A Director’s Story
Philip Breen

• Wednesday 7 June 2017, 6.30PM to 7.20pm
• Free admission
  Booking required
• K/133, King's Manor, Exhibition Square (map)
• No wheelchair access

Event details

Theatre and television director and writer Phillip Breen’s work has played all over the world from Tokyo to Los Angeles, and Dubai to the streets of Assisi. An eclectic range, it encompasses opera, theatre, comedy, musicals, jazz cabaret, community theatre projects, new work and classics. He has directed plays at the Citizens Theatre, the Swan and the West End of London among many other venues.

Come along and hear about his approach to directing, and his current and recent productions, including the critically-acclaimed York Mysteries in York Minster in 2016. Adapted by Mike Poulton, it was staged in York Minster for only the second time in their history. It featured Philip McGinley as Jesus and had a community cast of over 200.

In March Phillip directed Richard Bean’s new comedy The Hypocrite in a new co-production between the Royal Shakespeare Company and Hull Truck Theatre as part of the Hull 2017 UK City of Culture. It opened at Hull Truck in March and in Stratford at the Swan in April.

Supported by Dr Richard Shephard

About the speaker

Phillip Breen studied Social and Political Sciences at Trinity College, Cambridge, where among many student productions, he directed Far Too Happy which was nominated for the 2001 Perrier Award. He trained on the Regional Theatre Young Director Scheme under Terry Hands at Clwyd Theatr Cymru. As an assistant director he worked at the Royal Shakespeare Company, the Royal Opera and Chichester Festival Theatre.

He was given his professional debut by Philip Prowse at the Citizens Theatre in Glasgow at the age of 22, directing and adapting Brecht’s The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui. Five further productions at the Citizens followed, the last of which True West by Sam Shepard was praised by the author who was instrumental in its transfer to the Tricycle Theatre in autumn 2014.

Phillip has directed over 40 professional productions, all over the UK: at the Citizens’, the Royal Shakespeare Company, Clwyd Theatr Cymru (where he was director of new writing 2006-08), and most recently at Theatre Cocoon, Tokyo at the invitation of Yukio Ninagawa, off-Broadway; as well as in the West End of London. His work has played all over the UK, Tokyo, Osaka, New York, Los Angeles, the Sydney International Theatre Festival, Adelaide, Canberra, Dubai, and through the streets of Assisi. He has directed and taught at conservatoires all over the world.

His work has variously won or been nominated for the Edinburgh Comedy Award (formerly the Perrier), Fringe First, Critics Association for Theatre In Scotland, TMA Awards, Time Out New York Awards, Off-Broadway Stonys, Stage Awards, and The Holden Street Theatre Award. 

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