Graham Hopkins was born and grew up in Pietermaritzburg and was educated at Hilton College and Natal University. After two years of compulsory National Service, during which he was deployed as a school teacher, he taught maths for the Natal Education Department, before becoming an actor in 1983. Theatre being his favourite medium, he has appeared in professional stage productions every single year since, with the obvious exception of 2020.

Most recently, he played Sir Wilfrid Robarts in Agatha Christie’s Witness For the Prosecution. Before that he co-produced Hansard, by Simon Woods, alongside long-time friend and colleague Fiona Ramsay. Leading roles in film and TV productions include Hapgood; The Native Who Caused All the Trouble; Barney Barnato; Hotnotsgode; The Lab; Warrior; Mr Johnson and The Girl from St Agnes. He has also performed in musical theatre, both here and in the UK. For Pieter Toerien Productions his work includes Jeeves and Wooster, Pythonesque, Honour, Around the World in 80 Days, The 39 Steps, Travels With My Aunt, History Boys and Equus, among many others.

Graham has a son, Thomas, who is married and lives in London.

Emily graduated from UCT in 2007 with a Theatre and Performance Degree. She then joined repertory theatre troupe, The Mechanicals. She has performed around the country for almost 20 years in memorable productions such as Steven Berkoff’s Decadence, directed by Chris Weare, William Shakespeare’s King Lear, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, directed by Guy De Lancey, Athol Fugard’s The Road to Mecca starring Sandra Prinsloo and Marius Weyers and directed by Greg Karvellas, and Scott Sparrow’s Dinner with the 42’s. She has worked with Louis Viljoen on numerous productions over the past two decades including CHAMP which toured Edinburgh, The Hucksters, and the acclaimed The Pervert Laura.

Emily’s work has garnered her numerous awards and nominations, including the 2024 Fleur Du Cap Award for Best Actress for the role of Blanche DuBois in Tennessee Williams’ classic A Streetcar named Desire, directed by Chris Weare.

Emily can be seen in numerous film and television roles, including Lucy O’Hara in seasons One to Three of HBO and Netflix’s series, Warrior, conceptualised by Bruce Lee.

She is the author of multiple children’s books with Imaginary House publishers and together with Donovan Graham and Daniel Rutland Manners, recently opened their own Film Production Company, Invert Pictures.

David Viviers is a Cape Town based actor and author. He holds a Masters Degree from UCT in Creative Writing and a BA in Theatre and Performance. In 2016, David was a recipient of the Brett Goldin Bursary, which allowed him to study acting with the Royal Shakespeare Company for a month in Stratford-upon-Avon, England.

In 2025 he appeared in Sylvaine Strike’s The Tempest at Maynardville, as well as in the one-person show Moffie at the Baxter, directed by Greg Karvellas, after its critically acclaimed run in London.

David is the recipient of two Fleur du Cap awards for acting and has received several Kanna, Fiësta and Fleur du Cap nominations for his work in both English and Afrikaans theatre. For two years he appeared in the popular soap, Binnelanders, where he played Dr Liam Vorster.

His debut novel, Mirage, was published in 2023 by Penguin Random House South Africa. It received the 2024 Olive Schreiner Prize for Prose and was also shortlisted for the 2024 Sunday Times Literary Award.

Jenny studied at the University of Stellenbosch where she graduated with an
Honours degree in Drama and was nominated for a Fleur du Cap for Most Promising Student.

After writing and performing in several revue and cabaret shows, Jenny was cast in Fiona Coyne’s smash hit comedy Glass Roots. Her performance won her a Vita Award for Best New Actress.

She won a Fleur du Cap for her performance in Reza de Wet’s Breathing In and was nominated for Best Actress in a Musical for her performance of Janet in the sold-out run of The Rocky Horror Show.

Her prolific theatre career includes an international tour of Truth in Translation, performances in The Secret Love Life of Ophelia, Noises Off, King Lear, Cardenio, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time, Fatal Attraction and The Glass Menagerie, for which she won the Fleur du Cap for Best Supporting Actress.

Most recently Jenny was
seen in Athol Fugard’s My Children My Africa, David Kramer’s musical Ver
in die Wêreld Kittie, the theatre adaptation of Damon Galgut’s The Promise, for which she was nominated for a Fleur du Cap and won a Naledi for Best Ensemble and Louis Viljoen’s critically acclaimed Mrs Mitchell Comes To Town.

