I’m a stage director, working across plays, musical theatre and opera. I’m based just north of Glasgow, Scotland. Supporting actors and acting is the centre of what I do, and I specialise in playfulness, dramaturgy, words, and work that involves song.
Directing
Recent work includes the musical Armour: a herstory of the Scottish Bard by Shonagh Murray (Òran Mór/Traverse Edinburgh/Ayr Gaiety/OneRen); Who Pays the Piper by Jen McGregor (A Play A Pie and a Pint, Òran Mór); the musicals A Little Night Music and Big Fish (Royal Conservatoire of Scotland MA Musical Theatre at Assembly Music Hall, Edinburgh); The Yellow Club (a multi-artform version of Twelfth Night) and Curiouser and Curiouser (inspired by Lewis Carroll’s Alice novels), each of which involved casts of over a hundred performers, for RCS Junior Conservatoire; Part of the Picture, a play-with-songs, based on interviews with North Sea oil workers (as writer and director, Pleasance Theatre, Edinburgh); Gianni Schicchi (Opera Bohemia, Scottish Tour); Brecht’s play-with-songs The Visions of Simone Machard (Hackney Empire and tour); N. C. Hunter’s play A Day by the Sea and the UK premiere of Adam Guettel’s song cycle Myths and Hymns (both Finborough Theatre, London); the Kander and Ebb revue The World Goes Round and a devised musical, The Great Exam Cabaret (both Wild Cabaret, Glasgow); L’Antologia di Spoon River, a devised, promenade performance in a ruined monastery, and Stefano Benni’s play Astaroth (both for Rapallo Festival, Italy); La Traviata (UK tour); La bohème (Clyde Opera Group); A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Blenheim Palace Gardens); Someone Who’ll Watch Over Me (Upstairs at the Gatehouse) and Judith: a parting from the body (Pleasance, London). I also directed large-scale community productions of Henry IV part one and Henry IV part two (York Shakespeare Project).
Assistant Directing
As an assistant director, I worked for the Young Vic Theatre London, the Haymarket Theatre Basingstoke, English National Opera, Scottish Opera and Opera North, assisting the directors Benedict Andrews, Phyllida Lloyd, John Adams, David Pountney, John Fulljames and Christopher Alden.
DRAMATURGY AND NEW WORK
I spent a number of years as a freelance dramaturg, and was a script reader for the Bush Theatre, Soho Theatre, Theatre 503, the Royal Court Young Writers’ Programme and the King’s Cross New Writing Award. I also read musical libretti for the Donmar Warehouse, and was Literary Associate (musical theatre) for the Finborough Theatre.
WORK IN EDUCATION
I’m currently a part-time lecturer in the Musical Theatre department of the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. I’ve previously taught or directed for Mountview, Oxford School of Drama, London College of Music, Arts University Bournemouth, University of Cumbria, SLP College Leeds and GAMTA in Glasgow, where I was Programme Leader for BA Musical Theatre from 2016-2020. I became a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA) in 2012, and was awarded Senior Fellowship (SFHEA) in 2020.
Current projects
February 2025: The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee actor-musician production for Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.