Guys & Dolls
Creative Team
GREG ASHTON trained at the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama and returns to the Festival after directing last year’s musical The Addams Family.
Further directing credits include The Tempest Project and The Shrew Interactive (Theatre Royal Plymouth), Hansel & Gretel (Simply Theatre Geneva), Guys & Dolls, The Wizard of Oz, (Bridgend College) Little Red (JW Productions Brighton), Cinderella (Pendle Productions National Tour) Little Red (RWCMD) and Jorinda & Jorindel (Welsh National Opera Community Project). For Perfect Pitch Musicals he directed the audiobook Barry the Penguin’s Black & White Christmas featuring Christopher Ecccleston & Kerry Ellis and he is currently directing audio recordings of The Sheep Chronicles.
As assistant director The Santa Claus Adventure (Jamie Wilson Productions), The Snow Queen, Alice in Wonderland (The Storytellers Blackburn), The Canterbury Tales (Dyffryn Gardens) and Some Enchanted Evening (Drury Lane / televised by PBS America). He co-founded the award-winning fringe company Ripley Theatre and is an associate director of the Brighton Gay Men’s Chorus.
He is proud to have been involved with the Festival since 1993.
CHRISTOPHER FOSSEY works variously as a freelance composer and arranger, accompanist and music director.
A composition graduate of the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, he has written numerous arrangements of varying scale for groups including the Welsh Musical Theatre Orchestra, the Novello Orchestra, and the South Wales Gay Men’s Chorus. In 2022 he was selected as one of the composers for Leeway Productions’ 10 Minute Musicals development programme.
As an accompanist, Christopher regularly plays for classes at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama and the Wales Academy of Voice and Dramatic Arts, as well as for auditions in both Cardiff and London.
As a music director, Christopher has worked with Youth Music Theatre UK, Superstars in the Making, The Stage Centre, Academi Leeway, Mess Up The Mess Theatre Ltd, Concept Players and with students at both RWCMD and WAVDA. In 2022 he was appointed music director of the South Wales Gay Men’s Chorus, having served as their accompanist since their inception in 2008.
Giaccolina has been dancing since the age of 2 years old. From a young age she fell in love with Musicals and wanted to study Dance and Musical Theatre professionally, and she secured a place at The Urdang Academy London, where she gained a Diploma in professional Dance and Musical Theatre.
Since graduating, Giaccolina has worked professionally, appearing in music videos and touring around the Midlands as well as many more. One of Giaccolina’s greatest achievements was dancing alongside Ruthie Henshall in St David’s Hall.
Since 16, Giaccolina has been part of Cardiff’s Orbit Theatre Company, where she has been involved in numerous musicals in ensemble and principal roles. She is also no stranger to the Festival, having performed in many musicals from previous years. Without having worked with great Directors, MDs and Choreographers at the Festival, she wouldn’t be the teacher she is today.
Having a passion to perform and teach, she also has a passion for fitness and gained a Level 3 in Personal Training, where she worked as a personal trainer in and around Cardiff. Giaccolina has been teaching dance and choreographing for over 16 years, she has taught in many different dance schools and theatre schools in and around Cardiff. She currently teaches and directs at Porthcawl for Bridgend Youth Theatre (BYT), where she has choreographed productions of RENT, We Will Rock You, The Little Mermaid and Shrek Jr. She regularly teaches in Geneva Switzerland for Simply Theatre as well as choreographing music videos for Cat Southall.
Giaccolina now runs her own Dance School GC Dance Company based in Cardiff North and the surrounding areas, where she teaches a variety of styles and ages.
“I am so grateful for having this opportunity in choreographing this great production at this year’s Cardiff Open Air Theatre Festival. Having many experiences on the stage as the performer it feels right to pass my experience and knowledge on. Working with this cast and the rest of the team has been a dream.”
Crew
Stage Manager: Keith Stanbury
Deputy Stage Manager: Susie Rendle
Assistant Stage Managers:
Elin Chichester
Sam Stanbury
Sue Osmolska
Vicky Verda
Jon Griffin