Jenny’s TV and film credits include A Snake gives birth to a Snake, Tropic Fever,
Ice and Blood Drive. Most recently she was seen as Mary Lincoln in the History Channel’s Lincoln, and as Mary Slessor in The Masked King, Jungle Beat 2 where she voices the animated character Tiptoes, and the Netflix series Baby Farm.

Michael Richard has been one of South Africa’s leading stage actors in a career spanning over 50 years. His versatility led to him being cast in a variety of roles, most memorable being Hamlet, Macduff, Claudius, Iago, Puck, Ariel, Laertes, James Leeds in Children of a Lesser God, Steve / Les in Decadence, Salieri in Amadeus, Frank in Educating Rita, Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof, Jack Lawson in David Mamet’s Race, Mark Rothko in Red, Oliver Lucas in The Vertical Hour, Mr Green in Visiting Mr Green and Boss Finlay in Sweet Bird of Youth.

His work in musical theatre includes Fangs a rock musical, 3 Pantomime Dames, Arthur in Camelot, Daddy Warbucks in Annie, Mr. Mushnick in Little Shop of Horrors, Judge Turpin in Sweeney Todd, and The Narrator in Into the Woods.

Michael has also been in many TV dramas. He was seen in Shaka Zulu, Westgate, Hamlet, Macbeth, A Winter’s Tale, The Merchant of Venice, A Midsummer’s Night Dream, the daily soap Isidingo, Still Breathing and the Horror film Parable, both for M Net. Films include Richard E Grant’s film Wah Wah, Disgrace with John Malcovich and Serenity with Mathew McConaughey.
Awards include Best actor for Decadence, Annie and Red.

Aidan Scott spent 15 years growing up in Kuwait before returning to South Africa, where he studied at the University of Cape Town’s Theatre and Performance program. In 2019, he landed his first professional role in The Mousetrap, which toured South Africa and New Zealand.

In 2022, he portrayed Theodore Roosevelt in the History Channel’s Roosevelt, produced by Leonardo DiCaprio’s production company, Appian Way. That same year, he made his UK stage debut in Don’t Make Tea at the Traverse Theatre, directed by Robert Softly Gale.

In 2023, he played the role of Lysander at Maynardville’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, directed by Geoffrey Hyland, and appeared in The Bells of Amersfoort, directed by Dintshitile Mashile. He is also a series regular in Netflix’s One Piece as Helmeppo.

Aidan further starred in and produced The Rangers, written and directed by Daniel Newton, which premiered at the Baxter Theatre. In 2024, he played Mozart in Amadeus at Theatre on the Bay and Pieter Toerien’s Montecasino Theatre, directed by Geoffrey Hyland, for which he received a Fleur Du Cap nomination.

Aidan made his directorial debut with Harold Pinter’s The Dumb Waiter at the Baxter Theatre. He received a Fleur Du Cap as Best New Director for the production.

In 2025, Aidan appeared in Louis Viljoen’s thrilling two hander Mrs Mitchell Comes to Town alongside Jenny Stead and La Ronde directed by Liela Henriques both at The Baxter Theatre.

Aidan is currently playing Henry Fynn in the TV show Shaka Ilembe Season 3 and in September 2025 he starred as Lloyd in Noises Off directed by Chris Weare.

Natasha started her professional career with two years at NAPAC’s Loft Repertory Theatre company. After that she reached the pinnacle of her vocation when she spoke to a puppet donkey in SABC’s iconic children’s show ‘Kideo’. Realising she would probably never be able to top that achievement she explored storytelling across multiple forms, genres (and provinces).

As actress, writer, director and producer, Natasha has established a diverse body of work. Her latest theatre adventures include Lesedi Job’s Brutal Legacy for TOTS, which Sutherland acted in and wrote the play adaptation based on Tracy Going’s memoir; played opposite Pamela Nomvete in The Market Theatre’s Meet me at Dawn (earning her a Best Actress Naledi nomination); performed in Kickstart / Pieter Toerien’s Don’t dress for Dinner, directed by Steven Stead, and starred in Willy Russel’s one woman show, Shirley Valentine produced by VR Theatrical, with repeat seasons across the country (that’s a lot of talking to a lot of Walls).

