Simmons, Pip

Practitioner

Pip Simmons trained as a drama teacher at Middlesex University before moving to the Drury Lane Arts Lab. In 1968 he set up his own experimental company, The Pip Simmons Theatre Group, which made shows through collective devising. Their style was intense, physical and musical and they were influenced by, and drew on, popular culture. Their aesthetic was confrontational, designed to provoke a response from their audiences. Notable shows include Superman (1969), Do It! (1971), and The George Jackson Black and White Minstrel Show (1973). The group split up in 1973, and Simmons increasingly worked abroad, particulary at the Mickery Theatre, Amsterdam. The group reformed with an international membership for An Die Musik (1975), a devised piece that challenged what Simmons saw as the ‘romanticisation of Anne Frank and the Holocaust'. The show was an international, if controversial success and was followed by The Tempest(1977), Woyzeck (1977) and Alice in Wonderland(1985).

In the late 1980s Simmons began working with the London International Festival of Theatre (LIFT), directing Crossing the Water (1987), a project about the Vietnamese Boar People. He also worked in Denmark and France, before reviving An Die Musik with the Jewish Theatre of Bucharest in 2000. Kate Dorney

Simmons_Assetthumb — Video

An Interview with Pip Simmons

During the revival of An Die Musik in 2000, Simmons discusses the origins of the original production and the process of its creation and compares it with the process of recreating it 25 years later.

Holt_Thumb — Practitioner

Holt, Thelma

Thelma Holt started out as an actress, before working mainly as a producer at the Roundhouse, the National and the RSC. She has played a crucial role in introducing international theatre to Britain.

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Brewster, Yvonne

Yvonne Brewster was born in Jamaica in 1938. She set up Jamaica’s first professional theatre company at the Barn Theatre Kingston, and also co-founded the Talawa Theatre Company in the UK, in 1985.

Brewster_Thumb — Brewster, Yvonne

Yvonne Brewster was born in Jamaica in 1938. She set up Jamaica’s first professional theatre company at the Barn Theatre Kingston, and also co-founded the Talawa Theatre Company in the UK, in 1985.