Stage struck

I’ve been passionately involved in theatre since I first trod the boards aged about 9 or 10. Most of my experience has been in amateur theatre (not "amateur dramatics" – here’s why), principally the Talisman Theatre in Kenilworth and the Loft Theatre in Leamington Spa, for whom I’ve been acting, directing and composing music for 22 and 25 years respectively. At the Talisman, I’m also occasionally to be found pulling pints behind the bar, and was Editor of the members’ newsletter (the legendary Talismag) from 1990 to 1997. At the Loft, I’m currently a member of the Artistic Management sub-committee as well as being the theatre’s webmaster and editing the programme and newsletter that accompanies each show.

I’ve also "guested" at most other local amateur theatres at one time or another, done tours, festivals, promotional work, video, improvised comedy, voice art for a few computer games and audiobooks, even a bit of TV – check out my complete small screen filmography at the Internet Movie Database. Since 2004 I’ve been doing acting and voice work semi-professionally – i.e. it’s not my principal source of income, but I do get paid for it occasionally (see my professional web site for a list of some recent gigs).

In 2008 I played one of my lifelong heroes – Alan Turing, the gay codebreaker and founder of computer science, in Hugh Whitemore’s Breaking the Code at the Loft. My university degree is in computer science, so acting this unique role drew together numerous strands of my own life, much as the play attempts to do with Turing’s. More information about Alan Turing is available on the website maintained by Andrew Hodges, author of the biography Alan Turing, the Enigma on which the play is based. I was especially thrilled to meet Andrew when he was kind enough to come and see the last night of the play’s run at the Loft.

What’s new

Most recently, I played Mike in Shelagh Stephenson’s wonderfully bittersweet comedy drama The Memory of Water at the Loft. Great fun although stripping naked on stage in January’s icy weather was not as much fun as it could have been!

Next up is a project about which I’m very excited. In May I shall be making my main stage debut at Rugby Theatre, as the psychiatrist Martin Dysart in one of my favourite plays of all time – Peter Shaffer’s Equus. I played the boy, Alan, in a production of this play at the Loft 20 years ago, so to be returning to it now in the other lead role is a great opportunity.

Archive

• My thespian CV – an anorak’s guide to all my performing, directing and/or composing credits for every production in which I’ve ever been involved.
• For some pictures of past productions, see the gallery section.
• I used occasionally to be asked to write music for theatre productions; some of it is collected on the music page.

Articles

Some miscellaneous writings about theatre:

• Why what I do is amateur theatre, not "amateur dramatics".
• The story of how my acting nightmare came true.
• In June 2001, I directed Jonathan Harvey’s play Beautiful Thing at the Loft. In view of the enormous interest in the play and its film adaptation, I’ve set up a page of production memorabilia.
• In September 1997, I directed Tim Firth’s Neville’s Island ("a comedy in thick fog") for the Talisman. The magazine Amateur Stage invited me to write an article on the experience for their regular feature The Play Produced; here’s the article I submitted, illustrated with production photos as well as some of my own photographs of the real "Neville’s Island".