Julian Woolford

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Julian Woolford is a British theatre director, writer and educationalist based in the UK and working internationally. He was educated at the University of Kent and Bristol Old Vic Theatre School. He is currently Head of Musical Theatre at GSA Guildford School of Acting, the conservatoire based at the University of Surrey.

Previously he was not 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.

Sevenoaks Playhouse[]

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.

Writer[]

As a writer, his plays and musicals have been performed around the world. His stage adaptation of "The Devil's Advocate" had a highly successful tour of the Netherlands. Liberace Live From Heaven starred pianist Bobby Crush and had voice-over roles performed by Stephen Fry and Victoria Wood and played at the Leicester Square Theatre, at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and toured New Zealand.

Woolford writes book and lyrics to music by Richard John. Their musical The Teddy Bears' Picnic toured the UK. Their musical versions of Wind in the Willows and The Railway Children which were both produced at Sevenoaks Playhouse. The Railway Children is published by Samuel French and has been produced many times by community theatre companies around the world.[2] Their 10-minute musical was commissioned by Theatre 503 as part of their project.

Their musical "Comrade Rockstar" based on the life of Dean Reed was produced in concert at GSA with a West End cast at the Ivy Theatre Guildford and live-streamed worldwide. They were commissioned by the Estate of Lionel Bart (author of Oliver!) to completely rewrite the Book for Bart’s Twang!!, first produced by GSA and subsequently at London’s Union Theatre.

Woolford’s revue, Speak Low based on Kurt Weill and Lotte Lenya’s writings, was produced by GSA. For BBC Radio 3 he wrote Broadway Hall of Fame: Cole Porter and Broadway Hall of Fame: Leonard Bernstein, which were both produced at the . His musical Oh Carol! won the Covent Garden Festival Search for a New Musical. His play with music, BlueBirds, was first produced at the Cochrane Theatre, London and has had revivals at the Kenneth More Theatre and in London; B.Y.M (Beautiful Young Man) was presented as part of the Pride Encore Benefit Season in New York and his first play The Oedipus Complex, premiered at .

He co-wrote the musicals Let Him Have Justice and The Bakewell Bake-Off] (published by Concord). His many scripts for Christmas productions include Aladdin, Dick Whittington, Cinderella and Snow White for the , Snow White for and The Snow Queen for Theatre North and the scripts for Peter Pan and Cinderella at the .


He is the author of the book How Musicals Work (Nick Hern Books), which is the standard textbook for musical theatre creation and writing, and of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s The Sound of Music (Routledge Fourth Wall).

Director[]

In 2015 Woolford became the first person to direct a commercial musical in Egypt when he staged The Sound Of Music in a 2,000-seater tent in the desert outside Cairo, with a West End cast.

London productions: (Arts Theatre, West End); [3] at Leicester Square Theatre; The Musical of Musicals, (Sound Theatre & ); BlueBirds (Cochrane Theatre & Above The Stag); Let Him Have Justice (Cochrane Theatre); (); (Landor Theatre).

UK National tours: Oklahoma! (2010); South Pacific (2007/8); 'Carousel (2004); Fiddler on the Roof (2003 & 2008) and

Overseas: The Sound of Music (Cairo & Beirut premieres); The Importance of Being Earnest and at the English Theatre of Hamburg; Two Pianos, Four Hands; I Do! I Do! and (Vienna); (Off-Broadway); [[Wuthering Heights]] (European tour).

Regional Theatre: ; Vita & Virginia; Kiss of the Spiderwoman; The Turn Of The Screw; The Railway Children, Wind in the Willows (Sevenoaks Playhouse); Dames At Sea; ; The Sound Of Music; ; Aladdin; Dick Whittington; Cinderella; ; (Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch); (Mill at Sonning); Me And My Girl (Devonshire Park Eastbourne); ; Oedipus Rex and The Comedy Of Errors (Worthing).

Awards[]

In addition to the Awards at Sevenoaks Playhouse, he is also a winner of the Stage One Award for new producers and produced the 2009 national tour of Totally Looped.

References[]

  1. ^ Sam Marlowe (December 31, 2004). "Wind in the Willows". Times Online. London. Retrieved 2009-04-04.
  2. ^ "Mr Julian Woolford". Surrey. 2017. Archived from the original on 2017-03-08.
  3. ^ Davis, Clive (October 22, 2009). "Liberace Live from Heaven at the Leicester Square Theatre London WC2". The Times. London. Retrieved May 7, 2010.

External links[]

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