Pilot Theatre

Pilot Theatre is an Arts Council England funded Theatre Company based in York, England. It was founded in 1981 by students from Bretton Hall College in Wakefield. The company was based in Wakefield and Castleford before moving to York in 2001.

The company is now based at York Theatre Royal. It tours work in the UK and internationally.The Artistic Director is Marcus Romer who has written and directed work for the company since 1995, working with teams that include composer Sandy Nuttgens and designer Ali Allen and Lighting Designer James Farncombe and AV design by Arnim Friess and more recently with KMA

They produced the IIFA Bollywood Oscar Awards opening sequence for stage and TV in 2007 at Sheffield Arena. This was in partnership with their new collaborators Kit Monkman and Tom Wexler from KMA who are also based in York.

They are part of the EU Culture 2000 funded programme called Magic-Net along with twelve other countries across Europe. The company has won three Manchester Evening News awards for "Lord of the Flies", by William Golding, adapted by Nigel Williams, and "Beautiful Thing", by Jonathan Harvey. Other work includes "Sing yer heart out for the lads", by Roy Williams, "Road" by Jim Cartwright, "Bloodtide" by Melvin Burgess, "The Beauty Queen of Leenane" by Martin McDonagh, "Kiss of the Spiderwoman" by Manuel Puig, "Mirad a Boy from Bosnia" by Ad de Bont, "Rumble Fish" by S.E Hinton, "Look Back In Anger" by John Osborne , "The Elephant Man" by Bernard Pomerance, "Fungus the Bogeyman" by Raymond Briggs, "The Twits" by Roald Dahl and "Looking for JJ" by Anne Cassidy.

They won the Manchester Evening News Award for best production for their tour of "Lord of the Flies" in 2001. A tour of this production is planned for 2008.

Pilot Theatre have embraced new technologies both on and off stage. They built their production of "Looking for JJ" on MySpace and have the first UK Theatre hub in Second Life.

Core team: Marcus Romer, Artistic Director/Chief Executive, Amanda J Smith, Administrative Producer, Sarah Seddon, Admnistrator, Katie Fathers, Projects Co-ordinator, Tracy Cochrane, Marketing Consultant, Charles Moore, Finance Director, Hannah Priddle, Associate Artist - Education, Helen Cadbury, Education Associate, Richard Hurford, writer in residence, James Molyneux, Production Manager, Stuart Farnell, Technical Manager, Francesca Finney, Company Manager

Patrons: Roy Williams, Ayub Khan Din, Anne Cassidy, Jonathan Harvey, Melvin Burgess, Dolly Dhingra, Philip Ridley, Stan Barstow

The Board of Directors: Dave Moutrey (Chair), Kully Thiarai, Saira Mughal, Geoff Alvy, Stephen Mason, Ann Wishart, Tim Evison, Jim Walkden, Christina Wright, Peter Whelan, Sam Sherratt

External links

* [http://www.pilot-theatre.com Pilot Theatre website]
* [http://www.britishcouncil.org/arts-performanceinprofile-2008-pilot-theatre.htm British Council Arts profile of Pilot Theatre]