Cast & Creative Team

Emily Essery

Frog

Sarah Palmer

Frog

Becky Ayres

Cat

Jake Addley

Dog

Christopher Dobson

Cheetah

Chloe Wilson

Company Stage Manager

Luke Bateman

Director of Remount, Composer & Adapter

Musical scores include: Mr Popper’s Penguins (West End, New York, USA, UK Tours); H.R.Haitch (The Union Theatre)....

The Little Beasts (The Other Palace); The Sorrows of Satan (Tristan Bates Theatre) All I Want for Christmas, (Jermyn Street & Upstairs at the
Gatehouse) Bachelor Boys, Lord Byron’s Mistress (JST). Music for plays include: The Nightingales (Theatre Royal Bath & UK Tour) Reel Life (Ustinov- Bath & St James) Dark Tourism (Park Theatre), The Autumn Garden; On Approval; St Johns Night; Mother Adam (JST). Arrangements include: The Nightingales (Theatre Royal Bath) West End Recast (Duke of Yorks & Phoenix), Sarah Brightman’s Classics.

Emma Earle

Original Director & Adapter

Emma trained at the National Theatre Studio and Bristol Old Vic Theatre School. She is Co-Artistic
Director of Pins and Needles Productions.

Emma has directed and adapted numerous shows for family
audiences, including the world premieres of two of Raymond Briggs’ best loved picture books Father Christmas and The Bear, and the Atwater’s Mr Popper’s
Penguins. All three shows have toured extensively, including West End, New York and Hong Kong. Recent credits include Little Mermaid which won Best Show
for Children and Young People at the 2018 UK Theatre Awards; Scarlet Pimpernel; Flies; Adventures in Wonderland; Dinner at the Twits. Emma is an Associate
Artist of the egg, Theatre Royal Bath and Les Enfants Terribles theatre company. She is hugely supported by her family and can’t wait to share Oi Frog & Friends!
with children Dottie and Barnaby.

Richy Hughes

Lyricist & Adapter

Richy’s credits include Superhero (Southwark Playhouse); Mr Popper’s Penguins (Criterion, New
Victory, UK and US tours) and A Song Cycle For Soho (Soho Theatre).

Awards: 2018 Off-West-End Award for Best New Musical (for Superhero), Stiles and Drewe
Prize (for “Don’t Look Down” from Superhero) and the 2017 Xmas Factor All Stars Prize for Best New
Christmas Song (for “The Beautiful Game”). Richy is a member of the Book, Music & Lyrics workshop,
London. He is massively supported and inspired by his wife, Nikki, and his children Jessica and Harry.

www.richyhughes.com

Zoe Squire

Designer & Adapter

Zoe trained at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School. She is Co-Artistic Director of Pins and Needles
Productions.

Zoe has designed and adapted an array of shows for family audiences, including the world
premieres of two of Raymond Briggs’ books Father Christmas and The Bear, and Mr Popper’s Penguins. All three shows have toured extensively, including
West End, Broadway and Hong Kong. Recent credits include Little Mermaid which won Best Show for
Children and Young People at the 2018 UK Theatre Awards; Scarlett Pimpernel; Flies; Captain Flinn and
the Pirate Dinosaurs. Zoe is an Associate Artist of the egg, Theatre Royal Bath.

www.zoesquire.com

Yvonne Stone

Puppet Designer

Yvonne studied puppetry at the Central School of Speech and Drama and is a puppet designer, director, maker and puppeteer.

Theatre credits include Warhorse,
Nation and His Dark Materials for the National Theatre; Room on the Broom and Gruffalo’s Child
for Tall Stories; Frankenstein for Blackeyed Theatre; Rubbish and Mojo for Theatre Rites; Alice for Metta Theatre; and Disney’s The Lion King. She also designed
and fabricated the puppets for the National Theatre’s Jubilee Tribute. TV work includes Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance for Netflix; Pompidou by Matt Lucas for BBC2; Mongrels for BBC3; and Space Pirates, Doodle Do and Mr Bloom’s Nursery for CBeebies. Ric Mountjoy - Lighting Designer Ric designs lighting for Theatre and Opera. His work has been seen worldwide: in Singapore, Hong Kong, Seoul and Beijing; in Seattle, Dubai and Doha, and most signifi cantly in London and New York City. Recent lighting designs include The Play that Goes
Wrong on Broadway & West End; Uncle Vanya (Theatr Clwyd & Sheffi eld Theatres); Darbar Festival (Akram Khan & Sadler’s Wells Theatre); Emancipation of
Expressionism (Boy Blue Entertainment, Barbican Theatre & BBC TV); and The Great Gatsby (Theatr Clwyd). For Pins and Needles: Little Mer maid (Theatre Royal Bath); Mr Popper’s Penguins (Seattle, Minneapolis, New York City). For Kenny Wax Family Entertainment: What the Ladybird Heard (International Tours).

