Giles Ramsay is an independent theatre director and producer who specializes in creating new work with artists in developing countries. He is the Founding Director of the charity Developing Artists, a Fellow of St. Chad’s College, Durham University and Course Leader in Modern Theatre at The Victoria and Albert Museum in London.

Since 2004 he has worked with The Anglo-Mexican Foundation as a producer of MEXART which showcases the best theatre and dance from Mexico. In 2010 they co-produced the opera Montezuma at The King's Theatre in Edinburgh as part of The Edinburgh International Festival and in 2011 Monsters and Prodigies opened at The Brighton Festival. He has previously produced international work at venues ranging from The Riverside Studios, The Theatre Museum, The British Museum, Artsdepot, Flowers East Gallery and The National Theatre in London as well as at The Pleasance Theatre, The Assembly Rooms and The Traverse Theatre (Fringe First winner 2005) in Edinburgh.

Recent directing credits include: The Glass Menagerie, Northern Stage, USA, March 2009; a Zimbabwean version of Oedipus Tyrannus, The Harare International Festival of the Arts (HIFA), Zimbabwe, May 2009; Marathon, HIFA, Zimbabwe, May 2010; a showcase for the Cape Verde, CulturArte Project, Island of Fogo, September 2010; The Rainmaker, Northern Stage, USA, March 2011; Burn Mukwerekere Burn, HIFA, Zimbabwe, May 2011 (Awarded Best Actor and Best Production by The National Arts Council of Zimbabwe). In 2012 he will be directing a new Zimbabwean play about human trafficking and a new comedy musical about human dismemberment.

As a writer, Giles won The Soho Theatre’s Westminster Prize with his play Shall We Go to the Alhambra? Other plays include Territory (Harare, London, Edinburgh), Only As Multiple (Edinburgh) and Crocodile which premiered at The Harare Festival in May 2007 and received a staged reading in the USA starring Lisa Harrow in October 2008.

Giles was educated at the universities of Cambridge, London and Durham (where he was President of the Union). He also spent a year at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts as part of his MA in drama and since 2009 has been the Honorary Patron of Durham Student Theatre.

In 1987 Giles led The British National Debate Team on its annual tour of America and in 1992 was awarded both a Chautauqua and a Page Scholarship by The English Speaking Union. Throughout the 1990s he was Director of Studies for Summer Schools in Drama at the University of Edinburgh and Director of Drama at Trent College, Nottingham. He was formerly Head of Divinity at King’s College, Taunton and also taught English Literature at Queen’s College, Harley Street.

Giles has run theatre projects in Botswana, Cape Verde, Denmark, Equatorial Guinea, Kenya, Kosovo, Palestine, Mexico, Thailand and Zimbabwe. He has also organised many development and travel programmes for theatres affiliated with the North American Theatre Communications Group and given numerous talks for institutions ranging from The Foundation for Mexican Literature in Mexico City to The Royal College of Physicians in London. He regularly lectures on the history and practice of European theatre on Cunard’s Queen Mary 2 as it sails from New York to the UK.

Contact:

Tel: 020 7228 2562

Mobile: 0794 1316 262  

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Post: 37 Fenner Square, London SW11 2HQ

www.developingartists.org.uk