Director and Dramaturg


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    Monteverdi’s Flying Circus is seriously musical, albeit laced with wit, bawdy humour and sadness   THE ARTS DESK


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    DRY is a stunning piece of theatre JOANNA TROLLOPE

    5 stars THE OXFORD TIMES


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    HAPPY EVEN AFTER is urgent, direct and powerful  DAILY INFO

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    This modern-day reinvention is perfectly silly, crude, chaotic and completely hilarious. OXMAG

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    This moving story was beautifully told and absolutely captivating SALISBURY JOURNAL


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    Tolputt’s production is madcap, bonkers and hilarious  QUAERE LIVING

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    Three delightful collaborations between writers and musicians EVENING STANDARD


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My work as a director has mostly involved new writing or new adaptations of classical plays, often in site specific locations.  I am fascinated by text and rhythm and love being at the start of a play’s journey, working closely alongside writers and actors either through research & development or straight into performance.  I am always looking for new ways to interweave story and setting and facilitate rooms which bring out the nerves of a play and make it sing. 


I have collaborated in this way with inspirational playwrights including Janet Bolam (Between these Walls), Antonia Mackay (3 M’Others), Kit Hesketh-Harvey (Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme and Monteverdi’s Flying Circus), Gaye Poole (Dry and Happy Even After) Ceri Ashcroft (Snow and Pop), Miranda Keeling (Porridge), Tristan Pate (The Web) and Joel Horwood (All the little things we crushed). 


I have adapted Ben Jonson's The Alchemist (Creation Theatre) setting it in a post-covid London penthouse and Alice in Wonderland (Polka Theatre) setting it in Fortnum & Masons.  I teach Shakespeare and enjoy helping students unlock the verse.


Music is central to my work and I have directed two operas for Armonico Consort, been staff director for English Touring Opera and collaborated with composer, Jon Nichols and writer, Tom Morton-Smith, on their short musical play, Blunderbuss. I recently co-wrote a verse version of The Nutcracker with Harry Sever which we performed with Cambridge Philharmonic.


I am Associate Director for Human Story Theatre which brings together social care organisations and playwrights to produce work which is current, urgent and has led to changes in legislation. I co-founded company Tiny Light with Ceri Ashcroft which, under her leadership, is now Oxfordshire's leading early years' theatre company.  I also co-founded Human Behaviour and initiated Idiots in the Dark - a creative "laboratory" at Pegasus Theatre.  Several established companies grew out of this.   


I initially studied directing under Kratsovskii at the St Petersburg Academy in Russia before returning to the UK to train as an actor.  Since then I have pursued a career which combined both and have found it incredibly enriching to understand the process of theatre making from two sides.


I am always keen to hear about new ideas and projects and talk about ways in which I can collaborate.



CV
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