Sutherland directed and was dramaturg for The Drama Factory’s Ms B-haved. Her latest TV & film credits include Brett Micheal Innes delicious mockumentary, Daryn’s Gym, Mnet / Showmax’s Lioness S1 & S2 ( 2024 best supporting actress SAFTA) , and Etv’s Scandal (2022 best supporting actress SAFTA).

Most recently Natasha combined her love for both film and theatre when she wrote, directed, and co-produced Thats what she said – a social inquiry which garnered a SAFTA best documentary feature nomination, and was selected for Ford Foundation’s #16DaysOfActivism Film & Art festival.

Natasha is thrilled to be working with Steven Stead and VR Theatrical again, in a prestigious production such as Maynardville’s Twelfth Night.
(It may very well trump her Kideo adventure).

William Young is an exciting emerging talent, making his Shakespearean debut as Sebastian in Twelfth Night. Most recently he played Rocky in The Rocky Horror Show (dir. Steven Stead) and delighted audiences as Jack in Jack and the Beanstalk at The Baxter Theatre.

In 2024 he showcased his range in several notable productions: Jason Dean (JD) in the South African premiere of Heathers: The Musical (dir. Paul Griffiths), Anthony Hope in Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (dir. Fred Abrahamse), and in the ensemble of Finding The Light (dir. Paul Robinson). In 2023 his portrayal of Curly in Oklahoma! at Artscape (dir. Fred Abrahamse & Marcel Meyer) earned him a BroadwayWorld Award nomination for Best Performer in a Musical. Other credits include Tom Marzipan in Puss in Boots, Pippin in Pippin and Callum in Our House.

A graduate of the esteemed Waterfront Theatre School (Drama & Musical Theatre, 2021–2024), William is a trained actor, singer and dancer and also plays piano and violin. He recently completed filming his first screen role as Eddie Bayles in the indie short The Ransom of Mackenzie Brown and looks forward to exploring further screen opportunities. When not performing he can be found at the gym or the beach.

William is honoured to make his Shakespearean debut at Maynardville with this remarkable cast and creative team.

Lungile Lallie is a South African performer whose love for theatre was cultivated at the University of Cape Town, where he completed both a BA (2016 – 2019) and MA (2021 – 2022) in Theatre and Performance, graduating with distinction. His work has taken him across South Africa, Europe, and the USA. He was recognised with a Fleur du Cap Award for Best Performance by an Ensemble in Contested Bodies and received a Standard Bank Ovation Award for Nguvu Ya Mbegu: Entabelanga.

As an actor, Lungile works across genres, from Shakespeare to South African classics, American drama, musical theatre, and cabaret.

Recent stage credits include The Tempest, Club Cabaret, Contested Bodies (SA & USA), Alice in Wonderland, Hamlet (SA, Romania, Denmark), My Children! My Africa!, Pronoun I (USA), Les Blancs (USA), and Nguvu Ya Mbegu: Entabelanga.

His voice work includes audiobooks such as Land Matters by Adv. Tembeka Ngcukaitobi and No One is Coming for You by Frank Orji, as well as the animated film Panda Bear in Africa.

Plays: All’s Well That Ends Well; Antony and Cleopatra; As You Like It; The Comedy of Errors; Coriolanus; Cymbeline; Edward III; Hamlet; Henry IV, Parts One and Two; Henry V; Henry VI, Parts One, Two and Three; Henry VIII; Julius Caesar; King John; King Lear; Love’s Labor’s Lost; Macbeth; Measure for Measure; The Merchant of Venice; The Merry Wives of Windsor; A Midsummer Night’s Dream; Much Ado about Nothing; Othello; Pericles, Prince of Tyre; Richard II; Richard III; Romeo and Juliet; The Taming of the Shrew; The Tempest; Timon of Athens; Titus Andronicus; Troilus and Cressida; Twelfth Night; The Two Gentlemen of Verona; The Two Noble Kinsmen; The Winter’s Tale. Poems: “Venus and Adonis,” “The Rape of Lucrece,” “The Phoenix and the Turtle,” Sonnets (154).

