The Magic Flute’s Cast!
Cast announcement!
We are pleased to announce the cast of The Magic Flute, Protein’s new show for children and their grown-ups opening in December 2025:
Donna Lennard trained at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama and is a keen advocate for contemporary music. Her operatic roles include Frog in ‘How the Whale Became’ (Philips, ROH), Selene in ‘Tycho’s Dream’ (Styles, Glyndebourne), Alice in ‘Airborne’ (McDowall, Nova Music Opera) and Voice 1 in ‘Voices of the Sands’ (Michael Betteridge). In concert, Donna has performed with the Kensington Symphony Orchestra, Bushey Symphony Orchestra, and the Warwickshire Symphony Orchestra. Other stage work includes ‘Mr Burns’ (Anne Washburn), ‘May Contain Food’ and ‘The Little Prince’ (Protein Dance). She is the co-director of dance theatre company Society of Strays CIC.
Jacob Lang received his formal dance training at Rambert School of Ballet and Contemporary Dance, before going on to complete a Master’s Degree at London Contemporary Dance School. Jacob has since danced with renowned contemporary dance companies and choreographers including James Wilton Dance, Humanoove, Holstebro Dance Company and Yukiko Masui. The Magic Flute is Jacob’s first production with Protein.
Faith Prendergast began dancing at the age of 3 at a local dance school in Colorado, USA. She practiced many forms of dance growing up including ballet, tap, flamenco, hip hop, jazz and modern. As a teenager, she took an interest in contemporary dance and improvisation went on to study at the San Francisco Conservatory of Dance under the direction of Summer Lee Rhatigan. It was as she was living in SF that she was exposed to world class dance teachers and was able to watch quality performances from companies touring from Europe. From there, she went onto study at Rambert School of Ballet and Contemporary Dance and earned a 1st class BA (hons) degree.
Since completing her studies, Faith has gone on to freelance in dance, theatre and opera in the UK and Europe working with and choreographers including Laurent Pelly, Simon McBurney, Oona Doherty, Damiano Bigi/Alessandra Paoletti (Fritz Company), Ballo Arthur Pita, Protein Dance (Luca Silvestrini), Jodie Cole, Sarah Shorten (Stacked Wonky), Sally Marie (Sweetshop Revolution), Joel O’donoghue, Leila McMillan and Viv Wood. Additionally, she has helped to found Margate Movement Artists: a group of movers in Margate, Kent dedicated to bringing dance to the region.
Nathan Bartman is a South African-born dancer, choreographer, and musician with a diverse international portfolio. He has collaborated with renowned companies and choreographers across the UK and abroad, including Cape Dance Company, Agudo Dance Company, Gecko Theatre, Ballet Nimba, ACE Dance and Music, Mzansi Cymru, Alonzo King LINES Ballet, Gugulethu Ballet Project, Rematch and Protein Dance. In 2016, he co-founded MANACAN with Ciara Baldwin. Since its inception, the company has toured extensively, creating and performing original work across a range of platforms. In 2019, MANACAN received the Next @ Martha Graham Award for their piece Rooted in New York City. In 2022, they premiered Survive with South Africa’s Jazzart Dance Theatre, which won the Woordfees Award for Best Performance. Nathan has been working with Protein since 2017, delivering and dancing in Real Life Real Dance projects, Protein 21 and (In)visible Dancing.
