THE CREATIVE TEAM
Paul Burbridge - Director
Paul Burbridge is Artistic Director of Riding Lights Theatre Company. He has been a major influence behind the Company’s reputation for pioneering new work, for comedy and for powerful ensemble productions of classics and devised plays. He has been involved as actor, director or writer in all the Company’s major productions, from award-winning revues at the Edinburgh Festival to the recent world premiere of the hilarious comic masterpiece Augustus Carp Esq., and highly successful national tours of Dario Fo’s Mistero Buffo, The Winter’s Tale, the recent co-production with York Theatre Royal of African Snow, marking the 200th anniversary of the Abolition of the Slave Trade and the 2008 revival of his own adaptation of Three Men in a Boat also at York Theatre Royal.
Paul has overseen the development of Riding Lights from its community touring roots into one of the UK’s most productive and enduring independent touring companies. The Company’s first permanent home, Friargate Theatre in York, opened in 2000 with his ‘Yorkshire’ version of The Alchemist. Other notable productions for Riding Lights include his own adaptation of Three Men in a Boat (The Northcott Theatre and Theatr Clywd) and The Fire Raisers (The Northcott Theatre and The Bridewell, where it was Time Out’s Critics’ Choice). In 2001, a new award-winning musical Dick Turpin was one of a string of highly original ensemble productions for Riding Lights created with writer Bridget Foreman and designer Sean Cavanagh. Other recent shows, addressing issues such as international debt relief, terrorism, science and faith, social responsibility and safe water provision, have included A Different Drum, Balancing Act, Love Fifteen, Wrestling with Angels, Science Friction, Saving Grace, Hope Opera, Remember Remember and Pipe Dreams.
Sean Cavanagh - Designer
Trained under Ralph Koltai at the Central School of Art and Design, Sean has worked for many theatres throughout the UK and abroad. He is an Artistic Associate and Director of Riding Lights and has designed much of the company's work, including Friargate Theatre's opening production of The Alchemist, the musical Dick Turpin, touring productions of Mistero Buffo, Remember Remember, Science Friction, The Fun of the Fair, Saving Grace, Hope's Kitchen and The Winter's Tale. Other productions include the world premiere in Singapore of Judah Ben Hur - the Musical, Pickwick in Budapest, Edward III in Taormina, David Oyelowo's production of The White Devil, Who Do You Say I Am? for the BBC and multimedia events, including The Rock in San Francisco and Rock Me Amadeus in Vienna. Touring productions include M. Butterfly, Outside Edge, The Sound of Fury, Of Mice and Men, To Kill a Mockingbird, and Riding Lights' The Winter's Tale. Current projects include the premieres of two new musicals - Daydream Believer and Popera. Current UK and international tours include Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Sweet Soul Music, Rat Pack - live from Las Vegas and Dancing in the Streets. West End credits include The Tempest, The Aspern Papers, Sherlock Holmes - The Musical, Of Mice and Men, Treasure Island, Never the Sinner, The Miracle Worker, In Praise of Love, The Aspern Papers, The Roy Orbison Story, Stepping Out - The Musical, The Fire Raisers, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, The Rat Pack - Live from Las Vegas, Dancing in the Streets, African Snow and most recently Visiting Mr. Green.
Bridget Foreman - Writer
Bridget is an Associate Director of Riding Lights Theatre Company. She trained at Oxford University and the National Youth Theatre, and is a graduate of Arista’s ADEPT programme.
Salaam Bethlehem was written in 2007 following a number of research trips to Palestine and time spent staying with a Palestinian family in Bethlehem. Throughout the writing process, Bridget collaborated with Palestinian artists from Al Harah Theatre in Beit Sahour, just outside Bethlehem, as well as with Peace and Justice campaigners from the region.
Recent writing credits include Black Market, a piece about the modern slavery of immigrant workers, Remember Remember, commemorating the 400th anniversary of the Gunpowder Plot, Calvary - a passion play for York Minster; the premiere adaptation of the satirical novel Augustus Carp Esq. (Friargate Theatre) and the award-winning musical Dick Turpin for Riding Lights. Her other plays, some written out of the devising process, include Hope’s Kitchen, Science Friction, Love Fifteen, Balancing Act, a different drum, First Hand, A Dangerous Game and Barking Up The Christmas Tree (all Riding Lights Theatre Company), No More Gods (Sea View), Shouting at Shadows (6th Sense / Cheltenham Everyman), a short film for the BBC / Millennium Dome, and A Grain of Glass for BBC Radio 4. She recently worked as Dramaturg on Pinocchio for York Theatre Royal / Shysters / Full Body and the Voice at York Theatre Royal.
Bridget is currently under commission to York Theatre Royal for Playhouse, and to York Theatre Royal / Back and Forth for Beyond Measure, which tours in Autumn 2008.
She is also a project director for Pilot Theatre and an Associate Artist of the National Youth Theatre.