Creative * Curious * Collaborative
Hi! Lovely to see you here…
Thank you for visiting my website. I hope you enjoy what’s on offer and that you’ll browse, watch, listen and read.
As a performer, story trainer and writer I’m absolutely passionate about sharing stories, hearing stories and writing stories. I’m particularly interested in the art of spontaneous storytelling and in biographical stories.
I feel lucky to have a 360 (degree) view of the theatre industry as a result of working in box office, marketing, administration, as General Manager of theatre venues both in the West End and in the regions, as an independent producer in the subsidised and commercial sectors, as a trustee of a number of organisations and as a performer touring nationally and internationally.
I’ve worked with the most incredible teams and the most inspiring creative practitioners throughout my career.
My aim is to ensure that inspiring stories are available to every family, everywhere.
Please let me know if I can assist you on your own unique storytelling journey.
Danyah x
Danyah is an international storyteller, solo performer, writer and story trainer. She studied drama, dance and English at Bretton Hall College, and later improvisation, mime and physical theatre at Lecoq, Paris.
Danyah has adapted or written and starred in five theatrical solo storytelling shows including our flagship show ‘I Believe in Unicorns’ by Michael Morpurgo, seen by over 100,000 people internationally, including three West End seasons.
Alongside her creative team she a unique Story in a Box experience based on Hodgson Burnett’s The Secret Garden, in collaboration with Watford Palace Theatre and Oxford Playhouse.
Danyah co-produced two West End musicals, All You need is Love, and Olivier nominated Soul Sister. She was the originating producer of Pippi Longstocking the Swashbuckling Musical Adventure in collaboration with Royal & Derngate Northampton and ABA Productions (UK) which opened at Christmas 2019.
Danyah shares stories in a range of settings from Royal Opera House Covent Garden to local libraries, RHS Wisley to schools across the country.
As a story trainer she delivers storytelling nationally in a range of educational and theatre settings. Her online workshops reach an international audience. She was a workshop leader at The International School of Storytelling for over 10 years.
For two years Danyah was the regular storyteller on BBC Three Counties Radio.
Her book ‘Seven Secrets of Spontaneous Storytelling’, published by Hawthorn Press, is available now.
You can read her Guardian ‘Top Ten Tips for Storytelling with Children’
Team
Sofie Miller
Associate Artist
Nicole Keighley
General Manager
Nicole studied English and Theatre Arts at Goldsmith’s College, University of London.
She was previously Production Administrator for Wizard Presents.
Before joining Wizard Presents she worked in stage management for over fourteen years on a wide range of productions for venues including the Royal Court, the Almeida, the Old Vic, Young Vic, Tricycle, Southwark Playhouse, and in the West End on shows including The Price (Apollo), By the Bog of Cats (Wyndham’s), Equus, God of Carnage (Gielgud) Duet for One (Vaudeville) and The Bodyguard (Adelphi).
Matt Llewellyn Smith
Production & Stage Manager
Matt has worked as a freelance Stage Manager since graduating from Trinity College, Carmarthen in 2006.
He has stage managed over 80 productions from Shakespeare to circus and in a variety of venues; from village halls to the Royal Festival Hall. Matt first worked with Wizard Presents on I Believe in Unicorns and then became the only person who knew how to fit the Why the Whales Came set into the back of the van!
For Wizard Presents he has also worked on Perfectly Imperfect Women and Kika’s Birthday.
Kim Morgan
Press Partner
Kim started her career working for Graeae Theatre Company, Warehouse Theatre and at Theatre Royal Stratford East. In 2001 Kim formed Kim Morgan Press and Marketing working on UK tours, West End shows and fringe arts organisations. Kim represents an extensive and diverse range of clients in theatre, film, dance and music. She also takes a pro-active mentoring role within Arts PR and is regularly asked to do talks and seminars on marketing to new audiences and how to make the arts more accessible.
Miranda Quinney
Associate
Miranda has worked with us on a range of productions including I Believe in Unicorns and Perfectly Imperfect Women. She is passionate about the power of stories and storytelling.
Miranda founded Sharing Stories for Wellbeing in 2014 , a therapeutic programme working with biographical storytelling endorsed by Hospice UK and the National Council for Palliative Care.
John Miller
John was co-founder of Wizard Presents. He was a writer and producer. He worked as a journalist before entering the music business as a record producer, artist manager and music publisher. He produced music for film, theatre and television, and more than 30 albums, five of which were certified gold. John is co-writer of Only the Lonely: the Roy Orbison Story, for which he was nominated for an Olivier Award in 1996. He and Pete Brooks devised and co-directed All You Need Is Love, the musical based on the songs of Lennon and McCartney, at the Queen’s Theatre in the West End.Subsequently Pete and he wrote Soul Sister based on the life and times of Ike and Tina Turner which was nominated for an Olivier Award 2013 as Best New Musical.
John died in June 2018 but his work carries on. He is remembered by those who loved and worked with him.
Our Values
- To be creative, curious and collaborative
- To create inspiring heart-filled artistic product, of the highest quality
- To be honest, respectful and joyful in all our relationships
- To positively contribute towards the artistic well-being of our country
- To actively seek to remove our conscious and unconscious bias in all matters of diversity from our company
- To care for our environment and actively work towards minimising our company carbon footprint
Diversity Statement
We are committed to respecting human rights. We aim to work with all our stakeholders in a responsible and ethical way.
We recognise that there are both seen and unseen differences in us all, and we respect these differences so that each person is treated and valued equally.
One of our key aims is to interrogate our conscious and unconscious bias in all matters of diversity, (race, gender, sexuality, age, socio-economic background, disability) to ensure that we actively seek to challenge this bias within our company.
Family Arts Standards
We are signed up to Family Arts Standards Organisations that are signed up to the Family Arts Standards value families and want to provide good family experiences.
Our Associates
