Danielle Barker Art Practitioner
Dani, after a career of teaching art and working for various charities, is an art therapist for Prospero, running the Tuesday Art Club, helping the many attendees fall in love with art and grow their creativity.
Fergus Rees
Drama Practitioner
Fergus Rees is an actor working for Prospero.
He trained at Mountview Theatre School and has been in the industry for some time working infilm, televison, radio and theatre. Fergus' hobbies include darts and reading.
Rebecca Riley
Rebecca studied Theatre at the Brit School for Performing Arts and Technology. After graduating, she worked with Prospero Theatre as a facilitator and director for inclusive arts. She wrote and directed as part of the Inspiring Change Festival, which toured throughout the UK in 2018. In addition, Rebecca worked on the Mind Fit and Creative project, delivering numerous Mind Fitness projects in schools and online webinars.
Whilst continuing with her facilitation work, in late 2018, Rebecca co-founded Volition Theatre, a theatre company that was originally based in Wales, producing two feature-length stage productions of which she directed, including Boot, 2018 and Mercy 2019. Since moving the company down to London in 2020, during the lockdown, Volition produced Walls (radio play) and co-directed an online murder mystery for the Mayor of Croydon’s charity fundraiser in 2021. During this time, she has also begun to study BA Drama, Applied Theatre and Education at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama.
Other acting work includes; Elephant of my heart at the Brighton Fringe, Red and the Wolf at the Edinburgh Fringe.
Michael Hartigan
Michael joined Prospero in 2005. Since then he has been in numerous productions including Macbeth, Snow White, 1984, Medea, Coma and Redsnd the Wolf. Michael is a drama assistant at Prospero’s Friday Club for adults with disabilities. He has appeared in many Friday Club shows including the Lion King, the Wizard of Oz and Terrorfoot’s Revenge. Michael is also involved in Prospero’s work in schools; he has led workshops on A Christmas Carol at Sunnydown School for boys. He also played the lead in a tour of hospital schools as the elephant in Elephant of My Heart by Jessica Clements.
Gayle Knowles
After twenty years as Head of English in a large Comprehensive School, Gayle decided it was time to combine her interest in Mindfulness with her skills as an English and Drama teacher to create Mindful Learning, a tutoring company for students who need support with their English studies. Her lessons focus on developing a student’s metacognitive skills. She works with students of all levels of ability and with a variety of special needs. Hers is a compassionate approach to teaching which not only teaches the curriculum and exam specifications, but also focuses on building students’ confidence by giving them a toolbox of techniques that they can use in stressful situations.
She is very pleased to be working with Prospero as, whilst she is based in the north, using Zoom has opened up the possibility of working with students anywhere in the country. During lockdown she worked with Prospero writing and performing in webinars and producing eBooks for KS2 and KS3 students on Managing Anxiety and Staying Positive.
Drew Small
Drew has been working as Prospero’s Technical Director since 2015.
Previously, Drew worked for the Arc since 2011 in the technical and maintenance departments. In addition, Drew has qualifications in joinery, carpentry, computers and business administration.
Drew has operated all the technology for Prospero’s productions.
Chrissie Mcneice
After attending the London Academy of Performing Arts, Christine has worked extensively in theatre and education. Christine has many years experience as a youth theatre director, specialising in musical theatre. Not only has Christine taught drama in schools, she has directed many professional and amateur productions featuring casts of all ages across the country and throughout Europe.
Alex o' Harney
Alex’s experience in communication and social media make her the perfect person for maintaining timely communications, ensuring that all members, community partners, and our Facebook followers are kept informed about the latest updates, news, and events.