ABOUT US
Theatre on the south coast
OUR CREATIVES
David Hampshire and Maurice Thorogood first met when they worked together in repertory in 1982 at the Connaught Theatre, Worthing and they’ve teamed up to create South Coast Theatre.
David Hampshire
Artistic Director
David trained at the Italia Conti Academy. He started acting professionally in 1966 when he landed the title role in the BBC TV series ‘Jennings’. Since then his work has ranged from playing Ugly Sister in pantomime to the role of Jean Valjean in Les Miserables at the Palace Theatre, London for the Royal Shakespeare Company.
His television credits include The Bill, Midsomer Murders, Family Affairs, Footballers Wives, Doctors, Trevor’s World of Sport, New Tricks, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Winners and Losers, Love for Lydia, Dodgem, the Emmy award winning Tom Brown’s Schooldays, the Royal Variety Performance and The Morecambe and Wise Show. For two years David was a member of the BBC Radio Schools Repertory.
Feature films include Goodbye Mr Chips, The Pirates of Penzance, The Hunger, Fiddler on the Roof and Out of Water.
Regional repertory theatre work includes principal roles in four pantomimes, West Side Story, Blood Brothers, Move Over Mrs. Markham, Godspell and The Rocky Horror Show. West End credits include Evita, Billy, Aladdin and The Pirates of Penzance. He also appeared in Graham Swannells’s play A State of Affairs at the Hen & Chickens Theatre, London and at the OSO Arts Centre, Barnes.
In 2005, David established The British English-Speaking Theatre of Slovenia which brought classic English drama to schools across Slovenia. He directed and played Colonel Redfern in BEST’s Theatre in Education production of John Osborne’s Look Back In Anger which toured Slovenia for three years.
David started writing in 2001 and to date he has written 21 short plays and 2 full length plays, Face Value and Funny Turns. His latest project is ‘Who’s Gracie..? a play based on the life story of Gracie Fields. His writing is published by Stagescripts Ltd. and his work is performed throughout the UK.
Maurice Thorogood
Creative Director
Maurice enjoyed a successful career as an award-winning television documentary film editor before winning a scholarship to RADA where as an honours graduate he won the Ronson Award, the Bronze Medal and the Character and Stage fight prize.
Following his graduation from RADA Maurice directed Children’s Theatre for Brian Way at the Theatre Centre. His subsequent numerous directing credits include ‘Annie Get Your Gun’ at the Beck Theatre, Hayes, Alan Ayckbourn’s Relatively Speaking at the Maxim Theatre, Stockholm and ‘The Merchant of Venice’ for the Farnham Shakespeare Company.
In tandem with his directing career Maurice has acted for many years in repertory and commercial theatre and on TV in situation comedy and drama productions. He also appeared at the Snapple Theatre New York in the premiere of ‘Truth Lies Diana’ by Jon Conway, playing a member of the British Establishment.
Maurice’s multiple projects as a voice-over artist include ‘History’s Mysteries’ (Discovery Channel) and Wednesday at 8 (Thames TV).
In 2017, Maurice co-created Rare Fortune Productions where at the OSO Arts Centre in Barnes he has directed ‘Liberty Hall’, ‘Murder on Cue’ and ‘Murder by the Book’ by Robin Jennifer Miller. Other plays directed there include ‘Brief Encounters’, ‘Waiting in the Wings’, ‘Life Changes‘ and Alan Ayckbourn’s ‘Round and Round the Garden.’ He is a member of Stage Directors UK and Actors and Writers London where he has directed many plays.
Crissy Mullen
Actor & Casting Associate
Crissy trained at the Abbey Theatre, Dublin and City Lit, London.
Her TV credits include: Pride and Prejudice, The Spike, Leprechauns and The Generation Game.
Theatre work includes: An Ideal Husband, A State of Affairs, Old Tyme Music Hall, London Entertains, Big Maggie, A Chorus Line, The Ha’penny Bridge, West Side Story, One of our Own, Gypsy and Funny Turns (at the Museum of Comedy and Jermyn Street Theatre).
Her films include: Sparrows Trap and Scarlet.
Crissy has featured in many corporate videos and commercials and she is a member of Actors and Writers London where she has taken part in numerous rehearsed readings.
Crissy is Casting Associate for South Coast Theatre.
OUR ACTORS
Georgia Bellett
Actor, Dancer
Georgia is a Brighton-based actor. She trained in drama at the University of Chichester, achieving a BA (Hons.), and where she relished the opportunity to specialise in practical skills such as stage combat, sword fighting, horse-riding, and period dance.
Georgia’s credits include the principal role of Raquel in the English-Italian film Serendipity (which was shot on location in Italy), Beatrice in Much Ado About Nothing, Lady-in-Waiting in Becoming Elizabeth, Andy in Daz’s Boot, Mutated Woman in Samsara, Emma in Ticking and the title role in the self-penned period drama Frances.
With her facility for accents Georgia is also in demand as a voiceover artist. In 2023, she played Sally in SCT’s production of Funny Turns at the Grove Theatre, Eastbourne.
