Meet the Cast and Creative Team of Can Bears Ski?

Ciaran’s TV credits include: Galwad (National Theatre Wales/S4C / Sky Arts).

Theatre: Lord of The Flies (Leeds Playhouse, Belgrade Theatre Coventry & Rose Theatre Kingston); Hansel & Gretel (PaddleBoat Theatre Company); Galwad (National Theatre Wales); Flood (Theatre Temoin); Getting There (Deafinitely Theatre, Toucan Theatre & Oxford Playhouse); Playmakers (Mousetrap Theatre Projects) and Red (Polka Theatre).

As part of an emerging artist placement, Ciaran was involved in Wonder Boy (Bristol Old Vic), and in training on the Made in Bristol Programme - Ciaran performed in The Story of Guts (Bristol Old Vic).

Workshop: The Detective Dog (Tessa Bide Productions) and How High is Up (Fingersmiths). 

Musical: The Hunchback of Notre Dame (National Youth Musical Theatre).

Emery Hunter trained at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, graduating in 2021. 

Professional credits: Undertow Overflow (Ben Harrison), Don’t Make Tea (Birds of paradise). 

Training credits include Glory on Earth (RCS), The Assumption (Solar Bear/RCS), and The Overcoat (RCS).

Jessica trained at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.

Jess is a hearing actor and puppeteer from North London. Half American, half British, Jess has always been passionate about communication and the intersection between arts and health, which led her to begin her journey with British Sign Language during the 2020 Lockdown. Jess is thrilled to now be Level 4 BSL qualified, and is committed to developing her knowledge of deaf culture and deaf awareness within the hearing community, and specifically within the acting industry. Jess is so excited to be part of the cast of Can Bears Ski, a collaboration of two companies committed to encouraging young people through arts, puppets and play, to embrace their deafness, and who they are.

Stage credits include; ‘Everyone Cries Their First Time' at the Stockwell Playhouse, 'The Vagina Monologues' with Bluestocking Unity Project and 'A Year From Now' at the Tristan Bates Theatre.

Screen credits include playing Emma in 'Boredroom' (Daniel Harding, 2020) and Olivia in the  'Runaways' (Daniel Harding, 2020).

Nick acts, stage manages and creates sets and puppets. He has his own production company scratchbuiltproductions.com which has been making theatre since 2006 and is an Associate Company of Proteus in Basingstoke.

Nick has been making puppets and acting with Pied Piper for several years and helped to create a new strand of work for babies and young toddlers ‘DIG!’ And ‘BEACH’. He made the puppets for the popular ’Sarah & Duck’ tour from the television series, for ’Snowflakes’ at Oxford Playhouse and for ‘Gorilla’ at Polka Theatre.

Stefan is super excited to be playing this third role for Pied Piper, Having previously appeared as Hare in ‘Hare & Tortoise’ and as Town Mouse in ’Town Mouse & Country Mouse’ in the UK, Europe and Singapore.

In addition to being an actor, Stefan teaches acting and creative writing to children in the UK, US and China, inspiring children to explore their creativity.

Zoë McWhinney (she/they) completed her actor’s training at the pioneering École de Théâtre Universelle in Toulouse (2020). Recent theatre credits include the title role in RED (Polka Theatre, October 2021) Everyday (Deafinitely Theatre, June 2022), Lilies on the Land (Apollo Theatre Co, Sep-Oct 2022) and the title role of Princess Rose in Sleeping Beauty pantomime (CAST, December 2022).

Zoë is also a BSL poet, Visual Vernacular composer and sign language theatre consultant. As a poet, they performed at The Roundhouse (2018), United Nations’ Geneva headquarters (2019), City of Birmingham Symphony and Orchestra (2021) and Glastonbury (2023).

Pronouns; He / Him

Poet / Educator / Freelance Writer / Listener 

Author of 'To Sweeten Bitter' (2017) 'The Perseverance' (2018), 'All The Names Given' (2021) and children's picture book 'Can Bears Ski?' (2020)

www.raymondantrobus.com