The Importance of Being Earnest

Theatre includes: Entertaining Angels, Blithe Spirit, Star Quality Time and the Conways, Good Grief, Mrs Warren's Profession, Monsieur Amilcar, Glynn and It, In Praise of Rattigan, On Approval, The Merry Wives of Windsor, Miranda, Dear Charles, The Deep Blue Sea, The Dragon's Tail, Hay Fever, Captain Brassbound's Conversion, Hobson's Choice, Moving, The Millionairess, The Apple Cart, Donkeys' Years and The Norman Conquests. Repertory includes: Chesterfield, Lincoln, Manchester, Salisbury and Greenwich and two seasons with the RSC at Stratford-upon-Avon and the Aldwych Theatre, London. Also, After the Ball (Chicago Festival, 1999) and Elizabeth I in The Regina Monologues (Covent Garden Festival, 2001), a performance she will repeat in the summer of 2008 at Middle Temple.

Directing includes: Relatively Speaking, How the Other Half Loves, In Praise of Rattigan.

Television includes: Morecambe and Wise, The Good Life. To the Manor Born, No Job for a Lady, Next of Kin, Private Lives, The Norman Conquests, Waters of the Moon, Donkeys' Years, Moving, Hay Fever, Coming Home and Marjorie and Gladys.

Penelope Keith is president of the Actors' Benevolent Fund. She served as High Sheriff of Surrey 2002-03 and is now a Deputy Lieutenant of the county. She was appointed CBE in 2007.

Theatre includes: most recently, The Canterbury Tales (RSC), Hamlet (Ulysses Theatre, Croatia), Separate Tables, Happiest Days of Your Life and Tartuffe (Royal Exchange, Manchester), Home and Beauty (Lyric), Orpheus Descending (Donmar), Lettice and Lovage (West Yorkshire Playhouse), Saturday, Sunday and Monday (Chichester), The House of Bernarda Alba (Shared Experience), Medea (Wyndham's and Broadway) and The Good Person of Sechuan (NT). Recital programmes include: The Female of the Species (British Council in Argentina, Poland, Belgium), Is the Sunlight Ever Normal at Garsington? on the life of Lady Ottoline Morrell.

Film includes: Les Miserables, Reds, Mark Gertler, The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover and She'll Be Wearing Pink Pyjamas.

Television includes: As Time Goes By (seven series), The Singing Detective, Tipping the Velvet, Uncle Silas, The Worst Witch, The Prince and the Pauper, Fatal Obsession, One Foot in the Grave, Alice in Wonderland, Simon and the Witch, Doctor Who, Stand Up Nigel Barton and The Jewel in the Crown.

Training: RADA 1958-60.

Theatre includes: Old Vic: Romeo and Juliet (director Franco Zeffirelli); RSC 1963-71: Francis and Bardolf in The Wars of the Roses, Bobchinski in The Government Inspector and Reynaldo in Hamlet (director Peter Hall), Costard in Love's Labour's Lost (director John Barton), Friar Jacamo in The Jew of Malta (director Clifford Williams), Timon of Athens (director John Schlesinger) and Hortensio in The Taming of the Shrew (director Trevor Nunn); RSC 1974-80: William and Le Beau in As You Like It (director David Jones), Sim in Wild Oats (director Clifford Williams), Lory in The Relapse (director Trevor Nunn), Cicinius in Coriolanus, Bardolf in Henry IV parts I and II and Henry V (director Terry Hands) and Bishop in Privates on Parade (director Michael Blakemore). Also, Norman in The Dresser, Dr Caius in The Merry Wives of Windsor (NT) and Sir Oliver in The School for Scandal (RSC, director Declan Donnellan).

Film includes: The Pink Panther, Under Milk Wood and Melody.

Television includes: series The Dustbin Men, The Bretts, Wycliffe, As Time Goes By, A Bit of a Do, Pride and Prejudice and My Hero. Also, Henry V, Hamlet, Poirot, Heartbeat,The Darling Buds of May, Rumpole of the Bailey, Peak Practice, Absolutely Fabulous, French and Saunders, Lovejoy, Casualty, Stay Lucky, Plays for Today, Dessert of Lies (director Piers Haggard), Daisy's Dad, Her Majesty's Pleasure (director Barry Davis) and Instant Enlightenment Including VAT.