Beth Burrows
Actor, Singer, Writer
Beth Burrows won the Off West End award 2022 for ‘Best Supporting Performance’.
As a writer, Beth has penned two solo shows about famous faces from Golden Hollywood. Sirens of the Silver Screen and Luck Be a Lady have both enjoyed critically-acclaimed London runs, been featured on StreamTheatre.com and performed on Seabourn Cruise Line.
Other credits: Angela, Reunited (Jermyn Street Theatre); Sally; Funny Turns (Crazy Coqs, New Musicals Night); Daisy Buchanan, Looking for Gatsby (The Other Palace/Windsor Theatre Royal); Fred Astaire/Gene Kelly/Frank Sinatra, Luck Be a Lady; Princess Maria, Call Me Madam; Princess Winnifred, Once Upon a Mattress; Joan Fletcher, Strike Up the Band (Upstairs at the Gatehouse); Judy Garland/Audrey Hepburn/Marilyn Monroe, Sirens of the Silver Screen (Upstairs at the Gatehouse/Chiswick Playhouse); Anne Dennis, The Lady With a Dog (White Bear Theatre/Chiswick Playhouse); Gillian, Bell, Boook and Candle, (Tabard Theatre); NewsRevue, (Canal Cafe Theatre); Betsy, 35mm: A Musical Exhibition (Greenwich Theatre); Mimi, Short and Sweet (Madinat Theatre).
Training: Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama and the University of Bristol.
Judy Buxton
Actor
Judy trained at the Rose Bruford College and started her acting career in repertory in Chesterfield. She has since worked extensively in both theatre and television. Her West End stage credits include Baggage and A Murder is Announced both at the Vaudeville Theatre. She also played in The Ghost Train at the Old Vic, School for Scandal playing Lady Teazle opposite Sir Donald Sinden at the Haymarket, Last of the Red Hot Lovers at the Strand and Mary Smith in Run For Your Wife at the Whitehall.
She made her debut with the Royal Shakespeare Company as Iphigenia in John Barton’s acclaimed production of The Greeks at the Aldwych and then went on to play Juliet in Romeo and Juliet at Stratford-upon-Avon. Whilst there, she also played Jessica in The Merchant of Venice, the Sweet Girl in La Ronde and principal boy in the RSC’s pantomime The Swansdown Gloves. She has worked at the Vienna English Theatre in Harold Pinter’s The Lover which transferred to the Young Vic. She also toured the Far and Middle East in several different plays for Derek Nimmo’s Dinner Theatre.
Her many televisions include By The Sword Divided, Lovejoy, Bergerac, Blake’s Seven, Diary of a Nobody, Rising Damp, Next of Kin and three series as Dennis Waterman’s wife Ruth in On The Up.
Films include The Big Sleep, The Likely Lads, Aces High and Get Real
She has appeared at the Mill at Sonning in Murder by Misadventure, Spring and Port Wine and Move Over Mrs Markham and Run For Your Wife.
Judy was also in the sell out production of The Art of Concealment at The Jermyn Street Theatre and the Riverside Studios Hammersmith playing Vera Rattigan and Aunt Edna.
She recently returned to Jermyn Street Theatre in a new play by Giles Cole, After All These Years.
Judy has cast many a magic spell across the UK in such pantomimes as Peter Pan, Jack and the Beanstalk, Cinderella and Dick Whittington.
Mansel David
Actor
Trained at Bristol Old Vic Theatre School.
West End Theatre work has included plays by Sir Tom Stoppard, Michael Frayn, Angela Huth, Royce Ryton and Ray Cooney, with Felicity Kendal, Roger Rees, Paul Eddington, Leslie Phillips, Dame June Whitfield, Dame Celia Johnson and Sir Ralph Richardson.
Television Sitcoms include Yes, Prime Minister with Sir Nigel Hawthorne, and The Magnificent Evans with Ronnie Barker.
Other roles include Davies in The Caretaker, Bottom in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Malvolio in Twelfth Night, Niels Bohr in Copenhagen, Victor Llewellyn in Funny Turns, Alec80 in 2020 Visions (directed by Maurice Thorogood), and Barry in The Q. He also toured Slovenia playing in Oscar Wilde’s An Ideal Husband.
Solo Performances: A House of Leaves, portraying medieval Welsh Bard Dafydd Ap Gwilym; and Crummles, adapted from Nicholas Nickleby – both of which toured extensively throughout the British Isles and Internationally for many years.
Currently: Take Desire Away, adapted from the Poems and Letters of A.E. Housman, which premiered at the International Dublin Gay Theatre Festival in 2010 before touring extensively and returning to Dublin in 2022. Take Desire Away also played at the Hastings Fringe Festival, and Eastbourne’s Grove Theatre in 2023.
Jeffrey Holland
Actor
Jeffrey is probably best known for his portrayal of Spike in BBC TV’s Hi-De-Hi!, also the stuffy footman James Twelvetrees in the hugely successful You Rang M’Lord? And more recently as Mr. Parkin the Stationmaster in Oh, Dr. Beeching!
Born in Walsall, West Midlands, he trained in Birmingham and began his career with four and a half years in repertory at the Belgrade Theatre, Coventry where he eventually finished up as leading character man.
