Around the World in Eighty Days

LEO ELSO (Passepartout)

Leo is a West End performer, composer and musician trained at The MTA London.

Selected credits include: ABBA Voyage (Motion capture), Pistol (Disney+), The Grinning Man (Trafalgar Theatre), Secret Cinema: Guardians of the Galaxy (Immersive), Peter Pan (Chester Storyhouse), Cinderella (Leeds City varieties), C-O-N-T-A-C-T (worldwide), The Foreigner’s Panto (BOLD London), Alice in Wonderland (Covent Garden), Alice Through the Looking Glass (Covent Garden), Cat in (Re)boots (Livestream), Project: Cyrano (Vienna’s English Theatre), The Misanthrope (Camden People’s Theatre), The Doctor In Spite of Himself (Drayton Arms Theatre), The Flies (The Bunker Theatre), DUSTY (Charing Cross Theatre), West End Eurovision (Adelphi Theatre), West End Heroes (Dominion Theatre) and 2022’s Midsummer Festival presentation of Romeo & Juliet.

He’s the host of the WEF International Cabaret and has an extensive rock music career.

You can follow Leo on Twitter: @LeoElso Instagram: @imleoelso and YouTube.com/LeoElso

FILIP KRENUS (Mr Fogg)

Filip Krenus is an actor and theatre maker. He trained at East 15 and Drama Centre. Filip formed Honey-tongued Theatre Productions in 2012 and he is a co-founder and Creative Director of Midsummer Scene.

He co-produced Conundrum for European Capital of Culture Rijeka 2020 and he also performed when the production was staged at the Young Vic.

His one-man show A Poor Player, co-written with Sean Aita had a European tour and has been translated into Hungarian and Romanian.

He has also produced for Vault Festival, London.

Other theatre credits include: Romeo and Juliet, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Hamlet (Midsummer Scene) and Twelfth Night (Midsummer Scene and Vienna’s English Theatre), Uncle Maroye (Gdansk Shakespeare Festival), School for Scandal (directed by Jessica Swale), The Winter’s Tale (LittleBIG Shakespeare), King Lear and Dido, Queen of Carthage (Greenwich Theatre), Bent (Landor/tabard), Orestes – Re-Examined (Southwark Playhouse), and Peer Gynt (Riverside Studios).

On TV, he recently appeared on I Hate Suzie (Bad Wolf / Sky Studios).

JULIANA BARROS (Miss Aouda)

Portuguese-born Juliana Barros is an actress based in London, UK. She has over a decade of professional experience in both theatre and film.

Her latest work includes immersive theatre shows Money Heist and Tomb Raider, as well as feature films Hunter in the Blue Side of Manchester (Netflix) and Frenemies (Amazon Prime).

ELLIOT MACKENZIE (Mr Fix)

Elliot trained at Rose Bruford College BA (Hons) Actor Musicianship (2015-2018), The BRIT School of Performing Arts and Technology (2013-2015) and National Youth Music Theatre (NYMT).

Acting Credits Include: Haldir in Lord of the Rings (The Watermill Theatre); Nick and Righteous Brother in Beautiful – The Carole King Musical (UK Tour); Snake Preacher/Minister/Show Musical Director in Whistle Down the Wind (The Watermill Theatre); Junkfolker/Swallowfire/MD in The Misadventures of Pinnochio: The Radical Robot Girl (The Bohemians Theatre Company); Bowbells/King Elvis in Dick Whittington (Queens Theatre Hornchurch); Constable Coppem u/s Dame Widow Betty Gagwash, Aladdin and Bjorn Nastee in Alladin (Queens Theatre Hornchurch); u/s Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash & Carl Perkins in Million Dollar Quartet (UK & India Tour); Alex in Lexi (The Bohemians Theatre Company); Maurice/Harry in Phoebe’s First Christmas (Embracing Arts); Zog/Music Captain in Zog (Rose Theatre, Kingston/UK Tour); Jack/Pat/MD in Wondertown (The Bohemians Theatre Company) and Tiny Tim in A Christmas Carol (Rose Theatre, Kingston). Elliot recently appeared in Britain’s Brightest Celebrity Family (ITV) and is the reigning champion!

He is also a founding member and the Musical Director of the Bohemians Theatre Company.

For more information about Elliot please visit: accessuk.agency

RHIANNA GOODWIN (Samantha Graham / Batuclar)

Rhianna is a Welsh-born performer and creative who trained in Musical Theatre at the Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts. Rhianna also trained with the Oily Cart Theatre company, working on creating and performing theatre for young audiences and children with SEN/PMLD. Rhianna’s credits include: Associate Choreographer on USHERS (The Other Palace); GODSPELL 25th Anniversary Concert (Broadway HD), Y Mabinogi (Cadwr Castle), Everlasting Lily (workshop) and Fight or Flight (short film), Cirque Stratosphere (workshop), To Deal or Not to Deal (Short Film), as well as Around the World in Eighty Days (Midsummer Scene Festival) last
year. Rhianna is excited to be returning to the show for another year to reprise her role and to be the Resident Choreographer for this year’s production. Rhianna in a multi-instrumentalist playing flute, accordion, piano, saxophone, and ukulele. In addition to her musicianship, Rhianna is a dancer who specialises in tap and jazz.

