Overview

 

I am an award-winning stage director, acting teacher and performer. I am currently the Artistic Director and CEO of Outside Edge Theatre Company, which is the UK's only theatre company focused on addiction.  

 

I work on classics and new writing that speak with immediacy about the world today. Challenging received ideas and past representations, my work engages on its own terms with contemporary culture and is inspired by images, sounds and sensations from the here and now. 

 

Artistic Statement

 

Theatre should draw the essence of what we know out of the shadows to uncover uncanny truths that unsettle audiences. I collaborate with creative risk-takers to rigorously examine form and content, challenging norms and stretching audiences' intellects.

 

My productions place human behaviour under a microscope to reveal the strange, idiosyncratic and (often) hilarious instincts that erupt from dramatic situations. I illuminate this behaviour using visceral and expressionistic storytelling, which challenges generic conventions and subverts naturalistic dramaturgy.

 

I was born in Canada, trained as an actor in New York City and now work in the UK. My theatre shares this global perspective: it is grounded in an Anglo text-based approach, but displays characters' interior experiences outwardly with physical, symbolic gestures. I do not draw a distinction between the expressionism of Shakespeare's poetic dialogue and an European directors' auteur intervention because both strategies produce empathy in theatre audiences to uncover what it means to be alive in the world.

 

Biography

 

My recent directing credits include productions at Shoreditch Town Hall, Soho Theatre, VAULT Festival, Etcetera Theatre, New Diorama Theatre, Iford Arts, Theatre503, Southwark Playhouse, East15, London School of Dramatic Art and Identity School of Acting. As an assistant director I worked for Iford Arts, The Lyric Hammersmith’s Secret Theatre, The Royal Court, St. James Theatre and The Canadian Stage Company.

 

Directing awards include the John Fernald Award for Emerging Directors (Equity Charitable Trust UK), New Generation Artist (Iford Arts) and Origins Award for Outstanding New Work (VAULT Festival).

 

As an actor I performed leading roles at the Finborough Theatre, The Stratford Festival, numerous theatres across Canada and New York City, in addition to work in feature films, television and commercials.

 

I trained with Uta Hagen at HB Studio, at The Public Theater/New York Shakespeare Festival’s Shakespeare Lab and Shakespeare’s Globe International Actor’s Fellowship.

 

Acting awards include the Tyrone Guthrie Award (Stratford Festival of Canada) and the Christopher Plummer Award (Shakespeare’s Globe Centre Canada).