Mad Cow Productions

About The Mad Cows Some 18 years ago, Alex was stood post-performance, wine in hand, at a bar in the Music Hall. A friendly stranger approached her, to compliment her on the way that she had worn her hat in the production of My Fair Lady in which she had just appeared. The stranger was Lisa, and the way Alex wore her hat was apparently a clear indication of her abilities to dance! It is fair to say that that meeting was the start of a great friendship. In the intervening years they have sung and danced their way through many productions, as well as running the highly successful Stagecoach (SAOS’s junior section now closed) creating two musical theatre productions a year for 8 years and most recently founding Mad Cow Productions. So who are The Mad Cows?

Alex Hinton: Co Producer and Director

Alex grew up in North Yorkshire, spending most of her early years on horseback graduating as time passed from a tiny pit pony to strapping thoroughbred horses. Apart from school, and numerous school play parts, her life revolved around riding over the beautiful North Yorkshire Moors, along the North East Coasts long golden beaches and annoying her ballet teacher by developing all the wrong leg muscles as a result. After graduating from Newcastle University and marrying her husband Robert, she moved to Leeds for her PGCE. Here she began her teaching career, her subjects being English and Drama but this was interrupted a few years later by the staggered arrival of her two sons. For a while life revolved about them, moving from Leeds to rural Derbyshire and then 19 years ago moving to Shropshire. As the boys grew older Alex began to teach drama again, mostly at her boy’s schools but also at SAOS Stagecoach where her love of directing was rekindled. More recently she has directed for the SAOS & Mad Cow Productions. She is now devoting her attentions to Mad Cow Productions full time.

Lisa Lowarch: Co Producer and Choreographer

As a very young child Lisa can vividly remember a painting of a fairy wearing ballet shoes with ribbons hanging on her bedroom wall. Having whined constantly at her mother to be allowed to wear such shoes at the age of 8 she enrolled in the Fay Donnehay School of Dance. On entering the pale pink dance studio with mirrors on every wall her love affair with dance began. By the age of 16 having graduated to wearing a white tutu and her beloved ballet shoes with ribbons she looked around one day to realize she was the only person left in the class and decided to try and find some friends! Having joined Shrewsbury Amateur Operatic Society for their performance of Carousel she was stage struck and for the past 25 years has enjoyed tackling many different dance forms in various musicals. Her favorite dance part has to be Maggie in Brigadoon and, having plucked up enough courage to audition for principle parts, Sally in Me & My Girl and Eliza in My Fair Lady will always have a special place in her heart too. Through her enthusiasm for getting people dancing she has also worked with various youth groups, Game Productions and more recently Whitchurch Amateur Operatic Society. Lisa’s aim in life is to get men dancing!