William Kerley

CARMEN at Teatro Petruzzelli in Bari, Italy...

2012-01-13T05:45:00.003Z

My new production of CARMEN with Maestro Lorin Maazel conducting opens on 20th January at the Teatro Petruzzelli in Bari...

and there's more to come later in the season...

Teatro Petruzzelli, Bari, Italy... & a new CARMEN!

2011-12-05T19:32:00.004Z

Here I am in Italy - first day of rehearsal for the new production of CARMEN I'm directing here at the amazing TEATRO PETRUZZELLI - with my long-time & brilliant collaborator Tom Rogers doing the set and costume designs...

The show opens on 20th January 2012...

Back in Beijing - Barber of Seville at NCPA

2011-11-15T17:03:00.004Z

Hello again from Beijing where I'm directing a new production of Rossini's BARBER OF SEVILLE at the National Centre of Performing Arts - conducted by Maestro Lorin Maazel.

The production is a co-production between the Castleton Festival and the NCPA & opens on 24th November 2011.

Here's a link to the NCPA website with more details..

British Youth Opera - Marriage of Figaro

2011-07-31T20:34:00.004+01:00

I've just started rehearsals for my new production of Marriage of Figaro with the brilliant young performers from British Youth Opera - my fourth show for this wonderful company....

Here's a link to the BYO website...

British Youth Opera Homepage

Maestro Lorin Maazel - a personal message -

2011-07-31T19:25:00.002+01:00

Lorin Maazel writes following the success of the CASTLETON FESTIVAL 2011

Back from Beijing...

2011-07-25T20:29:00.003+01:00

Just back from Beijing, China, where I've been having meetings at the National Centre for the Performing Arts....

I'm going to be directing a new production there this autumn.... more details to follow!

And so to San Francisco..

2011-03-10T11:26:00.007Z

Here I am at Heathrow Terminal 5 on the start of my long journey to San Francisco - my first time in the city...

I'm making my way to Berkeley to direct Britten's Rape of Lucretia and Albert Herring at the building in the picture below - the Zellerbach Hall.

Maestro Lorin Maazel is conducting all the performances...

Follow this link for more news of our Cal Performances residency...

Castleton Festival at CAL Performances

Short Montage of Castleton Festival

2010-12-07T22:08:00.002Z

Here's a short montage 2 and a half minutes or so - of the Castleton Festival 2010 from the superb documenary maker, Scott Willis...

Castleton Festival Montage

Scott Willis's Film of Castleton Festival 2010

2010-12-07T22:00:00.002Z

Please watch a brilliant short documentary about Castleton Festival 2010 shot by the excellent Scott Willis here -

Castleton Festival Documentary 2010

It features great footage of some of the new opera productions I directed at Castleton this year...

English National Opera TheatreCraft Masterclass

2010-11-20T14:30:00.005Z

On Monday 22nd November as part of TheatreCraft 2010 I'll be giving a directing masterclass at English National Opera.

TheatreCraft Masterclasses are for 17-25 year-olds who are interested in pursuing careers in the performing arts.

More information at this website:

English National Opera TheatreCraft Masterclasses 2010

Washington Post on Castleton Festival 2011

2010-10-21T15:28:00.002+01:00

Follow this link to the Washington Post's piece about next year's Castleton Festival - by Anne Midgette

The Washington Post on the Castleton Festival 2011

Following this month's Press Launch at the Willard Hotel, Washington DC

Castleton Festival Press Launch on Chinese TV!

2010-10-21T15:22:00.001+01:00

Here's the footage from Chinese TV covering our Washington DC Press Launch for the Castleton Festival 2011...

Castleton Festival Washington DC Press Launch on Chinese Television

London - Beijing - London

2010-10-01T09:12:00.002+01:00

Just got back to London from Beijing. My first time in China...
I was there for some meetings at the National Centre for the Performing Arts.
Incredible city!
Extraordinary building....

London - Paris - Bath - New York City

2010-09-04T13:53:00.006+01:00

Phew - what a week - Monday I was off to Paris for meetings with Maestro Lorin Maazel about the Castleton Festival 2011

On Thursday - off to New York for various meetings & plenty of work with Nick Vaughan, designer, on our new productions for next year...

And, in between, a joyous occasion in Bath - the marriage, at Bath Guildhall,
of my friends Natasha Pryce and William Harris... & a perfect wedding reception at Essington Court in the village of Midford nearby...

Natasha is a brilliant young director & was my assistant when I directed La Fille du Regiment at Opera Holland Park in 2008...

William Harris is the inspired and inspiring leader of the theatre courses at Middlesex University...

And, at the wedding, it was great to meet the Best Man - a man I'd previously known by name only - his name is Torquil MacLeod and he's the producer of Radio 4's excellent Saturday Review.....

Washington Post on Castleton Festival Stavinsky/de Falla Double Bill

2010-08-04T11:41:00.005+01:00

Here's a link to Anne Midgette's review of my productions of Stravinsky's SOLDIER'S TALE and de Falla's MASTER PETER'S PUPPET SHOW which played this year at the Castleton Festival...

Washington Post Review of Soldier's Tale/Master Peter's Puppet Show

Castleton Festival 2010 contd..

2010-07-15T23:41:00.001+01:00

My production of Britten's BEGGAR'S OPERA opens tonight at the Castleton Festival...

My assistant Jonathan Solari has done a fantastic job getting the production ready...

The entire company have worked very hard to recreate the show...

Financial Times on Trittico at Castleton Festival

2010-07-07T01:40:00.004+01:00

Il Trittico, Castleton Festival, US
By George Loomis
Published: July 6 2010
Lorin Maazel began his musical career as a child prodigy and as he enters his ninth decade retains a capacity for music-making that can only be called prodigious. For several years, his estate in Virginia has been a gathering point for young musicians under Maazel’s tutelage, activities that last year blossomed into the Castleton Festival. This year it returns with an enlarged schedule (four crowded July weekends) and an enlarged principal venue.

The opening attraction, a new production of Puccini’s Il Trittico by resident stage director William Kerley, Maazel conducting, shows that it is growing artistically as well, with a slew of talented young singers deployed in Puccini’s triptych of one-act operas. The locales – a river boat for the lurid Il Tabarro, a convent for the religiosity of Suor Angelica, a Florentine townhouse for the romp Gianni Schicchi – demand more than a unit set. Nicholas Vaughan’s design achieves unity by fashioning a detailed boat and a cloistered square out of beige wood.

Yet Gianni Schicchi is the most imaginative of the three. In this tale of deception, the late Buoso Donati’s home has leather-and-chrome furniture and modern art, including a glass-encased stuffed mule – an objet d’art Donati’s’s heirs squabble over in lieu of the live animal Puccini left unseen. Corey Crider’s Gianni Schicchi is convincing, with Matthew Plenk bringing an appealingly light tenor to Rinuccio’s salute to Florence. Joyce El-Khoury showed promise as Schicchi’s daughter, so one was happy to encounter her again, replacing an ill colleague in the title role of Suor Angelica (performed last, in a departure from normal practice). You have to wince at Puccini’s clichéd depiction of convent life, but the plight of Angelica, cast off by her aristocratic family, is hard to resist. El-Khoury’s textured soprano serves the music beautifully, and Maria Isabel Vera is formidable as her cold-hearted aunt, the Principessa.

Il Tabarro yields another excellent soprano, Jessica Klein, in lustrous, resonant voice as Giorgetta. Noah Stewart sings Luigi with such tenorial power that it is almost implausible when Michele (Nicholas Pallesen), Giorgetta’s cuckolded husband, strangles him. Maazel drew an assured performance from his players that nicely projected the music’s colourful details. www.castletonfestival.org

Financial Times on Trittico Castleton Festival

Baltimore Sun on Castleton Trittico

2010-07-07T01:32:00.009+01:00

Baltimore Sun on Trittico Castleton Festival

Ionarts: Opening of the Castleton Festival

2010-07-07T01:29:00.001+01:00

Ionarts: Opening of the Castleton Festival

Interview with Marlyn Cooley of WETA Classical Radio

2010-07-03T19:29:00.006+01:00

Here's a link to a recent radio interview I did: one of the series of Classical Conversations with WETA presenter Marilyn Cooley in connection with my work as Resident Stage Director at the Castleton Festival..

Classical Conversations: William Kerley

Castleton Festival 2010 contd..

2010-07-01T17:12:00.002+01:00

There's a piece about the Castleton Festival in this month's Gramophone Mag....

Castleton Festival 2010 contd..

2010-06-20T03:51:00.002+01:00

All three productions of TRITTICO brewing nicely - Maestro Maazel back in Castleton & having music calls...

Meant to say I've joined Twitter...

You can follow me at twitter.com/WillKerley

I have a select band of 28 followers....!

Fame at last!

Castleton Festival 2010

2010-06-15T02:10:00.003+01:00

Greetings from sultry Virginia...

I'm back at Castleton, this time thankfully with wife Claire and son Thomas & am rehearsing Puccini's TRITTICO in the great new Castleton Festival Tent.

The singers are completely amazing - big stars of the future.

Nick Vaughan has created an incredible set & Rie Ono my fab lighting designer seems to have a bigger rig than ever!

The talented Jonathan Solari is reviving my productions of Beggar's Opera and The Turn of the Screw in the Theatre (Theater) House.

I then go into rehearsals for the de Falla - Master Peter's Puppet Show and Stravinsky's Soldier's Tale.

It's going to a terrific festival. Check out the Castleton Festival web pages, please.

Maestro Maazel gets here on Thursday & I'm so looking forward to working with him again.

The Britten Project - California - 2011

2010-05-08T16:30:00.008+01:00

I am delighted to report that my Castleton productions of Britten's ALBERT HERRING and THE RAPE OF LUCRETIA will play at the Zellerbach Hall in March 2011 as part of the CAL season of performances at the University of California, Berkeley.

