Contact Us
Contact Details
For more information on The Cambridge Shakespeare Festival Productions:
Tel: 07955 218824
Email: [email protected]
The Company
The Festival Company was established in Oxford in 1988 by Artistic Director Dr David Crilly. The main focus for the Company is the annual Cambridge Shakespeare Festival which runs throughout July and August. Situated in the gardens of the Colleges of Cambridge University, its pastoral setting is one of the loveliest in the world, and certainly it would be a difficult task to find a more appropriate and beautiful setting for the staging of Shakespeare's plays.
Education
The Company's commitment to providing access to all to these greats works has resulted in the establishment of a programme of educational events associated with the Cambridge Shakespeare Festival. Leading up to the Festival, talks, workshops and lectures are available which introduce students of all ages to the plays which are to be performed.
Also, during the Festival, it is possible to book visiting workshops involving the actors and the director of any of the plays in the Festival. The members of the CSF will visit your school, college or language-school and introduce the play and (perhaps more importantly for overseas students) our particular production of it. In this way the students gain the greatest possible benefit from the performance which they attend. During the workshop, students may be called upon to take part in acting out one or two scenes. If preferred, it is possible to book a visit after the students have seen the production.
To book a workshop or talk, contact the Education Officer at [email protected] or call 07955 218824 to discuss your individual needs.
Company Members
Dr David Crilly
Artistic Director David Crilly established the Festival Company in Oxford in 1988 whilst still a member of Magdalen College, where he undertook doctoral research in musicology. He is a composer and has performed on many occasions as an orchestral conductor in Cambridge. He has published on semiotics, music analysis and aesthetics, and also on the music of Britten, Debussy and Charlie Parker. For eighteen years he was Director-in-Residence for Anglia Opera. He is also an independent researcher in Music and Drama and recently returned from lecture tours of India, Oman, Jordan, Namibia and South Africa.
Jan Burns
Executive Producer Jan Burns took over as Executive Producer of CSF in 1996, prior to which she worked in publishing and investment banking. Apart from her administrative responsibilities for the Company, she is also the Company dramaturge and advises on aspects of text editing leading to performance.
Dr Simon Bell
Associate Director Simon was educated at Reading University and trained at Guildford School of Acting, with a PhD in the Slovenian conceptual art collective the NSK. Simon is a freelance theatre practitioner and director of over 140 theatre productions, co-founder of the Regenerator Theatre Company, resident director of the Theatre of the Wheel, and has been an associate director of the Cambridge Shakespeare Festival for the past 20 years. He is currently lecturing in theatre at Anglia Ruskin University.
David Rowan
Associate Director David Rowan trained at the Guildford School of Acting and has been actor and Associate Director for the CSF since 1990. He has written and directed over fifty productions in rep. and regional theatres, collaborating in one instance with the playwright Arnold Wesker. Recently he set up the Education Department for The Harlequin Theatre. He is visiting drama tutor for Blackheath Conservertoire.
Joshua Crilly
Production ManagerIn one way or another, Josh has been around the Festival all his life (having been born two years after it was founded). He has contributed to the performances onstage on several occasions, appearing in Macbeth, The Winter’s Tale, All’s Well That Ends Well and King Lear. He now prefers to work behind the scenes.