Profile
I’m an acting teacher and theatre director, specialising in new writing, commissioning and developing plays within the conservatoire and for industry. I’m training to become a humanistic psychotherapist at the Metanoia Institute. I’ve been on faculty at Central since 2005, as Course Leader of MA Classical Acting before developing the Contemporary course and becoming Programme Leader of MA Acting from 2010-2021. I currently teach Stanislavsky derived acting techniques, approaches to new writing, scene study, and direct public productions.
After reading for a BA in Drama and English at Bristol University and an MPhil at Brunel University, I completed a PG Cert LTHE at Central. I’m a fellow of the HEA. I trained as a theatre director at The Orange Tree (with Sam Walters), at the Donmar Warehouse/ Carlton TV (with Sam Mendes) and at the National Theatre Studio.
Subsequently I worked as a freelance theatre director for The Orange Tree, The Gate, National Theatre Studio, Show of Strength at The Tobacco Factory, Brighton Festival and New Perspectives; as Associate Director of Live Theatre, Newcastle; and as Artistic Director of Lincoln Community Play and Forest Forge Theatre Company.
I have taught, led masterclasses or directed projects for RADA, LAMDA, Rose Bruford College, Moscow Arts Theatre School, The Classical Studio at TISCH, Juilliard, NIDA, Ryerson University, Universidad Central del Colombia, Northumbria University, Bristol University, Steppenwolf, Royal Court, RSC, Shakespeare’s Globe, Hampstead Theatre and the National Theatre Studio amongst others.
At Central, I manage a commissioning programme that enables leading and emerging female playwrights to write large cast plays. I also led on an Arts Council England funded new writing partnership project with WGGB and Leicester Square Theatre.
Directing/ Co-directing Credits at Central, 2006-2021: Light Shining in Buckinghamshire, Bones, The Burial at Thebes, Beweep/ Outcast, The Heresy of Love, Miss Johnson, The Commune, Purgatorio, Lear, Measure for Measure, A Kind of Alaska, The Lover, A New World Order and Precisely, Macbeth, Before the Cock Crows (scenes from), Much Ado About Nothing and As You Like It.
I’ve been external examiner for the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, Arts Ed and Gateshead College.
Areas of Expertise
- Actor Training
- Theatre Directing
- New writing: the commissioning and development of new work with writers
- Late 20th and 21st Century British Theatre
- Fragmentary Greek Tragedy
- The Plays of Thomas Middleton
- Humanistic Psychotherapy
- Codified silence and the grammar of the play text.
External Practice
As a theatre director I’ve worked on upwards of 40 productions for professional theatre companies and leading drama schools. I’m passionate about the development of new writing and have collaborated with many leading playwrights including Tanika Gupta, Sarah Kane, Rebecca Lenkiewicz, Sabrina Mahfouz, Peter Oswald, Harold Pinter, Colin Teevan and Amanda Whittington. I’ve commissioned many plays, provided dramaturgical support to writers and directed numerous premieres.
I have worked on further writer/ script development projects with the Royal Court, Steppenwolf, Hampstead Theatre, Live Theatre, the National Theatre Studio and Sphinx Theatre Company.
Writing Projects, Conferences and Symposium:
2021. Director, Sphinx 30 Showcases, extracts of plays in development by Suzette Coon, Satinder Chohan, Morgan Lloyd Malcolm and Jane Upton, The Courtyard Theatre.
2018. Symposium Programmer and Chair of panels, Commissioning the Future: The Role of the Drama School in New Play Development, LAMDA and RCSSD.
2018. Speaker, Reconstructing & Adapting Fragmentary Ancient Greek Tragedy: Methodologies & Challenges for Classicists and Theatre Practitioners, Centre for the Reception of Greece and Rome, Royal Holloway and Senate House Library, University of London.
2015. International Guest Director and Keynote Speaker, Decimo Encuentro De Escuelas De Teatro 2015, Bogota, Colombia.
2014. Director of Workshops, Playwrights’ Progress, Leicester Square Theatre in partnership with the Writers’ Guild of Great Britain and RCSSD.
2012. Director, Memorial by Alice Oswald, Brighton Festival
World Premieres Directed, include:
2019. Director (with Diane Alison-Mitchell), Bones by Tanika Gupta (published by Methuen Drama, 2021), The Courtyard Theatre
2017. Director, Beweep/ Outcast by Sabrina Mahfouz, Webber Douglas Studio
2015. Director, Miss Johnson by Amanda Whittington, Webber Douglas Studio
2014. Director, The Commune by Rebecca Lenkiewicz, Webber Douglas Studio
2012. Director, Purgatorio by Marcella Evaristi, Webber Douglas Studio
2007. Director, Before The Cock Crows by Peter Oswald, Embassy Theatre
2005. Director, Briefs by Alice De Sousa and Gez Casey, Live Theatre Newcastle
2004. Director, Cock of The North by Colin Teevan after Euripides, published as Alcmaeon in Corinth (Oberon Books), Live Theatre Newcastle
2001. Director, Last Stop Louisa’s by Amanda Whittington, New Perspectives, Regional Tour
2001. Director, The Camp by Mark Breckon, Show of Strength at The Tobacco Factory, Bristol
2000. Director, Dead Men Dancing, by Mike Harris, Lincoln Community Play
1999. Director, The Odyssey by Peter Oswald after Homer, published as Odysseus (Oberon Books) the Gate and The Other Place RSC, National Tour, part of the Peter Brook Award Winning Life Journey’s season.
Register of Interest
Nothing to declare
