Hello, while our website gets a proper re-design (because it’s a bit of a mess, let’s be honest) I thought I’d take this chance to tell you about this place and me.

My name is James, I’m an actor and film/theatre-maker – and Artistic Director of Playhouse East.

The moment feels right to say directly - one of the points of theatre is to have your own views challenged, your own biases realised in yourself.

Drama works by setting one argument against another so that, if the writing is performed honestly, a truth unseen at the start can be revealed.

It often requires two opposing views in the same room. Tragedy occours when one side refuses to change, stalemate when both refuse, transformation when either might, and catharsis when someone does

If there is any direction I intend to take this little place of ours is one in which we all talk a bit more, and we are willing to listen - and have our beliefs changed.

Up in our 90-seater theatre, The Playhouse, and alongside our acting studio Actors East, we are working toward becoming a truly independent and innovative centre of new writing development, with improvisation and group-theatre principles at its core.

As well as our monthly Scratch night “Scene Night” we are training 7 new first-time playwrights, as well as developing our own full-length plays as part of our year-round commitment to developing new work.

Our building is also home to 15 studios filled with creatives and companies ranging from post-production houses, filmmakers, writers, directors, music producers and more. Since setting up this place it’s become more and more apparent that, sadly, places like ours might be rare – independently run creative spaces. I’ve spent much of my life in rooms with people trying to make things for other people to experience.

This little place of ours is for exactly that. Let’s make things.

We are in the process of developing our own new work in-house, and will soon announce the Playhouse East New Writing Company – an attempt to reduce the space between actors, writers and directors when creating new work. This has come through our completely free first-time playwrights programme called Writers East.