Rhianna has a passion for creating work for theatre that is accessible for both audiences and industry professionals.

SEAN AITA (Director)

Sean Aita is an award-winning English playwright and director. His plays have been toured extensively both in Britain and overseas. Sean was awarded the CheckOut Theatre Award for his original play for young audiences Yallery Brown, co-produced with Forkbeard Fantasy at the Greenwich Theatre London which was described in The Guardian newspaper as ‘so inventive it seems destined to be a classic’.

He also won the IVCA Clarion Award, Europe’s most prestigious CSR and Humanitarian Communications Award for his play Bin It which toured in the UK for over ten years. He has had his writing produced professionally by the Royal Theatre Northampton (The Wrong Trousers, and a new translation of Edmond Rostand’s Cyrano de Bergerac); and Forest Forge Theatre Company (To the Marrow, Raising the Roof, The Smith Family Panto).

He has had a very successful partnership with Vienna’s English Theatre, authoring over a dozen original plays and stage adaptations of classical texts for their touring department, the most recent (The Show Must Go On and On the Brink) will tour Austria and Northern Italy in the Autumn. His stage adaptation of Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is currently in the repertoire of the English Theatre, Frankfurt.

Sean has just completed the book and lyrics for a new full-length musical called The Maiden and the Child, which has been workshopped by students at the Musical Theatre Academy (MTA) in London.

He is a member of the Trinity College London Drama Panel and as a director has worked on professional theatre productions and immersive events across the UK, continental Europe and in Canada. He has also delivered lectures and performance-focused acting workshops in London, Mexico City, Vancouver, Dubrovnik and Los Angeles (at Cal Arts and the Los Angeles Film School).

Sean was the director of Romeo and Juliet which performed at the Midsummer Scene Festival in the Summer of 2019, which was revived in 2022. In the first post-pandemic season of Midsummer Scene Festival, he also directed the one-man show A Poor Player co-written with Filip Krenus.

LEO ELSO (Composer)

Leo started playing and composing music at a young age in his hometown of Paris, quickly forming and performing in rock bands, including the award-winning punk outfit Chocolate Flavoured Tree.

After his move to London to study Musical Theatre at The MTA London, he started composing for various shows and films, in addition to his own acting career.

Credits Include: Dracula: Unclotted (European Tour), No Place Like Home (Short film), Commerce [pas très] Équitable (short film), Undercover Star (European tour), The Caucasian Chalk Circle (Drama Centre), The Maids (White Bear Theatre), The Misathrope (Camden People’s Theatre), Cendrillon (Camden People’s Theatre), and his award-winning score for Enough is Enough! (Short Film)

He has a longstanding relationship with writer and director Sean Aita. Together they’ve developed the musicals Virtual Heroes and The Little Prince, all for Vienna’s English Theatre. Around The World in Eighty Days is their latest and biggest project to date, and their upcoming full length rock musical, Rescue Me, is in development, as well as a new musical version of The Canterville Ghost.

Leo also composes for award-winning Parisian playwright Samuel Valensi on his plays L’inversion De La Courbe and Melone Blu.

His latest projects are PULSE, a Zombie love story rock musical, in collaboration with writers Annie McCall and Marcia Vidal-Nolte and director Adam Lenson, and French Toast, a play soon to run at The Riverside Studios

Leo comes from a Rock music background and keeps writing and performing his own songs: he has released a live session available at YouTube.com/LeoElso and all streaming platforms. This one has yet to win any awards.

FILIP KRENUS (Creative Producer  – Honey-tongued Theatre Productions)

When Filip formed Honey-tongued Theatre Productions in 2012, he aimed to create a cultural bridge between the United Kingdom and South-Eastern Europe. He produced the first festival of Croatian contemporary drama in London Short Shrift , which was sponsored by the Croatian Ministry of Culture and the Embassy of the Republic of Croatia in the United Kingdom. The event featured five top Croatian playwrights and brought to London some of the best young Croatian actors and directors. He has launched Honey-tongued READINGS – a series of rehearsed readings of both British and South-Eastern European plays and has set up Honeybear Youth Theatre, the children’s theatre branch of Honey-tongued Theatre Productions. Hedgehog’s Home was its first production. In 2015 Filip has set up LittleBIG Shakespeare workshop series for young audiences. In Croatia, Filip has collaborated with several theatre companies. He has translated the comedy The Complete Works of William Shakespeare – Abridged for Teatar EXIT, one of the most acclaimed Croatian theatres. The translation served as a basis for the Croatian version of the project for which he was also assistant director. He also translated the works of the following playwrights into Croatian: Steven Berkoff, Jim Cartwright, Philip Ridley, Briony Lavery, Clare Dowie and Langford Wilson. For Short Shrift, he translated into English the plays by Croatian playwrights Vlatka Vorkapić and Dino Pešut. He is currently working on producing the UK premiere of Gloria by Ranko Marinković, a Croatian classic play which he has also translated into English. He has translated into English the comedy Uncle Maroje by one of the greatest Croatian and European Renaissance playwrights Marin Držić. Filip also translates for audio-visual media (Croatian National Television).

