Meet the Team
After the success of A Midsummer Nights Dream, we have decided to create a bigger production team to give more opportunities and make better quality productions for our audiences!
Zach Waddington (He/They) - Artistic Director
Zach is a University Student studying Management of Music, Entertainment, Theatre and Events at LIPA in England, He has been training in full-time professional drama schools since he was 13 - both at The Hammond School, LIPA Sixth Form College and Rose Bruford College on the Theatre & Social Change course.
He has been performing in musical theatre, plays and concerts for many years now. His favourite roles being Fat Sam (Bugsy Malone), The Artful Dodger (Oliver!), Bruno Jenkins (The Witches) and Parpignol (La Boheme).
He also does lots of behind the scenes work and has worked professionally with Action Transport Theatre based in Ellesmere Port. He is very proud of his work with ATT, especially when he assistant directed the young summer school production of 'After the end' in 2019. He realised there how important his work as a community director and social change activist was.
Zach is a trans-masculine person who creates work to do with and about his experiences about the world around him. He created this project because he wanted a space for LGBTQ+ artists and activists to share ideas, stories and experiences through the works of Shakespeare.
In the summer of 2020, still in the midst of the global pandemic, he artistically directed A Midsummer Night's Dream. The Queer Shakespeare Project's first production. Creating a safe space online for people all around the world. A space where people can thrive and be part of a community that truly wants people to be happy and be themselves.
He hopes that the next productions of the company are even better and carry on giving a home to anyone who needs it.
Shannon Lancashire (She/Her) - Production Manager
Shannon Lancashire has just finished two years studying Theatre Design, She is currently in the UK and was eager to be part of this brilliant show not only due to her love of Shakespeare but also for her to learn how to be a better Ally.
She has performed in various productions such as 'Charley's Aunt', 'Nothing Ever Happens Here', 'Allo Allo' and multiple school shows.
Her Design credits include set designer for 'Bad Girls' the musical, she worked on costumes and set on 'fragments' and before lockdown was working on being costume designer for Richard III, all at LIPA Sixth Form College.
Gabriel Bisbey (He/Him) - Technical Manager / Editor
Gabriel Bisbey is a Video and Audio editor, He was the sole editor of A Midsummer Night's Dream, and has been a part of productions for most of his life. He is beginning his education at Rose Bruford on the Creative Lighting Control Course.
.jpg)
Vidhi Mehra (She/Her) - Outreach Manager
Vidhi Mehra is an assistant professor of English Literature and a theatre facilitator based in Mumbai, India. She works with adolescents and adults through the medium of drama. She has a keen interest in cinema and theatre, and the performance of Gender. She completed her Masters in Literature from the University of Mumbai with a research thesis on Hindi Cinema and Masculinity Studies. Aiming to make academia and literature accessible, she has curated and conducted several workshops based on Shakespeare's life, works, and language with games and puppets. She has also performed and directed scenes from various plays of Shakespeare, and is very excited to be here as the Outreach Manager for QSP after playing Quince in A Midsummer Night's Dream in 2020.
Sadie O' Conor (She/Her)- Outreach Manager / Marketing Manager
Sadie O' Conor has been using music and theatre to tell stories for as long as she can remember. She is a member of the international English honor society Sigma Tau Delta, and her written literary analysis work has been published on multiple occasions in 'The Criterion' via the College of the Holy Cross. Recent stage credits include 'Little Women' (Beth), 'Into the Woods' (Cinderella), 'Richard II' (Lady/Groom) and scenes from 'Le Nozze di Figaro' (Susanna). Screen/virtual credits include Puck in 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' and originating the role of Judith Green in 'Le Deluge'. Her performance as Puck with QSP was hailed as ''magnetically devilish'' (IMDB) and of ''ethereal beauty'' (North West End UK). Sadie has also toured as a soloist/cantor with several choirs, including with the St. John Paul II Concert Choir to the Vatican and throughout Rome, Italy, and the with Holy Cross College Choir to Washington D.C. and New York City, USA. In 2020, she released her solo concert ''You Are Not Alone'' online as part of the Composing Cultural Community concert series. In the summer of 2021 she will return to the stage in person with roles in operas at the Vienna Summer Music Festival. Sadie hopes to keep using the arts of storytelling to spread joy, hope and kindness to all people in all genres.
Emily White (She/Her) - Marketing Manager
Emily has just recently graduated with a first in Drama and Theatre Studies at Liverpool Hope University. She has been doing theatre since 11 years old, starring in many plays and musicals throughout Northern Ireland.
As well as on stage, Emily has also worked backstage helping out in technical roles for many amateur productions, with her being assistant stage manager for Belvoir Player's 'Rent'. For two years during university, she was President of Liverpool Hope's Drama Society, facilitating workshops around drama practitioners. Emily is very excited to work with this company and develop her skills in production and marketing.
Errin Whalley (He/They) - Dance Captain
Errin is 20 and uses he/they pronouns. He has been dancing since he was 3 years old, Primarily in ballet at first but eventually grew to also love contemporary and choreography. They have performed in many shows with English Youth Ballet, Ballet West Scotland, Whirlwind Theatre and also took part in Akram Khan's 'Kadamati' in Edinburgh in 2018. He spent two years full-time vocational ballet training at Ballet West Scotland and is now currently studying dance at Bath Spa University. About to go into their third, and final year.
Samhita Tatavarty (She/Her) - Musical Captain
Samhita is a high school student in the U.S. Who is planning on majoring in anthropology with a minor in musical education. She is primarily a bassoonist with experience in regional and state bands and orchestras but also has little under a decade of classical Carnatic singing training. As well as experience with playing flute and tenor sax. As far as productions go, she has been a part of different musical crews and pit orchestras for school and outside shows in the past such as Othello and Guys & Dolls, and is looking forward to working with new people and new crews to further her musical career and experience. She is very excited to now be doing that with the wonderful Queer Shakespeare Project and celebrate her identity with a lovely diverse group of people!
