Sputnik is a British theatre company dedicated to sourcing, translating and producing new international drama for UK audiences.
Sputnik Theatre Company Limited is a not-for-profit company No. 06873417 and a registered charity No. 1134437 .
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Sputnik’s Patron:
Ingeborga Dapkunaite, film and stage actor.
Artistic Director:
Noah Birksted-Breen, director and translator
Noah did a Modern Languages BA degree (Hons) at Oxford University and completed an MA in Writing for Performance at Central School of Speech and Drama. He won the Channel 4 Theatre Directors’ Award, working for a year and a half as resident director at Hampstead Theatre where he was assistant director to Lucy Bailey, Polly Teale and Rupert Goold. In 2017, Noah finished a PhD at Queen Mary University of London, titled ‘Alternative Voices in an Acquiescent Society: Translating Russian New Drama (2000-2014)’. He was a researcher in the Faculty of Modern and Medieval Languages at Oxford University and then in the School of Geography and the Environment at Oxford leading to a climate report and the Oxford Flying Less podcast. Currently, he is Visiting Lecturer at Royal Central School of Speech and Drama and Teaching Fellow in the School of Politics and International Relations at Queen Mary University of London.
Board of Directors:
Sue Dunderdale
Sue Dunderdale is a freelance director and writer and until recently was the Head of the MA Directing Course at RADA. Her last production was THE BROTHERS KARAMAZOV in a newly commissioned version by Melissa Murray at the GBS studio, RADA. Previously she directed BEASTS by Juan Radrigán for her company HEAD FOR HEIGHTS at THEATRE 503. In the previous few years she has directed WUTHERING HEIGHTS at York Theatre Royal where she has also directed the premier of MRS. PAT by Pam Gems; BOTTLE UNIVERSE by Simon Burt at the Bush Theatre; COLD HANDS by Chris Katic at Theatre 503; PARADISE BOUND by Jonathan Larkin and THE WAY HOME by Chloe Moss both at the Liverpool Everyman. She has directed numerous short films, including LAST LAUGH (also wrote), starring FRANCES BARBER and DOREEN MANTLE which has played five festivals including LOS ANGELES and CHICAGO; ANGEL by Chloe Moss; MINE by Sue Dunderdale and EXPOSED by Judy Upton. She has directed numerous dramas for television and has two films in development LOVING MONSTERS by Chris Katic and L8 by Jonathan Larkin. During her career as a Director she has been Artistic Director of Pentabus Theatre Company, the Soho Theatre and Greenwich Theatre.
Dino Fontes (Company Secretary)
Dino is a Linklaters-trained senior banking lawyer with extensive experience within financial institutions. He advises on a broad range of in-house matters, from lending transactions to commercial contracts and company secretarial matters. He completed his undergraduate degree in Modern Languages (Spanish & Portuguese) at Trinity College, Oxford, and gained his legal qualifications at The College of Law, London. Dino is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and, in his spare time, he is the legal and business consultant of I-PATH (International Performing Arts and Theatre Limited), a dance and performing arts examination board offering Ofqual-regulated exams; associate producer and the company secretary of Dear Bernard (a musical by Jane Morgan); and a trustee of the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment Trust.
Abigail Gonda
Abigail is Development Producer at the BBC Writersroom. From 2008 to 2013, she was working as a freelance dramaturg in Los Angeles. She was Literary Manager for the Bush Theatre from 2005 to 2008. She was part of the team to relaunch Theatre 503 as a new writing powerhouse. Previously, she has worked for the Royal Court Young Writers’ Programme, the Tricycle Theatre, Donmar Warehouse and the Arcola Theatre in various literary capacities. Abigail has lead playwriting workshops and taught at Cambridge and Oxford University Drama Societies, Rose Bruford College, Watford Palace Theatre, the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts, Central School of Speech and Drama, Soho Theatre and Writers’ Centre and Pier Playwrights. She has been a judge and panellist for the George Devine Award, Susan Smith Blackburn Award, Old Vic/New Voices 24 Hour Plays, Oxford University Dramatic Society New Play Festival, Verity Bargate Award, Kings Cross New Writing Award, Churchill Theatre Bromley New Play Award.
Hugh Kelly
Hugh is an independent consultant advising businesses, governments and regulators on regulatory and competition finance topics. He has previously worked for Commonwealth Development Corporation, Moscow Nardony Bank, Fuji Bank, Ofcom, and FTI Consulting. He has a degree in Economics/Accounting from the University of Kent and trained as a chartered accountant with KPMG.
Simon Stokes
Simon is the Artistic Director at the Theatre Royal Plymouth. He was Artistic Director at the Bush Theatre from the mid 1970’s to the late 1980’s. Thereafter, alongside a freelance career, he was Artistic Associate and Director of Development for the Turnstyle Group in London’s West End. A new play specialist, he developed and directed many of our now established playwrights, along with a generation of now leading actors. He trained at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School and has directed in Germany, Switzerland, Israel and the USA, as well as the UK. His most highly profiled work has included the West End successes When I Was a Girl I Used to Scream and Shout by Sharman Macdonald (with Julie Walters, Geraldine James and Dawn French) at the Whitehall Theatre and A Slip of the Tongue by Dusty Hughes (with John Malkovich and Ingeborga Dapkunaite) at the Shaftesbury Theatre. In Plymouth he has directed Moonshine by Snoo Wilson, Through A Cloud by Jack Shepherd, two plays by Doug Lucie – The Green Man and Presence – and Lucinda Coxon’s Nostalgia.
Artistic Advisers
Birgit Beumers
Birgit is Reader in Russian at the University of Bristol. She completed her D.Phil at St Antony’s College, Oxford and specialises in contemporary Russian culture, especially cinema and theatre. Her publications include Burnt by the Sun (2000), Nikita Mikhalkov: Between Nostalgia and Nationalism (2005), PopCulture: Russia! (2005), History of Russian Cinema (2009) and, as editor, Russia on Reels: The Russian Idea in Post-Soviet Cinema (1999) and 24 Frames: Russia and the Soviet Union (2007). With Mark Lipovetsky she has co-authored a book on New Russian Drama (forthcoming with Intellect). She is editor of the online journal KinoKultura and of the journal Studies in Russian and Soviet Cinema. She is currently working on Russian animation.
John Freedman
John is a writer and translator based in Moscow. He has been the theatre critic of The Moscow Times since 1992, and has written or edited nine books on Russian theatre. His translations have been produced in the United States, Australia and Canada.
Elena Koval’skaya
Elena graduated from the Russian Academy of Theatre Arts (GITIS) with a specialisation in theatre studies. She now teaches the history of European theatre at GITIS. For the last ten years, she has been a theatre reviewer for the newspaper “Afisha”. She is an adviser to the Golden Mask Festival, three times programming the Golden Mask’s “Russian Case”. Elena is also the artistic director of the Lyubimovka festival for young playwrights in Moscow.
