Montage Theatre Arts Patrons

Emma Thompson is an multi-award winning and internationally acclaimed actress, comedienne, screenwriter and author. She first came to prominence in 1987 in two BBC TV series, Tutti Frutti and Fortunes of War; she won the BAFTA TV Award for Best Actress for her work in both. Her first major film role was in the 1989 romantic comedy The Tall Guy. In 1992, Thompson won multiple acting awards, including an Academy Award and a BAFTA Award for Best Actress, for her performance in the British drama Howards End. In 1993, Thompson garnered dual Academy Award nominations, as Best Actress for The Remains of the Day and as Best Supporting Actress for In the Name of the Father.

In 1995, Thompson scripted and starred in Sense and Sensibility, a film adaptation of the Jane Austen novel of the same name, which earned her an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay and a BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role among other awards. Other notable film and television credits have included her role in the Harry Potter film series, Much Ado About Nothing (1993), Wit (2001), Love Actually (2003), Angels in America (2003), Nanny McPhee (2005), Stranger than Fiction (2006), Last Chance Harvey (2008), An Education (2009), Nanny McPhee and the Big Bang (2010), Men in Black 3 (2012), Brave (2012), Saving Mr. Banks (2013) and Beauty and the Beast (2017).

In 2012, Thompson authored The Further Tale of Peter Rabbit to commemorate the 110th anniversary of the publication of Beatrix Potter‘s The Tale of Peter Rabbit. In 2013, she also penned The Christmas Tale of Peter Rabbit.

“I’m delighted to be Montage’s new patron. It’s crucial that children and young people have access to the arts regardless of their ability to pay. I’m also hoping to be able to inspire their writing, as well as their performing skills.”  Roy Williams, 2017

Roy began writing plays in 1990 and is now arguably one of the country’s leading dramatists. In 2000 he was the joint winner of The George Devine Award and in 2001 he was awarded the Evening Standard Award for Most Promising Playwright. He was awarded the OBE for Services to Drama in the 2008 Birthday Honours List.
His plays include: 
Antigone (Pilot Theatre/UK Tour)
Wildefire (Hampstead Theatre)
Advice for the Young at Heart (Theatre Centre)
The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner (Pilot Theatre/ UK Tour)
Sucker Punch (Royal Court Theatre, nominated for Olivier Award for Best Play)
Kingston ’14 (Theatre Royal Stratford East)
Category B (Tricycle Theatre)
Angel House (Eclipse Theatre, UK Tour)
Days of Significance (RSC)
Joe Guy (Tiata Fahodzi)
There’s Only One Wayne Matthews (Polka Theatre)
Baby Girl (NT Connections)
Absolute Beginners (Lyric Hammersmith)
Little Sweet Thing (Nottingham Playhouse)
Slow Time (NT Education)
Fallout (Royal Court Theatre)
Sing Yer Heart Out For The Lads (NT)
Clubland (Royal Court Theatre)
The Gift (Birmingham Rep/Tricycle Theatre)
Local Boy (Hampstead Theatre)
Souls (Theatre Centre)
Lift Off (Royal Court)
Starstruck (Tricycle, Winner of John Whiting Award, Alfred Fagon Award & EMMA Award for Best Play)
Josie’s Boy (Red Ladder Theatre Co)
The No-Boys Cricket Club (Theatre Royal, Stratford East) . He also contributed to the
Royal Court’s Peckham The Soap Opera.

His work for television includes Let It Snow (Endor Productions/Sky), Fallout (Company Pictures/
Channel 4, Screen Nation Award for Achievement in Screenwriting), Offside (BBC, Winner of BAFTA
Children’s Film & TV Award for Best Schools Drama) and Babyfather (BBC).

For film he has cowritten Fast Girls (DJ Films).

For radio, his work includes adaptations of ER Braithwaite’s A Choice Of Straws and To Sir With Love and original plays Tell Tale and Homeboys. He has also created and written three series of Interrogation for BBC Radio 4.

Paul Taylor Mills is the Artistic Director at The Other Palace Theatre, London. Previously he was also Artistic Director of The Turbine Theatre at The Battersea Power Station and has worked as Advisory Producer to Andrew Lloyd Webber and The Really Useful Group.

Stage credits include; Heathers the Musical (Theatre Royal Haymarket, The Other Palace, Soho place, New Worlds Stages – Off-Broadway, UK Tour, Australian and New Zealand Tour (winner of the WhatsOnStage Best New Musical Award)), The Lightning Thief (The Other Palace, UK Tour), Freaking Friday (HOME Manchester), I Wish You Well – The Gwyneth Paltrow Ski-Trial Musical (Criterion Theatre), Cruel Intentions (The Other Palace, UK Tour), Murder For Two (Watermill Theatre and The Other Palace), Cake  (UK Tour, Lyric Theatre and The Other Palace), Boy Out The City and Bloody Elle (Lyric Theatre), The Wild Party (The Other Palace), European Premiere of Disney’s Peter and the Starcatcher (Royal & Derngate, Northampton), Side Show (Southwark Playhouse), The Last Five Years (St. James Theatre (winner of the WhatsOnStage Award for Best Off-West End Production)), End of The Rainbow (UK Tour), In The Heights (Kings Cross Theatre and Southwark Playhouse (winner of three Olivier Awards)), Casa Valentina (Southwark Playhouse), Carrie The Musical (Southwark Playhouse (winner of The WhatsOnStage Off West End Award)), and Associate Producer on The Importance of Being Earnest starring David Suchet on UK Tour and the Vaudeville Theatre.

At the Turbine Theatre – My Son’s A Queer (But what can you do?) (The Garrick, Ambassadors Theatre – Olivier Nominated, Best Entertainment or Comedy Play); Eugenius!; But I’m A Cheerleader, My Night with Reg, MTFestUK 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024, Cinderella: The Socially Distanced Ball, Hair (part of the Turbine on the Jetty Season), Torch Song, High Fidelity and Cat In The Hat.