GROUNDED by George Brant

George Brant’s plays include Grounded, Marie and Rosetta, Into the Breeches!, Elephant’s Graveyard, The Prince of Providence, Tender Age, The Land of Oz, Dark Room, Grizzly Mama, Good on Paper, The Mourners’ Bench, Salvage, Three Voyages of the Lobotomobile, Any Other Name, Defiant, Miracle: A Tragedy,  Ashes, NOK, The Lonesome Hoboes, All Talk, One Hand Clapping, The Royal Historian of Oz, Lovely Letters, Three Men in a Boat, Borglum! The Mount Rushmore Musical, Tights on a Wire and Night of the Mime. 

Brant's work has been produced internationally by such companies as the Public Theater, The Atlantic Theater Company, Trinity Repertory Company, Cleveland Play House, The Alley Theatre, Studio Theatre, Milwaukee Repertory, City Theatre, Gate Theatre of London, Page 73, Traverse Theatre, Dobama Theatre, and the Disney Channel, among others. 

His plays have been generously developed by the Metropolitan Opera, The Playwrights' Center, Asolo Rep, McCarter Theatre Center, New Harmony Project, Bay Area Playwrights Festival, WordBRIDGE Playwright’s Lab, InterAct Theatre, Theatre @ Boston Court, Playwright and Director Center of Moscow, Florida Studio Theatre, Contemporary Drama Festival of Hungary, the Hangar Theatre, and Equity Library Theatre, among others.

His scripts have been awarded a Lucille Lortel Award, an Edgerton Foundation New Play Award, a Scotsman Fringe First Award, an Off-West End Theatre Award for Best Production, an NNPN Rolling World Premiere, the Smith Prize, the Keene Prize for Literature, a Theatre Netto Festival Prize, a Creative Workforce Fellowship, the David Mark Cohen National Playwriting Award from the Kennedy Center and three Ohio Arts Council Individual Excellence Awards.  He has received writing fellowships from the James A. Michener Center for Writers, the McCarter Theatre Sallie B. Goodman Artist's Retreat, the MacDowell Colony, the Djerassi Resident Artists Program, the Hermitage Artists' Retreat and the Blue Mountain Center as well as commissions from the Metropolitan Opera, Trinity Repertory Company, Dobama Theatre and Theatre 4, and Cleveland Play House .

George received his MFA in Writing from the Michener Center for Writers at the University of Texas at Austin and is a member of the Dramatists Guild.  He is published by Samuel French, Oberon Books, Fisher Verlage and Smith & Kraus.

Emma Howlett is a director and writer based in London. She has staged largescale revivals at major regional venues in the UK such as Lucy Prebble’s ‘Enron’ at the Oxford Playhouse, and Michael Frayn’s ‘Copenhagen’ at Theatre Royal Bath, and has assisted distinguished British directors such as Polly Findlay and Stephen Unwin. 

Emma is the Artistic Director of TheatreGoose, a creative collective staging bold new and classic works rooted in movement and a recognisable aesthetic, which she formed whilst at university. TheatreGoose’s acclaimed debut professional show, 'Her Green Hell', written and directed by Howlett, opened at VAULT Festival in February 2023, transferred to Summerhall at the Edinburgh Fringe for four weeks in August, and will tour the UK in 2024. Her Green Hell was longlisted for the prestigious BBC Writersroom Popcorn Award for New Writing at the Fringe, and will receive mentorship from BBC Commissioners for TV adaptation. 

Howlett has a BA in Ancient and Modern History from the University of Oxford, and an MPhil in Multi-Disciplinary Gender Studies from the University of Cambridge, graduating in 2020.

Ellie Wintour is a set designer and artist based in London. 

As a designer, work includes: set design for Porridge Radio’s albums Waterslide, Diving Board (2022), Every Bad (2020) on UK tour; For a Palestinian at Camden People’s Theatre; A Guest at Vault’s Festival; Her Green Hell at Summerhall & Vaults Festival.

As an associate designer, work includes: An Atlas of Es Devlin at the Cooper Hewitt; Salamander at Brisbane festival; The Crucible at the National Theatre & The Gielgud Theatre; A Different Stage on UK tour; Dua Lipa’s Future Nostalgia US tour; Here Not Here at Gothenburg Opera House; and, as an assistant to Davy String, Dorian Gray and Twist! at the New Wimbledon theatre. 

Sarah Spencer is a composer and sound designer based in London and Berlin. She has worked on a range of projects across Film (Tunnelen, 2020) TV (Sorgenfresser 2020), Radio (In His Kiss, 2019) and sound installation (EMPRES collective, 2021). As composer and lyricist, she worked on Samauel French published musical, 'How to Save a Rock' (2020). 

Sarah is Resident Composer for London-based theatre companies Freight Theatre, TheatreGoose, and co-director of cabaret collective Beware the Dogs. In 2023, Sarah is touring the UK and Norway with theatre company Rhum and Clay as pianist and composer. 

Ed is a lighting designer for live performance, including theatre, dance, opera, fashion shows and festivals. Having previously been an assistant to leading lighting designers at Glyndebourne Opera Festival, English Touring Theatre and Manchester Royal Exchange, in 2022, Ed was appointed ‘Lumiere’ by the UK Association of Lighting and Production Design.

Earlier this year, Ed lit choreographer Holly Blakey’s ‘Cowpuncher My Ass’ at London’s Royal Festival Hall. He was associate lighting designer to Malcolm Rippeth on a co-production of ‘Der Rosenkavalier’ in partnership with Garsington Opera, Irish National Opera, and Sante Fe, and was associate to Josh Harriette on Richard Chappell’s explosive dance work ‘Hot House’.

Over the summer, Ed returned to Glastonbury for a second year to light the San Remo stage, before heading to Opera Holland Park to collaborate on a production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. He lit A&E, a new opera from duo Muelas+Ward, which played at London’s Arcola Theatre for their summer festival. 

Since assisting in the spring for London and Paris fashion weeks, Ed lit a runway show of his own for Saul Nash’s Spring ‘24 collection, which was presented at the ICA in June. In the autumn, Ed will light a number of presentations for the British Fashion Council showcase as part of London fashion week at the Old Selfridge’s Hotel.