I’ve worked as a theatre director in New York, London, Manchester, and now Wales. From 1999-2008 I was Artistic Director of Contact Theatre, Manchester where we had a lot of success developing new artists and vibrant young audiences. As a director, I worked with a wide range of artists in Manchester, including poet Lemn Sissay (Storm, Something Dark and Why I Don’t Hate White People) and hip hop theatre artist Benji Reid (b like water). Some of my favourite directing projects there included a multi-media collaboration with writer Kaite O'Reilly and visual artist Paul Clay (Perfect) and the theatre installation Close Up with Contact Young Actors Company. Earlier on, I trained and worked in New York for several years, including a stint as Associate Director of leading experimental company Mabou Mines. In 2004 I published a book about art in the surveillance age, "Loving Big Brother: Performance, Privacy and Surveillance Space" (Routledge 2004). I was the Co-Founder and Chair of PANDA, the Performing Arts Network and Development Agency, and in 2005 I was lucky enough to be awarded the National Endowment for Science Technology and the Arts (NESTA) Cultural Leadership Award which allowed me to spend time with theatre and arts companies in Europe and South America.

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You can keep in touch with John at National Theatre Wales' Community Pages