Former teacher Craig Christie has worked for twenty years as the principal of No Mates Productions, creating original musicals in educational, community and commercial settings. His annual Children's Book tours have been seen by over 1.2 million school children internationally and are currently being developed for television. Craig is Australia's pre-eminent creator of original music theatre and his works include the acclaimed Eurobeat which has toured world wide including a season on the West End and the new musical Hey Florence which is currently touring the USA.

A full biography is available at www.craigchristie.com

Abi Finley

Abi trained at Central School of Speech & Drama. She was a semi-finalist in How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria (BBC1) in 2006, beating thousands of hopefuls and was hand-picked by the panel including Andrew Lloyd-Webber to take part in the live programmes. Her musical theatre credits include Fame, Sleeping Beauty, Copacobana and After Ever After. She is currently appearing in the national tour of Hi-de-Hi.

Arvid Larsen

Originally from Norway, Arvid has played a range of leading roles in a many musicals both in the West End and on tour. Credits include Tony in West Side Story, Joseph in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Jesus of Nazareth in Jesus Christ Superstar, Artie Green in Sunset Boulevard, and Toomas Jerker in Eurobeat. Arvid has also enjoyed performing for children and family audiences as Prince Charming in Sleeping Beauty and Prince Lorenzo in Snow White and the Seven Dwarves.

Craig Perry

Craig trained at the Guildford school of Acting. Straight out of college he was lucky enough to join the cast of the Rocky Horror Show, playing the part of Rocky. Other credits include, Starlight Express (Caboose/Rusty), Hair (Tribe), Peter Pan (Lost Boy), The Full Monty (Malcolm), Aladdin (as Aladdin) and Eurobeat the Musical on tour and in the West End. Craig has been part of the West End in Schools team since its very first performance and has enjoyed every moment of it. Craig really enjoys interacting with the children, and seeing how much they get out of watching and being part of our stories.

Dylan Turner

Dylan has starred in many West End shows. His theatre credits include Zeke Baylor in High School Musical - Live on Stage at Hammersmith Apollo, Sky in Mamma Mia!, Sonny/Doody in Grease, Travis in Footloose and The Jury in Chicago. He has also recently appeared at the Donmar Warehouse as Soldier in Life Is A Dream. Dylan appeared in the film Mamma Mia! starring Meryl Streep which has broken all box office records, and has become the fastest and highest selling DVD of all time in many countries around the world.

Emma Cannon

Emma graduated from the London Studio Centre with a BA (Hons) degree in Theatre Dance. Theatre credits include various roles in Eurobeat - almost Eurovision (West End & UK tour); Babette, u/s Belle in Disney's Beauty and the Beast (UK tour); Marty, u/s Sandy in Grease (Victoria Palace, London and UK tour); Margie in Follies (London Palladium); Patty in Grease (UK tour); Jill in Jack and the Beanstalk (Richmond Theatre, London); Principal Singer and Dance Captain on MV Oriana (P&O Cruises); Barbara Cook and Friends (London Coliseum), and various leading roles in pantomime. TV credits include: Fame School (Meridian); Blue Peter (BBC) and the Disney Channel for whom she has also choreographed.

Emma also runs musical theatre classes in Essex as Brentwood Bright Starz. www.brentwoodbrightstarz.co.uk

Emma Williams

Emma was nominated for the Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Musical in 2009 for her role as Luisa in Zorro. She starred as Truly Scrumptious in the original cast of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang with Michael Ball at the London Palladium and was a Guest Vocalist for Michael Ball 25th anniversary Tour. She has performed as guest vocalist on Friday Night is Music Night (BBC Radio 2) and is soon to be appearing as Jenny in 'Love Story' and the Chichester Minerva Theatre as part of Festival 2010. Emma has long been an advocate of literacy in schools, and is currently studying Children's Literature with the Open University.

Graham Tudor

Graham is best known for his performances as Joseph in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. His other theatre credits include: Grease (Doody), The Rocky Horror Show (Rocky), Mamma Mia! (Eddie) and The Witches of Eastwick (Toby / u/s Michael). Other credits include Lead Production Singer onboard the QE2; and the title role in Jack & the Beanstalk. Graham has also appeared as 'Dev' in Cutting It for BBC1 and has extensive recording and live performing credits including the original cast recording of The Witches of Eastwick. Graham is a principal TrEAD (Training in Expressive arts and Drama) in Liverpool alongside Helen Noble (Hollyoaks). TrEAD offers training to children from 7-16 plus in all aspects of the performing arts.

Graham is Co-Principal of TrEAD acting school in Liverpool. www.treadactingschools.co.uk

Helen Noble

Helen is most recognized for her portrayal of character Abby Davies in Hollyoaks in which she appeared for 4 years. Helen's recent theatre credits include Princess Apricot in Jack & the Beanstalk and Alice Fitzwarren in Dick Whittington. Helen has also made regular appearances on TV shows such as presenting Friends Reunited Dating for Sky TV and Ministry of Mayhem; T4; Disney Channel and memorably appeared as a contestant on the Celebrity Christmas Special of the Weakest Link (BBC) and this year won Ready Steady Cook (BBC). Helen opened TrEAD (Training in Expressive Arts & Drama) with Graham Tudor (West End Actor) in 2007. The school based in Liverpool caters for students aged 7-18 years and offers training in all elements of the performing arts.