Training: London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art.

Theatre includes: Hay Fever (Bill Kenwright tour), The Voysey Inheritance (NT), Romeo and Juliet (Nuffield Theatre) and The Prayer Room (Edinburgh Lyceum/Birmingham Rep).

Film and television include: The Amazing Mrs Pritchard and Churchill at War.

Radio includes: Another Country and Maurice.

Training: London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, graduating in July 2006.

Theatre includes: Mercutio in Romeo and Juliet (BAC), Sordo in Scenes from an Execution (Hackney Empire) and Victor in Private Lives (Simply Theatre).

Film includes: La Vie en Rose, directed by Oliver Dahan.

Television includes: The Amazing Mrs Pritchard, Hotel Babylon and Waking the Dead.

Training: London Academy of Dramatic Art.

Theatre includes: The UN Inspector (NT), The Master and Margarita, A Midsummer Night's Dream (Chichester Festival Theatre), The Comedy of Errors (Bristol Old Vic), The Dwarfs (Tricycle) and Ivanov (Almeida).

Film includes: Nicholas Nickleby, Max and Club Le Monde.

Television includes: Sense and Sensibility,The Scum Also Rises, Ronni Ancona Show, Housewife 49, Bash, Saxondale, New Street Law, FM, Man Stroke Woman (two series). Green Wing, Lenny Henry Show, Casanova, Musical Chairs, The Last Chancers, Peep Show, Hardware, The Dwarfs, Ready When You Are Mr McGill, Manchild, Clocking Off, My Family, Swivel on the Tip and Ruth Rendell – Heartstones.

Training: Rose Bruford, graduating in 2006.

Theatre includes: recently, Shelf Life (Old Red Lion), Spoonface Steinberg (Etcetera Theatre) and TheTempest (Brownsea Open Air). Whilst working with the National Youth Theatre she starred in their productions of Much Ado About Nothing and The Master and Margarita.

Film includes: Rebecca (Spool Films), the feature film Framed and Tail.

Television includes: the title role in the BBC's recent production of Fanny Hill.

Training: Guildhall School of Music and Drama.

Theatre includes: recently, A Passage to India and Madame Bovary (Shared Experience tours) and The Taming of the Shrew (RSC). Also, A Woman of No Importance (Salisbury), Travels With My Aunt (Exeter), Misero Prospero (Almeida), What Every Woman Knows (West Yorkshire Playhouse), The Tempest (Old Vic), Sunday's Children (Derby), The Weavers and Outside on the Street and The Stick Wife (Gate) and seasons with the RSC, appearing in As You Like It, All's Well That Ends Well, The Duchess of Malfi. The Taming of the Shrew, A Jovial Crew and Antony and Cleopatra.

Film, television and radio include: Trial and Retribution, The Amazing Mrs Pritchard, Band of Brothers, Kavanagh QC, The Bill, Tales from Hollywood, Close My Eyes, The Accountant and The Archers.

Theatre includes: Racing Demon, Murmuring Judgesjhe Absence of War, Johnny on a Spot,TheWind in the Willows, The London Cuckolds and The Voysey Inheritance (NT), As You Like It, The Caucasian Chalk Circle, Playing With Fire and A Penny for a Song (RSC), When We Dead Awaken, The Trials of Joan of Arc, A Midsummer Night's Dream,The Playboy of the Western World and Daniel Deronda (69 Theatre Company), The Merchant ofVenice,The Tempest and The Miser (Manchester Royal Exchange), Reader (Edinburgh Traverse), The Taming of the Shrew (Nottingham Playhouse), TravelsWith My Aunt (New Vic), The Importance of Being Earnest and Hysteria (Exeter Northcott), Richard II, Coriolanus, The Tempest, Lulu and Platonov (Almeida), The Life of Gailileo (BAC), On Borrowed Time (Southwark Playhouse), Tina, Land of Palms, Skungpoomery and The Memorandum (Orange Tree), Scenes from an Execution (Hackney Empire), One at Night (Royal Court) and Mister, Erb, Peter Pan and Don Carlos (West End).

