MGA Consultants

Ian Baar
MGA Singing Consultant and Tutor

Ian Baar enjoyed a very successful career as a child singer, making many TV appearances and recordings. He then studied singing with Lynne Wayman and went on to study singing at the Royal Northern College of Music and afterwards with Norman Bailey, Rudolf Piernay and Bruno Wyzui in Paris.

He has worked under the direction of Jonathan Miller, Graham Vick, Richard Jones and Nicholas Hytner and performed extensively with British Youth Opera, Musica nel Chiostro (Italy), L’Opera de Nancy, Creteille Opera House, Paris Opera (France), Opera de Rhin (Strasbourg), Kent Opera, Wexford International Opera Festival, Dublin Grand Opera, Scottish Opera, English National Opera, The Old Vic Theatre (London), Adolina Patti’s Theatre ‘Craig y Nos’ (Wales), The Royal Albert Hall, and gave a royal performance of Britten’s ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ as Puck.

He performed in Berstein’s ‘Candide’, which won the 1988 Laurence Olivier Award for best musical and in many musicals in the West End including Ken Hill’s ‘Phantom of the Opera’.

Ian was in constant demand for the concert platform, Oratorio and many TV and Radio programmes. His broadcasting experiences include RTE Radio and TV, BBC TV, Radio 1, Radio 3 and Radio 4, Thames Television, South London TV, BBC Wales TV, Radio Wales, S4C Wales TV, Harlech TV, Harlech Digital TV and Radio Denia.

For many years he has held a considerable reputation as a singing teacher giving lessons, master classes and workshops internationally. He has trained many of the successful singers of today and continues to do so, including soloists for major International Opera Companies and West End Musicals including Buddy, Webber’s Phantom of the Opera, Ken Hill’s Phantom of the Opera, Rent, My Fair Lady, Cats, The Lion King, Bombay Dreams, Jerry Springer, Miss Saigon, Blood Brothers, King, Five Guys Named Mo, The Rocky Horror Show, Showboat, Carmen Jones, Porgy & Bess, Bat Boy, Mary Popins, Mama Mia, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, Evita, Jersey Boys, The Lord of the Ring, Avenue Q, Wicked, The Sound of Music, We Will Rock You, Fiddler on the Roof, Bad Girls, Hairspray, Cabaret, Chicago, Joseph, Parade, Imagine This, Oliver, Carousel, Spring Awakening, La Cage Aux Folles, Priscilla, Legally Blond, Hair, Naked Boys Sing, Sister Act, Dreamboats and Petticoats, Shrek and Ghost.

Anton Stephans
MGA Management Consultant

Anton Stephans Read English and History at Cambridge, became a poet, a writer of academic tomes, a singer with Tina Turner and George Michael, Sting, Oleta Adams, Mica Paris, Sir Cliff Richard and Elton John. He has worked with countless other popstars.

Anton’s first theatre credit came at the age of eight when he played Fizz in Bugsy Malone (Her Majesty’s). He has worked both on the West End and Broadway stage. Anton’s recent theatre credits include Monsieur Vernier in the world premier of Conor Mitchell’s Mathilde (George Square Theatre, Edinburgh); As I Am, where Anton was accompanied by some of the leading actors and actresses of musical theatre; Robbins in Sir Trevor Nunn’s production of Porgy and Bess, in which he went on to play the title role of Porgy to critical acclaim; Poppa in Starlight Express (First UK tour); Herod in Jesus Christ Superstar (English Theatre Frankfurt); the musical lead in Smokey Joe’s Cafe (First UK tour/Broadway and USA tour); lead vocalist in Hey Mr Producer (Lyceum Theatre); his one man-show Crying for You...No More (Fortune Theatre); the musical lead in Blues Brother Meets Soul Sisters (Theatre Royal); the musical lead in Dancing and Singing the Blues (European Tour); Classique (Off Broadway/USA tour); Songs of Broadway (Off Broadway/USA Tour); An Evening with Anton (Congress Theatre Eastbourne).

