Team
Joe Graham
Joe has had professional productions at the The Everyman Theatre in Cheltenham; Sherbet Lemon, Best Man Faller, Spare Prick, Actually Moving and Bristol Old Vic; Joined at the Hip.
He was commissioned to write two new pantomimes for Watford Palace Theatre; Cinderella and Aladdin. In 2011 his musical comedy Rhinestone Mondays undertook a Number 1 theatre tour around the UK starring Shaun Williamson (Eastenders, Extras). Joe’s play Oranges on the Brain was produced by Delirium Theatre at the Pegasus Theatre, Oxford and at the Courtyard Theatre, London.
Written in workshop with a group of secondary school students for Sixth Sense Theatre Company, his play The Goldfish Bowl, toured over 40 schools. Joe wrote and performed, I Get That a Lot at the Chipping Norton Theatre as part of Paines Plough’s ‘Come to Where I’m From’ initiative.
Joe also works with his own theatre company, Balancing Act to produce his own work, having written and directed the plays: Dancing to the Sound of Crunching Snails; A Fistful of Mondays; Fun Run; Spare Prick (all at OFS Theatre) and The Murmuration of Starlings (Witney Corn Exchange). He also wrote and directed the family comedy musicals: Quasimodo a Gogo; Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?; Sinbad and the Voyage of the Seven Souls; Peter Pan and the Fountain of Eternal Youth and Robin Hoodwinked, with brother Jim Graham writing the original music.
Joe has also written many one-act plays for local festivals, winning awards at both the Oxfordshire Drama Network and Wallingford Corn Exchange Drama Festivals.
Joe has also turned his writing skills to screenplays and is also looking to also progress that side of his work.
Sam Mansfield
As both producer and onstage, Sam has been a key part of Balancing Act since 2009, appearing in Dancing to the Sound of Crunching Snails. He followed this with roles in A Fistful of Mondays (2009); Fun Run and Quasimodo a Gogo. He has also produced and played leading roles in the family comedy musicals, Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf? and Sinbad and the Voyage of the Seven Souls.
As producer for Balancing Act, Sam’s credits include: Dancing to the Sound of Crunching Snails; A Fistful of Mondays; Fun Run; Mind the Gap; Spare Prick; The Murmuration of Starlings; Quasimodo a Gogo; Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?; Sinbad and the Voyage of the Seven Souls. Sam has also produced and played roles in several productions for Kennington Dramatic Society including: Lest We Forget; Cinderella and Aladdin. As well as producing upcoming Balancing Act productions, Sam also takes to the stage again in For a Few Mondays More.
Chris Graham
Chris has been working as a producer and stage manager in Balancing Act productions since 2003. For Chris, producer is a fairly generic title for someone who does everything to keep cast happy and fed throughout the intense Balancing Act rehearsal schedules, as well as working to source props and materials to make each production happen. Her unseen work and dedication behind the scenes are a large part of the glue that keeps the Balancing Act family together.
She stepped out in front in 2012 to direct the one-act play The Swing, winning awards at the Oxfordshire Drama Network play festival.
James Mansfield
James appeared in the very first Balancing Act production In Limbo and followed that by developing the same character in Let’s Party and It’s Your Funeral. With Kennington Dramatic Society he played the lead role in Sinbad and the Voyage of the Seven Souls (2008) and many play productions. James won awards at drama festivals when he directed the powerful one-act play Lest We Forget.
He first teamed up with Joe as producer for The Hunchback of Notre Dame (Quasimodo a Gogo) in 2009 and has worked as a producer or technical manager in all Balancing Act productions since then at various venues.
Cast
James Card
James trained at ALRA, and is delighted to be returning to Balancing Act, after appearing in a trio of Joe Graham’s previous works, Fun Run, Spare Prick, and as Duncan in the original production of A Fistful of Mondays, all at the Old Fire Station. Other theatre credits include Collider and Distractingly Female for the Saturday Matinee Company (OFS Theatre); Richard in Harold Pinter’s The Lover (Ruskin College); Baby Talk (Etcetera Theatre); Pawn (Man in the Moon Theatre); Nevermore (New Wimbledon Studio); and three appearances at London’s famed Sitcom Trials, Games Night, The Grown Ups Are Talking, and Gardening Leave (Soho Theatre). Film and TV credits include the title role in Jack the Ripper in America (Discovery US); Steve - opposite Anna Crilly (Lead Balloon, Anna & Katy) - in Queen of the Jubilee; the title role in Aidan Samson’s award-winning short Neil’s House; 1066: The Battle for Middle-Earth (Channel 4); and Tom in Over A Smoke (CPH Film Collective). James also appears in several internationally successful web series, including as Steve in The Syndicate (Systir Productions) and Parker in Raptured (Red on Black Productions).
Steve Hay
Steve is a boat-dwelling Oxford-based Scottish actor and voice artist.
Steve appears in recently released horror feature Sinphony: A Clubhouse Horror Anthology. He is the voice of the Scottish Government’s current speed and healthy eating campaigns, the narrator of Channel 5Star’s hit World’s Wildest Holidays, the voice of Alton Towers’ £16M wooden spectacular The Wickerman, is the 360-degree virtual reality guide to Glenfiddich distillery, and is one of The Macallan Pioneers Experience founding actors.
Recent television includes hit series Outlander, and as an ADR voice artist on feature films Mary Queen of Scots, directed by Josie Rourke, MacBeth, directed by Justin Kurzel and Jason Connery’s Tommy’s Honour, and television series In Plain Sight. Recent theatre includes Macbeth in a bi-lingual international co-production at Kyrgyzstan’s national theatre, Tomorrow Never Knows in Lodz, Poland and Too Long The Heart for Siege Perilous in Edinburgh. He played JM Barrie in The Mythmakers in London’s West End and in New York.
Steve is also a regular reader and helps cast and direct Short Stories Aloud, curated by Sarah Franklin. He has appeared in several music videos for Candy Says, and The Long Insiders. Steve is a founding member of the Oxford Actors Network, Oxfordshire Theatre Makers and Inspires networking group for the Film, Television, Voiceover and Mocap Industries.
He also worked for the homeless charity Crisis, and used to be a journalist. Occasionally he still is.
Steve is both scared and excited to be working with Joe again, after playing lead roles in The Murmuration of Starlings (2023), Spare Prick (2013), Fun Run (2010) and Joe’s 2009 original production of A Fistul of Mondays.
Sara Whittingham
Sara has been dancing since she was three and, with lifelong experience in many dance disciplines, has been choreographing productions for many years now including: Quasimodo a Gogo; Sinbad and the Voyage of the Seven Souls; Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf? and Peter Pan and the Fountain of Eternal Youth; Robin Hoodwinked; A Fistful of Mondays (2009) and many pantomime productions.
On the acting front Sara first acted with Balancing Act in It’s Your Funeral (1999). She then went on to appear in Joined at the Hip (2001) and The Witches of Prestwick (2002); Getting Dark (2003); Dancing to the Sound of Crunching Snails (2009); Mind the Gap (2005/2013) and Spare Prick (2013). She won awards at two drama festivals for her performance in Getting Dark.
In musical shows she had memorable roles in Robin Hoodwinked (2005); Peter Pan and the Fountain of Eternal Youth and Quasimodo a Gogo (2015).
Having choreographed the original production of A Fistful of Mondays in 2009, Sara is back to put the cast through their paces again, only this time she is also on stage in the role of Annie.
