Cllr Nigel Ball (Trustee)
Nigel Ball is a councillor at City of Doncaster Council and holds the portfolio for Public Health, Communities, Leisure and Culture.
Andrew Burden (Trustee)
Andrew Burden is the owner of Aries Group and is the Chair of Doncaster Culture & Leisure Trust.
Sarah Burton (Trustee)
Sarah Burton is a partner specialising in litigation and dispute resolution at law firm Knights and works out of the South Yorkshire office. Having worked in Doncaster for over 10 years, Sarah has personally championed introducing many new businesses to Cast. Sarah supervises the trainee solicitors at work and is also involved with education in Doncaster as a trustee of a seven school academy trust.
Karen Dainty (Trustee)
Karen Dainty is currently the Associate Director: Access and Participation and Student Engagement, at DN Colleges Group: University Centre Doncaster (UCD) and University Campus North Lincolnshire. Before that Karen was the Head of Creative and Performing Arts at the UCD. Karen has had extensive experience in theatre ranging from being a Senior Lecturer in Drama in the Community and Applied Theatre at Bishop Grosseteste University, to a freelance theatre maker and performer and Education Manager at Hull Truck Theatre. She is passionate about theatre, education and life-long learning and in 2017 successfully completed a Doctorate in Education.
Melanie Hewitt (Trustee)
Mel Hewitt born in Doncaster was a journalist with and then the editor of the local paper, The Doncaster Advertiser. She was then PR / comms for local authorities in Essex and Doncaster. She became a freelance PR consultant after this.. working with a wide variety of organisations from the arts & heritage to government and education, as well as local and regional businesses. For the last six years she has been part of the XP Schools Trust as their Partnerships Development and PR Lead. She is also a published author.
Elizabeth Jones (Chair)
Elizabeth Jones has been working as a freelance arts manager since 1991, prior to which she had been Chief Executive of the Theatre Royal, York, for ten years. Before that, Elizabeth worked in senior roles in various regional theatres, including Bolton Octagon and Nottingham Playhouse. Elizabeth’s freelance work includes interim management, tour-booking and producing. In recent years, this has included stints as Director of three commercial presenting houses (The Swan Theatre in High Wycombe, The White Rock in Hastings and The Colosseum in Watford) and as a producer at Hull Truck, Theatre by the Lake, Leeds Playhouse and Oldham Coliseum. Most recently, she was interim Executive Director of Northern Broadsides Theatre Company. Elizabeth has also produced and managed several tours for Watershed Productions and booked tours for Phoenix Dance Theatre & the John Godber Company/ Wakefield Theatre Royal. She is currently Chair of Cast and a trustee (& chair of the Finance sub-committee) of Accessible Arts, a York-based charity which works with people with learning difficulties and physical impairments.
Melanie Rashbrooke (Trustee)
Melanie Rashbrooke is Artistic Director of The Six Twenty, a national touring theatre company, who make head-banging new theatre and re-imaginings of classics. The company have been programmed at Cast previously and are associates of Live Theatre in Newcastle. Melanie also works as a freelance director, theatre-maker and drama facilitator. She's directed work at various venues including Traverse Theatre, Soho Theatre, ARC (Stockton) and Northern Stage. Collaboration and co-creation is at the heart of her practice. Melanie enjoys making community-fuelled theatre that draws on real people’s stories and experiences - celebrating and giving voice to people from all walks of life. Melanie is also an Associate Lecturer at Northumbria University, producer at GIFT (Gateshead International Festival of Theatre) and has previously worked for a range of arts and cultural organisations including Improbable, Theatre503, Live Theatre and The Paper Birds.
