Philip Dart

Director

After gaining a degree in Drama at Hull University, Philip’s early directing career took him to the Nuffield Theatre, Southampton, the Plymouth Theatre Company and the Soho Poly Theatre in London. For twenty- five years he was the Artistic Director of the Channel Theatre Company and now works as a freelance Theatre Director in the UK and Europe.

Philip’s first foray into national touring began with two UK touring premieres: Larry Kramer’s pioneering play, The Normal Heart and Anthony Minghella’s Made in Bangkok. There followed a number of highly successful national touring productions, including The Woman in Black; The Haunted Hotel (Philip’s own successful adaptation of a little known Wilkie Collins novel) and Tom McGrath’s play Laurel and Hardy (a co-production with Buxton Opera House).

During the 00s he set up the acclaimed Chalkfoot Theatre Arts, undertaking a wide programme of work for small-scale theatres and rural community venues in south east England. His work for Chalkfoot included an original play, Running For Glory (about the 1924 Paris Olympics) and an innovative staging of Erskine Childers’ Edwardian spy novel The Riddle of the Sands, that earned nominations for Best Director and Best Production in the Off West End awards following a run at London’s Jermyn Street Theatre.

Philip has also directed two in-house productions for the Festival Theatre, Malvern: Shaw’s Arms and the Man and a reworking of the musical Nightingale. In a freelance capacity he has directed Noël Coward’s Fallen Angels for Pavilion Theatre and was co-director and co-adaptor of The Mysteries at Canterbury Cathedral. More recently he has directed Candida for the English Theatre of Hamburg, The Light Burns Blue for the Arts University Bournemouth and Ring Round the Moon for the Drama Studio London. Last summer he directed RADA’s final year show, Sam Shepard’s Curse of the Starving Class. For 28 years he wrote and directed the Buxton Opera House pantomime.

Philip has been a regular director at Vienna’s English Theatre since 1995, where productions have included Charley’s Aunt; Lend Me a Tenor; The Importance of Being Earnest; Witness For the Prosecution; Pygmalion; Barefoot in the Park; The Mousetrap; Travels With My Aunt; Private Lives and Baskerville. Last autumn he directed Harvey and is delighted to be returning once again this spring.

For more information about Philip’s work go to www.scenethreecreative.co.uk.