County Council Network Project

Michael is writer in residence and Artistic Director of Box Clever Theatre Company. He graduated in History; studied Film and Theatre in Poland before training as a theatre director at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School. Michael has an MA in writing for film and television. He founded Box Clever as a company dedicated to new writing and new ways of working with colleagues in Health and Education.

Alice began her professional career as a ventriloquist in Las Vegas, before graduating from Manchester University with a drama degree in 1998. Since then she has been resident Assistant Director at West Yorkshire Playhouse and Associate Director at Harrogate Theatre and most recently Basingstoke Haymarket. In the past 6 years she has directed over 50 productions of all shapes and sizes for companies including Basingstoke Haymarket, Bolton Octagon, Bradford Alhambra, Contact Theatre, Harrogate Theatre, Hull Truck and Wakefield Theatre Royal. Alice has also written 2 plays - Such a Curious Dream and Silence of a Dale- and has recently adapted the latter into a film for BBC television.

Since leaving the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School ten years ago Clive has worked primarily in the theatre. He has appeared on the London fringe, in Rep theatres across the country, and at the National Theatre where he performed in Frogs and Oh, What a Lovely War. His appearances on the television have been deceptively brief, but he can soon be heard screaming briefly in episode eight of Casualty. He has collaborated regularly with Michael Wicherek since the mid 1980’s, and enjoys his work for Box Clever as a workshop leader in schools.

Sophie Russell trained in Performing Arts at Middlesex University and ENSATT, Paris. Recent theatre work includes The Chaingang Gang, and Meat and Two Veg with Cartoon de Salvo, and The Crock of Gold and Alice Through the Looking Glass for London Bubble Theatre Company. She has toured internationally with TNT Theatre playing Nancy in Oliver Twist, and all the ghosts in A Christmas Carol.

Other favourite work includes I Am Dandy with the David Gale Ensemble, Cinderella at the Palace Theatre, Westcliffe, and touring the inland waterways of Britain on a narrowboat with Mikron Theatre Company.

Sophie has enjoyed a long association with Box Clever, appearing in Jump, The Buzz, Twelfth Night and Clarevision, as well as various special projects like the County Councils’ Network Conference in Preston.