Helen is Co-Principal of TrEAD acting school in Liverpool. www.treadactingschools.co.uk

Lucinda Shaw

Lucinda trained at Brent Street Performing Arts in Sydney, Australia. In Australia her stage credits include the leading role of Lady of the Lake in Spamalot, Killer Queen standby in We Will Rock You, Dusty - The Original Pop Diva, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, and Sweet Charity.

Since moving to the UK last year Lucinda has appeared as Violet in It's A Wonderful Life (New Wolsey, Ipswich) and as The Enchantress in Sleeping Beauty at Birmingham Hippodrome.

Mairi Cowieson

Mairi trained at the Dance School of Scotland in Glasgow then in London at Arts Educational.

Theatre credits include: Sheila in A Chorus Line (The Lowry Theatre, Manchester), Mrs Martini in It's A Wonderful Life (New Wolsey Theatre, Ipswich), Italy, Iceland, Greece in Eurobeat (Novello Theatre West End & UK Tour), Miss Bell in Fame (European Tour), Chitty, Chitty, Bang, Bang (UK Tour) where she understudied and performed the role of Baroness Bomburst, the workshop of a new musical of Sleeping Beauty (Saddlers Wells, London), Zsa-Zsa in the original cast of Love Shack (UK Tour) and the world premiere of rock musical Barbarella in Vienna where she understudied and performed the title role as well as the Black Queen. Mairi has also performed in Starlight Express in Germany, My Fair Lady, and three pantomimes at Perth Rep where she was also assistant choreographer.

Natalie Marsland

Natalie has appeared in the Australian productions of Sunset Boulevard, directed by Trevor Nunn, Guys and Dolls, Mamma Mia, Chicago (for which she received the Guild Award for Best Actress for the part of Roxie), The Boy from Oz and The Producers amongst others. On stage she has choreographed productions of Bat Boy the Musical and A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum in Australia, Virgins, A Musical Threesome in New York, and the West End and worldwide productions of Eurobeat Almost Eurovision.

Oliver Roll

Oliver trained at The Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts (LIPA) and most recently has appeared in Cameron Mackintosh's West End production of Oliver! Other musical theatre credits include Rent, The Wedding Singer, The Wizard of Oz, Chicago and We Will Rock You. In addition to acting and singing, Oliver is an experienced professional dancer and choreographer and appeared as a featured dancer in Kenneth Brannagh's film The Magic Flute.

Shona White

Shona trained at the Royal Academy of Music where she received the Ronald White prize for acting through song.

Shona is currently appearing in All The Fun of the Fair with David Essex in the West End. Previous career highlights include performing alongside Elton John in concert at the Royal Albert Hall, playing Elphaba in Wicked, Magenta in the Rocky Horror Show, and Sophie and Lisa in Mamma Mia. In addition to regular appearances in the West End Shona has performed at the Donmar Warehouse, the Old Vic, the Royal Festival Hall, Abbey Road Studios, Buckingham Palace, and in the Royal Variety Performance.

Simon Lipkin

Simon has appeared in many West End shows including as Nicky/Trekkie Monster in the original West End cast of Avenue Q. Some of his other theatre credits include Sammy in The Wedding Singer, Willard in Footloose, Pharaoh in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat and appearing in A Christmas Carol in the West End. His television credits include Marcus in Casualty (BBC) and Liam Hayes in The Bill (ITV).

Wayne Perrey

Wayne has been in many original West End shows including, Rent, Lautrec, Peggy Sue Got Married (with Ruthie Henshall) and Bombay Dreams. His latest show was playing the romantic lead opposite Shilpa Shetty in Miss Bollywood at the Royal Albert Hall. Many of the teachers might recognise Wayne from his TV work including, Holby City, Doctors, The Chase and Dalziel and Pascoe where he played the regular detective Parvez Lateef for over two and a half years. Wayne has found the experience of performing with West End in Schools to be very rewarding and as a Dad he hopes his baby daughter will be able to see the show too one day.

Blue Box Entertainment - Producer

Blue Box produces or manages theatre productions, and also runs a small agency for creative people working in theatre, film and television.

In addition to West End in Schools our West End work has included multi Olivier Award winning Jerry Springer - The Opera, Eurobeat Almost Eurovision, Bat Boy the Musical, Round the Horne Revisited, Saucy Jack and the Space Vixens, Al Murray, The Pub Landlord, The Madness of George Dubya and Noises Off. We have also worked extensively in theatres all around the country including at the Edinburgh Festival where Eurobeat won the inaugural Best Musical Award.

Our creative clients between them design set, lights or costumes in productions from the National Theatre to the Edinburgh Festival and compose soundtracks for theatre, films and television.

http://www.blue-box.biz/