sunny side
MEET THE creative team
Anna Holmes and Sam Ford (Northern Rascals)
Creation & Direction
Anna and Sam co-founded Northern Rascals in 2017 after receiving a micro-commission from Brewery Arts Centre. Since then, their work has gained support from Arts Council England, Leeds City Council, and The Royal Exchange Theatre, with projects like The Aftermath, SHED, Reviving Her, and Sunny Side.
Anna, born in Hebden Bridge, trained at Northern School of Contemporary Dance before joining Jasmin Vardimon Company’s JV2. As Co-Artistic Director, Producer, and Writer, she is currently developing her first full-length play and a non-fiction book on Northern Rascals' methodology.
Sam, from Croydon, studied at the BRIT School and Northern School of Contemporary Dance before performing with Rhiannon Faith, Avant Garden Dance, and English National Opera. As Co-Artistic Director, Production Manager, and Outreach Lead, he shapes the company’s creative and engagement work.
Grace Ford
Rehearsal Director
Grace is a freelance dance artist from Croydon. She has had the opportunity to work with: John William Watson, SAY, Rachel Clarke recently and many other artists. Grace has loved being involved with Northern Rascals for years now and becoming their rehearsal director also has been a dream. Grace loves being able to teach around the UK with Northern Rascals and NYDC and other companies. She loves being involved in many different on going works as it makes her grow, indulge and meet incredible, passionate creative artists. She has worked with many amazing choreographers and artists and can’t wait to continue on her exciting adventure as a freelancer. Outside of dancing Grace enjoys gardening and baking up some goods.
Aaron Howell
Digital Artist
Aaron is a digital artist, filmmaker, animator and Director of visual arts company, Howl Creative. Originating from a background in illustration and graphic moving image, Aaron now works across dance, audio-visual installation and theatre to push how digital art interacts with both visual and performative qualities. Aaron is also the Co-Director of Night People, a collaborative arts company specialising in performance events and cabaret theatrics.
Caitlin Mawhinney
Set Designer
Caitlin Mawhinney is a Yorkshire born and bred designer.
She was the winner of the Evening Standard Future Theatre Fund for Visual Design in 2021 and has continued to gain recognition with a double-nomination for Best Designer at The Stage Debut Awards 2022, finalist for the JMK Awards as well as being a Creative Associate at Jermyn Street Theatre and a Resident Designer at New Diorama Broadgate. She trained in (BA) Theatre Design at Nottingham Trent University.
Her work as a set and costume designer has seen main stages, studios and unconventional spaces across the country. Recent collaborations include National Theatre Public Acts, Hull Truck Theatre, Leeds Playhouse, Soho Theatre, Arcola Theatre, Northern Opera, Southbank Center alongside many others. She loves to design for shows with a social and political motivation, using her designs to walk a line between reality and abstraction.
Alongside this, Caitlin’s work takes the form of installation design, most notably for the National Trust, and as Associate and Assistant to a number of designers including for the West End, Scottish Opera, Royal Opera House and National Theatre.
Barnaby Booth
Lighting Designer & Production Manager
Barnaby is a lighting designer and choreographer. His lighting credits include work for Sita Ostheimer, DeNada Dance Theatre/Carlos Pons Guerra, Jamaal Burkmar/Extended Play, Andrea Costanzo Martini, National Dance Company of Wales, Marikiscrycrycry, Sebastian Abarbanell, Jack Philp, Northern Rascals, Lisard Tranid and Clementine Telesfort, Akeim Toussaint Buck/Toussaint to Move and Crystal Zillwood, Wilhelmina Ojanen, Abbott Dance Company, Impact Dance/Hakeem Onibudo, Unholy Mess Theatre Company, Feet Off the Ground, Mavin Khoo, Ieva Kuniskis, Tora Hed, Staatstheater Kassel and Mala Kline.
As a choreographer Barnaby won a number of prizes at the Stuttgart International Solo Festival and at the Gdanski festival tanca in Poland in 2017. From there, he went on to complete successful commissions worldwide, notably working for English National Opera, and Poetic Disaster's Club of Club Guy and Roni in The Netherlands. His commissions include work for Trak Dance Ensemble (Austria), Folkwang Tanzstudio of Folkwang University of the Arts (Germany), NSCD Verve (UK), Los Little Guys (US/Mexico), Dantzaz Dance Company (Spain) and Northern School of Contemporary Dance (UK).
Wilfred Kimber
Composer
Originally from North Yorkshire, Wilfred is composer & sound designer now based in Leeds. Since studying Film Music at Leeds Conservatoire he has scored numerous independent films, working with directors Michael Jung, Ai Narapol, Connor Orton, Jacob Breen, & Daarya Serji. Wilfred also began collaborating with choreographers & dance artists in 2020, culminating in a successful ACE ‘Developing Your Creative Practice’ project in 2022 to further these collaborations in the live performance industry, working with choreographers/ companies Northern Rascals, Sylvie Holder, Katy Hewison, York Dance Space, Rees Dance, & YDT Studios. Wilfred’s passion for organic sound generation & recording comes from his own genre-spanning love of music & story-telling & is hardwired into all of the creations & collaborations he undertakes.
Geoff Colman
Dramaturg
Geoff has worked extensively in Film, TV, Theatre and Dance. From London's West End to the film sets of Hollywood, his phenomenal range of coaching skills has been developed through over 30 years experience in the performance industry.
Recent Film & TV includes: The Luckiest Man in America (Fabula/ Protagonist Pictures); John Wick 4 (Lionsgate); Mayor of Kingstown Season 3 (Paramount); Bruiser (TIFF); Kick Ass 2 (Universal); Vigil Season 2 (Netflix); The Vampire Academy (Universal); Heartstopper (Netflix); Minamata (Metal Work Pictures/ MGM); Tin Soldier (Unified Pictures); Casualty (BBC).
Recent West End includes Everybody’s Talking About Jamie (Peacock Theatre / UK Tour); & Juliet (West End / UK Tour); Strictly Ballroom the Musical (New Wimbledon Theatre / UK Tour); Dirty Dancing (2018 /2023 Dominion Theatre); Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Cinderella (Gillian Lynne Theatre); Singing in the Rain (Sadlers Wells Theatre); An American in Paris (Dominion Theatre); War of The Worlds (Dominion Theatre/ UK Stadium Tour); Cabaret (New Wimbledon Theatre/ UK tour); Carousel (English National Opera); Crazy For You (UK Tour); Chicago (Phoenix Theatre); 9 to 5 (Savoy Theatre) and more.
For Northern Rascals: Reviving Her; Sunny Side; Shed.
Adam Goode
Production Manager (Assisting)
Adam is a northern based freelance theatre technician and production manager, passionate about the intimacy of interpersonal story telling.
He has been in the technical industry for 4 years learning during his training at NSCD, where he met the team at Northern Rascals and has had the privilege of production managing both SHED, Sunny Side and Reviving Her tours. He's had the luxury of working and learning from the teams at the Riley Theatre, Leeds Beckett University and CAST Doncaster.