The Rape of Lucretia is my Chateauville Foundation production which played last year at the Opera Company of Philadelphia. I'm thrilled I'm getting the chance to take the shows out west!

Maestro Lorin Maazel will be conducting the performances of both operas.

Please follow this link for more details of the CAL Performances:

William Kerley directs Britten at Cal Performances 2011

Back from Castleton & going Punk at Guildhall...

2010-04-22T23:52:00.006+01:00

Just got back from Castleton, Virginia, where I spent ten days rehearsing Stravinsky's SOLDIER'S TALE and de Falla's MASTER PETER'S PUPPET SHOW for this year's Castleton Festival.

Strange to be in rehearsal at Castleton without any singers. While there's singing in the de Falla, I wanted to work hard with Emily DeCola and her colleagues from The Puppet Kitchen, an amazing puppet company from New York City, and will add the singers later... the story is based on an episode from Cervantes Don Quixote - where our anti-hero gets confused by the plot of a puppet show he sees & ends up destroying both set and puppets - much to the chagrin of Master Peter, the puppet master...

And the Stravinsky (more a piece of music-theatre than an opera) features the talents of a tremendous quartet of actor/dancers with whom I spent the week unlocking the piece with the terrific choreographer, Faye Driscoll.

As soon as I get back to Castleton in mid-June, I'll be straight into rehearsals for our new production, in the Festival Tent, of Puccini's TRITTICO and, since I can't be in two places at once, wanted to have had a look at the action for the Stravinsky/de Falla double bill before then.

Once the Puccini has opened, I'll be straight into rehearsals for the double-bill again - it opens in the last weekend of the Festival - the last week of July.

On another note, I feel immensely lucky that I was able to catch the flight I'd originally booked - on 21st April - but it'd been touch and go for the last week if I'd be able to fly home, or my flight would be cancelled and I'd go to the back of the queue. Plenty of poor souls are still stranded... so I'm not quite sure how it all worked out for me...

Thankfully I made it safely home & on time.... I start rehearsals for my new GSMD production of Britten's ALBERT HERRING on 28th - I think the folk at Guildhall were worried I wouldn't be back in time (so was I!)

This time I'm updating Albert Herring to the 1970s.... power cuts, Thatcher, Punk Rock...

RIP Malcolm Maclaren, the veritable Godfather of Punk.... who's been very much in mind as I've been preparing for rehearsals....

Flying Visit to Valencia

2010-03-19T21:49:00.002Z

Just got back from an overnight visit to Valencia, Spain, to see The Maestro, in another rather swish hotel, who's there conducting a double bill of operas at the Palau Opera House.

Spent a good day talking through the pieces we're to present at this year's Castleton Festival. The press release about the season has now been published, so I can let you in on the news....

In Valencia I read all the parts myself (!) of Jeremy Sams' excellent translation of Stravinsky's Soldier's Tale, which we're presenting at Castleton in a double bill with de Falla's Master Peter's Puppet Show.

I've cast some hugely talented actor/dancers from New York, and I'm working with a brilliant company called The Puppet Kitchen as well as the excellent Faye Driscoll, the hottest choreographer in NYC.

We're also creating a new production, in the (even bigger this year!) Castleton Festival Tent, of Puccini's 3 one-act operas which together make up his Trittico.

And revivals of my Castleton Productions of Britten's Turn of the Screw and Beggar's Opera.

Please visit www.chateauville.org for more details...

London - NYC - New Haven - Philadelphia - London

2010-01-25T23:19:00.005Z

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

2010-01-05T12:08:00.002Z

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.

Busy Day in London Town....

2009-12-02T19:52:00.019Z

A productive day: breakfast meeting at the Dorchester Hotel with Maestro Lorin Maazel talking through our plans for next year's Castleton Festival.

Last night I attended a fantastic concert he gave with the Philharmonia Orchestra at the Royal Festival Hall.

Mahler's 9th Symphony. What can I say?

....Bloody brilliant.

& then this afternoon, off in the rain to Hackney Road, Shoreditch, for a meeting with designer Tom Rogers about our new production at Guildhall Britten's Albert Herring. The production opens in London on June 9th 2010.

Here are a just a few images from the outstanding work Tom has produced for me since we first worked together on a new production of Britten's Let's Make an Opera at the Jubilee Hall in Aldeburgh.

Oh, and yes - the final one really is a monster computer mouse (!) from our 2007 production of Magic Flute:

You can see more of Tom Rogers' work at his agent Clare Vidal-Hall's website - follow this link:

Designer Tom Rogers at Clare Vidal Hall's agency

British Youth Opera Rake's Progress review at OperaTalent.com...

2009-11-27T18:02:00.005Z

Here's another review of my recent BYO production of Rake's Progress from Adam Highbury of OperaTalent.com:

Opera Talent Review of BYO Rake's Progress

New York November....

2009-11-17T10:02:00.014Z

Greetings from New York City!

I'm out here for a whirlwind week of meetings to plan, with my designer, the super-talented Nick Vaughan and Chateauville Executive Director Doug Beck, our Castleton Festival shows for next year.

Designer Nick Vaughan currently has a huge hit on his hands with his new show called LILY'S REVENGE which is currently sold out at a theatre called the HERE ARTS CENTRE...

One of the operas we're working on is by Igor Stravinsky (details to follow..) ....(I was lucky enough to direct my first production of his RAKE'S PROGRESS this summer with the wonderful singers of British Youth Opera - see previous pages)

If I look out from the Chateauville Foundation office window I can see the lights of Essex House. Stravinsky lived the last years of his life here - and died in Essex House in 1971...

BYO Rake's Progress Review from Opera Magazine

2009-11-12T21:32:00.004Z

Wonders will never cease! A positive review of my British Youth Opera production of THE RAKE'S PROGRESS - by the famous Hugh Canning:

"William Kerley's staging of The Rake's Progress, in William Fricker's spare, atmospheric sets and contemporary costumes - a timely credit-crunch Rake, to be sure - was one of the best I have seen anywhere, and certainly the finest BYO offering I have attended in recent years.

Kerley's Tom, the excellent Nicky Spence, was a vivid creation, a cocky, upwardly-mobile bovver-boy, a dead-cert winner for one of those ghastly but occasionally riveting TV greedfests, Dragon's Den of The Apprentice... He spivved up oleaginously as his fortunes prospered, aided by Derek Welton's charistmatic, Nosteratu-without-the-fangs Nick Shadow. His descent into madness was all the more moving for his earlier fallibility - here was a young man led astray by malevolence and left to bear sole responsibility for his over-optimism and gullibility. Kerley stage-managed the fable brilliantly, lending an uncomfortably topical feel to the Baba scenes, with reptilian party-goers happy to share in Tom's success only to turn into vultures at the auction of his wordly goods. This was a staging that looked chic despite the absence of scenery, and drew its finger-wagging moral trenchantly.

...Peter Robinson and the excellent BYO orchestra matched the slick discipline of this exemplary staging."

Crikey!

New Project News...

2009-10-06T17:36:00.015+01:00

I'm currently in preparation for OTHELLO RETOLD which I'm working on as Creative Director for the National Youth Theatre - collaborating with the super-talented Akala of the Hip Hop Shakespeare Company and local artists to make a piece for The Lowry Centre and the Zion Arts Centre in Manchester. In two weeks we're going to work with fifty young artists: actors, MCs, dancers, visual artists, musicians - to make a brand new retelling of the story of Shakespeare's OTHELLO...

Follow this link to the Lowry Website where you can find out more:

Othello Retold - NYT/Hip Hop Shakespeare/BBC Blast

My Opera Company of Philadelphia Production of Rape of Lucretia on Youtube...!

2009-10-03T14:44:00.008+01:00

Here's a photo of Nathan Gunn as Tarquinius and William Burden as Male Chorus in my OCP Production of Britten's Rape of Lucretia

I have just found a Youtube clip of the production, starring Nathan Gunn, William Burden and Tamara Mumford...

Follow the link below for three minutes in the company of these amazing performers:

Rape of Lucretia - Philadelphia 2009

Here's a picture of Nathan Gunn as Tarquinius, with Tamara Mumford, who played Lucretia for me both in Philadelphia and at Castleton.

The production was created at Lorin Maazel's Castleton Theatre - where I am resident stage director for the Castleton Festival..

We're busy preparing for next year's 2010 Castleton Festival - I'm off to New York in November for meetings with my designer Nicholas Vaughan...

Recent Production - British Youth Opera - Rake's Progress

2009-09-24T18:34:00.013+01:00

Pleased to report the success of my new production of Stravinsky's THE RAKE'S PROGRESS with the bright young future stars of British Youth Opera.

Follow this link to a review of the production in The Spectator:

Spectator Review of BYO Rake's Progress

Type the following into your browser to see The Guardian Review (I can't work out how to make a link to it, sorry!)
www.guardian.co.uk/music/2009/sep/09/the-rakes-progress-review

Or please follow this link to see the Independent on Sunday review of the Production:

Independent on Sunday Review of BYO Rake's Progress

Castleton Festival - 3 shows open - one to go!

2009-07-14T17:03:00.013+01:00

Pleased to report that our productions of Britten's Turn of the Screw, Rape of Lucretia and Beggar's Opera have opened at the inaugural Castleton Festival.

Albert Herring opens on Friday night.

Follow this link to the Castleton Website where you can find more on the CASTLETON FESTIVAL:

Chateauville Foundation homepage

Follow this link to a review of my new production of Turn of the Screw from the Washington Post:

Washington Post review of Castleton Turn of the Screw

Follow this link to a New York Times piece about the Festival and our productions of Rape of Lucretia and Beggar's Opera:

New York Times reviews of Castleton Rape of Lucretia and Beggar's Opera

Follow this link to reviews of The Rape of Lucretia and Beggar's Opera in the Financial times:

Financial Times reviews of CastletonFestival Rape of Lucretia and Beggar's Opera

And follow this link to Brian Dickie's (he's General Director of Chicago Opera Theatre) blog entry about the Castleton Festival:

Brian Dickie Blogs on Castleton Festival Rape of Lucretia

OCP Rape of Lucretia Preview in the Philadelphia Inquirer

2009-06-04T19:23:00.006+01:00

My new production for the Opera Company of Philadelphia of Britten's Rape of Lucretia opens tomorrow night at the extraordinary Kimmel Center.

