Meet The Players

Janet joined the Players in 1978 and has played many roles, from junior heroines through middle-aged matrons to mischievous grannies. Some favourite roles have been 'Queen Mary' in Crown Matrimonial, 'Emma' in Way Upstream, 'Granny' in Haywire, 'Olwen Peel' in Dangerous Corner, 'May Archer' in A Foot in the Door and 'Jocelyn Thripp' in We Happy Few. She enjoyed being Pensioner-age witch 'Granny Weatherwax' in Wyrd Sisters and 'Miss Furnival' in Black Comedy.

Keith has been with the Players since 1987, the first production being A Lady Mislaid where he played the hapless Sgt Bullock. In the 30 years since, Keith has been associated with more than 75 productions, either acting, directing, helping back stage, or helping with Front of House. Most recently he played the part of Neville in Season’s Greetings by Alan Ayckbourn and William Collyer in The Deep Blue Sea. He also met a young lady (Jackie) in the group in 1987 who he eventually married—they celebrated their silver wedding anniversary last year.

Sue has been with the Players for 20 years and in that time has taken on roles in productions as varied as Gigi, Steel Magnolias, Gaslight, Stepping Out, David Copperfield and My Sister In This House. In recent years she performed as Daisy’s trusty sidekick, 'Trixie Martin', in Daisy Pulls It Off and 'Barbara Jackson' in Pack of Lies. In 2014 she played 'Azuriel' in Sleeping Beauty before giving birth to Aisling, a sister to Conor. As a busy mum of two, Sue is less able to commit to as many acting roles but was stage manager for the RSC Open Stages production of We Happy Few and the Philip Ayckbourn premiere of Timeshare, and in 2015 took on the loveable character of 'Magrat' in the stage adaptation of Terry Pratchett’s Wyrd Sisters. Last year she was 'Angel' in The Flint Street Nativity, and in 2017, 'Lane' in Who Calls?

Juliette is a talented photographer, actor and musician. She joined the Alexandra Players in 2000 and has appeared in many of our productions since then including Steel Magnolias, Stepping Out, Blithe Spirit, David Copperfield and My Sister In This House. She directed Absurd Person Singular in 2010 and played 'Lotty Wilton' in the delightful comedy Enchanted April in 2012. More recently she played 'Clare Beaumont' in Daisy Pulls It Off, had a small part in Good Things and took the leading role of 'Hetty Oak' in our RSC Open Stages production of We Happy Few. She played 'Mary' in our recent production of The Flint Street Nativity, 'Vi' in The Memory of Water and 'Mrs Abernethy' in Who Calls? before directing our most recent production, Season's Greetings by Alan Ayckbourn.

Liz took part in the joint Church/Players pantomime in 2004. She enjoyed her role as Fairy Godmother so much she was inspired to join the company and has acted with the Players in a number of roles. When not acting she helps backstage or with interval teas.

Originally from South Africa, Rose did a drama course led by Professor Bud Castle at the Johannesburg College of Education. In 2010 she joined the Henley Players before moving to the UK with her husband in 2011, when she joined the Alexandra Players. With the Players she has done backstage work and acted in Crown Matrimonial (Elizabeth, Duchess of York), Daisy Pulls It Off (Belinda), Good Things (Scotch Doris), Pack of Lies (Sally), Sleeping Beauty (evil fairy Carabosse), We Happy Few (Flora Pelmet), Cinderella the Untold Story (O’Reilly The Fairy Tale Fixer), Wyrd Sisters (Nanny Ogg), Cat’s Cradle (Peggy Fletcher), Timeshare (Marina) and Who Calls? (Twilley).

Louise’s love of performing began in her final year at Primary School when she was cast in the role of ‘Baloo’ for a production of The Jungle Book. She later studied Drama at secondary school and Media Studies for A’level. In 2012, Louise decided to revisit her love of acting and discovered The Alexandra Players via Twitter. In 2014, having appeared in several plays with us, she took over responsibility for maintaining our website, social media pages and designing our publicity material. Leaping at the chance to assist in directing Timeshare in 2016, she enjoyed learning about the different aspects that go into putting a production together. Louise loves being able to express her ideas creatively and collectively amongst the group and has learnt a lot, fueling further ambitions to direct and even write a play herself one day. In February 2018, Louise brought a taste of the West-End to Charlton when she marked her directorial debut with Terence Rattigan's The Deep Blue Sea. She will be directing another production later this year in October. We last saw Louise on stage in February 2019 when she was cast as Linzi Ellison in Drowning on Dry Land.

