Leighton Buzzard’s Chloe Champken directs new play Snazzy

Director Chloe Champken, who grew up in Leighton Buzzard and Luton and attended Berkhamsted Collegiate School, will direct Snazzy, a new play about the creation of the Snazaroo face-painting brand, premiering this summer at the New York Theatre Festival.

Written by British actor and producer Joe Staton, Snazzy tells the true story behind Snazaroo, founded in the 1980s by Staton’s parents, Lauren and Paul Staton, at a Butlins holiday centre in Minehead, Somerset. Staton’s mother, Lauren, is originally from Hemel Hempstead, giving the production an additional Hertfordshire connection. What began as a small creative idea grew into one of the world’s most recognisable face-painting brands, now used globally by artists, performers, and families.

Champken and Staton have collaborated across several productions in recent years. She directed Floyd Toulet’s Knock Knock at the New York Theatre Festival in 2023 and again in 2024, later directed Staton in The Rainmaker, and most recently co-directed RiffRaff NYC’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

Both Champken and Staton are also company members of the Ensemble Shakespeare Company and will appear this summer in Julius Caesar at The Flea Theater in New York, further continuing their creative partnership alongside their work on Snazzy.

The production brings together an international cast, including Naomi Orange, founder of New York’s Fruit Fly Theatre, alongside Ross Mason, Brenna Peerbolt, Truman Gaudoin, and Ronan Spierenburg.

Presented by RiffRaff NYC, Snazzy is inspired by Lauren Staton’s memoir A Snazzy Tale and explores creativity, partnership, and the artistic spirit behind a brand that began with simple face-painting at British holiday camps and grew into a global phenomenon.

The production will premiere at LATEA Theater in New York City as part of the New York Theatre Festival in July 2026, with future UK performances under discussion.