Andy Shaw

Sound Designer

Andy Shaw of Jollygoodtunes has been designing sound and music for theatre since 1997.

Recent show highlights include, The Comedy about A Bank Robbery (West End and number one tour); Wilde Creatures (UK and
International tour); The Canterville Ghost (UK tour); The Gruffalo (UK and international tours); The Gruffalo’s Child (UK and international tours); Room on the Broom (UK and International tours); The Snow Dragon (UK and international tours); Emily Brown and The Thing (UK tour); What the
Ladybird Heard (UK and international tours); Mr Benn (UK tour) and The Tiger Who Came to Tea (UK tour and International tours).

John Bulleid

Magic Consultant

John is a Magic Consultant, Actor and Magician.

Credits include: Witches of Eastwick (Cirkus, Stockholm); Harry Potter & The Cursed Child
(Palace Theatre); The Worst Witch (Northampton/UK Tour/Vaudeville Theatre); A Very Very Dark Matter (Bridge Theatre); #WeAreArrested (RSC/Arcola Theatre); Sherlock Holmes: The Final Curtain
(Theatre Royal Bath); The Invisible Man (Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch); Beauty and The Beast (Watford Palace); The Star (Liverpool Everyman); Partners In
Crime (Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch); The Inn at Lydda
(Shakespeare’s Globe); Dirty Dancing (Secret Cinema);
Dracula (Paul Ewing Entertainment, Thailand); The Gypsy Thread (National Theatre Studio); The
Ladykillers, The Secret Adversary (Watermill Theatre); Thark (Park Theatre).

Kes Gray

Author

Kes Gray is a bestselling, multi award-winning author of more than 70 books for children.

He eats Ideaflakes for breakfast, spreads silliness on his toast and lives in a place called Different. Kes
was the second bestselling picture book author in 2018.
Oi Frog!, Oi Dog!, Oi Cat! and Oi Duck-billed Platypus! are a top ten bestselling series. Oi Dog! won the Laugh Out Loud Picture Book Award and was shortlisted for the Sainsbury’s Children’s Book Award and the British Book Award, amongst others. It also won the Teach Primary New Children’s Fiction Award, MadeForMums Award, Bishop’s Stortford Picture Book Award and Portsmouth Picture Book Award.
Oi Cat! was the Independent Booksellers Children’s Book of the Season and Oi Goat! was the
number one bestselling World Book Day book in 2018. Oi Frog! received a Silver Award at the Nielsen Bookscan Awards 2019, and Oi Duck-billed Platypus! was shortlisted for the Children’s Book of the Year at the British Book Awards 2019.

Jim Field

Illustrator

Jim Field is a lead-driven, pencil-pushing, 25-framesper-second Led Zeppelin fan.

He is also a hugely
talented illustrator and animation director. His first picture book Cats Ahoy! won the Booktrust Roald Dahl Funny Prize and was nominated for the Kate Greenaway award. He has since illustrated a string of bestselling, multi-award-winning children’s books, including Oi Frog! and The Lion Inside, as well as young fiction series Rabbit and Bear. Jim is the 5th bestselling illustrator in the UK.

Kenny Wax Family Entertainment

Producer

Kenny Wax Family Entertainment is renowned for producing some of the best family theatre in the West End and on tour in the UK and worldwide.

Productions include: What the Ladybird Heard, Around the World in 80 Days and the Olivier Award
nominated (‘Best Family Entertainment’) stage adaptation of Jacqueline Wilson’s Hetty Feather. They have also had great success with We’re Going on a Bear Hunt, Mr Popper’s Penguins and The Worst Witch adapted from Jill Murphy’s original book series.
In 2020 they will bring The 13-Storey Treehouse to the UK stage General management includes: Tall Stories Theatre Company’s The Gruffalo, The Gruffalo’s Child
and the Olivier award nominated Room on the Broom. Based on the books by Kes Gray and Jim Field published by Hachette Children’s Group