Jon Bromwich

 

My teenage years were spent in school and youth theatre, exploring the writers of the day – John Arden, David Mercer, Joan Littlewood – or in the gods of the old Birmingham Rep watching some great actors in the classics – Albert Finney, Frank Findlay, Richard Chamberlain in Hamlet. But undoubtedly the most extraordinary experience, and the one which made me determined to go into the theatre, was queuing for 15 hours on the pavement outside the Aldwych Theatre in London to get a ticket for Peter Brook’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, an awe inspiring production – the face of British theatre had changed.

Left Birmingham for Bristol University. Radical social change seemed to be in the air, if not revolution! Within days we were sitting in at Senate House (probably for an increase in the much lamented student grant or better student housing). The three day week, power cuts, strikes, 30% inflation, David Bowie, Yes, Firesign Theatre, the Welfare State, John Bull’s Puncture Repair Kit, John Dowie, Ballet Rambert on their student campus tours. The heyday of the Arts Council’s small scale touring.

Back to the Aldwych to get my first job backstage at the RSC, learning the ropes (literally as I worked in the flies for much of the time). Then an Equity card at Derby Playhouse, first in stage management and then directing my first professional production. Back in London I mixed stage management and fringe directing (King’s Head etc) before starting a nine year period as a Company Manager touring the on the No 1 touring circuit – everywhere from His Majesty’s Aberdeen to Bournemouth Pavilion, Belfast Grand Opera House (a favourite, even through the Troubles in Northern Ireland) to Norwich Theatre Royal.

Then teamed up with Chris Hayes, who had just left Plymouth Theatre Royal where he had been Artistic Director, to produce our own shows – over twenty, mostly touring, including long running tours of Funny Peculiar with Peter Duncan (now a YMT patron), To Kill A Mocking Bird with Alan Dobie and The Diary of Ann Frank with Sara Kestelman. Chris moved to drama school teaching and I continued as a freelance general manager and consultant working for a variety of organisations including the National Trust. Had the inspiring experience of producing for Lindsay Kemp, one of Britain’s great self-exiled artists (along with Peter Brook), his last UK show Variété at Hackney Empire.

In 1999 became General Manager of the National Youth Music Theatre and moved it to substantial public funding before it closed in 2003. Following the trauma of its closure and the (unnecessary) redundancy of its excellent and committed staff, launched YMT with staff old and new, and new trustees committed to an ethical and creative approach to youth theatre. Delighted at YMT’s growth over the last seven years.

Have three wonderful children - Anna now in Paris, Tom currently in Korea on a world tour and Sam in Melbourne. Have lived in London, the best city in the world, for over thirty years now and enjoy life in Brixton with wife Diana. Favourite places: Brixton Market and, of course, London's theatres.