Steven Stead studied Drama at the University of Natal, training and working initially as an actor before establishing himself as a director. He spent eight years as senior staff director at English National Opera, staging productions in London and across Europe, before returning to Durban to co-found KickstArt Theatre with Greg King. Together they have revived the tradition of pantomime in the city and created numerous acclaimed dramas and musicals.

His directing credits span a wide repertoire: musicals such as Cabaret, Into the Woods, and Sweeney Todd; operas including Rigoletto, La Traviata, Alcina and The Tales of Hoffmann; and South African premieres of works like Shrek the Musical, Red, Venus in Fur, Metamorphoses, and Sondheim’s Company. In 2024 he directed the Austrian premiere of Dennis Kelly’s Girls and Boys at the Landestheater Salzburg.

Steven won the Naledi Award for Best Director of a Musical for Sweeney Todd and has been nominated for multiple Fleur du Cap Awards, most recently for Metamorphoses and My Fair Lady. Upcoming projects include Twelfth Night at the Maynardville Open Air Festival, and The Rocky Horror Show.

Greg King is a Durban-based theatre designer, and founder of KickstArt Theatre, which he runs with his husband and creative partner, Steven Stead. Based in KZN, Kickstart has been producing plays, musicals and pantomimes for 25 years. In association with Pieter Toerien Productions, and other producers; Daphne Kuhn at Theatre on the Square, and The Lyric Theatre at Gold Reef City, they have produced, designed and directed plays and musicals such as Red, Venus in Fur, Cabaret, Shrek the Musical, Sweeney Todd and Into the Woods, among many others. Greg and Steven have also produced, (designed and directed, respectively) the South African premiere of Stephen Sondheim’s Company. Their most recent venture in the Mother City was to present Jack and the Beanstalk, the first of their many popular family pantomimes, in collaboration with The Baxter Theatre, and hope to make this an annual tradition in Cape Town.
Greg has also designed sets for many other South African production companies; Paul Slabolepszy’s plays, Suddenly the Storm (for The Market Theatre) and Fordsburg’s Finest (for PTP), both of which won him Fleur du Cap Awards for Best Set Design. The Beauty Queen of Leenane for How Now Brown Cow, Neil Coppen and Mpume Mthombeni’s Isidlamlilo, for Empatheatre, The Tales of Hoffmann for Opera UCT and A Doll’s House Part 2 for The Quickening Theatre Company.
In 2025, Greg won his third Fleur du Cap award for his design of PTP and Cape Town Opera’s celebrated production of My Fair Lady.

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Oliver is an award-winning designer whose passion for lighting, creativity, integrity, and energetic work ethic has become well known in the South African live events industry.

After achieving a N.Dip in Performing Arts Technology and recently an Adv.Dip in Illumination Engineering, Oliver has worked on productions spanning a range of genres: television, drama, comedy, opera, musicals, avant-garde dance, contemporary music and conceptual performance.

Oliver has designed lighting at prestigious venues across the world including, Barcelona, Paris, Zurich, Berlin, Beijing, Lagos, New York, and other cities internationally.

Some of his design credits include:  Phillip Miller’s Nkoli: the Vogue Opera, Lucia Di Lammermoor, Tosca, Simphiwe Dana’s MOYA, Gregory Maqoma’s CION, Loyiso Gola’s Unlearning for Netflix, Bidvest 2023 and Bidvest 2024, The South African Music Awards 2019 & 2018, Ndlovu Youth Choir Live in Concert, Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story, Avenue Q South Africa, Rock of Ages South Africa, Jonathan Roxmouth’s The Musicals in Concert, High School Musical (Associate designer), The Mystery of Irma Vep, Eve Ensler’s Emotional Creature, Molière’s Tartuffe, A Midsummer Nights Dream, The Crucible, Steven Berkoff’s Metamorphosis, Reza De Wet’s African Gothic, Athol Fugard’s Boesman and Lena, The Coloured Museum, Percy Mtwa’s Bopha! and Marat Sade.

David Classen is a Sound Designer & System Technician with a great love and passion for the arts industry, specifically theatre. Over a career spanning 16 years, David has worked on various productions in an audio managerial or creative position, both locally and internationally.

