THEATRE DIRECTOR
Summary:
Artistic Director Ragged Edge Productions. Recently toured: The Chef Show by Nick Ahad. Winner of 2018 NRTF Rural Touring Award for Stage Performance of the Year and Cumbria Life Culture Award 2019.
See https://raggededgeproductions.co.uk
Clore Leadership Programme Short Course Cohort 46 November 2015
Associate Director Theatre by the Lake, Keswick 2001 to 2013 – directed over 40 theatre productions and responsible for new writing policy and development.
Freelance Theatre Director – since 1999. Productions at Watford Palace Theatre, Leeds Playhouse & West Yorkshire Playhouse, New Vic Stoke, Dukes Lancaster, Chester Gateway, M6 Theatre Company, Quondam Theatre Company, Mikron Theatre Co and Brewery Arts Centre. Numerous workshops for various clients.
Recent Projects:
2019 Directed the Regional Premiere of The Children by Lucy Kirkwood for Theatre by the Lake’s 2019 Season.
2019 Directing third national tour of The Chef Show by Nick Ahad.
Previous Work:
2018 West Yorkshire Playhouse Theatre remount of Partition - a co-commission from BBC Radio Leeds and West Yorkshire Playhouse. A 45 minute drama to mark the 70th anniversary of Partition in India initially broadcast at midnight on August 14th 2017 (to mark the very moment Partition occurred). At Leeds Playhouse and Alhambra Bradford and local schools autumn 2018.
2018 R&D Keeping the Lights On for Ragged Edge and produced and directed second national tour of The Chef Show
2017 Directed Picnic by William Inge for Manchester School of Theatre
2017 Produced and Directed The Chef Show for Ragged Edge Productions
“This is a chef’s special, a deliciously funny and occasionally dramatically-daring concoction of a play.”
British Theatre Guide
2017 Directed In at the Deep End for Mikron Theatre Company.
2017 Directed new production of I Was a Wife performed and written by Polly Lister for The Dukes Theatre, Lancaster and touring.
2016 MMU Graduating students in a production of Bryony Lavery’s Behind the Scenes at the Museum for production at Home in Manchester.
2016 Pure by Richard Vergette for Mikron Theatre Company (4 Star Guardian review)
Script development and direction on The Professor of Adventure by Peter Macqueen for Theatre by the Lake. Currently Touring U.K.
2015 Unity 1918 by Kevin Kerr at HOME Manchester for graduating students at Manchester Metropolitan University
White Man Overbite by Ian Pulleston-Davis for The Gap Theatre Project, Manchester.
Hay Fever by Noel Coward for graduating students at L.I.P.A
Red Noses by Peter Barnes for graduating students at Manchester Metropolitan University
2014 U.K. Premiere of Unity 1918 by Kevin Kerr for graduating students at R.W.C.M.D. Chapter Arts Centre Cardiff
Seeing the Lights by Brendan Murray for Theatre by the Lake (4 Star Observer review)
“Under Stefan Escreet's fine direction, characterisations and relationships are outstanding.”
2013 Panel member for Royal National Theatre Foundation Playwright Award
Swallows and Amazons at Theatre by the Lake
Vincent in Brixton for Theatre by the Lake (Four Star Guardian review).
Cartographers for the Alligator Club (site-specific, promenade performance in Cockshott Wood, Keswick)
Old Herbaceous Theatre by the Lake (one-man show - ongoing small-scale touring)
Co-directed Rogue Herries adapted by Louise Page which included leading on the direction of a community cast of 38 performers.
Script development and director The Cupboard Under the Stairs with writer Kevin Dyer for Quondam Theatre Company
2012
Directed graduating student productions of Picnic by William Inge for R.W.C.M.D and Brecht’s Fear and Misery of the Third Reich for Manchester Metropolitan University.
2011
Directed Bananas Are Blue by Lucy Beaumont for 24:7 Festival Manchester
Guest Tutor at Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama.
