Directors and company founders
Stand-up Comedy experts
John Arthur
Bobby Bragg
Jeff Stevenson
Robin Herford
Andrew Havill
Christopher Luscombe
Philip Franks
Patrick Drury
Ron Aldridge
Christopher Webber
Richard Derrington
Alison Skilbeck
Tim Hardy
Consultants
Gail Vinall
Phil Thomas
Jeffrey Thompson
Donald Blaylock
Robin Herford
Comedy actor and theatre director.
Robin Read philosophy and English at St Andrews University and trained as an actor at the Bristol Old Vic theatre School. Much of his earlier career was involved with Alan Ayckbourn and the Stephen Joseph Theatre in the Round, Scarborough. Joining the company in 1978 as an actor, he was appointed associate director in 1979 and was Artistic Director from 1986 to 1988. Robin has appeared in the original productions of more Ayckbourn plays than any other actor, from Ten Times Table in 1977 to Henceforward… in 1987, and including the monster 16-play, two-hander Intimate Exchanges. He went into London with Season’s Greetings and Suburban Strains (Roundhouse), Intimate Exchanges (Greenwich and the Ambassadors) and Henceforward… (Vaudeville).
While Artistic Director at Scarborough, he commissioned and directed Stephen Mallatratt’s phenomenally successful adaptation of The Woman in Black, which has been running in the West End for 17 years, and has completed 9 national tours. In 1993, Robin travelled to Tokyo to direct the Japanese language premiere and, in 1995, to Connecticut to direct the American premiere.
As an actor, Robin’s radio credits are numerous, and his TV credits include Only Fools and Horses, Casualty and The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole. He featured in the film Up on the Roof, and in 2005, toured to Singapore and India, playing the lead role of Arthur Kipps in his own production of The Woman in Black. Earlier this year, Robin directed the national tour of The Hound of the Baskervilles.Other London productions include The Glory of the Garden (Duke of York’s), Rough Justice (Apollo), Joking Apart and The Importance of Being Ernest (Greenwich). Other directorial credits include Sergeant Musgrave’s Dance, All My Sons, Twelfth Night, The Importance of Being Ernest, Clouds, Butley, She Stoops to Conquer, The Beaux Stratagem, Blithe Spirit, Spokesong, Getting On, Tapster, Just Between Ourselves, Forty years on, A Going Concern, and What Every Woman Knows (Scarborough), Hard Times, (Croydon Warehouse), Ten Times Table, Sisterly Feelings, Woman in Mind, The Constant Wife (Theatre Royal, Windsor) and Man of The Moment (Chester).
Other productions cont'd: - Absent Friends and Same Time Next Year (World Tours), Bedroom Farce (Lyceum Edinburgh), A Going Concern (Nuffield Southampton), Time of My Life, Taking Steps, Perfect Days (Derby Playhouse), Woman in Mind, April in Paris, Talking Heads, Blithe Spirit, Just Between Ourselves (Northcott Exeter), Time and Time Again (Salisbury) and The Rivals (Vienna). National tours include Relatively Speaking, Confusions, Time and Time Again, Corpse!, Strangers on a Train and Arsenic and Old Lace and his most recent productions were Just Between Ourselves at Sonning, Hay fever at Basingstoke, Home, Driving Miss Daisy, The Turn of the Screw and Proof all at Oldham Coliseum.