Cinderella and the Matzo Ball

Theatre Credits include:

The London 50 Hour Improvathon (Pleasance Theatre), How We Begin (Offie Winner: Best Fringe Production, Vaults), How We Begin (Kings Head Theatre), Much Ado About Nothing (Katzspace - Offie Nomination: Best Female Performance), How To Kill Your Mother (The Bunker), Chicken Soup With Barley (Rehearsed Reading, National Theatre Studio), Running Free (Rehearsed Reading, JW3), Trayf (Rehearsed Reading, Criterion Theatre) Dibs (Rehearsed Reading, Theatre 503)

Talya Soames is a queer Jewish actor based in North West London. She trained with the National Youth Theatre and Identity School of Acting.

She recently starred as Mia in the award-winning queer comedy musical Diary of a Gay Disaster, which transferred to the Arcola Theatre following a 5-star, sell-out run at Edinburgh Fringe in 2024. The production won the What’s On Stage Award for Best Studio Production and gained viral traction online, with over 9 million views across TikTok and Instagram. Talya has been involved in developing the show since its first workshop in 2023. Her performance was described as “a whirlwind of energy” (Core Blimey, 2024), and she’s so excited to bring that same energy to Buttons in Cinderella & The Matzo Ball! 

Professional credits include: Diary of a Gay Disaster (Arcola Theatre 2024; Underbelly, Edinburgh 2024; King’s Head Theatre 2023), Convent of Pleasure (London Shakespeare Company, Shakespeare’s Globe 2023), Origins (National Youth Theatre, 2022), The Girls of St Trinian’s (Edinburgh Fringe, 2021), and The Tempest (Edinburgh Fringe, 2017).

Rosie Yadid is a multidisciplinary performance artist— but fundamentally, philosophically, a clown.

A native Nu Yawkah, Rosie studied acting at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama and has a background as a jazz singer and comedienne. In 2019, she wrote and starred in Love Ya Like Poison!, an award winning short film and Off-Broadway stage play.

Rosie made her West End debut as Daphna in black comedy Bad Jews (Arts Theatre), and recently debuted her cabaret/drag/musical extravaganza, Mimi (The Rosemary Branch), directed by Lachlan Werner. Musical credits include Fury & Elysium (The Other Palace), Rhythm & Ruse (The Vaults Theatre), Pappy Show’s 10th Birthday (The Barbican).

Her debut album, Cute as a Glutton, is available on all major streaming platforms, and her sophomore effort is in progress. Rosie is a proud family member of cult clown collective Goth Picnic, and performs regularly on cabaret bills across London (Phoenix Arts Club, Crazy Coqs, Jacksons Lane). When not on stage, Rosie is coaching others to empower their voices and guide them towards authentic expression.

Libby is an actor, writer, theatre maker, producer, new audio maker and lover of Air Max 90s.  She has over two decades worth of experience in the theatre industry. 

She’s best known for her acclaimed solo show MUVVAHOOD, addressing the stigma surrounding single motherhood and her play FIGHTER, based on her personal experience as a boxer and the struggles that female boxers face in a male dominated sport. She was one of the selected Barbican Open Lab artists for 2023, developing a new solo show, UNDER THE BRIDGE, about online trolling.

Acting credits include: EASTENDERS (BBC) TORCHWOOD (BBC), KINGS (Smoke and Oakum at NDT), BYSTANDERS (Cardboard Citizens) and a healthy dose of panto!

Libby has featured as a guest panellist on BBC Radio London, Radio 4 with Rev Richard Coles and Radio 5. She’s written for BBC Radio, The Stage, the Evening Standard, The Guardian and more.

Libby has just finished studying an MA in Audio Storytelling for Radio & Podcast at UCL.

Her debut audio feature, FIGHT FAIR, won the Charles Parker Prize 2024, was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in August 2024, and is still available on BBC Sounds.

She was a selected finalist for The Whickers Podcast Pitch Award 2024 and 2025.

She’s recently achieved international recognition for her audio work: shortlisted for the New York Festivals Radio Awards 2025 and won the Gracie Award 2025 for Student Radio Producer, presented by the Alliance for Women in Media in NYC. 

Libby is currently developing MUVVAHOOD for radio having won the prestigious JAR Emerging Women in Podcasting Competition 2025.

Bio coming soon.

Lillith Freeman is a Czech-Jewish & British actor, puppeteer and theatre-maker. A recent graduate from East 15’s BA Acting and Contemporary Theatre, she is establishing her career premiering her new theatre company Foreign Object with her London directorial debut at Voila Festival 2025. She also has puppeteered for various community focussed arts organisations such as Unpuzzled Theatre, Blueprints Arts, and A Woman Becomes a Wolf. Her work also extends to drag performance, with cabaret collective Haus of Octopuss and drag horror play ‘Tuck’.

Michael left a 15 year career as a journalist to train as an actor at Bristol Old Vic Theatre School. Whilst training he played Benedick in Shakespeares ‘Much Ado About Nothing’, Theophile Sarder in Ariane Mnouchkine’s adaptation of ‘Mephisto’, and Andrey in Chekhov's masterful ‘Three Sisters’. Michael graduated in September, this is his professional stage debut.

Josh Middleton is a multi-instrumentalist, Composer and Musical Director specialising in Klezmer. He has worked with Klezmer ensembles She’koyokh and The London Klezmer Quartet, taught at Klezfest UK alongside Klezmer Scholars Alan Bern and Joel Rubin and performed with Frank London (The Klezmatics) and Merlin Shepherd.