2001 – 2012
Productions Directed or Co-Directed for Theatre by the Lake included – Roma and the Flannelettes : A Love Like Yours a new commission from Richard Cameron, Ayckbourn’s Bedroom Farce, Arthur Miller’s A View from the Bridge, Noises Off by Michael Frayn and Dumb Show by Joe Penhall, The Firework Maker’s Daughter by Philip Pullman Stones in His Pockets by Marie Jones, Silence by Moira Buffini, Bus Stop by William Inge, TheMaid of Buttermere adapted by Lisa Evans from the novel by Melvyn Bragg. Shelagh Stephenson’s The Memory of Water, the world premiere of For All Time by Rick Thomas, Grimm Tales. Timberlake Wertenbaker’s Our Country’s Good, Arsenic and Old Lace by Joseph Kesselring and Martin McDonagh’s The Lonesome West. Alan Ayckbourn’s Taking Steps, Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf, Days of Wine and Roses adapted by Owen McCafferty and The Borrowers. Premiere of Only Available in Carlisle by Charlotte Allan (Joint Winner of the New Cumbrian Play Competition). Playhouse Creatures by April de Angelis, Patrick Hamilton’s Gaslight and the Regional Premiere of Caryl Churchill’s
A Number. Co-Directed Melvyn Bragg musical The Hired Man.
Regional Premiere of Joe Penhall’s Blue/Orange, Ibsen’s Ghosts and Premiere of Tramping Like Mad by Julie McKiernan (Joint Winner of the New Cumbrian Play Competition).
Stuart Paterson’s adaptation of Cinderella, Coward’s Blithe Spirit, Wallflowering by Australian playwright Peta Murray and Not a Game for Boys by Simon Block.
10th Anniversary production of Neville's Island, Fugard’s Hello and Goodbye the Regional Premiere of In Flame by Charlotte Jones and Mamet’s Speed-the-Plow. The Real Inspector Hound and Black Comedy in double bill, Anorak of Fire and Pinter’s Betrayal.
2010
Dramaturgical Development for Quondam Theatre Company and Directed premiere of The Wife of Usher’s Well by Jules Horne – national small scale rural touring.
Guest Tutor at Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama.
2006
Took sabbatical from Theatre by the Lake and awarded Arts Council Grants for the Arts funding to research current practice in field of new writing. Work included delivery of report to National Theatre Connections project.
Directed on The Lock In new writing project for West Yorkshire Playhouse
Safari Party by Tim Firth for New Vic Theatre, Stoke.
Ernest Thompson’s On Golden Pond for Theatre by the Lake.
Co-Directed premiere of One Last Card Trick by Stewart Permutt at Watford Palace Theatre. All Talk for M6 Theatre Co. (series of new issue-based monologues for schools audiences)
Guest Tutor at Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama.
2005
Cinderella by Stuart Paterson at Chester Gateway Theatre.
Directed new one-act play Raising Zygmunt by Zosia Wand at Brewery Arts Centre Kendal. Redirected Wallflowering for performances at Nuffield Theatre Southampton.
Devised and directed on tEXtPERIMENT new writing project for Theatre by the Lake.
2003
Devised a new writing project for Cumberland Youth Theatre - Stage Soap which saw the creation of a multiple episode stage performance.
Developed the New Cumbrian Play Competition (with support from North West Playwrights).
2001
Appointed Associate Director at Theatre by the Lake. Developed and directed Stage Write new writing event - six short new plays presented over two evenings at Theatre by the Lake.
Directed The Snow Queen at Chester Gateway Theatre.
Directed The Winter's Tale for Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts.
2000
Associate Director on Keswick 2000 Millennium Project. A weekend of newly commissioned outdoor theatre works to be performed in locations around Keswick.
Directed One Fine Day by Dennis Lumborg for the Theatre by the Lake, Keswick.
Directed student production of John Arden’s Live Like Pigs at the Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts.