Jonathan Holmes (theatre director)

Dr Jonathan Holmes is a UK theatre director and writer, born on 28th October 1975 in South Yorkshire. He attended Wath Comprehensive School, The University of Birmingham (where he emerged with a first-class degree) and completed a Ph.D [http://shakespearean.org.uk/theses1.htm] at The Shakespeare Institute. He is a cousin of both William Thomas Forshaw and Cy Endfield.

For six years he taught Drama at Royal Holloway, University of London, leaving as a Senior Lecturer in 2007. During his time there he wrote two books: Merely Players [ISBN 978-0415319577] (about the rhetoric of classical acting) and Refiguring Mimesis [ISBN 978-1902806358] (with Adrian Streete, about aesthetics). He also set up a new degree programme in Drama and English.

During this first career he became an expert in the work of John Donne, and organised the first live performance for four centuries of several of Donne’s songs at St. Paul’s Cathedral in 2005 [http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article520308.ece] . Performers included Dame Emma Kirkby, Carolyn Sampson and The Sixteen. The event sold out, and the proceeds were donated to the charity Peace Direct.

In 2007 he wrote, directed and produced the play Fallujah [http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/stage/theatre/article1749480.ece] , starring Harriet Walter, Imogen Stubbs and Irene Jacob. It ran in a specially tailored space on Brick Lane with a score by Nitin Sawhney and design by the conceptual artist Lucy Orta. At the time it was the only significant account of the sieges of Fallujah, and is composed entirely of verbatim testimony. In 2008 he collaborated with The Sixteen, Alan Howard and Virginia McKenna on a series of concerts at the South Bank Centre.

He has also written and directed two short films, starring Rebecca Lenkiewicz, Elliot Cowan and Julian Ovenden, and is nearing completion on a feature documentary, Perpetual Peace [http://www.youtube.com/results.php?search_query=Perpetual+Peace] . This last includes interviews with peacemakers around the world and features contributions by Harold Pinter, John Berger, Karen Armstrong, George Monbiot, Tony Benn and Noreena Hertz, among others.

In 2008 he set up The Jericho House, a movable performance venue specialising in cross-media collaborations around the theme of hospitality. The Jericho House is groundbreaking in its use of sound and music, leading Holmes to set up a partnership with The Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience examining the effect of sound on the brain.

He lives in north London.

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