Claire Downes
Director

Claire is the director and co-founder of Round Midnight. She’s the heart and soul of the company and brings with her a very contagious energy. She trained at the Coventry Centre for Performing Arts and shortly after leaving college, formed the company you see today, along with Stuart Lane at the young age of 19! Claire has written, produced and toured numerous Theatre in Education performances and delivered drama workshops all over the country.

In 1996 Claire established Round Midnight’s sister company, Raw Talent Youth Theatre which has just celebrated its 16th Birthday.

With an incredible amount of teaching and drama experience, Claire is also an acting coach and has worked on the films The Chronicles of Narnia, St Trinians 1 & 2 and the CBBC TV series MI High. Claire is also in the films Anita and Me (ICON Films) and Nanny McPhee (Working Title Films).

Currently, Claire has two scripts in development with ITV and BBC.

Stuart Lane
Director

Along with Claire, Stuart is the director and co-founder of Round Midnight. Between his caffeine addiction and keeping everyone laughing in the office, he is the brains behind much of our film work and anything remotely technical within the office. He established Round Midnight with Claire in 1992 and Raw Talent in 1996.

Stuart has delivered an extensive amount of drama, music and film workshops throughout his many years at Round Midnight and continues do so in schools and communities around the UK.

Stuart, alongside Claire, currently has two scripts in development with ITV and BBC.

Emmi Isham
Head of Educational Development

After graduating with a 2:1 BA (Hons) in Theatre Studies at Lancaster University Emmi began working as a freelance drama practitioner for a number of organisations (including Round Midnight) across the Midlands. In 2003 Emmi was invited to become a full time member of the team. From the early days of running drama and dance workshops to later coordinating large scale projects, she heads up our training programmes and co-manages the company. She continues to drive it from strength to strength.

Her next goal for Round Midnight is world domination!

Sami Cornick
Musical Director and Drama Facilitator

Sami started working for Round Midnight in 2009 after graduating from Wolverhampton University with a First class BA (Hons) Drama degree, specialising in comedy. With Sami’s arrival came a whole new musical avenue for Round Midnight which has offered many new opportunities for us and our clients. We truly believe that with her musical expertise she could teach absolutely anyone to sing!

Along with Philip Hyde, Sami is the co-director and writer for Raw Talent Youth Theatre. Sami is also the co-founder of musical comedy duo “Sami and Tilly”. They have toured numerous venues throughout the UK and received an “Excellence in Comedy” award.

Philip Hyde
Drama Facilitator and Director of Raw Talent

At the tender age of 12 Phil joined Raw Talent Youth Theatre where he earned a reputation for being the cheeky but loveable one. He stayed with the group until the age of 18 when he spread his wings, left for De Montfort University and returned with a 2:1 BA (Hons) degree in Drama. Re-joining the company he soon worked his way up to becoming one of our lead Arts Workers and facilitators. He also is involved in much of the script writing that we produce here at Round Midnight.

Along with Sami Cornick, Phil is the co-director and writer for Raw Talent Youth Theatre. Phil has also won “Best all male cast” award at Lichfield festival and “Best young director” at Tamworth festival.

Josephine Stringer
Arts Worker and Drama Facilitator

Josie is the newest member of the Round Midnight team. She has recently graduated from Leeds University with a 2:1 BA (Hons) in Managing Performance and achieved the “Young Leadership Management” award.

Like Phil, she was once a member of Raw Talent and after a short work experience placement with the company, she never really left! Thanks to Josie, we’ve been facebooked and twitter into the 21st Century and we soon realised what a great asset to the company she is. However, she is the only person who takes cake Monday seriously, VERY SERIOUSLY!