Follow this link to a preview piece by David Patrick Stearns, the Classical Music Correspondent of the Philadelphia Inquirer - featuring an interview with Nathan Gunn and William Burden about the show....

Philadelphia Inquirer on OCP Rape of Lucretia

Britten's The Rape of Lucretia - Opera Company of Philadelphia

2009-05-24T02:23:00.005+01:00

I have just finished my first week of rehearsals for my new production of THE RAPE OF LUCRETIA which opens at The Perelman Theater in Philadelphia's extraordinary Kimmel Center on 5th June 2009.

The cast is a wonderful mixture of both young & highly experienced singers & it's a real privilege to be working here with such incredibly talented artists.

The production stars Nathan Gunn, William Burden and Tamara Mumford.

The designer is my long-time American collaborator, the excellent Nick Vaughan.

British Youth Opera Easter Workshops 2009

2009-04-29T20:58:00.004+01:00

This lot, singing their lovely hearts out, are the group I worked with on the BYO Easter Workshops.

In the middle on ivory-tinkling-duties is the excellent Liz Rowe, my talented colleague who led the group with me.

A great, life-enhancing & wonderful week with a very talented team of young singers.

New Production: Stravinsky's Rake's Progress for British Youth Opera at the Peacock Theatre, London

2009-04-17T21:15:00.004+01:00

I am delighted to report that I've been invited by British Youth Opera, to direct this year's new production of Stravinsky's The Rake's Progress.

The production opens at the Peacock Theatre, London, on 9th September 2009.

I was Matthew Warchus's assistant director in 1995 on a new production of the piece for Welsh National Opera, when Bryn Terfel played the part of Nick Shadow. This is the first time I'll have directed the opera...

I'll do my best to make these chaps proud....

NYC and Philadelphia, here I come!

2009-01-31T22:16:00.011Z

America beckons me: next week, I'm off to New York for meetings with designer Nick Vaughan to plan our new production of Britten's Turn of the Screw, which opens this year's inaugural Castleton Festival, conducted by the festival artistic director, Maestro Lorin Maazel. I'll also be meeting with the excellent Mr. Doug Beck - the Chateauville Executive Director to talk more about the festival.

Follow this link to the Castleton Website where you can find details of next year's inaugural CASTLETON FESTIVAL which will this year be presenting four of my productions, the new Turn of the Screw and revivals of my productions of Albert Herring, Rape of Lucretia and The Beggar's Opera:

Chateauville Foundation homepage

While I'm in New York I'm going to see Architecting - the new show by Nick Vaughan's theatre company called The Team - they're coming to London's Barbican Centre this autumn.

Follow this link to The Team company website:

The Team

&I'll be in Philadelphia for meetings about our production of Rape of Lucretia (see below) which plays in June at the Opera Company of Philadelphia.

For more details please follow this link:

The Rape of Lucretia directed by William Kerley - Opera Company of Philadelphia 2009

Richard Hickox RIP

2009-01-31T13:35:00.001Z

I was deeply saddened to learn of the untimely death of conductor Richard Hickox.

I worked with Richard twice, first on the 1995 Opera North production of Walton's Troilus and Cressida, when I was Matthew Warchus's assistant director.

I subsequently directed the action for the recording sessions at Leeds Town Hall for the Chandos Recording.

And then, in 2003, I directed the 50th Anniversary production of Britten's Gloriana at the Snape Maltings for the Aldeburgh Festival with Christine Brewer playing Elizabeth I and Richard Hickox conducting.

My deepest sympathies to Richard's family, particularly his wife, Pamela Helen Stephen - a wonderful singer with whom I worked at Opera North when I was assistant director to Phyllida Lloyd on her production of Chabrier's Etoile.

Date for the Diary: 4th February 2009

2008-11-06T20:28:00.006Z

On 4th February 2009 I've been invited to be 'In Conversation' with Jonathan Miller at English National Opera, where Jonathan's new production of La Boheme will be playing. Tickets are £4.

Follow this link for to be forwarded to the new ENO virtual on-line season brochure:

ENO New Season Brochure

ALBERT HERRING at Castleton

2008-10-14T19:47:00.011+01:00

I have just returned to London from Castleton, Virginia, where I was directing Britten's ALBERT HERRING for Maestro Lorin Maazel.

Here I am taking my bow on Sunday night!

Follow this link to read the Washington Post review of the production:

Albert Herring at Castleton in THE WASHINGTON POST

And follow this link to see (General Director of Chicago Opera Theater) Brian Dickie's excellent photographs and to read his blog on the Castleton ALBERT HERRING:

Brian Dickie's Blog on Castleton

Follow this link to the Castleton Website where you can find details of next year's inaugural CASTLETON FESTIVAL:

Chateauville Foundation homepage

I'm pleased to report that the artistic directors, (pictured) Lorin and Dietlinde Maazel, have invited me to be the Castleton Resident Stage Director - a three-year post.

Next year we plan to revive my productions of Benjamin Britten's ALBERT HERRING, BEGGAR'S OPERA and THE RAPE OF LUCRETIA. We will also stage a new production of Britten's TURN OF THE SCREW.

Future Engagements: The Rape of Lucretia - Philadelphia 2009

2008-07-13T17:07:00.001+01:00

I'm happy to announce that my production of Britten's THE RAPE OF LUCRETIA will play at the Opera Company of Philadelphia in June 2009.

I'll be directing this new production myself - and head out to Philadelphia for the start of rehearsals in mid-May 2009...

I first directed the production for Maestro Lorin Maazel's Chateauville Foundation in 2007.

I am thrilled that Nathan Gunn will be playing Tarquinius, William Burden will be singing Male Chorus and Tamara Mumford, who played Lucretia in my original production, will be playing the role for me in Philadelphia..

For more details please follow this link:

The Rape of Lucretia directed by William Kerley - Opera Company of Philadelphia 2009

Forthcoming Production - THE SONG OF RHIANNON for W11 Opera

2008-06-14T07:32:00.008+01:00

I am pleased to report that I have been invited to direct the next newly commissioned opera for W11 Young People's Opera this autumn.

The opera, based on stories from the 'jewel of Welsh medieval literature', The Mabinogion, has been created by composer Mark Bowden and librettist Helen Cooper.

I first worked with Mark and Helen at Aldeburgh when they attended a course for composers and librettists at the Britten Pears school in Snape where I had been invited by Aldeburgh Productions Chief Executive Jonathan Reekie to work alongside composer Giorgio Battistelli to help a group of writers develop their creative partnerships.

In 2002 I directed the first production of Giorgio Battistelli's new opera THE EMBALMER - for Almeida Opera, which was outgoing Artistic Director Ian McDiarmid's Almeida 'swan song'....

THE SONG OF RHIANNON will have its world premiere at The Riverside Studios in Hammersmith on December 5th 2008.

For further details about the production, please follow this link to visit the W11 homepages:

W11 Opera for Young People Home Page

My new OHP production of Donizetti's La Fille du Regiment - Anthony Holden's review from The Observer

2008-06-09T13:27:00.006+01:00

"With due respect to the winners - Ralph Kirshbaum's RNCM Manchester International Cello Festival - I was sad not to see Opera Holland Park carry off the Royal Philharmonic Society's Concert Series and Festivals prize at last month's annual RPS Music Awards. Under general manager Michael Volpe and producer James Clutton, OHP has raised its game immeasurably these past few years, introducing well-chosen rarities and rejuvenating standard fare with a judicious mix of established talent and bright young stars in the making. The coveted RPS nomination was in itself handsome public recognition of all they have achieved......

.......The (first night's) surprise sunshine palpably lifted both cast and audience for an exhilarating romp through Donizetti's La Fille du régiment, so infectiously enjoyable that swallows kept swooping through the auditorium as if for passing peeks at William Kerley's witty, tasteful staging, briskly conducted by Robert Dean. The peacocks, too, were back in full squawk as Sarah Pring's forceful Marquise and Graeme Broadbent's Basil Fawlty-like Sulpice offered sturdy support to two young principals surely destined for operatic glory.

The young Korean soprano Hye-Youn Lee sings with such beauty, and acts with such engaging aplomb, as even to evoke memories of Natalie Dessay's landmark performance as Marie at Covent Garden last year. In the Brazilian tenor Luciano Botelho she has a Tonio of natural lyric beauty, and the same easy stage presence, and also blessed with a winning smile. If he cracked on three of those testing nine top Cs in 'Ah, mes amis!', despite the entire audience willing him on, it sounded to me like first-night nerves; I have no doubt he'll pull them off as the run continues, as will the Trovatore cast when the sun shines on them, too."

My new production of La Fille du Regiment - a review from MusicalCriticism.com

2008-06-07T09:16:00.004+01:00

Here's a review by Hugo Shirley of MusicalCriticism.com

Donizetti: La fille du régiment

Korn/Ferry Opera Holland Park

Kensington, London, 7 June 2008

It says a great deal for the quality and sheer exuberance of Opera Holland Park's new production of La fille du régiment that it suffers little from comparison with Covent Garden's big-budget, big-star production of a year ago. After the poor weather of the season's first night, the sun was shining and in William Kerley's intelligent and economical production, Donizetti's comedy fizzed along beautifully, funny and touching by turns.

