Iain Mackness

Iain Mackness is the founder of Dark Smile Productions, and is the Artistic Director (and often writer, actor, producer, sound engineer etc.) He studied Performing Arts at the Universities of Salford and Glamorgan. As an actor he has been involved with touring productions of children's theatre and Shakespeare, as well as appearing in his own work from time to time. His plays have been produced at Contact Theatre, Manchester as well as The Axiom Arts Centre, Cheltenham and Adelphi Studio, Salford. He has also worked as a stagehand, run lighting and sound at assorted venues, and has done  voice-overs for Funny Bones, An Awfully Big Adventure, and The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles.

For Dark Smile he has written and directed The Midland, Life In Pieces, Obsessions, plus various pieces for Salford Voices. As a director he has been responsible for Zen and the Art of Apocalypse, Map & Steads and Gemma, Map & Steads and the Irwell Pike, Map & Steads: Riverside Blues, several pieces for Salford Voices, Dave & Jeff Versus The Maniacal Cannibal Orderlies on the Missing Floor  and Suzie Pugh and the Magic Van and Suzie Pugh and the Big Secret. He also produces, edits and mixes the plays, and occasionally does some acting - he can be heard as Leon in The Mid-land , The Man in Ratty Ep1, The Dragon in Ratty Ep2 , and most recently Weaver and Archive One in The Paradox Suite. Iain spends what little time he has spare developing the organisation, and writing about himself in the third person.

Julie Nicholson

Julie Nicholson is originally from Sheffield and studied Performing Arts at Norton College, Music/Theatre at Amersham college in Buckinghamshire, and Physical Theatre & Dance at the University of Salford.

Julie has appeared in numerous stage productions, including A Midsummer Nights Dream, Sarcophagus, Metamorphosis, and Robin Hudd and his Merry Franks. She has a love of musical theatre and has appeared in more musicals than she can shake a stick at;  including West Side Story, Grease, The Boyfriend, Fiddler on the Roof, Me & My Girl, Oklahoma!, Jekyll & Hyde, Scarlet Pimpernel  and most recently Pirates of Penzance at the Lowry in Salford. She has also appeared in the TV shows Clocking Off, Cops and Casanova – playing a prostitute, and getting good feedback for it!

For Dark Smile Productions, Julie has played the parts of Raven in Zen and the Art of Apocalypse, Miss Turner in The Mid-land,  Karen Peacock in Life in Pieces, Sal in Ratty Ep1 and Ratty Ep2, Nurse Anna Stetic in Chief Surgeon Mal Practeeeece's Theatre of Horror , and most recently Administration One and Safeguard in The Paradox Suite

Richard Delafield

Richard Delafield is an actor/ writer originally from Westhoughton near Bolton, Manchester. He studied Media Performance at Salford University.

Richard has toured in the northwest of England with shortened Shakespeare plays including Romeo and Juliet, 12th Night and Macbeth, as well as going to venues in the evenings performing in full length professional productions for a repertory company. As a writer he has seen his work performed in the Contact Theatre, the Bolton Octagon and has also written plays for Green Light Theatre Company. He claims he only started writing to get the demons out of his head.

He was looking forward to a life long career in biscuit making until that dark shadow known as Mackness started stalking him and bending his ear to evil. This has meant voicing the characters of The King in Zen and the Art of Apocalypse, Cyril, Warner, Manager & German Soldier in The Mid-land, John in Life In Pieces, Man 2 in Obsessions, and Scouse Paul in Half Known Roads which he also wrote. He also wrote, directed, and starred in Ratty Ep 1, plus wrote and directed various pieces for Salford Voices.  He directed Map & Steads: The Squid in the Sink,  and wrote, directed, and starred in the long-awaited Ratty Ep 2. More recently he conceived and starred in Chief Surgeon Mal Practeeeece's Theatre of Horror, plus wrote/directed/acted in The Paradox Suite  where he has been able to channel Brian Blessed once more.  

Simon Bestwick

Simon was born in 1974 and took his degree in Media and Performance at the University of Salford. He fell in love with the area so much that he moved to Swinton in 2001. After graduating in 1996, he has worked in a succession of day jobs to keep body and soul together while writing feverishly in his spare time. His short story collection A Hazy Shade Of Winter was published by Canada’s Ash-Tree press in 2004 and received three nominations for the Bram Stoker Awards; the title story was reprinted in The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror #18. In 2009 his first novel Tide of Souls was published to great acclaim, as well as a second short story collection - Pictures of the Dark.

