COMPANY
Jan Noble: Writer, Performer
Jan Noble is an award winning poet. He has recorded his poetry with producer Craig Leon (Pavarotti, Blondie, The Ramones) at Abbey Road studios that featured on the album ‘Cesarians 1’ (2009) His ongoing collaboration with composer Donna McKevitt includes the album ‘This Is What I Wanted To Give You’ (2016). He has performed at the ICA in London, The Nuyorican Poets Cafe in New York and Teatrino Di Palazzo Grassi in Venice. He has taught creative writing in prisons and psychiatric hospitals and was poetry facilitator for leading London mental health charity Core Arts. He established a creative writing class for the homeless at the Union Chapel, Islington.
Works include ‘My Name is Swan’ (2017) a poetic monologue performed at every pub in London with ‘Swan’ in its name. Documented in film it was officially selected for the East End Film Festival winning Best Narrative at the International Poetry Film Festival, Los Angeles (2023). Jan was a principal reader in ‘Speaking Dante’ (2021), a 24 hour reading of the entire Divine Comedy. His mini, verse-drama, ‘Shelley 200’ (2022), marked the 200th anniversary of the death of English romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley and was performed at Keats-Shelley House, Rome and at the British Institute, Florence. His forthcoming work includes ‘Reynard’ a 45-minute poetic monologue read by John Nettles, released as a vinyl album in the autumn of 2023.
Justin Butcher: Director
Justin Butcher is the multi-award winning writer of ‘Scaramouche Jones’, ‘The Madness of George Dubya’, ‘The Devil’s Passion’ and other plays including six dramas for BBC Radio. His acclaimed travelogue, ‘Walking to Jerusalem’, tells the story of his 2017 walk from London to Jerusalem, marking the centenary of the Balfour Declaration and calling for equal rights in Israel-Palestine. Recent screen work includes Linus Primo in Philip K. Dick’s ‘Electric Dreams: Impossible Planet’, adapted and directed by David Farr for Channel 4/Amazon US, and Ralph in Polly Steele’s 2017 film ‘Let Me Go’, with Juliet Stevenson. Recent stage work as performer includes ‘Dream School’ at The Space, Isle of Dogs, London, with Mrs C’s Collective, as actor & director, ‘Shakespeare in Italy’ and ‘The Food Of Love’ at Teatro Filodrammatici, Milan.
As actor, writer and director, he has collaborated with practitioners including Lucy Bailey, David Farr, Rupert Goold, Tamsin Grieg, Jeremy Hardy, Nigel Kennedy, Warren Mitchell, Pete Postlethwaite and David Suchet. In partnership with J.Productions, Milan, he produced and directed the acclaimed ‘Speaking Dante’ performance in Florence, September 2021, a live reading of the whole of Dante’s Divine Comedy on the 700th anniversary of the poet’s death, with an international cast led by Ralph Fiennes, Helen Mirren, Jessie Buckley and Adjoa Andoh. He won the 2022 Off West End Best Actor’s Award for his performance of ‘Scaramouche Jones’ in the 20th anniversary production at Wilton’s Music Hall, directed by Guy Masterson.
Jack Arnold: Composer
Jack Arnold is BIFA-winning and RTS-nominated composer and producer working in feature film, television drama and documentary on a wide range of award-winning work. Recent work include: ‘Lewis Capaldi – How I’m Feeling Now’ for Netflix, the critically acclaimed feature film, and BAFTA Scotland 2019’s Best Picture. ‘Wild Rose’ directed by Tom Harper, starring Jessie Buckley and Julie Walters, for which he won the 2019 BIFA for Best Music, and the featured song ‘Glasgow (No Place Like Home)’, which Jack produced, was shortlisted for Best Song at the 2020 Academy Awards. ‘The Level’, a thriller series for ITV1 and comedy drama series ‘Loaded’ for C4/AMC. He received an RTS Award nomination for Best Score for ‘Holy Flying Circus’, a BAFTA-nominated comedy film written by Tony Roche and directed by Owen Harris about the events surrounding the 1979 release of Monty Python’s ‘The Life of Brian’.
Julia Holden: Producer
Julia Holden is a theatre producer and founding artistic director of J. Productions Milan, specializing in hosting and producing top quality English-language theatre in Milan and throughout Italy. She is a partner in one of Italy’s top IP law firms, Trevisan & Cuonzo, based in Milan, Rome, Parma and Bari. Since 2013, she has collaborated closely with award-winning British playwright Justin Butcher, Olivier-award winning director and actor Guy Masterson Mastroianni, renowned actor Rupert Mason and many other renowned artists from the UK and Italy to bring a diverse and original programme of English-language theatre to Milan.
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