ROBERTO SURACE (Set and Costume Design)

Roberto originates from Melbourne, Australia where he trained at the Victorian College of the Arts (VCA) gaining a BA in Dramatic Art (Production). He has also recently been nominated for the 2023 Drama Desk Awards for Outstanding Costume Design of a Play for Peter Pan Goes Wrong on Broadway.

Broadway costume designs include: The Play That Goes Wrong (Lyceum & New World Stages), Peter Pan Goes Wrong (Barrymore).

West End costume designs include: Mind Mangler: Member of the Tragic Circle (Garrick), Magic Goes Wrong (Vaudeville & Apollo), Groan Ups! (Vaudeville), The Comedy About a Bank Robbery (Criterion), Peter Pan Goes Wrong (Apollo) and The Play That Goes Wrong (Duchess).

Off West End costume designs include: Lily Aitkinson at the St James (St James) and The Trial of Jane Fonda (The Park).

UK tour costume designs include: Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None, The Play that Goes Wrong, Peter Pan Goes Wrong, The Comedy About a Bank Robbery, Groan Ups!, Magic Goes Wrong, Mind Mangler: Member of the Tragic Circle.

International: The Play That Goes Wrong (USA, Canada, Hungary, Italy, Mexico, Russia, Australia, Portugal, Latvia, Spain, Hong Kong and New Zealand). Peter Pan Goes Wrong (Australia, New Zealand, Italy & Canada) The Comedy About a Bank Robbery (Russia), Groan Ups! (Hungary). Mind Mangler: Member of the Tragic Circle (Virgin Cruises), The Marvelous Elephant Man (Australia)

Television includes: A Christmas Carol Goes Wrong, Peter Pan Goes Wrong The Goes Wrong Show Series 1&2 all on BBC1.

Theatre includes: Costume Supervisor on Peter Pan (Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre) and Top Hat (2014/2015 UK tour and Japan).

Roberto dedicates his work to his late Mother, Silvana.

Insta: @robrob77 www.robertosuracedesign.com

ALEKSANDAR MONDECAR (Lighting Designer)

Aleksandar spent forty years as lighting designer, and he is a household name in Croatian theatre. He worked on more than 800 shows to date. Abroad, he worked at International Theatre Festivals in Jerusalem, Gent and Berlin, Street Festival Graz, Vienna’s English Theatre and many more. Aleksandar taught at Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts in 1996. He was praised for his work and won the prestigious Varaždin Baroque Evenings Award, and Special Awards at NAJ Festival and the ASSITEJ (International Association of Theatre for Children and Young People). He was also commended by the Minister of Culture of Croatia. Aleksandar wrote the first book about lighting design in Croatia, Introduction to Theatrical Lightning in 2001. He is a Member of Croatian Freelance Artists’ Association.

RHIANNA GOODWIN (Resident Coreographer)

Rhianna is a Welsh-born performer and creative who trained in Musical Theatre at the Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts. Rhianna also trained with the Oily Cart Theatre company, working on creating and performing theatre for young audiences and children with SEN/PMLD. Rhianna’s credits include: Associate Choreographer on USHERS (The Other Palace); GODSPELL 25th Anniversary Concert (Broadway HD), Y Mabinogi (Cadwr Castle), Everlasting Lily (workshop) and Fight or Flight (short film), Cirque Stratosphere (workshop), To Deal or Not to Deal (Short Film), as well as Around the World in Eighty Days (Midsummer Scene Festival) last
year. Rhianna is excited to be returning to the show for another year to reprise her role and to be the Resident Choreographer for this year’s production. Rhianna in a multi-instrumentalist playing flute, accordion, piano, saxophone, and ukulele. In addition to her musicianship, Rhianna is a dancer who specialises in tap and jazz.

Rhianna has a passion for creating work for theatre that is accessible for both audiences and industry professionals.

NIKOLA KAPIDŽIĆ (Video Designer)

Nikola has a broad experience in video and live production ranging from theatre to music videos, documentaries and advertising. As the director of VIZIR, Nikola is dedicated to creating video content and live productions of the highest quality. He collaborated with Marin Držić Theatre, Dubrovnik Summer Festival, Šipan Film Summer School, Infobip Shift Conference, and Lazareti Art Workshop on national and international projects. Nikola also worked with artists Iris Lobaš Kukavičić, Slaven Tolj, Pero Mrnarević and Ana Pozar Piplica, as well as with directors Ozren Prohić, Krešimir Dolenčić, Ivica Kunčević, and Janusz Kica, to name a few. He has been with Midsummer Scene from its beginning, lending it his strong vision and rich experience.