His theatre work is extensive and includes seasons at the Chichester Festival and the Edinburgh Festival. He also appeared in the much loved stage production of television’s Dad’s Army in which he took over as the spiv, Private Walker. His many summer seasons include the stage production of Hi-De-Hi! Which also enjoyed a successful run at London’s Victoria Palace theatre in 1984. Other West End work includes Run For Your Wife at the Criterion theatre and Travels With My Aunt at the Whitehall.
He was a regular member of the cast of Radio Two’s Russ Abbot Show and has frequently appeared in radio shows such as Weekending, Crowned Hudds and many more. He also had the pleasure of re-creating the Peter Sellers characters in Goon Again, a 50th Anniversary tribute to The Goon Show for the BBC.
His first TV role was in an episode of Dixon of Dock Green and his television work includes both comedy and drama with such shows as It Ain’t Half Hot, Mum, Are You Being Served?, Dad’s Army, The Mayor of Casterbridge and Russ Abbot’s Madhouse.
He has also appeared in three of BBC 2’s Shakespeare productions Richard ll, As You Like It and Henry V, and appeared in a highly successful run of Talent, written and directed by Victoria Wood at The Menier Chocolate Factory in London. More recently, he toured the UK in a stage production of the popular TV sitcom Waiting for God playing Tom Ballard – this was followed by a production of Brassed Off at the Wolverhampton Grand in which he played Danny.
His one-man show, …and this is my friend Mr Laurel, a play about legendary film comedian Stan Laurel, enjoyed four sell-out seasons at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2014, 2015, 2018 and 2023.
Until recently, Jeff especially enjoyed the Christmas period as he got to don his frocks as one of Britain’s leading “Dames”. He has retired from pantomime now after playing 45 seasons in most major theatres all over the UK.
Carl Lovejoy
Actor, Singer
Carl is a Brighton-based actor. He started performing at the age of 10 when he played the role of Gavroche in the musical Les Miserables for Brighton City Youth Theatre company. He subsequently trained for three years in Musical Theatre and Acting at The Brighton Academy of Performing Arts from where he graduated in 2017.
Following this he played Dandini in Cinderella at the Brighton Metropole hotel for a Christmas season. Carl gained extensive experience of musical theatre when he travelled around the world aboard Marella and Viking cruise ships where he featured as lead vocalist and performed in his self-created cabaret evenings.
Since returning to ‘dry land’ in 2022, Carl has played Thistle in the Elf Express Christmas Show and most recently has hosted shows with E3 events at the Brighton Hilton. For Christmas 2003-24, he will play Buttons in Cinderella in Brighton for E3 events.
Carl plays Charlie Prince in SCT’s inaugural production of Funny Turns.
Kenn Oldfield
Actor, Dancer, Director, Choreographer
Kenn trained at Ballet Rambert, London and in New York City. He has worked worldwide as a performer, choreographer and director in Theatre, Film, TV, Commercials, Corporate and Gala events.
His credits as director/choreographer include Chicago, Can-Can, Candide, The Full Monty, My Fair Lady, Joseph And His Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Singing In The Rain, Barnum, Little Shop of Horrors, Guys and Dolls, West Side Story, Grease, Call Me Madam, Mr Cinders, The Fantasticks, Lady Be Good, Babes In Arms, Privates on Parade, Stepping Out The Musical, Cabaret, What About Luv, Closer Than Ever, The World Goes Around, The Mikado, Side By Side by Sondheim and numerous Pantomimes.
Kenn had a huge success with My Fair Lady, Chicago and Guys and Dolls in Tel Aviv. In 2006-07 he directed and choreographed Oklahoma! at the Arnaud Theatre, Guildford and on the musical Trelawny, Just So and The Black and White Ball at the Kings Head Islington.
He was Movement Advisor on the Harry Potter Film The Prisoner Of Azkaban. Kenn’s TV work includes ‘Allo ‘Allo!, Hi de Hi, You Rang M’Lord?, Oh, Doctor Beeching, An Audience with Ronnie Corbett, The Michael Ball Show and The Musicals at Christmas at The Royal Opera House.
He has taught at RADA, The Guildhall School of Music and Drama, and Guildford School of Acting. Kenn performed in the original London productions of A Chorus Line, Chicago, and in numerous musicals on the international stage.
Other West End works includes Romeo and Juliet for the RSC and most recently Kenn created the musical staging for The Jungle Book and The Horrible Histories.
Lisa Rouselle
Actor, Singer
Lisa trained at Rose Bruford College where she studied European Theatre Arts including learning puppetry at the Institut del Teatre in Barcelona.
Her many stage credits include playing Rita in Educating Rita, Paulina in Death and the Maiden, Sally in Dangerous Obsession and Josie in Sitting Pretty.
A talented and versatile singer, Lisa frequently performs with the Music Hall Guild of Great Britain and America where she has played the Music Hall performers Bessie Bellwood and Lily Morris to great acclaim.
Lisa’s pantomime appearances include playing the Evil Queen in Snow White and Maid Marian in Babes in the Wood.
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