Initially, in Tom Rogers' designs, the stage is dominated by three different sized triangles: an abstract representation, one assumes, of Act One's 'Tyrolean mountains'. As the act gets underway, these triangles are halved and shifted about to create a fluid set. One segment contains a statue of the Virgin Mary which is the focus of the chorus' prayers at first, then revealed to contain beer for the victory celebrations. Other segments contain props for later in the act: tables and benches for the soldiers, an oven for a bun-baking routine that accompanies Marie and Tonio's first duet; they are also handy for draping tricolours in the 'salut à la France' chorus. Necessarily the Second Act calls for a few extra props, but the staging still retains a feeling of fluid economy. In contrast to season's opening production of Il trovatore, the cast and chorus are expertly directed. There is no shortage of clowning about but it is slickly planned and executed and Mandy Demetriou's choreography is taut, flirting with but never crossing the line into excessive camp.

Despite all the high spirits, there's nothing frivolous about the very serious demands the opera makes of its leading pair. Hye-Youn Lee, making her OHP debut, was little short of a revelation. It was immediately clear that her voice is an instrument of quality: smooth and creamy up and down the range, clearly and crisply produced. Her coloratura was delivered with applomb but she was also touching in her exquisitely sung Second Act aria. Some may complain that the voice itself lacks character, but it's a pleasure to hear this tortuous role negotiated with such style and ease. And although some of her dialogue failed to come across, her excellent acting more than made up for it; her scene with Marquise de Berkenfeld at the piano, was an undoubted comic highlight of the evening.

For a long time, this opera was known mainly for containing one of the most taxing tenor arias in the bel canto repertoire. On this occasion, it seemed as though Brazilian tenor Luciano Botelho's nerves got the better of him. He's set to cover Juan Diego Florez for the Royal Opera's production of of Matilde di Shabran next season and has a lot of the peruvian tenor's engaging stage manner. He also has a beautiful voice - sweet and with a very slight, fluttery vibrato – and sang for much of the first act with pleasing stylishness, hitting his high notes with ease. However, as soon as we got to 'Ah! Mes amis', he seemed to tense up: he paused before the first of the nine top Cs and teetered precariously on the last; the intervening attempts to hit the note were as nerve-wracking for the audience as they evidently were for him. It was a shame, because he also acted well throughout and although tiredness crept in a little, gave a beautiful rendition of 'Pour me rapprocher de Marie' in the second act.

Sarah Pring, as the Marquise de Berkenfeld, was the pick of the supporting cast, wonderfully pompous but ultimately human, she was particularly fine in delivering her extensive dialogue naturally and idiomatically. Graeme Broadbent's preening and mischievous Sulpice also gave consistent enjoyment, performed with a light comic touch. The other parts were all well taken and it was a relief to have Nuala Willis's gloriously conceited duchesse de Crankentorp avoid the kind of scene-stealing shenanigans that Dawn French indulged in at Covent Garden.

After an account of the overture that was not ideally tidy, Robert Dean elicited some lively and alert playing from the orchestra. Although happy to give his singers time when they needed it, he kept the score skipping along nicely, and there was some excellent solo work from the woodwind and principal cello in particular. The chorus, evidently enjoying themselves immensely, sang, pranced and acted with gusto.

In all, this is an immensely enjoyable production: well-rehearsed, often extremely funny and with some genuine vocal fireworks. As nerves settle, it has the potential to get even better. Well worth catching.

La Fille du Regiment - new production for OHP just opened...two on-line reviews...

2008-06-06T17:11:00.009+01:00

My new production of Donizetti's La Fille du Regiment at Opera Holland Park has just opened.

To read the first on-line reviews please visit these websites:

La Fille du Regiment - Holland Park 2008 - Review at www.musicomh.com

La Fille du Regiment - Holland Park 2008 - Review at www.classicalsource.com

Please follow this link to more details about this production, further performance dates and the rest of the Holland Park season:

La Fille du Regiment - Holland Park 2008

The Beggar's Opera 2008 - Photographs by Leslie Maazel

2008-06-03T20:51:00.006+01:00

Leslie Maazel took some excellent photographs of the recent production of Benjamin Britten's Beggar's Opera which I directed a little earlier this year in the USA.

His father, who was conducting, seemed to be happy in his work...

Introducing the Stars of Tomorrow: Thomas William Bessent Kerley

2008-05-28T15:12:00.005+01:00

Indulge me just a moment, please, with another piece of personal news...

Mrs Kerley and I are thrilled to announce the birth of our dear son Thomas, who was born on 12th May at 4.32pm - at a healthy 10lb 5oz. Mother and baby are doing extremely well.

Here's a photo with big brother Felix, who is just wonderful with baby Thomas...

Britten's BEGGAR'S OPERA - USA - March 2008

2008-03-12T12:36:00.002Z

I have just returned from the USA following the resounding success of my new production of Britten's realisation of The Beggar's Opera. The production was produced by The Chateauville Foundation, under the artistic directorship of Maestro Lorin Maazel.

Last year I directed Britten's Rape of Lucretia with Maestro Maazel conducting, and he conducted this new production too.

Follow this link to news about the production on the Maestro's official website:

Maazel Official website on Beggar's Opera 2008

The piece was first performed in 1948 - when the assistant producer was my dear friend and mentor Basil Coleman!

Here's a photo of Basil with my son Felix at my wedding last year. (Basil, who was born in 1916, directed the original productions of Britten's operas The Turn of the Screw, Billy Budd, Gloriana and Let's Make an Opera. In 2004 I was commissioned by the Britten Pears Library to interview Basil as part of their ongoing oral history collection - the transcripts of our conversations are held at the Library in Aldeburgh.)

The talented young American designers Nick Vaughan (sets and costume) and Rie Ono (lighting design) returned to work with me on the Beggar's Opera this year.

Follow the following link to the Chateuville Foundation pages about this forthcoming production:

Chateauville Foundation Beggar's Opera 2008

And follow this link to a YouTube video of an excerpt of my production of The Rape of Lucretia:

Chateauville Foundation Rape of Lucretia 2007

Recent production: EUGENE ONEGIN at Theatre Royal Glasgow and Edinburgh Festival Theatre

2008-01-26T12:58:00.000Z

Following successful performances at the Glasgow Theatre Royal, my new production of Tchaikovsky's EUGENE ONEGIN closed on Saturday 2nd February at the Edinburgh Festival Theatre, where my production of Poulenc's DIALOGUES DES CARMELITES played in 2001.

Follow these links to pieces about the production in the Scottish press:

The Scotsman on EUGENE ONEGIN

Glasgow Herald on EUGENE ONEGIN

My BYO production of Britten's ALBERT HERRING featured in Music OHM.COM Review of the Year 2007

2007-12-16T16:25:00.000Z

by SIMON THOMAS

Having seen pretty much everything the major opera companies put out during 2007, and quite a lot else besides, I found this generally a strong year. ENO certainly went through a very bad patch but they also did some terrific work. Deborah Warner's Death in Venice was marvellous and the Aldeburgh Festival's completely different production of the same opera was also very impressive.

In fact, it was a great year for Britten fans. I found British Youth Opera's Albert Herring the most enjoyable evening I had all year.

Glyndebourne's production was good too while David McVicar's Turn of the Screw at the Coliseum was wonderful. The concert performance of Billy Budd at the Barbican brought this difficult work alive for me. It was also a good year for Wagner, with the Royal Opera's first full cycles of Keith Warner's Ring and also Haitink's Parsifal. Like many people, I had very mixed feelings about The Ring but loved Walküre and Götterdämmerung. I enjoyed The RO's L'elisir d'amore much more than the same team's La fille du régiment but I was in a small minority there. Both Gianni Schicchi and Katya Kabanova at the ROH were marvellous, as was Opera Holland Park's production of Montemezzi's Re de Tre Amore. Back at ENO, I loved Handel's Agrippina. On the negative side, the run of four productions at the Coliseum (Kismet, Carmen, Coronation of Poppea and Aida) was a depressing period, a nadir in the company's history. I enjoyed meeting Keenlyside, Finley, Langridge etc and my favourite interview was with the directors Patrice Caurier and Moshe Leiser. Most memorable quote was the latter defining opera as "music meets meaning".

Recent production: DIE ZAUBERFLOTE at Guildhall

2007-11-25T18:10:00.002Z

My first production of THE MAGIC FLUTE at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, designed by Tom Rogers has just finished its run.

The production was set in the world of ZF OR ZAUBERFLOTE - a virtual reality world which is similar to Second Life, and is inspired by Japanese Manga and Anime art, as well as by films such as Ringu and The Matrix.

Follow this link to a review of the production at the Musical Pointers website:

Musical Pointers review of William Kerley's Zauberflote

Arts Ed Graduation Day Speech

2007-09-14T14:45:00.001+01:00

Today I was lucky enough to be asked by Jane Harrison, Head of the Acting Department at Arts Ed, to give a speech at the Graduation Day of the BA and MA students who have just completed their studies.

It's the first time in my life I've ever worn a gown and 'mortar board' - is that what they're called? We didn't have such a costume to wear on graduation day at Dartington College of Arts in 1987 - though I gather that Dartington does go in for using such a uniform these days...

The following is the text of my speech:

First of all, thank you for inviting me to speak on this special day.

Well, I’m honoured to have been asked. I know that in the past some far more illustrious theatrical luminaries have stood here to make such a speech - but for every theatre maker or actor who ends up being a household name, and on the front page of The Stage or even Heat Magazine, I guess there are many others who, perhaps like me, keep on turning up to rehearsals day after day and trying to make interesting productions.

My name’s Will Kerley and I’m a freelance director of theatre. I direct plays, and I direct operas. I do a bit of writing and a bit of broadcasting. I’m self-employed - which, obviously, means I work for myself - I’m my own boss.

Like any freelance actor or director, I don’t get paid if I don’t work - in fact I’ve never had a paid holiday… People ask me where I work, and I don’t have a normal answer to give them. I don’t have one set work-place, you see - because I work where the work is - so, if I’m asked to direct a new play in Shepherds Bush or an opera in America or Shakespeare in Edinburgh - then that’s where I go to make the work happen.

