Drama Department Staff

James Copp ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ), Head of Drama
James graduated from Oxford University in 2005, where he was President of the Oxford University Drama Society, directing sell-out productions at the Edinburgh Festival and at the Old Fire Station in Oxford. After Oxford he directed the prestigious Cameron Mackintosh OUDS Tour, touring The Comedy of Errors to the National Art Space in Tokyo. In London he worked for the Old Vic both as an administrator, a script reader and later as a director and as an actor in the West End with Sir Peter Hall and Judi Dench. He established an education department at the King’s Head Theatre in Islington in 2006, where he was a trainee director and directed Arnold Wesker’s The Four Seasons at the Arcola Theatre in Dalston. As a producer, he brought the play Wish I Had Sylvia Plath to the Edinburgh Festival from California, which won a Fringe First, and toured the UK and then to New York and was associate producer on a recent major revival of Side by Side by Sondheim in the West End. Before joining Cranleigh he worked with Propeller Theatre Company, Northern Broadsides and Shakespeare’s Globe to deliver Shakespeare Live!, a multi-million pound programme taking professional Shakespeare productions to 82 schools nationwide. He is an associate artist with the National Youth Theatre. He also recently directed The Taming of the Shrew at the 61st annual Pendley Shakespeare Festival.


Nikki Lockwood ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ), Drama Teacher
After a childhood obsessed with theatre in all its forms, and involvement in every youth Drama project she could muster, Nikki Lockwood studied Drama at Exeter University, specialising her studies in Physical Theatre, Musical Theatre and Theatre in Education.  After graduating, Nikki worked in the production department for ‘The Ambassador Theatre Group’ in the West End. Since completing her teacher training, Nikki has worked most recently at Surbiton High School for Girls. Here she has produced productions such as Revolting Rhymes and Dr Faustus.  As Head of House, she was responsible for instigating and producing a whole school House Charity Fashion Show, Choral Competition and House Shakespeare Festival.  Most recently in the summer of 2010, Nikki took a group of VI Form students to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival with their production of ‘Blue Beard’. Here they received excellent reviews and were placed in ‘The List’ as a ‘highly recommended show’.  Since joining Cranleigh in January 2010, Nikki has produced the junior play, ‘The Odyssey’ and the school play for Michaelmas, A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Nikki’s passion is for physical theatre and storytelling and she attends as many theatre productions as she can, attending the Edinburgh Fringe Festival each year without fail. Nikki is a tutor in West house.


Martin Allison, English and Drama Teacher
Martin Allison is a Cambridge graduate with considerable experience in school theatre, having served as Director of Drama in three different HMC schools. He has directed upwards of 70 shows, both in schools and outside, and a number of his productions have toured Europe and the United States. Several of his former pupils are now full-time professional actors. He has directed full-length plays by many playwrights including Shakespeare, Ibsen, Brecht, Lorca, Ayckbourn, Miller, Williams, and Pinter. His productions at Cranleigh include Christopher Durang’s “Beyond Therapy”, John Ford’s “’Tis Pity”, Ben Jonson’s “The Alchemist” and Christopher Marlowe’s  “Dr Faustus”; and in recent years he has directed three major musicals here “Les Miserables”, “Sweeney Todd”, and “Fiddler on the Roof”.
In his spare time, Martin also teaches in the English Department, providing an important departmental link between performance theatre and the academic study of theatre. He is also director of Studies at Cranleigh.

Martin Jenkins, Theatre Manager
Mark has been at Cranleigh since September 2008.  Before coming to the school he worked as a resident Theatre Technician at the Almeida Theatre, London.  Prior to this he was a Stage Showman on The Producers at Theatre Royal, Drury Lane and also worked at many other venues including the Soho and Hampstead Theatres and the Roundhouse music venue at Chalk Farm. Mark studied English Language and Literature at University College, Oxford and while a student began working on a casual basis for the Oxford Playhouse.  This led to freelance work all over the South of England on festivals and large outdoor events and led to his early theatre employment at the Wyvern Theatre, Swindon before moving to London to work in the West End. Mark is an assistant tutor in North House, teaches air rifle shooting as part of IV Form Outdoor Education and is the school’s Fire Officer.  In his spare time he restores his classic Land Rover and continues to work as a freelance lighting engineer.  He is a Technical Advisor to the National Student Drama Festival which takes place every year in Scarborough, North Yorkshire. 

Lizzie Bourne, Theatre Artist in Residence
Lizzie is a recent graduate of the University of Edinburgh with an MSc in Creative Writing, and before studying there she completed her BA (Hons) in English Studies at the University of Nottingham. She was heavily involved in both The New Theatre (Nottingham) and Bedlam (Edinburgh) - the only two student-run theatres in the country - sitting on the committee for The New Theatre and performing in eight shows during her only year with Bedlam. Notable roles include Claire in ‘Proof’, Abigail in ‘The Crucible’, Jenny in ‘The Shape of Things’ and Corinne in ‘The Country’ (all The New Theatre), as well as Helena in ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’, Gemma in ‘Cigarettes and Chocolate’ and Constanze in ‘Amadeus’ (Edinburgh). She has been invited to the National Student Drama Festival twice; firstly with ‘Proof’ in 2008 where she was awarded a Judge’s Commendation for Acting and a place in the NSDF Ensemble 2008, and then in 2011 when ‘Amadeus’ scooped up several of the festival’s prestigious awards, and Lizzie was named Spotlight’s Most Promising Actress 2011. She is currently auditioning for entry into drama school for September 2012. Lizzie’s directing credits include a self-adapted production of ‘Romeo and Juliet’ (The New Theatre, 2009) which won a number of the society’s awards, and ‘Trammel’ by Michael Leslie (Cranleigh 2011). Lizzie also enjoys playwriting and has had two original scripts produced at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival: ‘Remember This’ (Bedlam 2011) and ‘Only One Wing’ (Zoo venues 2010), which won an NSDF Ensemble award. She is currently writing ‘Out of Nowhere’ for the Yvonne Arnaud Theatre, which will be staged in February 2012.

Hannah Wallis, Visiting Theatre Design Teacher and Costume Designer

Jo Meredith, Visiting Choreographer