Rosamunde Hutt
Artistic Director
Rosamunde has extensive experience in creating and implementing vision, policy and practice for theatre in Wales and England through leadership/co-leadership of Hijinx Theatre, Resident Director (1990-1993), Theatre Centre, Director (1993-2007) and Unicorn Theatre, Associate Artistic Director (2007-2011). In 2012 she was Trestle’s Visiting Director for a year. In the above roles she has commissioned, produced and directed an extensive body of new plays, many of which have been produced by other companies internationally and nationally. She has produced and delivered 30 years of national touring throughout the UK, to small and middle scale theatres and non-theatre spaces.
Rosamunde has three productions touring the UK in 2017: the multi award nominated Love Bombs and Apples by Hassan Abdulrazzak (AIK Productions/Turtle Key Arts/Arcola 2015, 2016 plus UK tour, and Edinburgh Festival 2017), award nominated This Evil Thing by Michael Mears (Edinburgh Festival 2016 and touring the UK in autumn 2017), and John Whiting Award winner Jumping on my Shadow by Peter Rumney (Dragon Breath Theatre/Lakeside Arts Centre, touring the Midlands in autumn 2017) which she originally commissioned when Director of Theatre Centre.
Other freelance directing credits include: New Nigerians by Oladipo Agboluaje, nominated for the Alfred Fagon Audience Award (Arcola new commission in the 2017 Revolution season); Grandpa in my Pocket-Teamwork by Mellie Buse and Jan Page (Nottingham Playhouse); Bin Men by Mike Kenny (AJTC/York Theatre Royal); Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Simon Reade and Operation Magic Carpet by Samantha Ellis (Polka Theatre) and A Crack in Time by Peter Rumney, a site specific project for Dragon Breath Theatre.
Since 2012 Rosamunde has worked as a director and producer in India, (Anupama Chandrasekhar’s The Snow Queen, Trestle Theatre/British Council), Romania (The Snow Queen by Charles Way, now in repertoire and shown on Romanian National Television on Christmas Day 2015, Theatre Ion Creanga) and Japan (co-leading workshops on young people’s theatre). Previously her productions have been seen in Malaysia, Singapore and the Philippines. In 2017 she developed Ben Musgrave’s Mad Bees Riot in the Light in Dhaka, Bangladesh with Bangla and British actors (British Council).
Rosamunde regularly directs classics and new plays at RADA, Drama Studio and East 15, and continues to develop new writing most recently with Kali Theatre and Goldsmiths MA Writers. She edited Theatre Centre New Plays for Young People, was invited to speak about her work commissioning new writing for young audiences at the Youth Theatre Festival 2016 in Athens (Onassis Cultural Centre) and delivered the inaugural Brian Roberts Memorial Lecture (Goldsmiths) in April 2017.
Rosamunde has implemented policies of access and cultural diversity throughout her career and led the recruitment and management of the Unicorn Ensemble (funded by the Paul Hamlyn Foundation) for three years, whose actors were of Rwandan, Middle Eastern, Nigerian, Indian and Afro Caribbean heritage. Rosamunde has served on several ACE funded Boards of Management and in 2010 led and wrote the report for the Conference of Drama Schools research project on Cultural Diversity in Drama Schools.
Grant Watson
Associate Director for Film
In 2012 Grant wrote and directed PBAB’s first full length feature film – On Hungry Hill (funded by Heritage Lottery) and in 2014 made One Among Millions (two films about the life of RC Sherriff) for Surrey History Society (funded by Heritage Lottery, Surrey County Council, RC Sherriff Estate).
Grant has created all PBAB’s film trailers and produced and directed video content for the following productions: Kalashnikov; Fresh Tracks & The Last Line of Defence and is currently developing content for his own 2016 play commission – The Lamellar Project.
To date he has produced all the company’s community & educational film work – The Blood Run (Creative Partnerships & Screen South ); Ghost of Ockford Ridge; Centigrade and The Myth of Snowfall (funded variously by Waverley Borough Council, Farnham Maltings & Local Network Fund). He has written and directed two shorts for festivals at Farnham and Bracknell (The North; The Horse Killer).
Freelance work includes commissions for promotional films for Harper Collins, The Arts Council, The Bay Trust, Farnham Maltings and Creative Communities. Grant is also a playwright, screenwriter and TV script writer (see PBAB’s Writer’s page).
Oladipo Agboluaje
Associate Playwright
Oladipo ‘Dipo’ Agboluaje was born in London. He returned to Nigeria where he attended Abeokuta Grammar School and went on to read for a BA in Theatre Arts at the University of Benin. He returned to London where he did an MA in Representation and Modernity at the London Metropolitan University followed by a PhD in African Drama at the Open University. He began writing comic books, poetry and short stories. His first play Early Morning was produced in 2003 at Oval House Theatre in London, to be followed by a string of original plays, adaptations and radio plays. He has taught creative writing and post-colonial theatre and literatures at several institutions, including Goldsmiths College and City University. He has been a writer in residence at New Wolsey Theatre and Soho Theatre. His plays have been performed in Nigeria, Ghana, France, Brazil and the United States. He is a winner of the Alfred Fagon Prize for playwriting, and is a nominee for an Olivier Award, and a Writers’ Guild Award.
Plays include: Mother Courage (adaptation), The Estate, Iya-Ile – The First Wife, The Christ of Coldharbour Lane, The Hounding of David Oluwale (adaptation), The Garbage King (adaptation).
For Pursued by a Bear: For One Night Only (Footprints in the Sand double bill)