Royal Court Liverpool have announced that they have appointed their first Artistic Dirctor to oversee all future programming at the venue and provide an artistic vision for all departments.
Ken Alexander, who most recently directed A Nightmare On Lime Street at the theatre, has previously directed Lucky Numbers and Dirty Dusting at the Roe Street venue.
Ken has been working as a professional Director since he was awarded a Scottish Arts Council Trainee Director Bursary in 1989, training with Artistic Director Dr Joan Knight, O.B.E. and Guest Director Professor Clive Perry, O.B.E. at Perth Theatre. He has directed over one hundred professional productions to date in the subsidised and commercial sectors.
He has held two Artistic Directorships and his strategic work in those roles has been characterised by programme development, modernisation, growth in audiences and enhanced national profile. Key to his success has been consistently high quality productions, development of education and community outreach work, and a clear connection with local communities.
During Ken’s ten years at the Byre Theatre in St Andrews (1994 – 2004) he took the organisation through three distinct periods of development. The first involved a highly effective period of programme and audience development, the second an extensive programme of outreach work and touring productions (alongside leading a major building project that saw an outdated and dilapidated building being replaced by an entirely new state of the art theatre) and the third saw the launch and establishment of the new Byre Theatre – opened by Sir Sean Connery in 2001. During his ten years in St Andrews the company’s output grew from five to eight in-house productions a year and in collaboration with other producers and presenters, he was also able to set up successful tours of several Byre Theatre productions.
At Perth Theatre Ken was invited to take up a year-long contract (2004-2005), following a period of declining audiences and production output that had resulted in this much-loved producing theatre becoming a receiving house. His specific remit and challenge was to re-establish the theatre as a producer and reinvigorate the organisation to regain the trust of audiences and funding partners. During this time Ken helped to secure additional financial support to expand the programme at Perth Theatre, which resulted in attendances rising by over 30% and box office income increased by almost 40%.
He has tackled the work of writers as diverse as Stephen Sondheim, Kay Mellor, William Shakespeare, Liz Lochhead, Tennessee Williams, John Byrne, Willy Russell and Ken Campbell. He has also been particularly involved and interested in developing, mentoring and commissioning writers and has staged many new and second productions of works by established and emergent writers that include D.C. Jackson, David Greig, Vivien Adam, Ann Marie Di Mambro, Jo Clifford, Sue Glover, Alma Cullen and Dameon Garnett.
Ken’s work as a director, particularly in recent years, has included a heavy slant towards new and contemporary writing for the stage, including Outlying Islands by David Greig, Good Things by Liz Lochhead and Passing Places by Stephen Greenhorn at Pitlochry Festival Theatre and the premiere of A Fond Kiss by Ann Marie Di Mambro for ‘A Play, A Pie and A Pint’ in Glasgow, at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and on tour
Throughout his work as an Artistic leader Ken has been involved in nurturing and developing partnerships, whether it be creative, managerial or financial, with funders and other artists, producers and presenters. He has also been committed to finding meaningful and innovative ways of connecting with local communities.
At the Byre Theatre, he consolidated and expanded the theatre’s education programme and developed its community outreach programme. The Byre was able to expand the lively youth theatre programme, offer improved facilities and opportunities for its writers group, provide technical production training projects for schools, amateur groups and university groups, enable enhanced student placement programmes, and establish a new creative project for the over 50s. He is looking forward to working in partnership with the Royal Court Liverpool Trust on similar projects here in Liverpool.
The move represents a significant change in the structure at the Royal Court which until now had been employing directors on a show by show basis and producing the vast majority of plays themselves.
Kevin Fearon, Chief Executive explained the restructure, “Ken’s appointment will broaden the type of work we do here at the Royal Court and also link us more strongly to the excellent work that the Royal Court Liverpool Trust does in education and community access. We are a very busy theatre and Ken’s arrival will allow us to take on new challenges as well as improving the way we operate now. This is an exciting development for the theatre and I am delighted that Ken has decided to join us.”
The appointment of an Artistic Director for the building will also mean that the producing arm of the Royal Court can be expanded. Current and future Royal Court shows will be made available to tour, which will give the theatre and the city a stronger national reputation.
Ken Alexander is delighted to be a part of what has become known as the People’s Theatre in Liverpool, “I am thrilled to be joining the Royal Court at this stage in its development. The recent investment in the building and its refurbishment has really enhanced this beautiful theatre – and the future development plans are very exciting too. Building based producing theatres have an essential role to play in the development of theatre artists of the future. I was given some wonderful opportunities during the early stages of my career and I want to encourage developing talents in every area, be that writers, actors, designers and directors or marketing, administration and production staff. I am really looking forward to building on the amazing achievements that the Royal Court has seen since it started creating theatre productions in Liverpool, nurturing and developing the wealth of talent that exists here.”