Theatre is what you might call a broad church, it's rich and it's various, and I’ve made theatre in all kinds of contexts, at the National Theatre and the RSC, at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, with kids with learning difficulties in inner-cities, I was even assistant director on a production of Sondheim’s musical Sweeney Todd just up the road, in Wormwood Scrubs Prison with the lifers of ‘C’ Wing. And I’ve had the honour of doing some teaching and directing under Jane Harrison’s enlightened auspices here in the Acting Department at Arts Ed.

Right now - plug plug - I’ve got a production on at the Peacock Theatre in Holborn - it’s a new production of an opera by Benjamin Britten called Albert Herring - for a company of young opera singers called British Youth Opera - and when I leave here this afternoon I’ll be going off to give a talk to some patrons before that production has its final performance.

I’ve had some amazing times and some horrible experiences in my professional life - there have been days when I’ve wanted to give it all up - and other days where I couldn’t imagine myself being more in love with my work. But I believe those extremes of happiness and unhappiness, that professional turbulence, comes from the simple fact that I’ve been doing what you are doing - what you’ve shown you can do in completing your studies here - you’ve been leading what the playwright David Mamet calls your ‘Epic Lives’.

What does he mean by this? Well, perhaps he means that as professional actors and directors and performers and theatre-makers we’ve ended up doing something we love, rather than settling for something that might be a safer option - because we have an undeniable passion for our work, and an irresistible appetite for getting on and doing it. None of you would be here today if you hadn’t displayed, probably from a very early age, a passion for this craft of yours, this vocation, this calling to be a performer.

And, on this important day, when most of you are reaching the end of your formal studies, I want you to take a moment to get back touch with whatever it was that made you fall in love with performing in the first place - whatever it was that gave you that sense of vocation - whatever it was that made you realise you just had to take that bold step to embrace your destiny, because that’s really what it is, and pursue your career as an actor.

And I’d like you, just to take a moment, to banish whatever those critical voices are that come and try to sabotage this special dream you are living. Whatever, or whoever, it is that brings you down, that collapses your ambition, that robs you of good energy and fills you with toxic thoughts, jealousy or despondency - whatever the demons are who tell you you’ll never be as good as so-and-so, or that tell you’ll never make it… wherever those negative voices are coming from, I want you to just take the decision, in this moment, to push them away.

Because, look at us, right now, my goodness - we’re actually alive. In a hundred years time we’ll all be dust, but right now we’re alive - we’re thriving. And you are all in such a special position - because, right now, you are standing at the edge of the aircraft door - your parachute, your skill, your training, your ambition - that parachute is firmly fixed and you’re ready to jump.

Don’t forget that for every one of you here, there are many, many others, who didn’t have your courage, your tenacity, your talent, your stamina. There are hundreds of hopefuls who came to audition here, and who didn’t get chosen. They didn’t get the places that were offered to you. There are many who will have picked up the Arts Ed Prospectus, and thought about applying, but who, when push came to shove, didn’t have your bravery or your audacity - to stand up and pursue their dreams.

To reach graduation today, you’ve all shown that you are dedicated and committed to honouring this gift you’ve been given - this in-born talent. And all of you, to reach this special day, will have had to battle against fatigue and criticism and self-doubt and probably horrendous debts…

But, you’ve done it. Well done!

I’m delighted to be asked here to speak on this important day - because it really is a defining moment in your lives. It’s the end of something - the culmination of your rigorous training here at Arts Ed, and it’s a hell of an exacting course here - but it’s the beginning of the next phase of your exciting lives.

So, I’ve come here to say congratulations.

And to say well done.

And to say you must be mad. You are - you’re all quite mad.

Mad to think that of all the many hundreds of drama school graduates, that you, personally, are going to be among the lucky ones who make successful careers out of their acting - mad to have the audacity to get up on stage at all and perform, when most of the world is stuck in sensible work doing jobs which pay a regular income, taking very few risks, serving their time, for years on end, going to the same work-place every day, waiting for pay-day or or annual leave or the Office Party, or the security of pension and slippers.

Do you know how many people do jobs they don’t even like, just to maintain a material lifestyle they’ve got used to? Have you any idea what percentage of the population longs for the weekend and dreads going back to work on a Monday morning? Have you any idea how many people push their passions into their limited spare time, or even sadder, how many people don’t have much in the way of passion at all?

But you, you inveterate Maddoes, have chosen to do something different with your lives, you’ve chosen to seize the day and live your dreams and live your Epic Lives. You, with your spirit of play and child-like talent for invention - You are the grown-ups who haven’t forgotten how to skip.

You Mad People. You Crazy Dreamers.

But do you know what? This messed-up world needs dreamers today as much, if not more, than it has ever done. It needs people like you, performers who are prepared to entertain, to invigorate, to tell a gripping story, to investigate issues, to cajole, to teach, to provoke: to bring audiences together and to transcend the mundane and the normal and the sensible and the secure and the earth-bound.

Today, just for today, and one day at a time from tomorrow, try not to let anyone limit your dreams. In this world where so often the Cynic is King, see if you can find kindred spirits who can help you realise your imaginative goals. Look out for other Maddoes, those real collaborators and true friends - and, as Shakespeare says ‘grapple them to your soul with hoops of steel’.

There’ll be rejection and heartache and turbulence. But there’s no turbulence on an aircraft when it’s stuck on the runway - only when it’s up in the air and flying. Going places.

Around you are kindred spirits, who, until today, were your fellow students. Here are the visionary tutors and inspirational mentors, all the colleagues who you’ll hook up with many times in your professional careers, because every actor lives many lives in the space of his or her professional life. And you just never know where or when the creative seeds you plant along the way are going to germinate and bear fruit.

Don’t forget that if acting is a craft, there’ll never be another actor exactly like you - your gift is as individual as your fingerprint or your DNA. The more you practice your craft, the more your expertise will grow. So use those skills you’ve been equipped with here at Arts Ed, and seek out other skills, watch other actors working, not in a spirit of envy, but with the professional interest of a fellow craftsman. What are they up to? How does it work? Sharpen your observations of everyday life around you, so that you can ‘hold a mirror up to nature’, keep your tools in good repair - feed your gifts.
Relish your talent. Burn brightly. We wish you all the luck in the world.

I want to finish with the words of one brave man. You may have noticed that in the upstairs corridor - just along from the Acting Department Office, there’s a framed quotation on the wall.

Here’s a brief extract, and don’t worry about the God stuff - if you're not religious just substitute Thespis, the first actor, and the classical god of theatre, who everyone here believes in, for the word God used in the this text:

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God (or Thespis). Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God (or Thespis)...that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”

Those words are attributed to Nelson Mandela. And I found them hanging on the wall in a corridor here at Arts Ed. How very apt. How very Arts Ed.

Graduates, on Graduation Day - we Salute You!

We salute you.

Albert Herring - British Youth Opera at Peacock Theatre - First Review of William Kerley's new production

2007-09-10T13:40:00.000+01:00

ALBERT HERRING

Peacock Theatre, London: 8,12,14 September 2007

The first review, by critic Simon Thomas of musicOMH.com:

Founded in 1987, British Youth Opera celebrates its 21st Birthday this year with productions of The Magic Flute and Albert Herring and, if the opening night of Britten's comic opera is anything to go by, this is an organisation that has really come of age.

And age is a crucial factor in this work, with the cast having to span the whole range from maturity to childhood.

Make no mistake, this is no ordinary youth group but, with most of the cast at the end of their formal training and some on the brink of significant operatic careers, they achieve an incredibly high standard. If it takes a while to get used to the crusty burghers of Loxford being played by performers in their twenties, this is soon forgotten because of the precise and colourful characterisations served up by the talented cast. Not surprisingly, because she's already a young professional of note, Katherine Broderick shines as the matriarchal Lady Billows, whose waste bin overflows with the sins of the parish.

At the other end of the age range, singers are required to play the ball-bouncing scamps of the village, although young Adam Rollingson's lively contribution adds an authentic note. Where the singers are playing closest to their own ages, we get the strongest performances of the evening. Benedict Nelson and Tania Mandzy are a sexy couple as Sid and Nancy, basking in the glow of their coveted peches (both peaches and sins in French) and defying their elders at every turn.

Ben Johnson's Albert Herring is quite outstanding. This young tenor, a prize-winner in last week's Wigmore Hall International Song Competition, is enormously appealing as the virginal mummy's boy who breaks out to find his true self somewhere beyond the bounds of a narrow-minded and oppressive society. The exact nature of Albert's escapade is not revealed but surely what Britten and librettist Eric Crozier intended would have more than made Lady Billows blush. Even in a work of this nature Britten's oft-repeated and heavily-disguised preoccupations can be found lurking.

WILLIAM KERLEY'S brilliantly observed direction can hardly be faulted. Word-pointing could be punchier at times; when you have three rhymes together (even though many are curiously half-rhymes), it pays to drive them home and here there is a tendency for them to trail away. That apart, KERLEY and conductor Peter Robinson pay heed to the wealth of details that Britten and Crozier give them, the latter steering the Southbank Sinfonia with characteristic relish and tremendous precision.

Not to give a complete cast list is not to denigrate the contributions of the rest of the company. This is a wonderful ensemble performance, full of technical proficiency.

Albert Herring may be Britten's only comedy but this is a score of such deftness and invention that the piece is bound to leave you wishing he'd ventured into the territory more often. It is both genuinely funny and, like so much of the composer's output, hauntingly beautiful. The ensembles, particularly the last act Threnody mourning the death of Albert, only to be broken by his jaunty return, are sublime.

With Britten's opera performed rarely (ok, Glyndebourne is touring it this autumn), I can only advise you to hurry along to the Peacock and snap up the remaining tickets for the two final performances of the British Youth Opera's all too short run.

