Mike Alfreds has been directing plays for more than fifty years. In the 1970s he founded Shared Experience, and has since worked for the National Theatre, Shakespeare's Globe, the Royal Shakespeare Company and also extensively abroad. He is hugely respected within the profession.

He is the author of Different Every Night (Nick Hern Books, 2007), Then What Happens? (Nick Hern Books, 2013) and What Actors Do (Nick Hern Books, 2023).

Firdos Ali is a playwright whose full-length plays include Struggle (Talawa Firsts, 2015), The Wrong Way (Talawa Theatre, 2016) and 40 Days (2017). Her short plays are Stripped Black (Black Lives, Black Words at the Bush Theatre, 2015) and How I Feel (Royal Exchange Theatre, 2016).

Firdos's short story Emerald Waters was chosen for the Bare Lit Festival, 2016. Her musical New Life, for which she wrote the book and lyrics, was showcased at BEAM, 2018. Firdos was named on the BBC New Talent Hotlist.

Javaad Alipoor is a Manchester-based writer, director and maker-performer working across different media including theatre, TV, digital forms and film.

As writer, director and performer, his work includes: Things Hidden Since the Foundation of the World (HOME Manchester &  Battersea Arts Centre, 2023); Rich Kids (Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, & HOME 2019); and The Believers Are But Brothers (2017 Edinburgh Fringe, Bush Theatre, and national and international tour).

He runs the Javaad Alipoor Company.

Roger Allam is an award-winning English actor, best known for roles in the original London production of the stage musical Les Misérables, the TV series Endeavour, as well as roles in the HBO series Game of Thrones and as Peter Mannion MP in The Thick of It.

Timothy Allsop is an actor and writer who trained at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, where he was a winner of the Michael Bryant Verse-Speaking Award and Lilian Baylis Award. His film and television acting credits include The Mummy, Captain Phillips and Detectorists (BBC), and his extensive stage work includes Helen (Shakespeare's Globe), Thérèse Raquin (National Theatre), Our American Cousin (Finborough Theatre), The Picture of Dorian Gray and Strangers on a Train (English Theatre Frankfurt), the lead in Richard III (Guildford Shakespeare Company) and Murder in the Cathedral (Oxford Playhouse). His novel The Smog is published by Amper & Sand.

David Almond is a British author who has written many novels for children and young adults, including Skellig (1998), The Fire-Eaters (2003), Clay (2005) and A Song for Ella Grey (2014).

Hans Christian Andersen (1805–1875) was a Danish author, a prolific writer of plays, travelogues, novels, and poems. He is perhaps best remembered for his fairy tales, including 'The Emperor's New Clothes', 'The Little Mermaid', 'The Snow Queen', 'The Ugly Duckling', 'Thumbelina' and many others.