Directing includes: productions at Manchester, Ipswich, Cheltenham, Bristol, Salisbury, Bolton, Hornchurch, Cambridge, Zurich, Ludlow Festival, the Open Space and the Orange Tree.

Film and television include: Charles II, Casualty, A Dream Called Forth, When We Dead Awaken, Shadow of the Noose, Front Page Story, As You Like It, Crown Court,The Bill, Waiting for God, Down to Earth, EastEnders, Midsomer Murders and Looking for Alfred.

Radio includes: The Crucible, Julius Caesar, Little Red Line, Dido Queen of Carthage, An Unspeakable Crime, As a Man Grows Older,The Forbidden Shore, Creditors and Don Carlos.

Training: Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts.

Theatre includes: Desdemona in Othello (Edinburgh Fringe), Laura in The Glass Menagerie (English Theatre of Hamburg) and, most recently, Alison in Look Back in Anger (Vienna English Theatre).

Other work includes: Sarah in Bar Talk and The Outing (short films, Don't Walk Productions) and London Stories and Poems and London Limericks (Goya Lit).

Theatre includes: Blithe Spirit with Penelope Keith (Savoy) and A Day in the Death of Joe Egg with Prunella Scales (New Ambassadors and Comedy). Recent tours include The Importance of Being Earnest with Wendy Craig and Josephine Tewson and The External, again with Prunella Scales (both Theatre Royal, Bath). Earlier tours include: The Circle with Peggy Mount and Michael Goodliffe, The Sound of Murder with Richard Todd, Salad Days and The Boy Friend. Repertory includes: Bradford, Chester, Dundee, Folkestone, Guernsey, Plymouth and Swansea, playing roles as diverse as Gertrude in Hamlet, Amanda in Private Lives, Catherine in The Heiress and Sheila in Relatively Speaking. Jennifer has also worked abroad, playing Mrs Mercy Croft in The Killing of Sister George (English Theatre of Hamburg) and Amanda Wingfield in The Glass Menagerie (touring Austria for Vienna's English Theatre).

Television includes: Crossroads, Strike!, Funny Man with Jimmy Jewell and Alfred Marks, The GPs, Crime Monthly and The Bill.

Training: LAMDA.

Theatre includes: recently, Charley's Aunt (Theatre Royal, Bath, and tour), Donkeys' Years (tour) and Jeffrey Bernard Is Unwell (revival, Garrick). Also, Brief Encounter (Taplow Festival), A Right Dick (Riverside Studios), Daphne (Basingstoke Haymarket), Salad Days (revival, Vaudeville and tour), Mr and Mrs Nobody (Garrick and tour),Jeffrey Bernard Is Unwell (Theatre Royal, Bath, Apollo, Shaftesbury and tour), Make and Break (Theatre Royal, Haymarket), Rookery Nook (Her Majesty's), Ball Boys, Feasting with Panthers, The Cherry Orchard and She Stoops to Conquer (Chichester Festival), Hamlet and Travesties (Sadler's Wells), The Tempest (Regent's Park Open Air), The Way of the World (Theatr Clwyd), He Who Gets Slapped, Rashomon, Henry V, The Taming of the Shrew, Aladdin, Oh What a Lovely War and The Lower Depths (Worthing Connaught), The Norman Conquests, Five Finger Exercise and Duet for One (Buxton Festival), Cinderella and Old King Cole (Unicorn).

Film includes: Rhythm and Blues, Duet for One, A Bridge Too Far and Valentino.

Television includes: The Queen's Sister,The Truth According to Bex, My Family, British Slaves, Absolute Hell, Mother Love, The Brothers, The Bill, Frank Stubbs, Minder, Fatal Consequences, Harry Lifters and Backs to the Land. Voiceovers include: Narrator and Mr Ollivander on the Harry Potter computer games, Narrator on Great Journeys, Dunkirk, 60th Anniversary and The Romans. Gary is a Nichiren Buddhist.