- Simon Thomas

To view this review in its original context please follow this link:

BYO ALBERT HERRING - First Review

IN TUNE - BBC Radio Three - 3rd September 2007

2007-08-30T22:31:00.000+01:00

On Monday 3rd September at 5.15pm on BBC Radio 3, on the programme IN TUNE, you can hear Sean Rafferty (pictured) interview Peter Robinson (conductor of my new production of Britten's ALBERT HERRING for British Youth Opera) and Tania Mandzy, Benedict Nelson and Ben Johnson, who will sing live extracts from the opera. Tania plays Nancy, Benedict plays Sid and Ben Johnson plays Albert Herring. Oh, and I'll be tagging along to Broadcasting House, too.

Follow this link to the Radio 3 "In Tune" webpages:

"In Tune" website

Irrepressibly Good News

2007-05-19T18:14:00.000+01:00

Here's a thing. I've tried to keep these web-pages entirely work-based - just informing readers of my professional news, forthcoming productions, broadcasts and pieces of writing - but recently something wonderful happened and I'm afraid I have to share the good news. I'm sure the photograph of Mr and Mrs Kerley (above) will speak for itself!

Royal Philharmonic Society Awards News - Sadly, We Didn't Make the Shortlist!

2007-05-19T11:14:00.000+01:00

Sad to report, my production of THE LONG CHRISTMAS DINNER by Paul Hindemith and THE DINNER ENGAGEMENT by Lennox Berkeley at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama didn't make the shortlist for the Royal Philharmonic Society Awards...

But the production was a triumph thanks to the amazing efforts of all company members...

To read Hilary Finch's review of the production from The Times follow this link:

The Times review of Guildhall Double bill 2006

and here's a review of the production from Opera Now:

"This was a spectacular achievement by the Guildhall’s Opera department. Hindemith’s THE LONG CHRISTMAS DINNER was written in 1960 in collaboration with playwright Thornton Wilder. It poignantly charts the births, lives and deaths of several generations of a single family, spanning a century.

This cogent staging beguiled the eye immediately, thanks to a subtle and sophisticated set from Tom Rogers. A snow-covered walkway doubled as a laid-up dining table, out of which - awesomely - a grave slab opened, into which the next members of the family harvested by the grim reaper descended. The surreal imagery was starkly powerful, especially when several more graves sprang up amid the dinner mats, ghoulishly to reveal the dead. Silently opening doorways and ominous props contributed to the fateful aura permeating the opera.

William Kerley directed, exacting sly, stylish moves from an impressively polished cast. American Tania Mandzy as the grandmother figure soon revealed a particularly rich, mature and rewarding voice. Nicholas Merryweather brought a well-supported, Figaroish baritone and forceful presence; and the young Icelander Bragi Bergthorsson produced an attractive and flexible tenor, all three effortlessly negotiating Hindemith trickier intervals. Philip Gerrard added neat comic touches, Emily Rowley Jones was an angst-ridden, uxorious spouse, and actress Seija Knight shone as the Nurse who doubles as the winged angel of death. You could hear every world: this cast’s enunciation was near-perfect, which spoke reams for the Guildhall’s painstaking voice coaches.

Lennox Berkeley’s comedy A Dinner Engagement (1954), about a well-to-do family down on its luck and obliged to entertain in its own kitchen, made a delicious follow-up (Hindemith having never completed his own planned comic second-half). Unreasonable to expect both operas to be equally finessed, yet the Berkeley provided a further triumph. Rogers served up a glorious pastiche 1940/50s décor for the forlorn kitchen, full of apt, well-observed detail, with wittily dreamed-up costumes.

Marc Scoffini and Katrina Broderick were entertainingly cast as the hapless aristos reducled to scullery work in their own kitchen. The Lithuanian Milda Smalakyte made a nicely huffy job of the young daughter, blossoming near the close as love unexpectedly blossoms. The ensembles were first-rate, abetted by the character presence of Chloe de Becker as the charlady, Mrs Kneebone. Both visitors were first-rate: Gareth Huw John shone vocally as the amorous Prince Phillipe, who falls for the daughter; and mezzo Rebecca Raffell dominated the stage effortlessly as the ample Grand Duchess. A top-nothc evening, lit admirably by Matthew Eagland and with an alert, lively instrumental ensemble, incisively conducted by Alexander Ingram."

(Roderic Dunnett - Opera Now March/April 2007)

A few simple questions for someone else called.... William Kerley (1895-1967)

2007-05-19T10:00:00.000+01:00

My uncle found this photograph in a dusty box quite recently. The young soldier on the left is my paternal grandfather, in 1914. He was a territorial army boy-soldier, under-age he enlisted in the regular army and fought in the First World War. My dad, his son, says he saw the horrors of Churchill’s deathly debacle at Gallipoli, and was, apparently, invalided out of the dugouts when a trench-periscope exploded in his eye. This picture was taken when he was posted to Alexandria; but the details are sketchy - somewhere I have a mysterious certificate saying he passed a Camp Cook’s Examination there – and whilst in Egypt, he and his mates used to teach the locals to repeat nonsensical English doggerel like: ‘Queen Victoria, Him Very Bad Man’. Far from home, the soldiers of every generation get up to no good. With paraffin they’d make a little ring of fire in the sand outside their tents, place a petrified scorpion in the centre: all for the sport of watching the deadly arachnid sting itself to suicide, to escape the flames.

I have another photograph of him at the other end of his life, terminally ill with emphysema, but happily entertaining a small boy in the back garden of his Blackpool home, the toddler mesmerized by the ticking of a shiny pocket-watch he kept on a handsome chain. The small boy in question grew up to be me - but sadly my grandfather didn’t live long enough to tell me, first-hand, any of his numerous stories. Who are the other chaps in this picture? Despite your obvious cultural differences, you look a pretty chummy threesome. Who’s the soldier on the right? Why does he get to wear the long trousers? Who’s the tall chap in the fez, grandad, is he Egyptian dignitary or Alexandrian interpreter? Oh, and what happened next?

Recent Production: The Rape of Lucretia by Benjamin Britten - Conducted by Lorin Maazel

2007-02-15T17:42:00.000Z

I have just returned from America, where I directed my first production on that side of the Atlantic - Britten's RAPE OF LUCRETIA. The production was commissioned by the Chateauville Foundation, whose artistic director is Lorin Maazel. Maestro Maazel conducted the production, and it was designed by the excellent young American designer, Nick Vaughan and lit by a marvellous lighting desinger called Rie Ono.

Here are some photographs of the production:

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Follow this link to a review of the production, and a description of Lorin Maazel's Young Artists' Program:

Rape of Lucretia - USA March 2007

Recent Productions - THE LONG CHRISTMAS DINNER AND THE DINNER ENGAGEMENT

2007-02-15T17:22:00.000Z

In November 2006, I directed a double bill of operas at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London. The double-bill consisted of THE LONG CHRISTMAS DINNER by Paul Hindemith and THE DINNER ENGAGEMENT by Lennox Berkeley.

Here's the review from The Spectator Magazine:

"The Guildhall School of Music and Drama was as enterprising and professional as it almost always is in its latest production. Its shows are often for connoisseurs, and should be advertised more widely. The reasonably bright idea on this occasion was to have two brief operas centring round dinner (the only two? Brief ones, I mean).
To my surprise, Hindemith's The Long Christmas Dinner was much the more absorbing of the two. William Kerley's direction was brilliant in its economy, every gesture making a point. We watched while several generations of a family displayed various facets of American history over a period of almost a century. With Thornton Wilder as the author/librettist, structurally it was bound to be effective. An angel, alternately wearing white and black wings, brought in babies or escorted members of the family to their grave. A cast of 12 had no weak link, and the restrained orchestral accompaniment, under the sure guidance of Alex Ingram, tactfully amplified the drama's basic points. This is late Hindemith at his best, and deserves to take its place in the repertory of 'little greats'. "

To read Hilary Finch's review of the production from The Times follow this link:

The Times review of Guildhall Double bill 2006

STOP PRESS - February 15th 2007 - I have just heard that my Guildhall School of Music and Drama production of this Berkeley/Hindemith double bill has been nominated for a Royal Philharmonic Society Award.

The awards ceremony takes place in May at the Dorchester Hotel in London, hosted by Radio 3's Sean Rafferty - but we won't know whether we've made the short-list until mid-April.... WATCH THIS SPACE!

For further information about the Royal Philharmonic Society Awards, please follow this link:

The Royal Philharmonic Society Awards 2007

Recent Production - THE MAGIC FLUTE AND THE BROOMSTICK

2006-05-19T10:20:00.000+01:00

In December 2006 I directed THE MAGIC FLUTE AND THE BROOMSTICK, Simon Butteriss's wonderful new 'conflation' of The Magic Flute and Hansel and Gretel - for children's performances at The Wigmore Hall, London. Performances took place on 9th and 10th of December on the main stage at The Wigmore Hall.

For further details follow this link to the Wigmore Hall Website -

The Wigmore Hall

Listen Again to my 'Columns' for BBC Radio 4

2006-05-18T17:44:00.000+01:00

If you would like to listen to my recent radio pieces for Radio 4's HOME TRUTHS - follow the links.

My first 'column' is about being the son of a retired policeman, which I am. (Dad's standing second from left - Hendon Police Driving School - 1960)

Policeman's Son

The second is about having a panic attack on a London commuter train which, recently, I did.

Panic Attack

My life was saved by a mint with a hole.

Recent Production - EUGENE ONEGIN for British Youth Opera

2006-05-18T17:24:00.000+01:00

In September 2006 I directed a new production of Tchaikovsky's opera EUGENE ONEGIN for British Youth Opera.

Follow this link to view the review from The Times

The Times review of William Kerley's BYO 2006 production of EUGENE ONEGIN at the Peacock Theatre, London

and follow this link to view Clive Barda's striking photographs of the production, designed by the talented Tom Rogers.

