British Academy of Dramatic Combat certified instructor and has fight directed and taught in various theatres, drama schools and workshops in the UK and Europe. In 2020, Haruka completed the Intimacy Coordination Mentoring Scheme for under-represented groups organised by renowned IC Yarit Dor. Haruka most recently worked as an Intimacy Co-ordinator and Fight Director for the critically acclaimed Untitled/F**k M*ss S**gon Play at the Royal Exchange Theatre and for Sheffield Theatre’s Miss Saigon. Haruka’s previous credits also include: Titus Andronicus (The Globe), Starcrossed (Wilton’s Music Hall), The Woods (Southwark Playhouse) and All My Sons (Queens Theatre Hornchurch).

Fight directing credits include: Comedy of Errors (Mercury Theatre), Love Letters The Musical and Neville’s Island (both for Queens Theatre Hornchurch), The Last Temptation of Boris Johnson (Park Theatre), Macbeth and Romeo and Juliet (Guildford Shakespeare Company), Pink Sari Revolution (Curve Theatre), Kayne the First (High Tide Festival), Beyond the Fence A New Musical (Arts Theatre West End), The Three Musketeers and Ali Baba and Forty Thieves (both for Illyria), Harajuku Girls (Finborough Theatre), Yeh Shen and Last Days of the Limehouse (both for Yellow Earth Theatre), Incognito (Gate Theatre) Robin Hood, Treasure Island and Peter Pan (all for Simply Theatre, Geneva) Knock Yourself Out (Courtyard Theatre), Sound of a Voice (Arcola Tent), Robin Hood (North Devon Theatre), TOAD (Southwark Playhouse), Running the Silk Road (Barbican/Yellow Earth Theatre), The Ladies Cage (Finborough theatre) and King Arthur (Orange Tree Theatre).

Intimacy Directing (for theatre) and Intimacy Coordinating (TV & Film) credits include: The Lessons (Southwark Playhouse), Rivals (Amazon Prime), Such Brave Girls, Life After Life, Superhoe, Sherwood, Strike: Troubled Blood & Silent Witness (all for BBC), Culprits (Disney +), Real Friends (Sky) and History of a Pleasure Seeker (Hulu).