Directing and Acting

Ian's skills are flexible and wideranging. His attitude is that "you're a better director, actor, producer or whatever if you understand your colleagues' areas of work as well". It's an approach which enables him to take on work beyond his existing experience as required.

Ian's style - Directing for radio...
In directing for radio, Ian typically aims for clear and recognisable characterisation, voice and setting - realising that many listeners will not be able to give their full attention throughout the piece. Ian has watched several accomplished professional directors at work at length, and as well as learning from their methods he also applies his extensive knowledge of writing and editing for the medium to connect actors as closely as possible with the script. This approach yielded particularly successful work in novel circumstances for BBC WM in 2006, when Ian directed inmates to perform original material for broadcast on the station - the resulting drama-documentary was put forward for a Gillard award by the station.

Ian's style - Directing for theatre...
In directing for theatre, Ian exploits the intensity and immediacy of the medium to deliver intense, memorable and distinctive performances that are inventive yet accessible to all viewers. He's an approachable director who aims to avoid an inflated ego or an over-fixed vision of how to do things. He's advised the directors of three Edinburgh Fringe plays in shows that earned praise for being 'physically intense, exact and compelling' (Fest 2004).

Ian's style - Acting...
In acting, Ian is of course flexible, but always brings a psychological depth and physical intensity to his performances, whether for taut drama or fast-paced comedy. What's always important is a strong presence and clear voice, both of which Ian achieves with a distinctive and recognisable style - bringing a brooding, shifting presence to all his roles.

Ian's experience:

• Playing the title role in his "innovative action farce" play Haze, an offbeat hit at the 2003 Edinburgh Fringe Festival (left), as spoof action hero Jack Haze. The Scotsman thought Ian's pistol-whipping performance the highlight of the production, memorably comparing the play's 'dull, ineffectual' fictional hack writer George with his laughable alter ego, 'the infinitely more enjoyable Haze crashing through a window' - 'Haze, by contrast, looks like the Terminator's underfed nephew and spouts movie cliches with a knowing grin'. Ian also led some directing sessions of the earlier University of Nottingham run of the play, which was rewarded with great laughs from a full-house audience, with Ian taking a cameo role.
  
• Directing a group of inmates at HMP Birmingham to produce quality radio drama from their work, for BBC WM (2006) - listen to the piece, put forward for a Gillard award by the station, here.
  
• Co-directing the New Matrix Productions adaptation of Dario Fo's Mistero Buffo for the 2004 Edinburgh Fringe Festival, in a production praised as 'physically intense, exact and compelling' by Three Weeks. And taking the ensemble parts in the company's 2006 production of Fo's Can't Pay? Won't Pay!
  
• Directing groups of young people from Brierley Hill Primary School to turn their drama work into performance for Big Arts Week (2004).
  
• Moonlighting as required on award-winning student soap opera Lenton Boulevard as director and actor, including a memorable appearance as a doddery Old English professor (included in the sampler download). 2002-3.
  
• Innovative performances as part of Ian's First Class English Studies degree at The University of Nottingham even within conventional presentations - with one earning this tutorial feedback: "This was undoubtedly first class work... You began - very bravely - with a performance... employing lighting, a fellow actor, detailed props and an amusing and intelligent script in which you ironically surveyed the theory which you would later deconstruct... Rather than just being an exemplification of your views (although it worked well in that context), it was very much a peformance: well rehearsed, with the staging intelligently thought out... Your character's voice in this section allowed you to put forward various views economically and with humour - including the fact that 'theory will never explain this'."
  
• Also appearances on BBC radio dramas The Archers (2004, coincidentally alongside Chris Moyles and his team) and Silver Street (2004).

Downloads:
>Haze press release (Word, 30KB)
>BBC WM (West Midlands) - Family Man prison drama