Training: George recently graduated from the Academy of Live and Recorded Arts (ALRA).

Theatre includes: whilst training, The Caucasian Chalk Circle, Measure for Measure and Live Like Pigs.

Peter Gill was born in 1939 in Cardiff and started his professional career as an actor. He has directed over 80 productions in the UK, Europe and North America. At the Royal Court Theatre in the 1960s, he was responsible for introducing D H Lawrence's plays to the theatre and was the founding director of Riverside Studios and the NT Studio. Classical plays directed include: Gaslight (Old Vic, 2007), Look Back in Anger (Theatre Royal Bath, 2006), The Voysey Inheritance (NT, 2006), Romeo and Juliet (RSC, 2004-05), Uncle Vanya (Field Day tour, 1995), The Way of the World (Lyric, Hammersmith, 1992), The Cherry Orchard and The Changeling (Riverside Studios, 1978) and Twelfth Night (RSC, 1974, and Aldwych transfer, 1975). New plays directed include: Epitaph for George Dillon by John Osborne and Anthony Creighton (ATG, 2005), Days of Wine and Roses by J P Miller, in a new version by Owen McCafferty (Donmar Warehouse, 2005), Scenes from the Big Picture by Owen McCafferty (NT, 2003), Speed-the-Plow by David Mamet (ATG, 2000), Tongue of a Bird by Ellen McLaughlin (Almeida, 1997), New England by Richard Nelson (RSC, 1994), Mrs Klein by Nicholas Wright (NT, 1988) and Tales from Hollywood by Christopher Hampton (NT, 1983). Plays directed for the Royal Court include: The Fool by Edward Bond (1975), Crimes of Passion - The Ruffian on the Stair and The Erpingham Camp by Joe Orton (1966) and A Collier's Friday Night by D H Lawrence (1965).

As writer as well as director, his plays include: The York Realist (English Touring Theatre at the Royal Court, 2002), The Look Across the Eyes and Lovely Evening (BBC Radio 4, 2001), Certain Young Men (Almeida, 1999), Friendly Fire (NT, 1998-99), Cardiff East (NT, 1995), Mean Tears (NT, 1987), In the Blue (NT, 1985), Small Change (NT, 1983), Kick for Touch (NT 1983), The Sleepers Den (Royal Court, 1969), Over Garden Out (Royal Court, 1969) and Original Sin (Sheffield).

Tom read English at Oxford University where he directed many productions including A Streetcar Named Desire and Into the Woods (Oxford Playhouse), A Doll's House and Lady Windermere's Fan (tours) and open-air productions of A Midsummer Night's Dream and As You Like It. Also, The Stranger, The Glass Menagerie, Twelfth Night, Dogg's Hamlet, Cahoot's Macbeth, Anything Goes and Old Times. Tom is the artistic director of Primavera, which he founded in 2003 for a production of the four-act version of The Importance of Being Earnest. Recent productions for Primavera include Ethel Smyth's opera The Boatswain's Mate, Hubert Henry Davies's comedy The Mollusc, T S Eliot's verse play The Confidential Clerk (residency at the Finborough) and the Forgotten Classics series, featuring plays by Byron, Woolf and Dickens (King's Head). In spring 2008 at the Finborough, Tom will direct the first revival of Charles Wood's Jingo: a Farce of War, a dark comedy about ex-pat life in Singapore during the war. At the Edinburgh Festival he has directed Stephen Sondheim's Passion and David Mamet's Boston Marriage and he recently directed Pericles Snowdon's new play Six/Seven (High Tide Festival). As an assistant director, Tom's credits include work for Sir Peter Hall on the world premiere of Simon Gray's Little Nell (Theatre Royal, Bath), Laurence Boswell on Treats (tour and Garrick), Alan Strachan on The Letter (tour and Wyndham's), Peter Duncan on Dick Whittington (Oxford Playhouse) and James Conway on Eugene Onegin (tour). He is about to assist Sir Peter Hall on The Vortex.

