Directors' Pool
The Almeida Theatre’s Directors' Pool offers directors in the early stages of their career the opportunity to work closely with the theatre in all aspects of the artistic programme, to gain experience through access to the resources provided by the Almeida, and to widen their artistic network. For each of our productions, the director will select a Resident Director from the pool who will support the production process from first rehearsals to public performance. Alongside the opportunity to assist, the pool will take part in script readings and workshops led by Almeida creatives, and lead projects for Almeida Participation during their residency.
The director scheme is supported by The Eranda Rothschild Foundation.
Directors' Pool
Tom Brennan
Emma Butler
Rebecca Frecknall
Anthony Lau
Taio Lawson
Jack Nurse
Ilinca Radulian
Caitriona Shoobridge
Jake Smith
Jo Tyabji
Tom Brennan
With his company The Wardrobe Ensemble, Tom's work has been performed at Bristol Old Vic, Soho Theatre, Shoreditch Town Hall and The National Theatre among many venues across the UK and USA.
As Director, theatre includes: RIOT; 33; The Forever Machine (The Wardrobe Ensemble).
As Co-Director, theatre includes: 1972: The Future of Sex and Eloise; The Curse of the Golden Whisk (The Wardrobe Ensemble); 252AM (Shady Dolls Theatre).
Tom is a founding member of The Wardrobe Theatre in Bristol, where in 2011, he founded Closer Each Day, an improvised soap opera that continues to be performed bi-weekly. He wrote and directed The Episode (2014) which will tour in Spring 2017. He wrote Weapons (2015) and Congregation (2016) while playwright in resident at The North Wall Theatre in Oxford. He has taught at The University of Northampton, Rose Bruford College and Bath Spa University. He also has several years’ experience running ensemble theatre workshops for young people with Bristol Old Vic, The Old Vic and The Almeida. Tom Brennan trained in American Theatre at Rose Bruford and on Made in Bristol at Bristol Old Vic.
Emma Butler
As Director, theatre includes: Echoes (The Gilded Balloon / Arcola Theatre / 59E59 Theatre New York) The Bench; Powerpoints (Theatre 503); Romeo and Juliet (site specific); Murder In Whitechapel (The Tristan Bates Theatre); Detrimental (Greenwich Theatre); Dying City (Cockpit Theatre).
As Associate Director, theatre includes: The Dazzle (Michael Grandage Company); Absent Friends (UK tour); The Separation (Theatre 503); Dido and Aeneas (The Sage, Gateshead); The Flood (So & So Arts Club).
As Assistant Director, theatre includes: Waiting For Godot (UK tour); The King James Bible; The Marriage Of Figaro (The Sage, Gateshead); Finding Butterfly; The Secret Consul (Opera Machine).
Emma trained as a director at Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts.
Rebecca Frecknall
For the Almeida, as Resident Director: Ink.
Rebecca trained at Goldsmiths and on the director’s course at LAMDA. She was Resident Director at Northern Stage after winning the Regional Theatres’ Young Director’s Scheme (RTYDS) bursary. She has also worked as a freelance director in London, and has worked as Staff Director at the National Theatre, RSC and Young Vic. In 2012 she was one of the Jerwood Assistant directors at the Young Vic, and was the 2012/13 recipient of the National Theatre Studio’s Resident Director Bursary. She was the runner-up for the RTST Directors Award at the Sheffield Crucible and was a finalist for the 2017 Genesis Future Directors Award at the Young Vic.
Anthony Lau
As Director, theatre includes: A Better Man; The Cherry Orchard (Young Vic); Juicy and Delicious (Nuffield Theatre); The Common Land (Rose Theatre, Kingston); Dreaming in America (Shoreditch Town Hall); Still Life/Red Peppers (Old Red Lion); The Taste of Us (HighTide); I Am A Camera (Southwark Playhouse);Tape (CounterCulture, London Bridge); Orphans (Linbury Studio, LAMDA).
As Assistant/Associate Director, theatre includes: First Light (Chichester Festival Theatre); The Glass Menagerie (Nuffield Theatre); The Hudsucker Proxy (Liverpool Playhouse/Nuffield Theatre); King Lear (Chichester Festival Theatre/BAM, New York); Mint (Royal Court); Canvas (Chichester Festival Theatre); Bingo (Young Vic); Hungry Ghosts (Orange Tree Theatre); An Inspector Calls (Paris tour). Anthony was an Associate Director at Nuffield Theatre in 2015 as supported by the BBC Performing Arts Fund. He trained as a director at LAMDA.
Taio Lawson
For the Almeida, as Resident Director: Oil; They Drink It In The Congo.
As Assistant Director, theatre includes: Octagon (Arcola Theatre); Perseverance Drive (Bush Theatre); Sizwe Banzi is Dead (Young Vic); Pigeon English (Bristol Old Vic).