Anton is a member of the London Shakespeare Workout. Early in 2006 he played the role of Montano in Othello (BBC). Anton was also in the company of Francesca Zambello’s Show Boat at the Royal Albert Hall. Television appearances include Puck in A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Channel 4); presenter and lead vocalist in Tribute to Motown for MTV; backing vocalist on Top of the Pops for George Michael, Sting, Chaka Khan and Elton John; George Michael concert MTV; Presenter and lead vocalist for Ebony Magazine Show; A&E; 3 Moe Tenors for PBS. Anton premiered a new aria by Sir Tim Williams for the BBC2 Shakespeare season, Grateful at the Cadogan Hall. Anton recently finished filming a George Lucas movie The Double.

Ruth Carney
MGA Directing and Acting Advisor
Theatre Director

Ruth is currently Associate Director on The Lord of The Rings, Theatre Royal Drury Lane London.

Most recently Ruth directed A Model Girl, Greenwich Theatre, the UK Professional Premiere of The Laramie Project at Sound Theatre, London and the World Premiere of The Lemon Princess by Rachael McGill from an original idea by Ruth Carney at The West Yorkshire Playhouse, Leeds.

Other directing credits include:  My Matisse ; Blue Remembered Hills; Measure for Measure; The Sea; Music Lessons; Family; Company; Mina Laury; Emma and Oleanna

She was joint Artistic Director of the New British Writing Season for the Caird Company), this showcased over fifty new pieces of work.

As an Associate Artist Ruth worked on the BBC Concert Orchestra performance of Pal Joey and On Your Toes performed on BBC Radio Two.

Ruth assisted Hettie Macdonald on the National Theatres production and tour of Sanctuary by Tanika Gupta.

Ruth has a  BA(hons) from the University of Sheffield and an MA in Theatre Directing from The Russian Theatre Academy, Moscow and Middlesex University, London.  Ruth was also a participant on the Directors Course at The National Theatre.

Future projects include:  Working on a film with Noel Clarke writer of Kidulthood and Adulthood.  She is also developing a verbatim play called Sisters about British Muslim Women by Stephanie Street.  Sisters has been developed in association with The National Theatre Studio.

Tamlyn Platts
MGA Management and Casting
Actress, Agent and Casting Director

Tamlyn trained at Laine Theatre Arts, London. Her theatre experience includes: The Genius of Ray Charles (Haymarket theatre, London & U.S. Reno, Nevada) The Merry Widow (USA Tour), A Chorus Line (London Palladium), Pop Videos Include; Ronan Keating "Love it when you Do", Geri Halliwell "It's Raining Men", The Trixters "Benny", S Club 7 "Dont Stop Movin". Tamlyn also worked onboard Crystal Cruises as a swing and Dance Captain, she was then asked to assist the choreographer on the audition tour (London/New York/Toronto). Her Film/TV credits include; About A Boy, 2nd Nature, As If, Dream Team, Night and Day and Footballers Wives. She has also done tradeshows for L'Oreal, Wella, Rush Hair Salon, Peugeot 206 and Tomorrows World, and most recently the Christmas special of the Generation Game.

Chris Hatt
MGA Musical Theatre Advisor / Musical Director
West End Musical Director

Chris trained at Surrey University before completing a diploma in composition at the London International Film School.

He is currently Musical Director of Billy Elliot – The Musical at the Victoria Palace Theatre, London. His recent credits as Musical Director include Mack & Mabel (Criterion Theatre), Thoroughly Modern Millie (UK tour), Footloose – The Musical (UK tour), Our House (Cambridge Theatre) and Joseph (UK tour). For Bruce James Productions he has been Musical Director for over 20 shows including Aspects of Love, Scrooge, A Slice of Saturday Night, Little Shop of Horrors, Crazy For You, My Fair Lady, Fiddler on the Roof and Godspell. He is also Musical Supervisor, fixer and arranger for First Family Entertainment, a new pantomime company headed by the Ambassadors Theatre Group and Live Nation.

As a composer, Chris has written an original score to a new stage production of The Corsican Brothers. His musical Destiny is performed regularly across the country, and he has written a series of children’s musicals that are currently touring schools and provincial theatres.

