about
I was born in Cardiff, went to university in London, travelled solo around USA when I was about 19, trained as an actor at École Philippe Gaulier, started an indie theatre company and also got into music and illustration via that. My artistic interest lies in visual storytelling and improvisation.
My theatre work has been non-scripted and I use my sketchbooks to visualise narratives. I'm Artistic Director of Cartoon de Salvo who've played everywhere from tiny village halls and cliff tops in Cornwall, from proper producing houses to allotments, to Edinburgh, Glastonbury and Hong Kong International Festivals. Following training with impro legend Keith Johnstone I introduced the company to long-form impro. We trained in San Francisco to improvise a whole story in one night and the resulting show Hard Hearted Hannah and Other Stories, which pioneered long-form impro in the UK, was in the Telegraph’s Top Ten Comedy Shows of 2008 and recently took the company to Washington’s Kennedy Center.
Since 1997 I've overseen the artistic vision, led the Company through organisation development, found successful funding partnerships and managed teams of between 4 to 29 on over 30 projects. I've directed all and performed in many of the shows which include 2005’s BAC Christmas show The Ratcatcher of Hamelin, Meat and Two Veg and a site specific show about artistic risk called Pub Rock. In 2004-05 I sought commissions and funding, researched, co-produced and directed a £145,000 site-specific show The Sunflower Plot on two allotments.
Aside from the Salvo's I also work freelance in the theatre. Credits include performing and improvising; Ghosts Nets II, Roger Salmon, The Wooden Frock (all for Kneehigh Theatre), Crackers? and Squib (The World Famous), and guest impro with the Comedy Store Players, directing: 126 Flutes with jazz flautist Keith Waithe for BAC Opera, Guy Dartnell’s Unsung (co-directed with Tom Morris), Ionesco's The New Tenant (Young Vic) and a reading of Karpati's The Fourth Gate (National Theatre) as part of the Channels: Hungary season. Along with Gaulier I also trained at the Royal National Theatre Studio Directors Course (1999) and have taken workshops with Monika Pagneaux, Marcello Magni and Keith Johnstone. I've taught extensively and am a Visiting Lecturer and Director at Middlesex University and the Central School of Speech and Drama and I teach Introduction to Rural Touring for the Independent Theatre Council. My work's been featured in the Guardian, Time Out, Total Theatre Magazine and I was interviewed for the New Statesman’s arts and culture feature The Way I See It. I recently was selected for the Clore Short Course and am part of BAC’s Independents programme exploring and advocating for the role of the artist in cultural leadership.
I’m also in three bands – americana/country band The Du-rell Family, a faux rock band called One Trick Pony and an oldey-timey American Jug Band which doesn’t really have a name and for which I play guitarry things and the washboard.