Where is this year going?

Just opened the national tour of HORRIBLE HISTORIES , The Vile Victorians and The Terrible Tudors. Very pleased . Great company. Very talented and solid thinkers. Terrific to work with. The show was on national TV last week as part of the Politics Show…all about Richard III and his body being found in Leicester. Great exposure for the show

Been working with the students at Swansea Met Uni last week . Early workshops for the SKELLIG project. Great bunch of students full of imagination and ideas. Looks like its going to be an exciting project.

Southwold Summer Theatre have asked me to direct SLUETH for them this August. I’m chuffed! Its a play I’ve always liked. I will really enjoy myself…I know. Thank you all at Southwold

This month I hope to develop the work on the Youth Theatre Leaders Training course. I’ve got a few meetings. Hopefully soon we will be able to make a public anannouncement….watch this space!!!!!

I’m doing some work with MPYT (Mid Powys Youth Theatre)  Andrew Steery has asked me to lead an assessment process with the members. I’ll really enjoy this. The aim is to set the company up as an independent charity. The most important thing is to ensure the work survives , develops and is supported. We are loosing a lot of our youth theatre provision nationally…….its a scandal!!!!!!!   Who in government and the system of funding is fighting for Young People…???

And as for Newcastle Upon Tyne !!!!!!!!! I fear this is only the beginning. There is now a campaign with a BLOG so its important we all get involved in some way. Our voices are vital

Finally HORRIBLE HISTORIES The Rotten Romans has just come back from Hong Kong and Singapore…..I gather it was a great success…..Well done Birmingham Stage Company. You continue to be a National and International pioneer for YPT……with NO subsidy. An amazing achievement

More next month

Sorry I havent up dated for a while. Its been a hectic autumn

Wrote and Directed the Panto for Cheltenham Everyman Theatre again. What a great team. Its so good to work with strong actors and people who want to be part of a team. It was Dick Whittington and I had a great time. Audiences seem to love it and theres been great feed back

My production of GEORGES MARVELLOUS MEDICINE is playing at the Corn Exchange in Cambridge. First time Ive been to Cambridge…loved it. Show going really well….again a good strong company. It looks like the production will tour the far east in May and I will go out to open it.

Just directed a short version of HORRIBLE HISTORIE RUTHLESS ROMANS which opens in Hong Kong in January. I wont be going with it as I start rehearsals for a new version of HORRIBLE HISTORIES , THE VILE VICTORIANS and THE TERRIBLE TUDORS which open at the end of January and then tours nationally till the summer.

The Swansea Metropolitan University have invited me to work with their third year performing arts students in March/April. In Feb I will do a 3day workshop with the students in order to set up the residency. We are going to be creating a site-specific version of David Almonds SKELLIG. We will be exploring the nature of “change” and how that impacts on the lives of top junior school children as they move to senior school. Its going to be an exciting project

On the 1st of July my production of HORRIBLE HISTORIES. THE EVIL EGYPTIANS opens at the Sydney Opera House. Its very exciting. I will go over to open it but wont stay with the show as it tours Australia.

At the end of August I start a new production of HORRIBLE SCIENCE which then tours till the end of the year

Needless to say there are numerous other productions/projects in the pipeline…more on them as they firm up

I am developing a very important project with a national training institution to establish the first ever Youth Theatre Leadership qualification. This has always been one of my ambitions since we established The National Association of Youth Theatres NAYT in the early 1980s. Watch this space as i’m fairly possitive its going to happen. FANTASTIC

Apart from all of the above , I keep going, continue to harness my anger on gov funding…what on earth is happening in Newcastle Upon Tyne????  ..why is a Labour controlled Council playing into the hands of this Tory Gov…..wheres the Labour Party on this…..no sorry….WHERES THE LABOUR PARTY ?????? and how dare the Arts Council cut the grass roots organisations….NAYT….Gwent Theatre…Spectacle Theatre…Theatre Powys…..BRUVVERS……to mention a few. It seems it is the priority of these Arts Councils to punish the poor and Young People……I DISSPARE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I’ll stop now by wishing everyone A HAPPY NEW YEAR……it can only get better!!!

Autumn is nearly upon us. As usual its alwas a busy season for me

I’ve just finnished writing and casting the pantomime DICK WHITTINGTON for Everyman Theatre in Cheltenham. Everything seems ready for rehearsal at the end of October

HORRIBLE HISTORIES- Vile Victorians and Terrible Tudors are back on the road. We opened the tour at the New Theatre in Hull last week

I’m about to do some teaching at Swansea University with their performing arts/drama students. Exciting and looking forward to developing an on-going relationship with the course.

I am going to be re-staging the Birmingham Stage Company production of GEORGES MARVELLOUS MEDICINE that I did a few years ago. It will be playing in Cambridge throughout the Xmas period

I’m also going to direct a one hour version of Horrible Histories THE RUTHLESS ROMANS which will tour Hong Kong and the far East next January

In January I will re-direct Victorians and Tudors for an extended national tour with a new cast

I have been invited by my old college Rose Bruford College of Speech and Drama to explore the possibility of setting up a new course that will be the first acreditation to recognise and qualify Youth Theatre Leadership. This is a very exciting project. I am involving NAYT and would like them to work in partnership with Rose Bruford. We all need to find new ways to partner our own work with NAYT and find a possitive future for the organisation. I am very, very excited about developing this work with Brufords. Watch this space as we intend to have made some major decisions by the end of October

So far a number of offers have been made to me for 2013 which are very exciting. Now is the time to talk to me about next year…please

Up dates will happen next month

Welcome to my BLOG. It’s here to give you up to date information of what I’m doing. I will up-date it every month. If you want to reply, go to my web-site and e-mail me please. It is 20th August 2012.

I have just directed WRITE ME A MURDER by Fredrick Knott for Southwold Summer Theatre. I had a great time with a terrific group of actors. I also directed Jill Freud for the first time, which was an honour and great fun. The Show had two great reviews from the local press. I really love working in Southwold.

In September I will be re-staging the HORRIBLE HISTORIES, Vile Victorians and Terrible Tudors for the Birmingham Stage Company. (BSC) They will tour till Xmas. It has been touring throughout Britain since last January.

This autumn I will direct DICK WHITTINGTON written by myself for the Everyman Theatre in Cheltenham. Really looking forward to working with this great team again.

I will also be re-staging my production of GEORGES MARVELLOUS MEDICINE for BSC which will play a Xmas residency in Cambridge.

So the Autumn is busy, but I have availability to do workshops if anyone wants them.

I’ll up-date the blog in Sept