Sawtooth Productions develops and produces new performance work with professional artists of national standing, based in the East of England. The company is concerned with what it takes to make work of genuine consequence, and with creating the conditions in which that work can emerge.
Sawtooth itself took shape in an old rooftop factory in Norwich's Creative Quarter. A sawtooth roof faces north to ensure the light it admits is steady. Shadowless. Undeceiving. Built so that makers could see exactly what they were producing.
In the great houses, the still room was always the place apart, where things were taken in their raw state and, through skill and time, distilled until clarity emerged. The Still Room is where the Sawtooth company now works.
Sawtooth Company
Kirsty Bushell
Actor/Director
Trained at LAMDA, Kirsty has played lead roles at the RSC, the National Theatre, Shakespeare’s Globe, the Royal Court and the Bush Theatre, among many others.
Stage credits include Angels in America (Headlong), The Cherry Orchard (Bristol Old Vic and Royal Exchange), King Lear at Chichester Festival Theatre and the West End opposite Ian McKellen, and Antigone, directed by Ivo van Hove alongside Juliette Binoche, which played the Barbican and the Edinburgh International Festival.
Television includes Tom Jones, Murder in Provence, Motherland, This Way Up, Silk (BBC) and Injustice (ITV), and the Netflix series Run Away.
Joseph Arkley
Actor/Director
Joseph trained at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. He has performed extensively with the Royal Shakespeare Company.
His most notable work with the company includes Katherine in Justin Audibert’s gender reversed production of The Taming of the Shrew, Lucio in Greg Doran’s Measure for Measure and Tybalt in Rupert Goold’s Romeo and Juliet. He has a long standing connection to Richard III, having performed in the acclaimed production at the Almeida Theatre in 2016. He then played the title role in Perth, Scotland in 2018.
Screen work has led him to playing Gregory Knox in The Capture for the BBC and Netflix. More recently he played Thomas Deveraux in Wreck (Season 2) for BBC and Hulu. He also played the great physicist David Bohm opposite Geoffrey Rush’s Einstein in Genius for National Geographic.
Matti Houghton
Actor/Director
Trained at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, Matti has worked extensively at the RSC and Shakespeare’s Globe throughout her career.
RSC credits include Hermia in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The City Madam and Cardenio. At Shakespeare’s Globe she has appeared in Henry VI and Richard III, and played Lady Macbeth in the Globe’s 2023 production of Macbeth.
Stage work also includes The Crucible at Manchester Royal Exchange and Brimstone and Treacle at the Arcola Theatre, for which she received an Offie Award nomination for Best Actress. She played Cariola opposite Jodie Whittaker in The Duchess (of Malfi) at the Trafalgar Theatre.
Television includes Believe Me, The Collection, Truth and Treason, Manhunt, Luther and Law & Order: UK.
Phil Cornwell
Musical Director
Trained at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and Trinity College of Music, Phil has an extensive record as a Musical Director, Supervisor and musician across West End theatre, national touring productions and screen.
Musical Director credits include Heathers the Musical and The Scottsboro Boys in the West End, the latter also at the Young Vic, and In the Heights at Kings Cross Theatre and Southwark Playhouse, which won the Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement in Music.
He served as Musical Supervisor on the Rent 21st Anniversary Tour and Associate MD on the UK Tour of Come From Away. Screen work includes MD on the Netflix film Been So Long and piano consultancy on Bridgerton and Tolkien.
He is currently working as Associate Conductor on the UK tour of Matilda the Musical, alongside regularly depping on West End shows, including Wicked and The Producers.
Katy Keyworth
Costume Supervisor
Katy Keyworth is a costume supervisor and maker with extensive experience across West End, touring and international theatre. She served as Head of Wardrobe on The Play That Goes Wrong for almost a decade. She also worked as a costumes and props maker on the Goes Wrong Broadway and international runs.
She has held senior wardrobe and costume supervisor roles on major UK tours and London productions including Hairspray, Sister Act, Evita, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Giving at Hampstead Theatre and Calculating Kindness at Camden People’s Theatre. Her West End credits include wardrobe deputy on Fatal Attraction at the Haymarket Theatre and costume supervisor for the Our House Charity Concert for Help for Heroes at the Savoy Theatre.
Alongside her theatre work, Katy is an accomplished maker whose commissions include pieces for the Royal Opera House, the Royal Shakespeare Company, the Globe Theatre and the National Theatre.
Catherine England Johnson
Psychotherapist
Catherine is a UKCP-accredited Psychoanalytical Psychotherapist with over 25 years of clinical and group therapy experience.
She works with actors, directors, producers, playwrights and filmmakers, holds a Spotlight listing and is a member of the Guild of Psychotherapists, London.
Catherine works alongside Sawtooth in the development and production of its work, bringing clinical and psychological expertise to the creative process.
Programme
To be announced.
Sawtooth Residencies
Separate to the company’s own work, we offer a small number of residencies each year to actors based in the East of England. The residency is an opportunity to be directed by Sawtooth company members, to work seriously with text and performance over a sustained period, and to have structured access to The Still Room as a rehearsal studio and production space.
Each residency runs over several months with a group of around ten actors. The work is directed by Sawtooth company members and takes place at The Still Room, with independent rehearsal time in the space built into the programme. Ensemble dynamics are central to how the group works together and how the company is selected. Participants engage with the producing process as part of the work.
Places are awarded by audition. The residency company is selected first; texts are then chosen in response to who is in the room. Participants are selected on the basis of their work, their readiness and their fit with the residency company.
There is a participation fee, details of which are shared at the information morning held before each residency. We do not want to lose the right person to cost – if it presents a genuine barrier, we would rather have a conversation.
Summer 2026 Residency
Directed by Joseph Arkley and Matti Houghton.
The residency runs across a mixture of weekend and evening dates in June and July 2026.
Auditions
2.00pm - 6.00pm, Saturday 16 May, The Still Room by appointment
Audition slots for the Summer 2026 residency are fully booked.
To join the waitlist please email info@thestillroom-norwich.co.uk
Members of the Sawtooth company at the Summer 2026 Residency information morning, The Still Room, May 2026.
Intensives
From time to time we offer one and two-day studio intensives led by members of the Sawtooth Company, working at The Still Room with a small group of actors. Each intensive is complete in itself.
Details of forthcoming intensives will be shared here, or sign up to our mailing list to be kept up to date.
Coaching
One-to-one or pair sessions
One-to-one and pair sessions may be available for actors working toward a specific goal – an audition, a drama school application, a musical theatre audition or a particular project.
Under 18s
Sawtooth works with adults aged 18 and over. The Still Room is home to a number of independent practitioners who may be able to help with provision for young people, including Trinity and LAMDA examination preparation and drama school applications – working under their own arrangements. Get in touch and we will do our best to point you in the right direction.