Sweeney Todd Northern Ireland Premiere

Theatre at the MillI have just directed the Northern Irish Premiere of the Sondheim Musical Sweeney Todd.  The production opened the new 450 seat Theatre at the Mill, starred Peter Corry as Todd and Nuala McKeever as Mrs Lovett, and received uniformly excellent reviews.

A dark parable deftly told...direction by Andrea Montgomery strikes exactly the right note. The Newsletter

...Compellingly psychopathic, humourously sinister.  In lesser hands such action could descend into farce, but here the strange note of gothic allegoary is wonderfully preserved...  Culture Northern Ireland

Jared Diamond Project (Working Title)

Funded by the Arts Council of Northern Ireland's SIAP programme, the British Council (China Office) and the CBC I am currently developing an international theatre project inspired by the work of environmentalist Jared Diamond. 

In collaboration with Chung Ying Theatre of Hong Kong we organised an early November 09 workshop in London with participants from Hong Kong, Belfast and London.  Director, choreographer and performer Tang Waikit, Chung Ying associate artist, worked with me on the workshop.

I am currently working on the development of a first draft script to serve as the foundation of a devising process in 2010.  Next steps include workshops in Belfast and Hong Kong in 2010, and the recruiting of artists from other art forms including music, animation and film.

For more information go to the project page, right. 

Macau Young Creative Voices

With co-director Chad Leslie, I am currently working towards year three performances of the Macau Young Creative Voices programme.  Plans are for devising in spring 2010 in Macau, followed by participation in the July 2010 IDEA conference in Brazil and a final performance in Macau in autumn. We are currently in disucssion to build a Belfast link into the project.

Visiting Tehran's Fadjr Theatre Festival 

Despite confrontation between the British Council and the Government of Iran, myself and a group of British colleagues recently enjoyed the opportunity to visit the Iran's International Theatre Festival.  Four of us also spent a week of exciting collaboration and bridge building, giving a Visiting Arts training program to Iranian colleagues. For an update on the program check out Visiting Arts' website at Tehran Visit.