Chantelle Burley
Co-organiser & Chair of trustees
Chantelle Burley grew up in Poplar east London and was inspired to start All Stars London after completing an Activist for Social Development Fellowship at the All Stars Project in New York City. She has loved theatre from a young age and attended an after-school youth theatre throughout her senior years at secondary school which gave her the opportunity to freely express herself and escape from the poverty in her neighbourhood. After completing secondary school, she had a dream of being a drama teacher or workshop facilitator working with groups of young people and subsequently completed a BA in Drama, Applied Theatre and Education at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama and then an MA in Educational Theatre at New York University. Throughout her studies she completed work placements in Kosovo and Puerto Rico and volunteered in Brazil. While looking for an opportunity to accompany her MA, she stumbled upon the All Stars Project and fell in love with their methodology of using performance offstage and onstage in our everyday life. After completing the fellowship, she was hired as a programme coordinator on their flagship Talent Show programme for a year where she learnt first-hand the power of performance to help children and young people living in poverty to grow and develop. The Fellowship and working on the Talent Show programme motivated her to return home to Poplar and put on the first ever All Stars London Talent Show along with Brian Mullin in a church hall where she attended as child. Since 2014 All Stars London has produced 10 Talent Shows and given hundreds of children and young people the opportunity to perform.
Chantelle currently lives in Hertfordshire, and alongside her work at All Stars London as Chair of Trustees, and co-organiser for the Young Leaders and Talent Show programmes, she works part-time with young people at risk of offending at Transitions UK charity, and as an ad-hoc youth worker at Feltham Young Offenders. She is currently workshop facilitator and director with the Primary Shakespeare Company facilitating sessions on the bard’s work with groups of children. Chantelle intends to study social work in 2022, and hopes to combine this practice with her work at All Stars London.
Brian Mullin
Co-organiser & Trustee
Brian is a playwright and dramaturg, who also has a long history of work in grassroots and community-based contexts. Born in the United States, he worked from 2004-2009 with the All Stars Project Inc. in New York City, helping to build Youth Onstage!, a free theatre programme for young people based out of the ASP headquarters on 42nd Street. There Brian learned the All Stars’ revolutionary performance-based approach to youth development. In the UK, his work as a writer and dramaturg has been developed and presented at leading venues including Battersea Arts Centre, High Tide Theatre Festival, the Orange Tree and Theatre 503 (where he was a writer-in-residence from 2015-16). Brian teaches writing at the City Literary Institute, St Marys University and on the National Theatre’s New Views programme. He has led drama-based workshops for comapnies like Shakespeare Schools Foundation, the Tricycle Theatre’s Minding the Gap project and Synergy Theatre Company. He holds a BA in Theatre Studies from Yale, an MA Writing for Performance from Goldsmiths and was a 2001 Rhodes Scholar.
Board of Trustees
Elena Dina Boukouvala
founder, Play Is Hope
Originally from Greece, Elena holds master's degrees in Drama Therapy and Counseling of Children and Young People. She is a trained psychologist and performance activist. Her own organisation Play is Hope is a transcultural collective built in response to the current refugee crisis. Starting in Greece, her work has moved throughout Europe and around the world, in collaboration with grassroots organisers - refugees, migrants and locals - building groups and creating possibilities for play and performance across borders. Elena first encountered the All Stars methodology as a member of the East Side Institute's International Class. She worked with Chantelle and Brian as one of the first and most dedicated volunteers for All Stars London, bringing her expertise to performance workshops at the Talent Shows and her enthusiasm for organising to outreach work on the streets of Poplar.
Dr Gregory Pasco
post-doctoral Researcher, institute of psychiatry, psychology & neuroscience, kings college London
Greg is a researcher who specialises in studying autism. In addition to research, he has been a speech & language therapist, working mostly in Tower Hamlets in community clinics and special schools. He has long been aware of the work of the All Stars Project, Inc., in the United States, and is excited about the opportunity to help build the work of All Stars London.
