A Sense of Direction – Emma Callander
Emma Callander is the director of one of the hit shows at this year’s Edinburgh Fringe: Julia Grogan’s Playfight, a compelling three-hander about ...
A Sense of Direction – Blanche McIntyre
Born in London in 1980, Blanche McIntyre fell in love with theatre as a teenager after seeing a Katie Mitchell production of Henry IV Part III at the ...
A Sense of Direction – Chelsea Walker
Born in 1989, Chelsea Walker grew up in a small village in the Cotswolds. She fell in love with theatre as a child and even directed two plays while s...
A Sense of Direction – Gareth Nicholls
Gareth Nicholls has spent his career in Scotland. Born in Wakefield, he moved to Glasgow to study theatre, then found his feet as a director by collab...
A Sense of Direction – Rachel Kavanaugh
Rachel Kavanaugh has spent three decades staging shows. She started her career as an assistant director in the early 1990s after studying at Mancheste...
A Sense of Direction – Lynette Linton
Born in Leytonstone in 1990, Lynette Linton discovered a passion for theatre as a child, initially thinking that she wanted to become an actor. After ...
A Sense of Direction – Cheryl Martin
Born and raised in Washington DC, writer and director Cheryl Martin fell in love with theatre through seeing shows in her home city – including Morg...
A Sense of Direction – Dermot Daly
Dermot Daly does a bit of everything. The actor, director, lecturer and filmmaker grew up in Birmingham in the 1980s and fell in love with performing ...
Paul Miller named as SDUK’s new transitional Executive Director
After two and a half years as Executive Director of Stage Directors UK, Harold Finley is stepping down to pursue his career as a freelance theatre dir...
A Sense of Direction – Amy Hodge
Amy Hodge grew up in North London in the 1980s and 1990s, falling in love with theatre through youth groups. She acted a lot as a child, even landing ...
A Sense of Direction – Andy McGregor
Director, writer and composer Andy McGregor was born in 1980 and grew up in Largs in Ayrshire. He made his first forays into performance as a teenager...
A Sense of Direction – Emily Aboud
Born in 1993, Emily Aboud grew up in Trinidad and fell in love with drama through attending Lilliput Theatre, the island’s only children’s theatre...
A Sense of Direction – Sean Foley
Sean Foley has taken an unusual route to becoming one of the country’s most influential directors. Born in 1964 in Cleethorpes, he moved around a lo...
Pay Increases for Stage Directors in the News
SDUK welcomes any pay increase for directors but the recently announced agreements for the West End, commercial and subsidised sectors are a disapp...
Memories of Piers
These memories of Piers Haggard, SDUK’s Founder, have been compiled by Thomas Hescott. Thank you to all who added their memories and good wishes...
A Sense of Direction – Ben Occhipinti
Ben Occhipinti has a long commute. The 39-year-old director, composer and sound designer is an associate at Perthshire’s Pitlochry Festival Theatre ...
A Sense of Direction – Polina Kalinina
Born in 1987, director Polina Kalinina spent the first ten years of her life in Russia, then the rest of her childhood in Bristol. She studied English...
A Sense of Direction – Tom Littler
Tom Littler fell in love with theatre – and with directing – as a teenager growing up in Devon in the late 1990s. He threw himself into student dr...
A Sense of Direction – Katie Posner
Raised on the outskirts of London and trained as an actor, director Katie Posner was in her late twenties when she discovered that she actually prefer...
Hollyoaks – From Stage to (small) Screen
We are delighted to announce the launch of From Stage to (small) Screen, a career-changing opportunity for two stage directors to train in TV dire...
Directors Therapy Support with DCF
Our friends at The Directors Charitable Foundation are re-launching their offer of low cost therapy and all SDUK members can benefit: DIRECTORS TH...
A Sense of Direction – Nicolas Kent
Born in 1945, director Nicolas Kent grew up in Hampstead, then studied English at Cambridge University in the mid-1960s, where got involved with stude...
A Sense of Direction – Luke Sheppard
Luke Sheppard grew up in Sandhurst, Berkshire. He was a successful child actor but discovered directing as a student at the University of Bristol. Aft...
Obituary Piers Haggard, SDUK Founder
We are deeply saddened by the news that our founder, Piers Haggard, passed away on 11th January. Piers was born in London in 1939. He started his care...
