The Directors of Handplay Productions
JUDI BOWKER

JUDI BOWKER played the lead in the popular TV series Black Beauty. Other leading TV credits include: The Glittering Prizes with Tom Conti, Dracula with Louis Jourdan, Ellis Island with Richard Burton, Hindle Wakes with Trevor Eve, This House Of Brede with Diana Rigg, Picture Of Dorian Grey with John Gielgud, Anna Karenina with Christopher Reeves, Doctor Jeckle and Mr Hyde with Kirk Douglas, Wilfred and Eileen, Dangerous Corner with Daniel Day Lewis and Anthony Valentine, The Country Party with Peter Barkworth and Shiela Gish and South Riding with Dorothy Tutin. Films include major roles in Zeffirelli’s Brother Sun and Sister Moon, East Of Elephant Rock, with John Hurt, The Shooting Party, with James Mason and Clash Of The Titans with Maggie Smith and Laurence Olivier. Stage: Judi has played leading roles at the National Theatre under Sir Peter Hall, with Albert Finney, Robert Stevens, Sir Ralph Richardson, Michael Bryant and Dorothy Tutin. Nottingham Playhouse, Manchester Royal Exchange, Edinburgh LyceumTheatre, where she played Nora in A Doll’s House to great acclaim, The Old Vic in The Women with Diana Quick and Maria Aitkin and also starred as Eliza Doolittle in Pygmalion on a World Tour. For her own theatre company Pilgrim she played in The Sensualist (Arts Theatre) The Brownings Through Casa Guidi Windows (World Tour) Uncle Vanya, Lermontov, The Seagull, An Ideal Husband, Lady From The Sea, Three Sisters. Hedda Gabler (Pentameters Theatre. Hampstead) RichardIII. (Upstairs At The Gate House Theatre) The Cherry Orchard, Mr Silver’s Secret (Tour) She played in two new plays, Roebuck, and Mr Silver’s Secret, in New York, Boston and South America. She played Alice in Strindberg’s The Dance of Death at Pentameters Theatre. Recently she played Titania in A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Anna in a touring production of Chekhov’s Ivanov. In Feb this year she played the Mistress in Waltz of the Toreadors.
HARRY MEACHER

HARRY MEACHERreceived a Major Award to R.A.D.A. where he won The Ronson Award, The Principals Award, Stage Fighting Award and an honorary diploma. Harry went on to perform at The National Theatre, The Royal Court, the West End, Citizens Glasgow, Liverpool Playhouse, Leeds Playhouse and most of the major English repertory companies. For five years he acted, directed and held lectures and workshops on the great European playwrights, nationally and internationally, touring capital cities in the Middle and Far East, Australia and New Zealand. He has written several plays the most recent being The Racontuer of Banyalbufar, In Love With Anton, Cardboard Dreams, Silvers Secret, and The Wildes Of Essex. He co-wrote The Sensualist with Kit Gerould, which transferred to The Arts Theatre. Harry has adapted works by Chekhov, Ibsen, Strindberg, Gorky, Bronte, Wilde, Sheridan Lermontov and Dickens. Harry has played title roles in King Lear, Macbeth, Othello, Dracula, Sherlock Holmes, Richard III, Platonov, Valmont in Les Liasons Dangereuses and Shylock in The Merchant Of Venice. He has directed and performed in Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya (Time Out, Critic’s Choice), Three Sisters, The Seagull and The Cherry Orchard; Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler, The Lady From The Sea and The Wild Duck. Strindberg’s The Father.. He adapted and directed Gorky’s The Lower Depths and his own play Wildes of Essex. He also directed and appeared in John Cooper’s new play The Education Of A Lapdancer at the Pleasance Theatre. and as Ernest in Bedroom Farce, directed by Alex Holt. Directed The School For Scandal at Upstairs at the Gatehouse. Last year Harry directed and adapted Ibsen’s Ghosts at Pentameters Theatre, played Mephistopheles and directed John Cooper’s 21st Century Faust UK Tour and played Halvard Solness in Ibsen’s The Master Builder at Hampstead. He toured the Mediterranean with Judi Bowker in his play The Brownings through Cassa Guidi Windows. He has written two new plays, Buccaneer and A Haunting Twist and performed them in New York , Boston and South America. Last December he played Edgar in Strindberg’s The Dance Of Death. Since 2007 he has played Strindberg in London Theatre’s production’s Strindberg In Hollywood, directed John Cooper’s adaptation of Thomas Hardy’s Far From The Madding Crowd and played Prospero in The Tempest and Oberon in A Midsummer Night’s Dream at Pentameters Theatre. He has recently directed his own adaptation of The Wind In The Willows, played the title role in Anton Chekhov’s Ivanov and Sherlock Holmes. Most recently he played Hector Hushabye in Shaw’s Heartbreak House. In September 2009 directed and adapted Des Marshall’s much acclaimed book An Urban Robinson Cruso. In Feb, this year he starred as the General in Ranjit Bolts translation of The Waltz of the Toreadors. In March he directed Daniel Deronda. Recently he was awarded the Peggy Ramsey Foundation Award for his new play Mist –After Dracula. In 2003 he co-founded leading Lady Productions, wrote and acted in two of their projects. Catalina and Rebecca’s Ghost. In 2005 he co- founded Coachouse Films and has appeared in Happy Days and Cassandra’s Clock a supernatural thriller set in the New Forest and starring Judi Bowker. All have been shown on various television channels. They recently filmed a story about the 1908 marathon called, Dorando by Bernardo Stella and Directed by Tom Reah.
BRYAN HANDS

BRYAN HANDS Made an early start in the business presenting and performing in a 'Children's Hour' program called MIDLAND MAGAZINE which was broadcast regularly on the BBC Home Service. He won a scholarship to RADA and has worked as an actor, producer, director and writer ever since. He has worked in 'rep' companies from Barrow-in Furness to Westcliffe-on-Sea, in the West End and has toured extensively in this country, in Europe and New Zealand .Recent stage roles include: Doc in Small Craft Warnings by Tennessee Williams at the Landor Theatre and Einstein in a new play for the Casa Festival at the Union Theatre. At Pentameters, Hampstead he has played Hamm in Endgame by Samuel Beckett, Alonso in The Tempest, Peter Quince in A Midsummer Nights Dream, Ratty in The Wind in The Willows, Count Shabelsky in Ivanov, Dr. Mortimer in Sherlock Holmes and the Hound of the Baskervilles, Antonio in Twelfth Night and Captain Shotover in Heartbreak House. He played Sir Hugo Malinger in an adaptation of Daniel Deronda at Upstair at the Gatehouse. He has just completed a short film 'Old Boys' and featured in a 'pop video' for the group 'The Count and Sinden'! He also recently directed a production of The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde at The Gatehouse Theatre, Highgate in London. For Handplay Productions he played Dr Seward in Mist After Dracula Kasteel Kessel in Holland and at the Unitarian Church in Hampstead. Other work includes a role in the new feature film Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy with Gary Oldman.and designing a production of Northanger Abbey for Traffic of the Stage at The Gatehouse, Highgate. He is an associate director of Logos Theater Company and has directed a number of productions for them, including Ghosts by Ibsen, Charlie's Aunt by Brandon Thomas and Noel Coward's 'I'll Leave it to You'.