My Work in Brief
Simon Corble - Creator of dramatic works
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I started my professional life as an actor in the 1980's, but soon moved into directing and writing for my own unique brand of promenade theatre - moving an audience through a landscape, following the actors from scene to scene. It all began with my production of The Tempest, on Hilbre Island in 1990, where actors and audience were stranded by the tide for six hours at a stretch, each day. The great outdoors and the natural world are constant themes and forces, throughout my work - which includes photography in support of the written, or spoken word.
In 1996 I collaborated with Nobby Dimon in creating the stage show of The 39 Steps - intially as writer, then co-director as the project developed. I guided the show through many incarnations, until, after ten years "on the road", it started a run of nine years in the West End and a shorter stint on Broadway, (with additional work by Patrick Barlow). Around the millennium I took a complete break from theatre, working as a tour guide on the rugged, Greek island of Ikaria for two years, followed by another two Springs as walking tour leader, through some incredible mountain scenery and its wildlife. I continue to devise, write and lead walks here in The Peak District where I now live and work - see 'birdsongwalks'. Back in the UK, I started a small experimental theatre company, Found Theatre, to explore new ways of working and develop fresh projects and scripts - which I continue to do alongside my poetry, which has become a major part of my output in recent years. I think of "Playwright" in the very hands-on sense - as in "Wheelwright" or "Shipwright"; I like to build a thing from scratch and as part of a team. The raw materials are:- ideas, actors, objects, language, landscape, a story... A poem is just as graspable; framed or beaten into shape as I walk and talk the words out loud, and, just like theatre, a poem is not 'finished' until shared with an audience. It's all about discovery - a moment, a feeling, a thought - and then everything that flows from that. I create works for the theatre that often come with comedy built-in by default, no matter how "serious" the starting point. It's part of who I am. |
It's all about discovery - a moment, a feeling, 
The Tempest, Hilbre Island, Midsommer Actors' Co. first show, 1990
"Six Little Bunnies" in development, with Found Theatre, 2016
The Wonderland Adventures of ALICE, with The Library Theatre Co. 1994
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My much-produced adaptation of The Hound of the Baskervilles - Peel Castle, Isle of Man, for the Isle of Man Arts Council, 2007
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"Simon Corble is a professional writer with a background in theatre, both as a playwright and director. Throughout the 1990’s with his company Midsommer Actors’ he specialised in creating site-specific adaptations of classic tales around dozens of open-air locations as varied as Beeston Castle, Cheshire, to the heather moorlands owned by the National Trust at Brimham Rocks, North Yorks. He won a Manchester Evening News Theatre Award in 1997 for his adaptation, “Of Mice and Men” which toured widely to old farmyards across the country. He was co-creator in 1996 of the hit comedy The 39 Steps, which later went on to enjoy a lengthy run in the West End, winning the Olivier award for “Best New Comedy” in 2007." - A typical theatre programme biography. |
My production of Shakespeare's As You Like It - Arundel Festival, Sussex, 1995. Rosalind & Touchstone
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My own production of the original - click on the image for videos!
