About Us
Jonathan Race
Founder and Artistic Director
Jonathan trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. He has worked as an actor in numerous theatre roles, in the West End and across the UK. Roles include Hamlet in Hamlet, Galileo in Science Friction, Malcolm in Macbeth, Wilfred Owen in Not About Heroes, Richard Hannay in The 39 Steps, the Fool, the Jongleur and Boniface in Dario Fo's Mistero Buffo, Peter in The Diary of Anne Frank, Detective Trotter in The Mousetrap, Williams in John Mighton's Possible Worlds, Danny in the musical premier of the Charlie Chaplin musical City Lights, the title role in the premier of Augustus Carp by Himself, Dymotron in The Night Before Christmas, the Fox, the Owl and the Snake in the acclaimed tour of The Gruffalo and Harris, one of the Three Men in a Boat.
Jonathan made his directorial debut in 2004 for Firebird Productions with a new play Playground, and has worked as a writer and director for Perform-a-Storm's London Shakespeare Project.
An admirer of the storytelling genius of writers such as Shakespeare and Dario Fo, the Useful Donkey Theatre Company was founded by Jonathan to produce simple, yet powerful and entertaining theatre.
Gail Kemp
Artistic Associate
Gail started acting at the age of thirteen with the Central Television Workshop in Nottingham. Soon after joining, Gail appeared in the hit children's comedy series Palace Hill as Binky Spoon. A number of television roles followed including Resnick alongside Tom Wilkinson, Peak Practice, and the award winning Coping With...
After training at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art screen roles continued in The Inspector Lynley Mysteries, Ready when You Are Mr. McGill, A Thing Called Love, The Rotters' Club, Harry Batt, Primeval, Holby City, Jack Dee's Lead Balloon and numerous commercials including the award winning John Smiths commercial with Peter Kay
Theatre roles include Viola in Twelfth Night, Marion in Science Friction, a female Polonius in Hamlet, and a number of roles including Medea in Franca Rame’s Female Parts.
Antony Dunn
Artistic Associate
Antony Dunn is an English poet and dramatist. He attended Oxford University where he won the Newdigate Prize in 1995 and received a Society of Authors Eric Gregory Award in 2000. He has published two collections of poems, Pilots and Navigators (Oxford Poets 1998) and Flying Fish, (Carcanet OxfordPoets 2002) and a third, Bugs, is forthcoming.
Antony was Poet in Residence at the University of York for 2006. Along with Valerie Bloom, Colette Bryce, Michael Donaghy and Ruth Padel, was commissioned to write a poem for the Victoria & Albert Museum.
His writing for theatre and film has included Goose Chase and Shepherds' Delight (both for Riding Lights Theatre Company), Timewarp 2000 (Barbican, York) and a screen adaption of Albert Camus' stageplay, Cross Purpose (First Man Productions). In 2006 he contributed lyrics to Mark Ravenhill's pantomime, Dick Whittington and His Cat at The Barbican, London.
Vicki Hackett
Artistic Associate
Vicki trained at Rose Bruford College of Speech & Drama and since leaving her theatre credits include Care and Clotched at West Yorkshire Playhouse; Chameleon at Sheffield Crucible; Augustus Carp By Himself, Mistero Buffo, The Passion and Walkout for Riding Lights Theatre Company and Pinnochio and Nineteen Seventy Seven at York Theatre Royal.
Television credits include Always and Everyone III; Kiszko; The M Word; Sky Horses and presenting GMTV's The Review. Vicki also presented Living Icons: Tyndale, a film by the BBC. Vicki has also been immortalised in plasticine as Matilda the Performing Cow in the Aardman Animations series of Creature Comforts -The Circus, for ITV.
Radio credits include Bumblema, The Sign of the Fish and Jonah for BBC; and Around the World in Eighty Days and Treasure Island for CN Productions.
Vicki has worked for Sheffield Crucible and West Yorkshire Playhouse as a workshop leader for schools, and for Pilot Theatre Company’s tours of Bloodtide, Lord of The Flies and East is East. She has also worked as Director for a number of musical theatre projects for the National Centre for Early Music and the Three Choirs Festival, Worcester.
The Company
The Useful Donkey Theatre Company was formed with a desire to produce professional theatre, which not only challenges and provokes its audience but entertains and engages them. With great writers, be they old or new, talented actors, and imaginative design the possibilities are exciting and endless.
Education is an essential part of the company's vision. In the right hands, theatre holds no prejudice and can speak to anyone. You do not have to have a deep rooted desire to become an actor to benefit from the creativity and freedom of theatre. Any educational work the company undertakes is designed to encourage and compliment the student's potential.