In previous practice I have been an Artistic Director and Executive Director at a number of different professional theatres in the UK. I have also directed productions mainly in the UK, Canada, United States and China, and have toured productions to India, Japan, and many European countries including Germany, France, Italy.
I have committed my artistic career to intercultural theatre and performance. As artistic director at the Traverse Theater in Edinburgh I developed the drama of the new Scots renaissance in the 1980s. As executive and artistic director of the Leicester Haymarket in the 1980-90s, I supported the growth of international theatre and the theatre of migrancy in the UK. From the 1990s to today I have worked professionally directing transcultural productions, and focus on intercultural directing techniques for plays ranging from early modern to current theatre scripts from around the world.
It is a great privilege to continue directing professionally while teaching at a university, where I can direct more experimentally. Recently I have directed both large scale and intimate productions, as well as productions that I consider primarily experimental. It is from this bedrock of practice that I gain my critical and pedagogical insights.
My work is always collaborative – with the cast, the technicians, the community, the audience. The first Plastic Rose I did with Shogo Ota in 1994, was an intercultural experiment where we directed the same play on the same stage, but with our own companies, one in California and one in Japan. I went on to experiment with a Romeo and Juliet where I directed two productions, same set and same script, with an all-male cast and an all-female cast, ran the two in tandem and then for the final week brought the casts together randomly each performance to see what would happen. With Laramie, my first production after coming to UC Davis, we gathered different community groups from the Sacramento area on stage each night. Gallathea took collaboration even further, as I worked with 4 co-directors. More recently, with the Ota plays in 2014 and 2017, I’ve been experimenting with collaborating with the actors.
The productions listed below each have a direct link specifically to comments on the directing approach.
Pre-2003
Up to 2003 I've had an extensive career in directing and artistic directing in the UK, Europe and internationally. For more information, take a look at my earlier work.