Theatre includes: Royal Court: Small Change, The Fool, Edmund, Hamlet, Etta Jenks, Kafka's Dick, I Licked a Slag's Deodorant (Ambassadors), Hitchcock Blonde (Olivier Award, also South Coast Repertory Theatre, California). RSC: Ivanov, That Good Between Us, Richard III, The Party, The Merry Wives of Windsor (Olivier Award), Richard II, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Country Dancing, The General from America, Marya (Old Vic), Hamlet (Neue Schauspielhaus, Hamburg), The Ship and The Big Picnic (Glasgow's Cultural City of Europe Year, 1990).West End: I Claudius, Mutiny!, Kiss Me, Kate, Girlfriends, Matador, Heartbreak House, My Night with Reg, Rat in the Skull, A Streetcar Named Desire, Lenny, Entertaining Mr Sloane, Blue / Orange, The York Realist (English Touring Theatre, Royal Court, Strand) and, most recently, David Hare's The Breath of Life starring Judi Dench and Maggie Smith, Hitchcock Blonde in its transfer from the Royal Court, and Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Woman in White (Palace, also Broadway). NT: Lavender Blue, Larkrise to Candleford, Lost Worlds,The World Turned Upside Down, Undiscovered Country and Dispatches (Olivier Award), Don Quixote, Schweyk in the Second World War, The Real Inspector Hound, The Critic and The Mysteries (Olivier Award), Entertaining Strangers, Waiting for Godot, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, The Shaughraun, The Changeling, Bartholomew Fair, The Voysey Inheritance, The Crucible, The Coup, Pygmalion and The Rise and Fall of Little Voice (Olivier Award), On the Ledge, Johnny on a Spot, Under Milk Wood, Wild Oats, Mary Stuart, The Alchemist (with Birmingham Rep), The Homecoming, The London Cuckolds, Cleo, Camping, Emmanuelle and Dick,The Forest, Blue I Orange, All My Sons (Olivier Award 2001 Best Set Designer), The Coast of Utopia; Honour, The Permanent Way, Cyrano de Bergerac, Landscape with Weapon and The Hothouse. Donmar Warehouse: Old Times and Betrayal. Hampstead: Some Sunny Day. AImeida: The Deep Blue Sea and Tongue of a Bird. Globe: Titus Andronicus. Theatre Royal, Bath: Look Back in Anger. Chichester Festival Theatre: The Last Confession starring David Suchet. Bill also designed the sets for Roman Polanski's acclaimed musical version of The Dance of the Vampires, which opened in Vienna in 1997 and then toured Germany, opening in Berlin in early 2007, and for Peter Hall's production of Amadeus at (Old Vic and Broadway).

Opera includes: Idomeneo (WNO), Billy Budd (Metropolitan Opera), The Barber of Seville and Seraglio (Glyndebourne), Tales of Hoffman, Der Rosenkavalier, Don Giovanni and The Cunning Little Vixen (ROH), The Ring Cycle (Bayreuth), Un ballo in masquera (Salzburg Festival), Lucia di Lammermoor (Lyric Opera of Chicago), Lucia di Lammermoor (Opera National de Paris) and The Silver Tassie (ENO).

Exhibitions: the site of the 1587 Rose Theatre.

Film: Persuasion (1994, BBC, BAFTA winner) and The Rose Theatre (Royal Television Society winner).

Bill has won seven Olivier Awards and been nominated for a further seven. He received a BAFTA and a Royal Television Society Award for his work on Persuasion (BBC). He was nominated for two Outer Critics' Circle Awards for scenic and costume design for Amadeus on Broadway. Bill won the 2003 Critics' Circle Award for The Coast of Utopia (NT) and was nominated for Evening Standard and Olivier Awards for the same production. He won the Theatregoers' Choice Award for Best Set Designer for The Woman in White in 2005.