Before joining The Alexandra Players, Mark's last big acting role was the lead Shepard at his school's nativity! Mark has always loved performing and has spent the intermittent years as a percussionist in a variety of different bands and music styles, including folk, rock, ska, and soca reggae. He has played in varied locations such as Glastonbury, Leicester Carnival, Trance parties and even Battersea Power Station. Mark will always be ready to bore anyone with his other great love; Motorcycling. He is a qualified advanced rider and advanced motorcycle instructor. He also looks rather fetching in a dress as we so discovered when he played a dame, 'Della' in Cinderella: The Untold Story. He has also appeared in Wyrd Sisters and Cat's Cradle.

Having been with the Alexandra Players over a year, Lee has helped back stage on the production of Cat’s Cradle, had a small walk-on part in Timeshare, then his first ‘proper’ role as both 'Herod' and 'Joseph', which he thoroughly enjoyed along with the rest of the cast, in The Flint Street Nativity. He then directed an excellent production of The Memory of Water in February 2017.

Alex’s first role was as the 'Wicked Queen' in a school production of Snow White and the 21 Dwarves, and she’s been hooked ever since. More recently she has acted with the Lancaster University Theatre Group, in productions such as The Tempest and The Picture of Dorian Gray. This is Alex’s second acting part with the Alexandra Players, having previously played 'Clea' in Peter Shaffer’s Black Comedy which was directed by Keith Hartley.

This is Mark’s first (and hopefully not last) venture with the Players. He has previously acted and directed at the Edward Alderton Theatre, the Erith Playhouse and the Bob Hope Theatre. Previous roles include 'Sloane' in Entertaining Mr Sloane, 'Private Walker' in Dad’s Army, 'Benedick' in Much Ado About Nothing and 'Captain Ashwood' in It Ain’t Half Hot Mum. He has directed several plays, including Brimstone and Treacle, Rope, Abigail’s Party and Justifying War, a play about the Hutton Enquiry in which he played his namesake, 'Alistair Campbell'. His production of The Caretaker won a Bexley Arts Council award in 2006, and he recently adapted and directed the world premiere of a special amateur production of Some Mothers Do ’Ave ’Em.

Christopher has always loved performing, ever since his critically acclaimed portrayal of Jiminy Cricket in a primary school production, when he was only seven years old. He is no stranger to the stage—he has cut his teeth in many music based projects, as well as performing at a number of spoken-word poetry events. His portrayal of Edmund Swettenham in our production of A Murder is Announced was his debut. We last saw Christopher on stage as Jason in Alan Ayckbourn's Drowning on Dry Land.

Catherine has previously performed with the Trinity Theatre Club and Italia Conti Associates, both in Tunbridge Wells, and was also part of the RADA Youth Company in London. Parts have included Leila Arden in Patrick Hamilton’s Rope and Portia in Julius Caesar. Catherine graduated with a degree in Drama and English Literature from Manchester University and during her time there performed in a few different shows in both the Drama and Musical Theatre Society, as well as the independent theatre company ‘Smashed Glass Theatre’. Catherine first joined the Alexandra Players for their production of Agatha Christie’s A Murder is Announced and also appeared in our production of Oh What a Lovely War.

Shereen joined the Alexandra Players in 2018, keen to explore her interest in theatre and acting. She joined as the players were reading for the production of Drowning on Dry Land and was cast into the role of Marsha Bates which she thoroughly enjoyed and for which she received some great feedback. Shereen is passionate about singing and musicals and would like to act and sing in a musical one day.

David Hawkett (lighting and sound design) enjoys all things techie backstage. He’s done sound or lighting for most of the recent Players’ productions. “The best bit about Am Dram is when it all comes together: actors, set, props, costumes, front-of-house, sound, lights - and, most important, the audience”, he says.