Clive Barda's photographs of British Youth Opera ONEGIN 2006

New 'Column' for BBC Radio 4's Home Truths

2006-05-17T08:48:00.000+01:00

Please follow this link to listen to my new piece for the BBC Radio 4 programme, Home Truths. It's about one of the toughest jobs I ever had, working as an artists' model in Paris when I was 23. That isn't me in the above photograph, by the way, it's one I found in the archives...!

Life Model

Recent Production: FLIGHT by Jonathan Dove

2006-04-13T12:28:00.000+01:00

In June 2006 I directed a new production of Jonathan Dove's opera, FLIGHT - the Scottish Premiere! - at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama in Glasgow.

RECENT PRODUCTION: LA FINTA SEMPLICE at GSMD November 2005

2005-09-03T08:58:00.000+01:00

Mozart: La finta semplice (1768)
7th 8th 10th 12th November 7pm Guildhall School Theatre

YOUNG GENIUS event at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama.

WILLIAM KERLEY, director, Nicholas Kok, conductor, Tom Rogers, designer
Mozart’s early ’opera buffa’ was written in 1768 when he was 12, but it was not performed until May in the following year. It is a setting of a libretto by Goldoni in a revised version by Marco Coltellini, which, like the majority of ’opere buffe’ of the period, deals with the battle of the sexes. It is full of melodic invention and colourful period orchestration, while the lively finales anticipate those of Mozart’s later operas.

Tickets £20 (£14 concessions)

Programme Piece on Violence in Theatre commissioned by Hampstead Theatre - published April 2005 - (3 months before the tragic events of 7/7/05)

2005-08-23T23:09:00.000+01:00

Edward Bond: ‘I write about violence as naturally as Jane Austen wrote about manners. Violence shapes and obsesses our society, and if we do not stop being violent we have no future. People who do not want writers to write about violence want to stop them writing about us and our time. It would be immoral not to write about violence.’

These words inspire a scary little retrospective. I’ve been attempting the mathematics of brutality, by adding up the number of violent acts I’ve witnessed.

Here goes. An audit of fear: I’ve seen beatings, kickings, stabbings, garrottings, gassings, throat-slashings, electrocutions, shootings; suicide and self-harm; torture, cannibalism, the stoning of a baby, a red-hot Stratford-skewer up Simon Russell Beale’s backside - and many other atrocities; courtesy of Sophocles, Shakespeare, Marlowe, Lorca, Treadwell, Bond, Dorfmann, Barker, Buchner and Kane.

I recall the countless dead bodies, in domestic or street scenes, work-place or battlefield; corpseless heads and headless corpses; I’ve witnessed the blinding of an old man called Gloucester (numerous times) and seen a royal prince, in a darkened room above a Notting Hill pub, have his genitals barbecued and his innards ripped out by a vulture. His response at the time was this: ‘if there could have been more moments like this.’

So - that’s violence in the theatre. And I’ve seen a surfeit of violence in photographs and on screen.

But how much violence have I seen in my fortunate and sheltered real life? Mercifully little. I’ve never even seen a dead body. In my forty years outside the theatre I’ve been lucky enough to witness very few violent acts. But of the real-life violence I have seen, the pointless corporal punishment, the drunken brawling, the over-zealous arrests, the futile lashing out; none of it has made much sense to me.

In real-life I’ve seen it many times, but never once, on the stage, have I seen senseless violence.

I sat in on a university seminar the other day, and heard a talented teacher confront one of his students who drew a parallel between witnessing a murder compellingly portrayed by Lorca and the experience of driving past a motorway crash and ‘having to watch’. She implied that there was a some generalised positive lesson to learn from rubbernecking on the M4.

The teacher was agitated; for him there was no useful comparison between the two experiences, one was art, he said, created to carry a message, the other prosaic misfortune: regrettable reality. He’d seen stage dramas full of murders, death and destruction; such works could be cathartic, educative, moving - even uplifting. But never once had he found a constructive lesson in witnessing a real-life tragedy.

It’s election time. Our parliamentary representatives are suddenly interested in us, they need us off couches and fences on 05.05.05, on our feet en route to the Polling Station. No negative campaigning is the boast: but, particularly post-9/11, fear is a refined political tool. We live in a frightening world, they tell us, a violent, unstable world; they play to these fears with promises of greater sanctions for unstable or violent members of society.

Each party prides itself on a portfolio of authoritarian pledges. The terrorist threat is ubiquitous, unpredictable, army tanks patrol Heathrow, evacuation plans are published. Protect and Survive (Mk II). The politicians promise ASBOS and electronic tagging, stiffer sentences, more prison-building. And to protect us from violent foreigners, our political masters take us to regime-changing conflict in someone else’s country.

And always, when a government wants to sanction violence, it does so by appropriating the vocabulary of the artist: Basra and Baghdad become Theatres of War.

So what scares you? Being murdered in your bed by an masked intruder? A terrorist act on the tube? The threat of violence which takes away your freedom of speech?

Some violence is misdirected passion, some is borne of fear. The violence that shuts down a theatre is the latter.

In our second city last December, a cumulative threat of violence became a virtual mob-rule and cancelled performances of a play. The Lord Chamberlain’s purple pencil has, in our times, become a brick-throwing gang who stay outside the theatre: they have no desire to enter the building and become audience members.

Perhaps only a couple of this mob have actually read the text of the play.
But a play-text is not a play, any more than a designer’s model constitutes a theatre set. A play only truly becomes itself in performance, in being acted before and audience who are prepared to watch, to listen and to think.

A theatre devoid of provocation, a theatre bowdlerised of violence; like Nahum Tate’s 1681 evisceration of KING LEAR, which ends with Lear not dead but restored to the throne - and the happy marriage of Edgar to an un-hanged Cordelia; this is an unchallenging theatre with an attenuated, atrophied voice.

As long as the theatre challenges and provokes, shows us conflict to which an audience can add its imaginary puissance and draw its own conclusions, a theatre which presents violence which is never pointless; we’ll leave the auditorium able to paraphrase the dying Hippolytus in Sarah Kane’s 1996 masterpiece PHAEDRA’S LOVE: ‘if only there could have been more plays like these’.

Recent Article about Sleeper Trains

2005-08-23T23:00:00.000+01:00

My mother took an overnight Sleeper train to Cornwall in the summer of 1957. She was 18, and working as live-in nanny to the children of a Kensington barrister. She travelled with her two little charges and their kindly mother. She remembers little about the journey except that, against railway regulations, they smuggled the family cat into their Sleeper Cabin in its basket. The head of the household stayed behind in London, with his demanding legal work and his equally demanding mistresses.

Following in my mother’s footsteps, I took my first Sleeper Train the other day, from Paddington to St Austell.

It was my first time with a berth booked on an overnight train. I’ve taken night trains before, years back, as a student, and tried to sleep, slumped against carriage windows, neck-cricked, a woollen hat pulled over the eyes to escape the blinding universal strip-light, the upright seat, the unyielding armrests, the manifold discomforts of travelling without style.

This may not be the Royal Train, nor the Orient Express, but customer care on a Sleeper is redolent of a lost age of service. Midnight at Paddington, and a steward greets you by name, leads you to your cabin, explains its limited but functional light and heating controls and points out the toilets (which, mirabile dictu, may be used even when the train is stationary). He checks your wake-up-call time, when he’ll bring tea or coffee and biscuits; and is available, should you need him in the night, in his bolthole at the carriage-end. £30 ensures a cabin to yourself. Top bunk folded up, it’s surprisingly spacious. There’s a sink in the corner, mineral water, a towel, a little wash-bag containing tiny flannel and toiletries.

Welcome, traveller - let’s be on our way! Here’s your ambulant hotel room, a novel mobile home from home, crisp sheets on your bunk, a tartan blanket. Expect the treasures of Britain’s railway outside your bedroom window at first light, that wonderful stretch of Brunel’s coastal track between Exeter and Newton Abbot, Dawlish at dawn, Exmouth across the water, the red rock ocean stacks of Teignmouth, then on to the Tamar bridge and Cornwall. But you need not hide in your bedroom, sir! The comfortable carriage next door serves as an exclusive lounge, for passengers with berths, with its cheery buffet bar, open all night.

Donning my nightclothes, I was content at the prospect of a good night’s sleep, and arrival refreshed for work in Cornwall the next morning. Lights out, blind down - the cabin in complete soporific darkness - soon I was drifting off to sleep in my little bed, the train taking the strain, oblivious to the passing miles.

But, my God, what a miserable night. I’ve rarely been as downcast. It’s almost impossible to sleep for the rocking around, the stopping and starting, the stuffy-sad cabin air. Any rest is plagued and fitful. Each dream sequence is a bad one, and it’s a long, long night. This is no express journey. By definition, the Sleeper Train is obliged to take the whole night to arrive at its terminus, so it dawdles, loiters at stations en route, skulking along stretches of track, making way for freight trains, ashamed to be the snail of the service. Soon, restless and dejected, you are switching on your bedside lamp, and off for a desultory pee. The over-starched sheets feel papery, the heating ineffectual, the blankets rough, the pillows cheap. You’re in transit, dispossessed. The worst of it is this realisation: you’re alone, uncomfortable and, albeit temporarily, you’re homeless.

But travel and insomnia are ancient bed-fellows. I have a friend who’s a retired airline pilot. He’s stayed all over Europe in the best hotels, with a generous per diem of local currency. But being away from home soon palls. He’s grown to hate hotel life, the snoring next door, the raucous party downstairs; too often allocated an echo-chamber adjacent to the lift shaft, sleeping sporadically before the early morning summons to the airport.

Business travel too, only looks glamorous from the outside. On an aircraft, once the curtain is closed which parts premium from economy, we plebs in the hindquarters feel an irascible envy. But the truth is this: most commercial high-flyers aren’t having fun, they’re stressed and lonely, hardened to corporate treats, they miss their families and would rather be at home. All they really need from an airport are limited delays and unlimited internet access.

