Mary Mazzilli – Playwright
A graduate of the Royal Court Young Writers Group and Soho Theatre Writers Attachment Programme, Mazzilli is a Senior Lecturer in Drama and Literature at the University of Essex. Lightstreams was developed with support from Arts Council England and was longlisted for the Theatre503 International Playwriting Award 2024/25. Earlier script-in-hand performances were presented at Lakeside Theatre Colchester, Omnibus Theatre London and Shepherd’s Bush Studio.
Richard Bland – Director
Richard is a professional Director based in East Anglia. He trained at Bristol Old Vic Theatre School and has been working locally as a Director, Dramaturg, and facilitator for the last decade.
Recent credits include ‘The Clacton Three’ by Sarah Baxter at Colchester Fringe Festival 2025, ‘Dirty’ by Han Morgan at the Mercury Theatre 2024, and ‘Wasted’ by Kae Tempest at the Wardrobe Theatre in 2023.
Richard is soon to direct ‘The Picture of Dorian Gray’ by Olly Medlicott, a new musical at the Mercury Theatre in Oct/Nov.
Zakaria Meknas
Zakaria is a Syrian-born actor and aspiring writer based in London. Zakaria recently graduated from East 15 acting school. His recent work includes a BBC Audio drama and “Drop by in a dream” feature film, he has also been featured in the short comedy film “Days like This”.
Recent writing work includes a play “A Letter And A Jasmine” and a short film called “Washing Machine”.
Gabriela Chanova
Gabriela Chanova is an Offies 2026 nominated Bulgarian actor, theatre producer and playwright. She has completed her acting training at Arts University Bournemouth, the National Youth Theatre, Young Vic Theatre, the Actors Class and specialised in Meisner practice. She has since performed with companies such as Gecko and Good Chance Theatre, as well as at venues like the Young Vic Theatre, Seven Dials Playhouse, the Hope Theatre and the Pleasance. Gabriela has toured nationally and at the Edinburgh Fringe and starred in numerous independent films, as well as shorts produced by the BFS.
Eugenia Caruso
Eugenia trained at East 15 Acting School (BA Acting).
Stage: Berberian Sound Studio dir. Tom Scutt(Donmar Warehouse), only cast member from the original film by Peter Strickland; Redefining Juliet dir. Rae McKen (Barbican); Hurried Steps dir. Nicolette Kay (New Shoes). Joint winner of The Stage Award for Acting Excellence for Truckstop dir. Chris Rolls (Eastern Angles/Company of Angels).
Screen: Louise in Wednesday dir. Tim Burton (Netflix); Maria in The Garfield Movie dir. Mark Dindal (Sony Pictures); Consuela in The Witches dir. Robert Zemeckis (Warner Bros); Verity in Avenue 5 dir. Armando Iannucci (HBO); and Mrs Santorelli in The Alienist dir. Jacob Verbruggen (TNT and Paramount). Other work includes Peter Strickland’s films : In Fabric, The Duke of Burgundy , Berberian Sound Studio
Radio : Missing Presumed Drowned dir. Marina Caldarone (BBC Radio 4), Len Continuum dir. Peter Strickland (BBC Radio 4); Road to Venice dir. Frank Stirling and Jane Morgan (BBC Radio 4).
Kenny Emson – Dramaturg
Kenny is a multi award winning writer for stage and screen. He co-created, co-wrote and was associate producer on the BBC’s ground breaking multi-platform murder mystery The Last Hours of Laura K which earned him a BAFTA nomination in Digital Creativity and a number of other prestigious television and VFX awards nominations. He adapted Agatha Christies The Coming of Mr Quin for digital media which was BAFTA CYMRU nominated for Best Game. He was selected for the BBC Writers Academy in 2011 and has gone on to write episodes of Doctors and EastEnders. Since then he has developed original projects with a variety of indies and has been shortlisted for the Red Planet prize.
His theatre projects include Rust (Bush Theatre) Plastic (Old Red Lion / Mercury theatre ) and Terrorism (Bush Theatre). He is a past winner of the Mercury Theatre playwriting prize, the Adopt a Playwright Award, the Adrienne Benham Award and has been shortlisted for both the Bruntwood and Papatango prizes. Kenny’s play, The Disappearing Man, will be coming to Queen’s Theatre in October 2026 and then later at the Yvonne Arnaud Theatre in November 2026.
He is the current Mercury Theatre Literary Associate and was the RLF Literary Fellow at University of Brighton for the last two years.