As Director, theatre includes: How to Make Love to a Muslim Without Freaking Out (Bush Theatre with Black Lives; Black Words); Face In a Jar (Rhoda Mcgaw Theatre); Gutted ’n’ Battered (Sweden Tour); 90's Kid (Etcetera Theatre); Sexy Buff Ting (Cockpit Theatre).
Jack Nurse
As Director, theatre includes: 549; Scots of the Spanish Civil War (Old Hairdressers); McNeill of Tranent: Fastest Man in the World (Brunton Theatre and Glasgow Commonwealth Culture Festival 2014/Old Fruitmarket); The Coolidge Effect (The Pearce Insitute / The Glue Factory); O (Royal Conservatoire of Scotland); Too Fast (Fullarton Theatre); Sparkleshark (Fullarton Theatre / Ryan Centre).
As Assistant Director, theatre includes: Blackbird (Citizens Theatre); This Restless House (Citizens Theatre/National Theatre of Scotland); The Broons (Sell A Door).
Jack trained at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. In 2014, Jack co-founded Wonder Fools, a Glasgow-based theatre company. In January 2017, Jack will assist Max Webster on his production of The Winter’s Tale (The Lyceum, Edinburgh).
Ilinca Radulian
For the Almeida, as Resident Director: Hamlet; Mary Stuart.
As Director, theatre includes: Fight Club (site specific); Hypothetical; Lost and Found (Rapid Write Response, Theatre503); The Fall of the House of Usher (Central St. Martins); Inland Empire (site specific); Faustus; The Pillowman (American Repertory Theater / Harvard Radcliffe Dramatic Club).
As Assistant Director, theatre includes: A Series of Increasingly Impossible Acts; Glitterland; Chamber Piece; A Streetcar Named Desire; Woyzeck (Secret Theatre, Lyric Hammersmith); Le triomphe de l’amour (Bulandra Theatre); One Arm (and a Leg) (Theater for a New City); The Untitled Project (Gene Frankel Theater); The Space Between (American Repertory Theater / Harvard Radcliffe Dramatic Club); Mnemonic (New College Theater).
Ilinca was the Associate Director on the Secret Theatre national tour. She trained at Harvard and Birkbeck, University of London.
Caitriona Shoobridge
For the Almeida, as assistant director: Boy.
As Director, theatre includes: Yerma (Taking Part, Young Vic); Five Playsproject (Young Vic); Orion’s Hat (Tristan Bates Theatre); Taleblazers (Southwark Playhouse); In Confidence (The Space, Edinburgh Festival); Bash; Mister Paradise (New End Theatre).
As Assistant Director, theatre includes: The Cherry Orchard; Fireface (Young Vic); Just-So Stories (King’s Head Theatre/Pleasance Theatre). Caitriona trained at the Young Vic and on the NT Studio Directors’course.
Jake Smith
Jake began his career at Hull Truck and was a founding member of Assemble Fest, a large-scale theatre festival launched following Hull's winning City of Culture campaign. He was also the Trainee Director in Residence at Chichester Festival Theatre from 2014-2016.
As Director, theatre includes: A Christmas Carol (Chichester Festival Theatre); Andy Capp The Musical (Finborough Theatre); The Tempest (Petersfield Shakespeare Festival); Citizenship (National Theatre Connections, Chichester Festival Youth Theatre); The Boy Who Built Clock (Arts Theatre); Smoke (and mirrors) (Derby Theatre for Theatre Uncut); The Little Match Girl (Assemble Fest, Hull); Alice’s Site (Hull Truck); The Coronation of Poppea (Middleton Hall, Hull).
Readings include: Arthur (Theatre Royal, Haymarket); Swan Song (Minerva Theatre, Chichester Festival Theatre); I am Scratch (Old Red Lion); Betjeman with Edward Fox (Chichester Festival Theatre).
As Assistant Director, theatre includes: For Services Rendered; Miss Julie and Black Comedy (Minerva Theatre, Chichester Festival Theatre); Way Upstream; The Hundred and One Dalmatians; Gypsy (Chichester Festival Theatre); Pitcairn (Chichester Festival Theatre / Out of Joint); Stevie (Hampstead Theatre); Whale Music (Hull Truck).
As Staff Director, theatre includes: Breakfast at Tiffany’s (Curve / Theatre Royal, Haymarket / UK Tour).
For the Almeida, as Resident Director: Against; The Treatment.
Jo trained with the Jasmin Vardimon company at RHUL, Odin Teatret and the National Theatre, where she was Resident Director in 2016. She has performed and directed work with Gameshow, Tangled Feet, LIFT/Papatiha, and the Orange Tree Writers Collective, and is co-artistic director of ivo theatre. She has facilitated workshops and taught master classes for GLYPT, Peckham Shed, Platform, The Freedom Theatre, Afghan Mobile Mini Circus for Children, the Afghan Peace Volunteers, Thespo Mumbai and Now Press Play. She has an MSc in Violence, Conflict and Development.
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