His musical theatre credits include Audio HOD on multiple award winning productions, including The Fugard Theatre’s West Side Story, Funny Girl, King Kong and Kinky Boots; Pieter Toerien’s The Sound of Music and Buddy The Musical to name a few.

Other sound credits includes managing audio work for various theatre and music festivals, namely Woordfees, KKNK, Suidoosterfees and Rocking the Daisies.

David was the Associate Sound Designer on The Fugard Theatre’s The Rocky Horror Show, which won a Naledi Theatre Award for Best Sound Design. He also co-designed the sound for The Fugard Theatre’s production of David Kramer’s District Six – Kanala, alongside Aki Khan. Additional sound design credits include, David Kramer’s Langarm, The Fugard Theatre’s Shakespeare in Love, The Baxter Theatre’s The Life and Times Of Michael K, FTL’s Finding The Light in benefit of the Kolisi Foundation, and most recently the critically acclaimed Spring Awakening.

Anne Bosch is a theatre maker, performer, playwright, director, and theatre practitioner. She
trained in Physical Theatre at Magnet Theatre and studied Theatre and Performance at UCT, graduating with an Honours degree in Directing. Her interests focus on stories of the marginalised, coloured culture, and historic and familial/relational dynamics. She draws from her personal experiences through the lens of her complex background, being of South African and Latin American descent. From this perspective she explores political and ancestral connections and consequences within those parameters.

Compelled to move
towards dismantling the idea of being a South African identified by duality, she currently explores how global traditions have influenced the South African identity through her dramaturgical approach. Her approach to creating theatre is influenced by Physical Theatre and her love for aesthetics and texture, creating a style that tells stories through imagery and the body. Anne is also the network development facilitator at Kgokelo, a network for women
and gender-diverse playwrights in Cape Town. Her most recent work is called Please, I Promise, a work in progress exploring the chaotic disconnection between siblings caused by trauma and addiction, performed for the 13th Body Politic at Theatre Arts Admin in 2024.

Anne believes in the richness of exploratory and new work, and connects proactively with
these works and artists through stage managing at various festivals such as KKNK and Aardklop. She also facilitates workshops for Making Art in Recovery, a programme which
uses art practices to facilitate growth and confidence skills in people who are in recovery.

Alyssa is the General Manager of VR Theatrical, an award-winning South African production company. With over 15 years in the theatre industry, she is passionate about theatre’s role in society and its power to bring people together.

She began her training at Stageworx Performing Arts School, earning her Trinity Guildhall Associate Diploma in Performing Arts (2012), after which she completed a Diploma in Musical Theatre at Oakfields College, where she was named Top Musical Theatre Student (2016). As a performer, Alyssa appeared in productions such as Tiger Bay – The Musical, The Sound of Music Asia & SA Tours, My Favourite Things, and children’s theatre at the National Children’s Theatre, including Goggas and Mr Hare Meets Mr Mandela.

Her journey soon shifted to stage management, working on acclaimed productions including Into the Woods, Rock of Ages, The Rocky Horror Show, and The Producers. She made her directorial debut in 2020 with A Christmas Carol and later assisted on Peter and The Wolf.

Beyond theatre, Alyssa co-founded Plug In Theatre, launched The Blu Piano Social Club, and worked as a project manager in corporate events, managing over 100 events, including the Volvo Electric Truck Launch and Huawei’s Eco-Connect Africa.

Jaco Van Rensburg is an award-winning Theatre Producer whose producing credits include South African premieres of Avenue Q, Rock of Ages and Hedwig and the Angry Inch, all nominated for Naledi Theatre Awards and/or Fleur du Cap Theatre Awards in multiple categories.

Jaco is the Founder/Executive Producer of VR Theatrical, which is one of the few theatre companies in South Africa that present blockbuster Broadway content, and also commissions and develops new original content in-house.

He is a founding member of the Theatre and Dance Alliance (TADA), formed during the Covid-19 pandemic, and currently serves on the Executive Committee of the organisation. TADA’s mandate is to advance and defend the interests of the dance and theatre sector in South Africa. 

VR Theatrical took over the running of the annual Maynardville Open-Air Festival in 2023 and Jaco is delighted to forge a new sustainable future for the organisation alongside his producing partner, Wessel Odendaal.