Chris is Musical Director for Top Hat Events, an entertainment agency providing artistes for engagements all over the world, as well as Musical Director and tutor for MGA.

Rick Lipton
Voice, Speech and Dialects

Rick is the head of the Voice for the Acting Programme at Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts and is a dialect, dialogue and voice coach who specialises in North American accents. Theatre: includes, in the West End, Three Days of Rain, The Rat Pack, Fat Pig, Shadowlands, Dirty Dancing, Little Women, The Full Monty, Fame and Saturday Night Fever. Other theatre includes: 1800 Acres (Riverside Studios), Radio Golf and Moonlight and Magnolias (Tricycle), King of Hearts, Everything Is Illuminated and Clever Dick (Hampstead), Sweet Charity, Little Shop of Horrors, They’re Playing Our Song, Take Flight and The Last Five Years (Menier Chocolate Factory), Romance (Almeida), Anne of Green Gables (Lilian Baylis Studio), The Ballad of Little Jo, Is There Life After High School?, Rags, Floyd Collins and Saturday Night (Bridewell), Laundry and Bourbon (White Bear), Sexual Perversity in Chicago (Greenwich Playhouse), Crazy For You and Oklahoma! (Kilworth House), Broken Glass (Northampton Royal), Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (Newcastle-under-Lyme New Vic), The African Company Presents: Richard III, The Rat Pack, Wedding Dance, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Guys and Dolls and Carousel (tours). He is currently researching the training of deaf performers in the spoken medium. Another area of research interest is vocal fitness training for actors.

Katie Jordan
MGA Casting Advisor
Casting Director

Katie began her career as a dancer. She was a scholarship student at the Italia Conti Theatre Arts school. During her career performing on both the Stage and Screen, Katie toured the world with Paris Can Can, first, as a dancer and then as Dance Captain. Now nearly 4 years later she has been working as the Artistic Director and Casting Director for the show for the last two years. For the Paris Can can Katie has also been presenting and dancing on Australian TV, taking interviews on the Radio and for all the main newspapers including publicity photo shoots. She is now currently casting for Patrice Marques for 'Park Avenue Events' in New York and also many of her solo projects all over the world.

In London Katie manages many Models and Dancers throughout the industry and in the last year she has produced fashion shows abroad, as well as numerous dance shows.

Shawn Byfield

Shawn Byfield has the distinction of receiving a Dora Award for his expert dance choreography in award winning musical "i think i can". As well, Byfield had the honour of being nominated for a Gemini Award. He is a veteran of TV and film; an internationally renowned tap dance and hip hop dance instructor; Owner and Director of BDX Studio in Toronto, Co-Director of Thrive! Entertainment; and Director of Funk Factory, Canada's Funkiest Tap Dance Ensemble.

A resident of Toronto, Shawn Byfield has taught master classes literally from coast to coast in Canada, and overseas in Israel, Scotland and England. Having taught thousands of students of all ages over the past 15 years, Shawn offers a wide range of inspiring and challenging dance classes and workshops for beginner adults to professional dancers in Toronto.

A few of his film and TV credits include roles in: HAIRSPRAY, Blues Brothers 2000, Taal, Bojangles, Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen, The Music Man, Death To Smoochie, The Ladies Man, The Juno Awards, Slings & Arrows, Royal Canadian Air Farce, Instant Star; including commercials for The Bay, Got Milk, Rogers Video, Zellers, Much Vibe, Rogers On Demand, McDonalds, Honda, Molson Canadian, and Joe Fresh.

Media has featured Byfield in the Globe and Mail, Toronto Star, National Post, Now Magazine, Eye Weekly, Toronto Sun, Canadian Living Magazine, CBC Radio, CFRB 1010, Much Music, CBC Television and Breakfast Television.

He travels often as a teacher and dance choreographer across the country. Past students of Shawn have gone on to work with such artists as Britney Spears, Aaron Carter and Janet Jackson, and have appeared in hit television shows such as So You Think You Can Dance. Many have become respected dance professionals in film, television, cruise ships and music theatre.
www.ShawnByfield.com