Julian Crouch -
Julian Crouch is a director, designer,
writer, and teacher whose career has spanned Theatre, Opera,
Film, and Television. Initially a mask and puppet maker, Couch
designed Chivari for Trickster Theatre Company, a company
he toured the world with in 1985 and 1986. In the following
years, Julian specialized in site specific design including
seventeen productions for Welfare State International. In 1992,
he began a successful creative partnership with Phelim McDermott,
for whom he designed Dr. Faustus, Improbable Tales, The
Servant of Two Masters, and The Hunchback of Notre
Dame (which earned him a TMA nomination for Best Designer
of the Year). They also co-directed and designed The Quest
for Don Quixote which received a Best Director Nomination
in the London Fringe Awards and A Midsummer Night's Dream
(TMA Best Touring Productions Award) for the English Shakespeare
Company. Along with Lee Simpson, Crouch and McDermott formed
their own company, Improbable Theatre in 1996. Their productions
of Animo, 70 Hill Lane, Lifegame,
Coma, Spirit, Sticky, and Angela Carter's Cinderella
have gained far-reaching national and international recognition,
winning several major awards. Crouch and McDermott's most enduring
collaboration to date has been Shockheaded Peter for
Cultural Industry (Olivier Awards - Best Entertainment, also
nominated for Best Direction and Best Design, TMA Best Director
Award, Critics Society Best Designer Award and a South Bank
Show Theatre Award Nomination). This production, based on the
Struwwelpeter book, has returned to the West End after
four years of record breaking international touring. In 2000
they produced a German version, Struwwelpeter, for
the Deutches Shauspielhaus, Hamburg. They returned in 2002
to mount Ein Sommernachstraum. In 2000 Crouch collaborated
with Ballinese puppeteers and musicians in The Theft of
Sita for the Adelaide Festival, which appeared in London
as part of Lift and at BAM as part of 2001 Next Wave. Most
recently Julian designed Tiny Dynamite for Paines Plough
and Frantic Assembly.
The Hanging Man —
2003 Next Wave Festival
The Theft of Sita — 2001 Next Wave Festival