STEPHEN TILLER (Director) Stephen trained as an actor at The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and, worked for 15 years in that field. But he also soon began to direct, produce and write for the theatre. He set up The Wedding Collective in 1996 to commission and produce works of new writing often with the themes of social conflict, war and sexuality. The Wedding Collective brought The Vagina Monologues to the UK and produced the show with huge success for over six years including commercial runs of it in the West End. More recently, very successful productions of their shows Warcrime and The Daughter played in over 15 European cities, nearly always in site-specific locations in which the audience have typically been immersed in the action. These location have included the North Tower of the Tyne Bridge, an ex-nuclear bomber base in East Anglia, the crypt of a Wren Church in London, a disused silk mill in Bradford, an old ice storage plant in Paris and an amphitheatre in Thessalonika.

Stephen’s recent projects include an ACE-funded site-specific reworking of Gian-Carol Menotti’s The Consul (1950) – The Secret Consul –  a study of tyranny, sanctuary and the Western complicity that inhibits and demonises those seeking refuge.  In this, The Wedding Collective mashed a group of professional opera singers with a chorus of London refugees, asylum-seekers and migrants to make a wholly unique musical and theatrical event for an exciting new opera audience.

ANDREW CHARITY (Music Director). As well as being the Musical Director of The Shoreditch Consul, Andrew is the MD of Opera Up Close’s legendary LA BOHEME which has has run and run – at the Soho, King’s Head and Cock Tavern Theatres in London. On March 13th 2011 LA BOHEME beat the ENO, the Royal Opera House and the Young Vic to win the Olivier Awards 2011 “Best New Opera Production”. We are thrilled to have him as our Musical Director. An advocate of the Estill model of teaching vocal techniques, Andrew trained at theRoyal College of Music and, as well as being a conductor and musician of some note, has worked for many years as a teacher at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, Guildhall, National Opera Studio, Netherlands Opera and Arts Ed.

Michalis Angelakis

MICHALIS ANGELAKIS (Assistant Music Director) Greek-born repetiteur and vocal coach Michalis Angelakis studied piano solo and vocal accompaniment at Trinity College of Music, London where he completed the PGDip (Postgraduate Diploma) and MMus (Master of Music) courses. After training as repetiteur at the National Opera Studio in 2010, he became increasingly in demand as repetiteur. His most notable past productions include Puccini’s La Boheme (both the Olivier-awarded production of Opera Up Close and the 2010 British Youth Opera season), Vaughan Williams’ Hugh the Drover (Hampstead Garden Opera), Cimarosa’s L’Italiana in Londra (Bampton Opera), Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin (Kentish Opera) and most recently the musical direction of La Clemenza di Tito by the newly-formed Giornata Opera. With the Wedding Collective he has previously collaborated as Assistant Musical Director of the 2011 revival of the Secret Consul, a musical drama based on Menotti’s The Consul. His many choral accompaniment engagements include the newly-formed Thurrock Community Chorus (Royal Opera House Education). His performances have taken him to venues such as Cadogan Hall, the Royal Opera House and the Royal Festival Hall foyers and the Soho Theatre. Since 2008, Michalis is part of the music staff at MorleyCollege, where he coaches and accompanies both students of the OperaSchool and the Access to Higher Education programme and teaches the piano.