Julian Woolford
Julian Woolford is a British theatre director, writer and educationalist. He was educated at the University of Kent and Bristol Old Vic Theatre School.
GSA (Guildford School of Acting)
Woolford is currently Head of Musical Theatre at Guildford School of Acting. He was Head of Postgraduate Musical Theatre from 2012 - 2016.
Sevenoaks Playhouse
Woolford was artistic director at Sevenoaks Playhouse, the Global Search for New Musicals at the International Festival of Musical Theatre, and associate director of the Queen's Theatre, Hornchurch.
As artistic director of the Sevenoaks Playhouse he directed Vita & Virginia, The Railway Children, Wallflowering, Kiss of the Spiderwoman (the play), Wind in the Willows [1] and Jeffrey Hatcher's version of The Turn of the Screw. During Woolford's tenure Sevenoaks Playhouse won an award of £100,000 from the Arts Council and the 2006 Best Of Business Award for Best Marketing Campaign.
Director
He directed the 2003 British national tours of Fiddler on the Roof, Carousel and Murdered to Death and his productions at the Queen's Theatre, Hornchurch include Turn of the Screw, Dames at Sea, The Sound of Music, The Fifteen Streets, Who's Under Where?, The Underworld Project; Other productions include The Oedipus Complex and Oedipus Rex (Bristol New Vic); and The Comedy of Errors (Worthing).
Writer
His stage adaptation of "The Devil's Advocate" toured the Netherlands in 2015 -6
Woolford writes book and lyrics to music by Richard John. Their musical versions of Wind in the Willows and The Railway Children which were both produced in highly successful productions at Sevenoaks Playhouse. The Railway Children is published by Samuel French and has been produced many times by community theatre companies in the UK and has also been produced in Bermuda. His 10-minute musical Terminal Four Play was commissioned by Theatre 503 as part of their Urban Scrawl project.
Their musical "Comrade Rockstar" based do the life of Dean Reed was produced in concert at GSA in 2015
Productions
Julian Woolford directed the national tour of Oklahoma! which toured the UK in 2010.
In 2009 he wrote and directed Liberace Live From Heaven [2] at Leicester Square Theatre, directed Two Pianos, Four Hands and I Do! I Do! at Vienna's English Theatre and Ben Travers play The Bed Before Yesterday at the Mill at Sonning. Woolford reset the time-frame of I Do! I Do! and Bed Before Yesterday. I Do! I Do! was moved from spanning from 1900 to 1950 to being set between 1950 and 2000 and The Bed Before Yesterday was set in 1966 rather than the 1930 of Travers' original script.
In 2008 he directed a revival of his 2003 production of Fiddler On The Roof, this time starring Joe McGann as Tevye, and he directed the premiere of Deadly Game at Vienna's English Theatre. In 2007, he directed the UK National Tour of South Pacific. In 2006, he directed the UK premiere of The Musical of Musicals, at the King's Head Theatre and Sound Theatre, London.
Awards
He is also a winner of the Stage One Award for new producers and produced the 2009 national tour of Totally Looped.
References
- ↑ Sam Marlowe (December 31, 2004). "Wind in the Willows". Times Online. London. Retrieved 2009-04-04.
- ↑ Davis, Clive (October 22, 2009). "Liberace Live from Heaven at the Leicester Square Theatre London WC2". The Times. London. Retrieved May 7, 2010.