I was delighted once to get a ticket upgrade at Heathrow, which entitled me to use a business lounge. I’d pressed my nose up against its windows many times. Once inside, I relished every freebie, the gratis publications and sustenance, the comfy chairs, the extended hospitality. But soon my flight was boarding, and I’d wasted half my time trying to work out who to pay for the complimentary croissants.

In a recent magazine questionnaire, a famous Captain of Industry was asked what single thing would most improve the quality of his life. His answer: ‘To spend more time with my wife. I’m always having to go away.’

My mother telephoned when I got back from Cornwall. ‘How was the Sleeper Train?’ she said. ‘Great, thanks,’ I replied. ‘Did you sleep well?’ she asked. ‘Pretty well,’ I said, using the truth economically.

Back at my modest suburban homestead, the washing machine’s playing up and probably needs a costly replacement. There’s a leak in the shower, and those cracks in the ceiling are a worry. Our little flat is cramped and unglamorous, and we can’t afford to move. But I’m happy to be home, with an unchanging view from the bedroom window, tucked up with my other half, in a bed that’s going nowhere except, hopefully, to the Land of Nod.

Piece about Script Reading Published in Independent on Sunday

2005-08-23T21:56:00.000+01:00

Gulp. Nearly 30 of them, in that cupboard - longing to be unleashed. Read me! Read me! - they’re wailing. Some will be dreadful - nonsensical or laborious; other easy reading, but corny, clichéd, or just plain dull. Another tough month, slaving over plenty of rubbish. But there might be the odd peach, ripe for development or encouragement.

I’m a play-reader for the literary departments of three London theatres, one large and two fringe venues. More than a dozen London companies develop new plays, accepting unsolicited manuscripts by the sackful from hopeful writers. Each week they receive several hundred plays, and each needs to be read and adjudicated.

Sometimes it seems everyone’s a budding writer; submissions come from all kinds of people. They’ve heard about James Herriot, trapped in a steamy cowshed, one arm halfway up a heifer’s backside, dreaming up a best-selling series of books; and they they, too, should be putting autobiographical pen to paper.

True, we all have stories to tell, and often the best creative writing is not crammed with spectacular incident, but is a simple dissection of the minutiae of prosaic, but unexamined lives. But why should we all reckon we can write? Angela Lambert once observed that everyone seems to think they’ve got a book in them, but not everyone thinks they’ve got, say, a bridge in them. And the chance of many of us writing a compelling play or novel is about as likely as turning our hands to a successful engineering project. London’s Millennium Bridge is testament to the fact that even an expert bridge-builder can have trouble making a wobble-free river crossing. But still it surges on, this relentless dtide of unsolicited manuscripts, flooding into the script departments of London, about tot burst out of my cupboard and inundate an unwilling desk.

The Panel of Readers at each theatre meets monthly to discuss the plays submitted. After a meeting, I might take away as many as 10 plays to read; for each I have to write a synopsis and commentary. The fees are not princely: between £11 and £14 per script, plus travel expenses. Sometimes a complicated script will take hours to unravel.

I should have given up years ago, it’s dispiriting to read the first few pages of a bad script and be obliged to read the whole ting. Often I wonder why I’m wasting my time when I could be catching up on masterpieces I’ve missed: but the thrill of finding an exciting new voice, or a cracking new play keeps me in harness.

And the monthly meetings make it all worthwhile. One panel comprises a literary agent, a producer, a journalist, an editor, an actor (fluent in four languages) and a director and others from vared arts backgrounds; good, thoughtful, interesting people, all of whom have a passion for new writing. There’s a certain amount of gallows humour at the meetings: faced with the umpteenth submission from a deluded hobbyist, we can become slightly hysterical - but we never fail to get excited by an intriguing new playwright. Enthusiasm plus experience mean there’s little chance we’ll reject a potential star, like that misguided A&R man who bypassed the Beatles.

So, what makes a good play? One literary manager says a playwright can be taught structure, plot and all the devices that come with shaping a play, but can’t be taught to writer good dialogue; that’s an innate talent. Good dialogue leaps out as you read it - there’s something immediately engaging in the way a serious playwright can make characters interact. Good dialogue isn’t necessarily naturalistic - it can by stylized to the hilt; arch, mannered, idiosyncratic - but it still has to have that Quotient-X that makes it readable, and, more importantly, hearable in a theatre.

Good dialogue doesn’t have to replicate quotidian speech. David Hare says he has to listen to bad dialogue around him all the time in “real life”. What people say, word for word in everyday situations, just won’t translate onto paper. Natural speech is full of illogical omissions, repetitions and semantic blind alleys - that’s why, for example, it can be so frustrating to make transcripts of taped interviews. In the flesh people can seem eloquent, full of intellectual vigour, eminently quotable - but play back the tape, and, verbataim, their words can look vapid or inconsequential.

Theatrical dialogue is something else; it’s heightened speech that triggers something in an audience’s collective imagination. Bad drama won’t allow the audience to do its part of the contract - joining up the dramatic dots using what Shakespeare calls “imaginary puissance”. The finest plays in the language were written for theatres with little in the way of costume, sets of special effects; what they did possess was abundantly inventive wordplay, and a diverse audience of Elizabethan Londoners who knew how to use their imaginations.

I’ve just judged a London play-writing competition. The two clear winners stood out a mile. Both were dramatic pieces that needed to be played in the theatre: neither would have worked in any other medium. Both had the right mixture of spontanaiety and discipline, a balance that must be present in any work of art. The text of a play, unlike a novel, is not the play itself. The text is nothing but dyed paper. It can’t begin to ignite until actors are speaking the words.

But I must get on with my script-reading. My cupboard’s creaking again, there’s a panel meeting on Saturday - both the godawful and the (please God), good plays need a fair hearing. I shall just have to resist the demonic urge to hurl the scripts, unread, into the incinerator. O, for a Muse of Fire, indeed.

RECENT PRODUCTION: LETTERS OF WAR - National Youth Theatre

2005-08-20T07:19:00.000+01:00

DIRECTOR'S PROGRAMME NOTE

HMS Belfast is a living part of the Imperial War Museum. Her raison d’etre is war. Not a cruise ship, but a warship. The kitchens, the mess rooms, the post room, the high slung hammocks - all exist for one purpose: to support the sailors who manned Belfast’s monstrous guns.

What better place for the National Youth Theatre to present a play inspired by combatants’ corresponence, by LETTERS OF WAR?

On my first visit to the ship, I arrived at the same time as an excited group of schoolboys. For a previous generation these young souls would be cannon fodder. In the hospital wing, looking at a reconstruction of bloody surgery on the ship’s operating table, a kindly tourist who stood next to me said the sight was ‘a bit too realistic’. The truth is that the reality of war is unimaginable for the lucky ones, like us, whose experience of war has been indirect, with conflicts far from home; or far away enough to ignore.

But that’s why this ship has been saved for the nation. To enable us to see a little of the existence of the seamen who gave their lives for the freedoms we now so easily take for granted; not least of which is the freedom to make artistic statements, to write, to create art, to make plays.

The process of devising an original piece of drama is a tough, but a simple one. Without a playwright, theatre-makers must harness their creative appetites, and get fed. First part of the recipe: collect as much material as you can, next: choose the bits you like best, finally: shape them into a performance.

The National Youth Theatre season for 2005 is entitled Young at War. There isn’t a single family in this country which hasn’t been touched by war, somehow. Before rehearsals began, I asked the actors to get nosey, to ask awkward questions of elderly relatives, to rummage in attics for wartime correspondence; to bring their own source material to the project.

You are about to see the result of our labours.

But, remember that the best theatre is made for a context, a place. And even military men appropriate the language of the artist - for an Admiral or a General, a battlefield is a Theatre of War.

And remember that on this ship you are surrounded by the brave departed. Among their ranks are the ghosts of Scharnhorst (the German ship hunted and destroyed by HMS Belfast in Danish waters in1943 - there were only 36 survivors from a crew of 1,963 men). Remember the sad ghost of a Olga the Reindeer - a mascot given as a present by the Soviet navy in 1944 - driven mad with fear at the sound of Belfast’s six-inch guns, she had to have her brains blown out after a couple of days on board.

All around you are the spirits of the sailors who made this place their home, their workplace, their refuge, their weapon of war. Where’s the best place to tell a story about the universal themes of combatants longing for their loved ones, hoping for an end to the fighting? Here, on board a ship which brings the realities of war into sharp dramatic focus.

Belfast’s guns have a range of some 16 miles. She’s capable of huge destruction at great distance. Currently the guns are trained on a target some 12 miles away, ready to destroy the M1 Motorway services at Scratchwood. Perhaps it’s a curious way to exact revenge for a sub-standard motorway meal; a museum curator’s joke which masks a terrific destructive force. But we should be thankful, in this world which is always full of conflict, if no such guns are targeting our daily lives.

As we salute the bravery of previous generations we have a duty to try, with the best peaceable weapons at our disposal, theatre and imagination; to understand just how lucky we are to have the challenge of making art, not of making war.

We hope you enjoy our production of LETTERS OF WAR.

RECENT PRODUCTION: LET'S MAKE AN OPERA at the Jubilee Hall, Aldeburgh for Aldeburgh Productions

2005-08-01T23:33:00.000+01:00

In October 2004, I directed a new production of Let's Make an Opera, Benjamin Britten's children's opera, in the place where it had it's very first performances in 1949 - The Jubilee Hall, Aldeburgh.

The Britten-Pears Estate had commissioned a new version of the play, which forms the first half of Let's Make an Opera, from the writer Simon Butteriss. My production was the world premiere of this excellent new piece.

I was very proud to have Basil Coleman, who directed the first production, in the audience.

You can find more details of the production at the Aldeburgh Productions website:

Let's Make an Opera directed by William Kerley

and follow this link to see Nigel Luckhurst's photographs of the production:

Let's Make an Opera production photographs