He has toured extensively as Musical Director and accordionist with String Theatre (Tunisia, Turkey, Russia, Hungary, Serbia), Nick Cassenbaum’s Bubble Shmeisis (UK, USA, Malta) and his ensemble Don Kipper( to much critical acclaim: **** The Guardian, **** The Evening Standard).

Theatre Credits include Indecent (The Menier Chocolate Factory 2020, 2021)

Musical Director Credits include Watch on the Rhine (The Donmar Warehouse 2022)

Oliver Presman studied at the National Centre for Circus Arts (NCCA) before co-developing the circus show 'Dip' with Max Calaf Seve. This show combined acrobatics with live music and toured for 3 consecutive years.

His interest in Klezmer was reignited through attending Klezfest 2018. More recently, he has studied with New York trumpeter Frank London (in London and Normandy), Moldovian trumpeter Adam Stinga (in France and Germany), as well as with the Vivo Montana Brass Band in Bulgaria. 

As a musician, Oliver performs regularly at popular UK venues and festivals with his bands; Hop Skotshne' (Klezmer); 'Tropanka' (Macedonian/Bulgarian folk); 'Ygra' (balkan ceilidh); and 'ShunTa' (Roma-influenced band). ShunTa most recently supported internationally renowned Romanian brass band Fanfare Ciocarlia on their UK tour.

Separately to music, Oliver is a qualified Physiotherapist as well as trampoline-gymnastics coach and music teacher.

Migdalia van der Hoven is an internationally award-winning Mexican drummer, trained at the prestigious Berklee College of Music. Her credits include: SIX the Musical International Tour and West End. She has also performed in Little Shop of Horrors UK Tour, Operation Mincemeat (Dep - West End), Cake The Musical (West End), Billie The Kid Musical (West End) and at the Coronation Prom with the All Souls Orchestra at the Royal Albert Hall. She is currently working with the Royal Shakespeare Company and has performed multiple times at the EFG London Jazz Festival, further showcasing her versatility in the theatre and music industries.

In 2022, Migdalia was named Woman of the Year in Mexico for her outstanding contributions to arts and culture. She also recorded her debut jazz fusion album at Abbey Road Studios with her quartet, cementing her place as a dynamic and versatile drummer in the music industry.

Passionate about advocating for women in music, Migdalia is an active member of Women in Jazz Media and The Percussive Arts Society and serves as a role model for young female drummers, inspiring and mentoring the next generation of musicians.

@migdaliavanderhoven

Abi is delighted to be back with the JW3 Panto team directing for the third year running. She first directed panto when she was an Associate Director of the Theatre Royal in Bury St Edmunds back in 2009, and has hardly missed a year doing panto since, including Chipping Norton’s legendary panto and work for Imagine Theatre. Her other passions are Shakespeare (she has directed 18 of his plays so far) and creating stage adaptations of novels. Her Pride and Prejudice for two actors has toured several times in the UK, and three in South Korea! Other recent work includes a national tour of Horrible Histories: Rotten Royals and dramaturgical support on a number of projects including the Edinburgh Fringe 2025 hit, Lola: A Flamenco Love Story.

Becky Plotnek is a creative arts producer who makes things happen. They support irreverent, joyful, experimental work that is resistant to the way things are. They are currently working with a rich mix of artists across theatre, performance art, cabaret and combined arts, including Midgitte Bardot (AKA Tammy Reynolds), An* Neely & Moa Johannsson, and Hannah Maxwell. They were co-curator for DICE Festival which presented at Summerhall (Edinburgh Fringe) and Barbican. Becky is absolutely delighted to be producing JW3's first ever pantomime.

Nick is a theatre maker whose work asks audiences to think about how they engage with spaces, places and people. Nick’s work has toured internationally, selling out in venues around the world. He has written plays, created and performed solo work and made street performances in collaboration with some of the country’s most celebrated venues, including The Royal Court, Soho Theatre and Battersea Arts Centre, and he has broadcast podcasts for The Guardian.

Yael trained in ballet and contemporary dance in Canada. When then undertaking her Masters in Choreography (Middlesex University), she discovered a passion for choreography and movement direction for narrative contexts working on theatre, opera, and screen-based media productions.

For the past two and a half decades Yael’s work has been part of a wide variety of productions on stages small and large, from Shakespeare to new writing, music theatre to motion-capture, opera to choreography for new music. Yael teaches for several institutions including London Contemporary Dance School, Millennium Performing Arts College, and London Studio Centre.

Over the years Yael has delivered movement-based experiences to people of all ages, notably for the Imagine Children’s Festival (Southbank Centre), and writing, directing, and choreographing an interactive piece of music theatre for the V&A Museum. For a full list of credits, please visit www.yaelloewenstein.com.

Amy (she/her) is a London-based freelance lighting designer, with occasional stints as a technical stage manager. A lover of theatre since she can remember, she studied English Literature at the University of Sussex, then fell in love with all things production during a year abroad at Stony Brook University in New York.

She was the technical manager at Camden People's Theatre from August 2018 until September 2022, during which time she focused her practice from technical management towards production lighting and lighting design. She works on a wide range of performance, with an emphasis on the political, the playful and the pondering.

Find her full credits and portfolio on her website - www.amydanielslighting.com.