SDUK Directors Census 2023 – In Full
Downloadable PDF with the full census can be downloaded via the link below. SDUKDirectorsCensus2023 (We will be conducting a choreographer/movement di...
A Sense of Direction – A Convert to Panto
He has spent the last thirty-five years writing and staging them, but director Peter Rowe did not see a pantomime until he was in his early twenties. ...
A Sense of Direction – Theatre Magic
Most days, when he is not in a rehearsal room or a television studio, Scott Penrose can be found in his workshop in Essex, surrounded by various theat...
A Sense of Direction – Leading Theatre Through Crisis
How do you lead a theatre – a production, or a building, or a company – through a crisis? In recent years, the Covid-19 pandemic and the cost-of-l...
A Sense of Direction – Edinburgh Endurance
Directing a show at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe can be a brutal, bruising experience. It can also be a brilliant and beautiful one. Often, it is ama...
A Sense of Direction – The Great Outdoors with Red Rose Chain
Every part of the performing arts industry suffered during the Covid-19 pandemic, but once the lockdowns had been lifted and limited freedoms restored...
A Sense of Direction – New Old Friends
She was a second-year drama student at Bath Spa University, working part time at The Egg, Theatre Royal Bath’s studio space for younger audiences. H...
A Sense of Direction – Daniel Brine
Incredibly, the Norfolk and Norwich Festival is a quarter of a millennium old this year. The multi-arts event is celebrating its 250th anniversary in ...
Directing, Parenting and Caring Round Table
In partnership with PiPA Session 2: Thu 9 June 2022, 12.00 – 13.30Zoom An action-oriented round table with invited panellists. These sessions ar...
Directing, Mothering and Caring Round Table
In partnership with PiPA Session 1: Thu, 19 May 2022, 12.00 to 13.30 on Zoom An action-oriented round table with invited panelists. These sessions ar...
A Sense of Direction – Samantha Lane
Samantha Lane remembers the moment she realised she wanted to work in the performing arts. She was thirteen – or around that age, she says – and a...
SDUK Welcomes Choreographers & Movt Directors
We know that we have some Choreographers and Movement Directors already in SDUK membership, and are grateful to those who have helped us to un...
The UK Stage Directors Census 2022
THE CENSUS IS NOW CLOSED. A HUGE THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO COMPLETED IT! We are delighted to launch the UK Stage Directors Census 2022...
SDUK Blog: Kate Nelson
Hello from Edinburgh. Having lived and worked in Scotland for over 20 years, I joined the SDUK board because I felt that the perspective of dir...
UNDER PRESSURE: Directors & their mental health
The Directors Charitable Foundation has teamed up with Mind, the mental health charity, and their Mental Health at Work site, to create a new o...
A Sense of Direction – Sita Thomas
Dr Sita Thomas left her native Wales when she was sixteen to pursue more opportunities to work in theatre and the arts. Fifteen years on, she h...
SDUK Blog – Welcome Tanja Raaste
A brief break from our ‘A Sense of Direction’ blogs this week, to introduce you to our new General Manager, Tanja Raaste: — A...
A Sense of Direction – Thomas Hescott
When Tom Hescott, outgoing executive director first heard about the founding of a new professional trade organisation for stage directors sever...
A Sense of Direction – Franny Anne Rafferty
Assistant director. Associate director. Resident director. These job titles are familiar to anyone working in the performing arts industry. The...
A Sense of Direction – Louise Kempton Intimacy Director
Five years ago, few people had heard of intimacy co-ordination, or intimacy direction. Ten years ago, the job did not even exist – and when you thin...
10 Principles for Safe and Inclusive Workspaces
SOLT and UK Theatre have released an updated version of their 10 Principles for creating safe and inclusive working spaces in the theatre indus...
A Sense of Direction: Anthony Clark
When it comes to staging plays, there are four different types of director, says Anthony Clark: the deferential director, the daring director, ...
A Sense of Direction – Harold Finley
As a child, Harold Finley played with chess sets. He would position the pieces on the board. He would observe the angles and interactions betwe...
A Sense of Direction – #OpenHire
How do you get a job? In most industries, the answer is obvious. You see a vacancy, you send in an application, you go for an interview, and yo...