Patrons
Vas J Morgan is a English Television Personality, Magazine Editor and Activist. Born and
raised in North London, Vas attended the Susi Earnshaw Theatre School. In 2014 he
skyrocketed to fame after being cast in the reality ITV show ‘The only way is Essex.’ Aside
from being a well-known television personality, Vas was one of the first openly black gay
men on a reality television show. Now a successful Fashion magazine editor, in 2017 Vas
launched his magazine ‘Tings London’ featuring Sofia Richie on the cover. Since the launch,
the publication has featured high profile actresses and models such as Paris Jackson, Maisie
Williams, Natalie Alyn and Matthew Noszka.
This year the traumatic and horrific murder of George Floyd, led to the launch of Vas’s
platform ‘IamEnough,’ in which he used his voice to educate and raise awareness of systemic
racism. After much campaigning, Vas raised over £50,000 to provide free resources and
mental health support to members of the Black community. This led to him being the first
British reality TV star to be featured in Forbes magazine for his activism work.
As a former student of the Susi Earnshaw Theatre School, Vas has performed many times on
the Bull Theatre stage. We are proud of all of Vas’s achievements and we are delighted to
have him as a patron for our theatre.
Miriam Nyarko is a British actress, singer and songwriter. She trained at the Susi
Earnshaw Theatre School. She has an extensive CV having performed in three main
West End Musicals, an RSC production and a Television series. Miriam played the role
of young Nala in The Lion King, Lavender in Matilda and Violet Beauregarde in Charlie
and The Chocolate Factory.
In 2017 Miriam starred on the first television series of the ITV show The Voice Kids.
Having made it through the Blind auditions, she was taken through to the Battle
rounds with the singer Pixie Lott as her mentor. In 2019 the young performer played the
role of Lisa James in The Royal Shakespeare Company’s production of ‘The Boy in the Dress’
in Stratford Upon Avon and also played Rebecca Gibbs in the production of Our Town at the
Regent’s Park Open air Theatre. Earlier this year, Miriam released her first single ‘Step Up.’
With a busy schedule, she is now currently working on her EP and co-staring as Miri in the
CBBC series Almost Never. We are proud to have Miriam as a patron for our theatre.
Matthew Sweetapple & Elaine Sweetapple
Matthew Sweetapple is a songwriter and producer. He has written, produced and recorded
songs, lyrics, sounds and music for many high profile commercial projects.
Well established in the arts, Matthew has created music for TV ads, sponsorship bumpers,
corporate videos, singles, theme songs and rock operas.
In 1997 Matthew wrote a song called Rockford Christmas. As Rockford was
a Battersea Dog, the song was presented to Battersea Dogs and Cats Home as a charity single to help
them raise funds. The song was featured on the national BBC and ITV News, as well as
gaining coverage in several national newspapers and magazines. The Charity was delighted
with the crucial Xmas coverage and the song is still a firm favourite. Since then, Rockford
has become the basis of many more Sweetapple stories with millions of fans across the
world.
The success of the hit song led to the creation of the ecological musical Rockford’s Rock
Opera. A musical which uses resources, CGI animation and an audiobook story to
teach about extinction, ecology and biodiversity. Matthew wrote, performed and
produced the music and sound for all of Rockford’s Rock Opera’s stories. He created
and developed the original story with his wife Elaine Sweetapple. Together they wrote
the scripts for the later stories with scriptwriter Steve Punt.
Elaine Sweetapple is a very talented Designer and Performer. As a photoshop artist,
Elaine has worked on a huge range of jobs from book illustrations (notably the artworks for
Rockford’s Rock Opera), product and literature mockups, image photographic retouching,
book cover and album designs, posters, ads, newsletters, leaflets, social media images and
web designs.
Elaine designed Rockford’s Rock Opera, creating artworks to illustrate the stories and
website. She also developed the key characters and she is the voice of the Cocklebur Ick.
The Bull Theatre are delighted to be a part of the Rockford’s Rock opera journey with
the musical having its first preview on the Bull stage.