Stephen spent 14 years at the National Theatre where he lit more than 35 productions, many for Peter Gill, including Fool for Love (Cottesloe and West End), Danton's Death (Olivier) and Venice Preserv'd (Lyttelton). After leaving the NT, Stephen became senior lighting designer for the Tussauds Group and lit many attractions at Madame Tussaud's, Warwick Castle, Alton Towers and Chessington World of Adventures in the UK, and also exhibitions in New York, Las Vegas and Amsterdam. Recently, Stephen took over Modelbox, which is a theatre-based, computer-aided design consultancy.

David studied composition, piano and bassoon at Trinity College of Music, London.

Composition for plays includes: The Enchantment (NT), Total Eclipse (Menier Chocolate Factory), French Without Tears (English Touring Theatre), Dead Funny (Oldham Coliseum, tour), Hobson's Choice (Watermill, Newbury), Epitaph for George Dillon (Comedy), Of Mice and Men (Mercury, Colchester), A Streetcar Named Desire (Clwyd Theatr Cymru) and Unless (Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough).

As an orchestrator/arranger: Aspects of Love (UK tour, 2007), The Three Musketeers (Boston and Chicago), Troilus and Cressida (Chicago Shakespeare Theatre), Assassins, Ain't Misbehavin', A Chorus Line and High Society (Crucible, Sheffield), Annie Get Your Gun (tour), A Twist of Fate (Singapore Repertory Theatre and album), Mixed Doubles, Rogues to Riches (Watermill, Newbury) and Take Me to the World (album). David has worked extensively as an arranger for cabaret and played the Firebird Cafe and Carnegie Hall in New York and all major venues in London.

Conducting includes: Just So (Chichester Festival Theatre and album), Ragtime (London), Miss Saigon (tour), My Fair Lady (NT and Theatre Royal, Drury Lane), A Christmas Carol (Royal Festival Hall), Dick Whittington (Sadler's Wells), Martin Guerre (West Yorkshire Playhouse, tour and album), Master Class (London), Chess (tour and Oslo) and Carmen Jones (European tour).

David is a regular member of staff at the Royal Academy of Music.

Mike started his career at the Sherman Theatre, Cardiff, straight out of school, and left five years later as chief LX/head of sound. He then toured Europe, America, Russia and Japan as a sound engineer for four years with Clarion Productions and DV8 Physical Theatre. Since then, Mike has worked with many companies, including Imagination, Orbital, Theatr Clwyd,Y Cwmni, Theatre Gwynedd and National Museums and Galleries of Wales.

Mike's designs include: Aberystwyth Art Centre: Great Expectations, directed by Alan Lyddiard; Sherman Theatre Company: Hans Christian Anderson, The Borrowers, Merlin, directed by Phil Clark; Birmingham Stage Company: Danny the Champion of the World, directed by Phil Clark; Theatre Royal, Bath: Happy Days and Where There's a Will, directed by Sir Peter Hall, The Gingerbread Man, directed by Neil Simon, Love and Marriage, directed by Marc Clements; Diversions Dance: Chase the Glowing Hours with Flying Feet, choreographer Helene Blackburn; Theatre Na n'Og: The Princess and the Hunter, directed by Geinor Styles; Fiction Factory: Gas Station Angel and Song from a Forgotten City, directed by Ed Thomas. He was sound programmer for the Edward Scissorhands American tour and The Producers British tour. Much of Mike's work for the last five years has been with Stage Sound Services, working as sound designer and production consultant on theatre and corporate events.

Concentrating largely on new British writers and plays, Michael Codron has produced around 130 West End shows including, recently, Glorious!, Losing Louis, Ying Tong – A Walk with the Goons, Democracy, Dinner, My Brilliant Divorce, Blue / Orange, Copenhagen, Comic Potential and The Invention of Love. He has been the principal producer and usually the original and only producer of the work of a number of writers. These include Alan Ayckbourn, Alan Bennett, Michael Frayn, Simon Gray, Christopher Hampton, Frank Marcus, John Mortimer, Joe Orton, Harold Pinter and Tom Stoppard. He is administrator of the Aldwych Theatre and was a Cameron Mackintosh Professor of Contemporary Theatre at Oxford. He is a graduate of Worcester College, Oxford, and was appointed CBE in 1989.