This will be Karen's third directing gig with Footlights having previously wrangled Heathers: The Musical and Flatline with Two Sugars. A member of Footlights since 2015's Rent, Karen will be forever grateful to this wonderful bunch of weirdos for enabling her theatre addiction. It's really nice she has been able to put her Advanced Diploma in Performance Art to some use after all!

This is Shawn’s second show with Footlights (and an official member since last week!), previously music directing Company in 2019. His past music directing credits include Seussical!, Guys & Dolls, 42nd Street, Curtains, Grease, You’re a Good Man Charlie Brown, Pageant, Once Upon a Mattress, Peter Pan, Gypsy, and many more.

Away from the glittering back passage that is Old Compton Street, Shawn is musical director of the Bach Choir of Wellington and tutor at Massey University. Originally from New Jersey (yeah, go on - make a joke), Shawn now calls Wellington home and is grateful to his Footlights whānau for making it that much more homey.

He’d like to thank the cast and crew for their focus, energy, and good humour, the production staff for being organised and always onto it, and his patient husband Stephen.

Katty began ballet lessons in Hong Kong at age 3 and has since trained predominantly in ballet and jazz, and has performed in Cats, Miss Saigon, 42nd Street, Grease, and at numerous stadium events including the Rugby Sevens tournament, All Blacks test matches, and Hurricanes games. Katty’s musical theatre choreography includes Urinetown, If/Then, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Bare: a Pop Opera, Company, and Silver Linings: songs from the silver screen. She is grateful to the cast and crew of Soho Cinders for their commitment, enthusiasm and support through these challenging times.

As Chairperson of the Wellington Footlights Society, it is clear Laura is incapable of letting her Footlights fam have fun without her.

A member since the society’s creation in 2014, Laura has performed onstage as Joanne in RENT, Olive in 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, and countless ensemble roles - as well as having held a plethora of backstage roles from production manager to writer of the original musical Flatline With Two Sugars performed by the society in 2017.

It has been a long bumpy road to get Soho Cinders to the stage, and Laura is thrilled for audiences to finally get to see this joyous production. She hopes you have a wonderful, filthy and fun time.

Margaret has been performing with different theatre groups around Wellington for many years. She's been a part of Footlights since 2014, and has been involved with all but one of their productions since Pippin, on and off stage. Margaret is absolutely delighted to be part of this amazing production, and is thankful for her favourite fellow stage crazies and their dedication and hard work in bringing Soho Cinders to life. She would also like to thank her husband Ward for his tutorials on the inside of dryers (and how to put them back together).

This is Julia’s second show as a Stage Manager, after entering the role in Repertory Theatre’s 2021 season of Suddenly Last Summer. Additionally, this is also her first show with the Footlights Team.

Julia’s had a great time with the cast and crew, and she is so grateful for everyone’s time and effort to make this show a fun, flirty and fantastic piece of musical theatre. It’s been great to get stuck into the role of SM, and she can’t wait for our audience to love this show as much as she does.

Abi has a chronic need to overcommit, and views production roles much like Pokemon - gotta catch ‘em all. This time around she’s trying her hand at set design, and considers convincing the director to let her paint the doors bright pink, her biggest achievement to date. She has also discovered that her measly height of 1.58m presents many challenges in working with tall set pieces. Future sets will all be designed with Hobbits in mind.

Emily K Brown is so excited to be back to work with footlights, and wearing many hats! A Chicago native, Emily moved to New Zealand in 2019 and credits Footlights as a key factor for making Wellington her home away from home.

Previous costume design credits include Edward Albee's The Goat, or Who is Sylvia?, Sunday on the Rocks, and hair/makeup design for Doubt: A Parable.

Emily is thrilled to have this show finally hitting the stage. The cast and crew, and band have worked so hard and cannot wait to share this story with an audience. Emily also wants to thank and acknowledge the other half of the costuming duo: Nadia Newman. She has been incredibly amazing to work with and Emily never would have survived this trip down Old Compton Street without her.

This Nadia’s third show performing in a Wellington Footlights production and she is having so much fun! We are very lucky to be able to come together and put on a show during these strange times! She is very excited for everyone to see this awesome show.

One of Alex’s other hats is using his photography, design and publicity skills to get the word out about Footlights shows. The highlight of this role was our late-night photoshoot at the Porirua Liquid Self Service Laundromat while it was still open, to make the photo you see on the poster!

Need a photographer for your next production? Check out Alex’s work and contact him at www.alexrabinaphoto.co.nz

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Catherine is so excited for audiences to see Soho Cinders finally make it to the stage despite some Covid-19 hiccups. The spirit of Wellington Footlights really shines through in this show, and watching it will be a treat for first time or veteran audience members.