Simon Bestwick joined Dark Smile in 2004, since when he has driven a succession of directors (usually Iain!) to distraction as they tried to stop him madly overacting in Obsessions, Map & Steads and Gemma, Map & Steads and The Irwell Pike , and Ratty. Simon wrote and directed various pieces for Salford Voices, and has penned all eight Map & Steads plays - M&S and Gemma, Irwell Pike, Riverside Blues, Squid in the Sink, The Wake, Fireworks Night, The Calamari Ring, Wedding Bell Blues. He also directed the latter four, along with the pieces for the forth-coming Spine Chillers  CD of ghost stories, and Hood Rats for Chief Surgeon Mal Practeeeece's Theatre of Horror. More recently Simon can be heard as Miller in The Paradox Suite. In his spare time, he continues to write, cook, read, listen to music and go for long walks in the countryside, and is still threatening to learn how to play guitar.  

Mike Clarke

Mike Clarke was born and bred in Irlam, and maintains that this is not a bad thing. He has worked back stage and front of house in Manchester’s Palace Theatre on such shows as Singing in the Rain, Babes in the  Wood, and numerous RSC productions involving such luminaries as Kenneth Branagh, Emma Thompson and Dame Judy Dench.

As an actor he has been involved with Diverse Trax in productions of Doris Stokes and Charlie and The Chocolate Factory. This was before the company went on to work with Channel 4. Mike claims he is not bitter at all.

 He has played pantomime villains on several occasions, including Sinistro the Sorcerer in a production of Sinbad. More recently he joined Salford Musical Theatre Society and has played the Constable in Fiddler on the Roof, Constable in Me and My Girl, George the Barman in My Fair Lady, appeared in Oklahoma!, and most recently played the part of Spider in Jekyll & Hyde, and the Prince of Wales in Scarlet Pimpernel at the Lowry Quays Theatre, Salford. 

For Dark Smile Productions Mike played the part of Danny in Half Known Roads, various roles in Salford Voices  including a mad politician, a pirate, a ninja and a Weremole... More recently he played the part of Uncle Archie in The Wake,  Karl and Major in Ratty Ep2, and Dave in Dave & Jeff Versus The Maniacal Cannibal Orderlies on the Missing Floor .

Rachel Clarke

Rachel Clarke is originally from London, but now lives in Irlam. She began dancing from an early age and appeared in numerous dance school productions and school plays. She appeared in a production of Oklahoma for Havering Music Makers before discovering make-up and boys.

Upon moving to Manchester, Rachel joined Salford Musical Theatre Society and appeared in My Fair Lady, played Grandma Zeitel in Fiddler on the Roof, Mrs Anastacia Brown in Me and My Girl, and has also appeared in Oklahoma! , Jekyll & Hyde and Scarlet Pimpernel at the Lowry Quays Theatre, Salford. Other acting parts include the tart in Out of Focus and Bloodruncolda in Sinbad.

Rachel has also recorded an album with the drummer from The Reubets, worked for the Metropolitan Police Drama Group doing backstage work, set design and building, and also belongs to a singing troupe called Serenaders.

For Dark Smile Productions she has played the part of Rachel in Half Known Roads, various roles for Salford Voices, Cybil in Ratty Ep2, and is soon to be heard as Lady Alison in Map & Steads and the Calamari Ring. She also performed all the characters in short story The Acquittal by A M Burrage, for the Spine Chillers CD and played Nurse Clare Midia in Chief Surgeon Mal Practeeeece's Theatre of Horror.

Bernard Nugent

Born in Glasgow but bred in Clifton Green, Bernard Nugent used to work at Wickes’s Building Supplies, hence his nickname around Swinton of “The Bald Bloke From Wickes’s”. He’d never acted in his life, but was lured from the straight and narrow by evil influences (Simon and Iain) to play Steads in Map & Steads and Gemma and Map & Steads and The Irwell Pike, which he did worryingly well - possibly because he didn’t have to act very much.

Bernard returned to the character of Steads in Riverside Blues, Squid in the Sink, The Wake, and Fireworks Night, and the most recent episodes The Calamari Ring and Wedding Bell Blues. He also played the part of Ox in Ratty Ep 2. When not acting or working he can usually be found depleting the stocks of one or another of Swinton’s alehouses, so if you see him, he’ll have a pint of Holts’s.