RSTC Artistic Director

In 2002 I set up my own acting company for actors aged 6 - 100.

From 2002 to the present day I have directed over 65 productions with my actors ranging from Shakespeare to modern playwrights. Within my acting company we operate a total "learn by doing" policy where the company are taught all the necessary skills to perform in the project we are working on and this learning is ongoing. We operate as a drama school would, so each workshop includes, voice and speech, creative movement and acting technique. I teach from a wide range of drama practitioners including, Peter Brook, Artaud, Brecht, Michael Checkov and David Mamet to name but a few, but at the heart of all I teach is Stanislavskis method. I aim to give my students the skills they need and a full understanding and knowledge of the industry they are going into and offer them support in this. Many of my young actors now have agents, have worked in tv, film and theatre and radio, working in tv advertising campaigns for the likes of Comet, Bold, Clarkes Shoes and recently one of my actors played for a year in ITVs Emmerdale, so i hope my teaching gives them the skills they need to succeed.

I am currently involved in an ongoing educational project exploring the idea of improvisation between music and the spoken voice, this is a multi media project and is called “Summer With Monika” I work alongside award winning composer and saxophonist Andy Scott and world renowned percussionist Dave Hassel, again we tour with a production and workshops, this project was followed closely by Dr Jonathon Savage who is currently writing an educational paper that explores our project and will be presented within schools to help them teach improvision.

1997 - 2001
Maqama Theatre Company
I was artistic director for Maqama Theatre from 1997 to 2001 we explored Shakespeare's works and performed them for schools and National Trust and English Heritage sites, my role at that time as well as directing the productions and acting in them, was to design and write study packs for the productions and also devise and run accompanying workshops for schools and colleges. We produced several productions including, Midsummer Nights Dream, Macbeth, Taming Of The Shrew and Twelfth Night. Our production of Twelfth Night was bought by the Palace Theatre Redditch for there educational Shakespeare work, where i ran workshops in local schools for those who were to see the production. Macbeth saw us working with Shell Education, where we played to all the schools with accompanying workshops in the Southwark area of London.

2001

University Of Iowa London

Workshop facilitator for a series of practical sessions on Richard III, verse speaking and an introduction to Shakespeare.

2001 - 2002

Drayton Court Theatre

I was Artistic Director of this theatre, I produced Grimm Tales and Richard III. Once again the emphasis being on educational drama with additional workshops.

2002

Cheshire Drama Resource

Working with Sue Welshman, I devised, wrote, created and directed their schools christmas project - “The dragon
who ate christmas”. This played to over twenty junior schools in Cheshire
and was a huge success.

Richard is an actor, director and theatre practitioner of 15 years experience, he has have worked in theatre, film and Tv, he was a member of Manchester Youth Theatre for seven years, he trained at Guildhall School Of Music and Drama and did his post grad at The Oxford School Of Drama.