London - NYC - New Haven - Philadelphia - London

I have just got(ten!?) back to London from ten days in New York City, where I was having meetings and holding auditions for my Castleton Festival productions this year.

The Castleton Festival 2010 season is yet to be announced, a press release is imminent, so I can't (yet) reveal here details of the new productions.

But I can let you know that, along with my long time collaborators, the designer Nick Vaughan and the lighting designer Rie Ono, I will be collaborating with Emily DeCola and Eric Wright, the brilliant puppeteers from New York's PUPPET KITCHEN.


I went out to New Haven, Connecticut, to meet Emily and Eric, where they are currently in rehearsal at Yale Rep for the world premiere of a new play by Rinne Groff called Compulsion - it's being directed by the artistic director of the New York Public Theater, Oskar Eustis.

And I'm also thrilled to be working this year at Castleton with a fantastic choreographer called Faye Driscoll.

More details to follow of the exciting new productions and revivals this year at Castleton.

While I was that side of the Atlantic I was also able to go down to Philadelphia to meet my esteemed colleagues Robert Driver and David Devan - who run the marvellous Opera Company of Philadelphia - for whom I directed Britten's Rape of Lucretia last year...

Albert Herring at Guildhall 2010

Pleased to report that I've been invited to direct Britten's ALBERT HERRING at the London Guildhall School of Music and Drama this year.

The performances are on the 9th, 11th, 14th and 16th June 2010 at 7pm.

This will be my fourth production with the talented students of the Guildhall Opera Department & I'm much looking forward to returning there...

The production is designed by Tom Rogers, with lighting by Johanna Town.