Alby James

Alby James is a theatre director and a producer for film and television drama. He is also involved in talent development for emerging writers and filmmakers, designing and running training and project development programmes for writers, directors and producers. He has run such programmes in the UK, South Africa and Russia.
He is committed to improving diversity and inclusion of under-represented communities and to challenging the stereotypical representation of these groups in drama. Early in his career he adopted director Peter Brook’s aphorism, “new truths are found when stereotypes are broken” as a signature for his approach. He s currently developing feature films and series drama in his production company, Dramatic Encounters. For three years from 2017, he led the Diverse Directors’ Workshop at the National Film & Television School, which aimed to improve access to the mainstream and professional independent production sector of women, Black and other ethnic minorities and those with disabilities.
For two years from April 2007 he was Head of Development with EON Screenwriters’ Workshop, a subsidiary of the James Bond production company, leading the development of a slate of new feature films by emerging writers. Prior to this he was for a year Academic Leader for Media and Performance at London Metropolitan University and, before that for six years, Head of Screenwriting at the Northern Film School at Leeds Metropolitan University.
He was trained by the BBC as a film and radio drama producer and director and has been involved in film, television and radio drama since 1994. Prior to this he had a successful 15-year career as a theatre director both as a freelance director and as artistic director of Temba Theatre Company, an Arts Council-funded national touring company with which he won accolades and awards for his premières of new works as well as for his innovative productions of the classics. His main achievements in the theatre include his productions for Temba of Woza Albert in 1986, which he had to revive several times for tours in the UK and Europe due to popular demand, and his 1988 Cuba-set production of Romeo and Juliet. Other seminal productions include his West End Theatre debut in 1990 with August Wilson’s Pulitzer prize-winning play, Fences, starring Hollywood actor Yaphet Kotto, and, as associate director to Trevor Nunn, the Glyndebourne Festival Opera production of Porgy and Bess in 1986, which was revived in ’87 at Glyndebourne and then in ’92 at the Royal Opera House. This production was then filmed. He had previously worked with Trevor Nunn when he was an assistant director at the Royal Shakespeare Company from 1982–83 for the first season at the Barbican Theatre.

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Past productions

Director, Essex Girls, RADA July 1999, Kennington Studio Theatre.
Director, My Children! My Africa!, Watermill Theatre, Newbury 18^th May – 12^th June 1993, Watermill Theatre, Newbury.
Director, The Shelter 1992 – 1993, RADA, London.
Director / Co-Adapter, A Killing Passion, Temba Theatre Company 7^th January – March 1992, Lyric Studio, Hammersmith, London and UK tour.
Director, Lysistrata 1991 – 1992, RADA, London.
Director, The Constant Wife 1991 – 1992, RADA, London.
Director, Ghosts, Temba Theatre Company 28^th January – 1^st June 1991, Contact Theatre, Manchester, Tour – UK, and other locations.
Director, Dona Rosita, The Spinster (The Language of Flowers) 1990 – 1991, RADA, London.
Director, Streetwise / Mamma Decemba, Temba Theatre Company 9^th October – 15^th December 1990, Lilian Baylis Theatre, London, Watermans Arts Centre, Brentford, and other locations.
Director, Fences, Bill Kenwright in association with Liverpool Playhouse 15^th August – 3^rd November 1990, Garrick Theatre, London and Liverpool Playhouse.
Director and co-deviser, Avé Afrika – a new play, written by Marianne Jean-Baptiste, RADA July 1990, RADA George Bernard Shaw Theatre.
Director, Eden, Temba Theatre Company 3^rd – 28^th April 1990, Riverside Studios, London.
Producer, Glory!, Tenba Theatre Company in Co-production with Derby Playhouse 16^th February – 16^th May 1990, Derby Playhouse and Lyric Theatre (Hammersmith), London.
Producer, Back Street Mammy, Temba Theatre Company 6^th September – 9^th December 1989, Lyric Studio, Hammersmith, London and Tour – UK.
Director, Mother Poem, Temba Theatre Company February – 17^th June 1989, Drill Hall, London and UK tour.
Director, Black Love Songs – two short plays including Black Love Song #1 by Kalamu Ya Salaam and Herbert III by Ted Shine, Temba Theatre Company October 1988 – 30^th January 1989, Young Vic, London and Tour – UK.
Director, Black Sheep, Temba Theatre Company September – December 1988, Tour – UK.
Director, Home, Wim Visser the Impressariat (Commercial Producer) September – December 1988, Leidse Schouwburg in Leiden, Netherlands and Tour – Netherlands & Belgium.
Director, A Visitor To The Veldt by Mfundu Vundla, Temba Theatre Company 2^nd February – 30^th April 1988, Young Vic Studio, London and Tour – UK.
Director, Romeo and Juliet, Contact Theatre Company and Temba Theatre Company 16^th March – 7^th August 1988, Contact Theatre, Manchester, Young Vic, London, and other locations.
Director / Producer, Black Sheep, Temba Theatre Company 2^nd March – December 1988, Tour – UK and Young Vic Studio, London.
Producer, You Can’t Stop the Revolution, Upstairs Theatre Company, Durban, South Africa 23^rd February – 26^th March 1988, Young Vic, London.
Director, Woza Albert!, Leicester Haymarket Theatre and Temba Theatre Company 9^th September 1986 – January 1990, Leicester Haymarket Studio, Young Vic, London, and other locations.
Director, The Pirate Princess – a revised version of a Jamaican Pantomime, Temba Theatre Company 6^th March 1996 – 29^th March 1986, Unicorn Arts Theatre (now Arts Theatre), London.
Producer, Basin by Jacqueline Rudet, Royal Court Theatre Upstairs in association with Temba theatre Company 29^th October – 9^th November 1985, Royal Court Theatre Upstairs, London.
Director, Mamma Decemba, Birmingham Repertory Company and Temba Theatre Company October 1985 – 22^nd February 1986, The Studio, Birmingham Repertory Theatre, The Place, London, and other locations.
Director, Pantomime, Leicester Haymarket Theatre and Temba Theatre Company 1^st April – 27^th July 1985, Leicester Haymarket Studio and Tricycle Theatre, London.
Director, Scrape Off the Black, Temba Theatre Company 8^th January – 25^th May 1985, Unicorn Arts Theatre (now Arts Theatre), London, Library Theatre, Manchester, and other locations.
Director / Producer, Chameleon, Temba Theatre Company 7^th January 1985 – January 1986, Oval House Theatre Upstairs, Tour – UK, and other locations.
Assistant Director, Peter Pan, Royal Shakespeare Company 19^th December 1984 (press night), Barbican Theatre, London.
Director, The Boot Dance, Temba Theatre Company April – June 1984, UK tour.
Assistant Director, All’s Well That Ends Well, Royal Shakespeare Company 13^th April (press night) – 15^th May 1983, Tour.
Director, Light Up for Life, Royal Shakespeare Company 10^th March 1983 (press night), Pit, London.
Director, All You Deserve, Royal Shakespeare Company 24^th February 1983 (press night), Pit, London.
Director, Anna Petrovna, Royal Shakespeare Company 4^th February 1983 (press night), Pit, London.
Director, A Woman Alone, Royal Shakespeare Company 1^st February 1983 (press night), Pit, London.
Assistant Director, Henry IV, Part 1, Royal Shakespeare Company 9^th June 1982 (press night), Barbican Theatre, London.
Assistant Director, Meetings, Hampstead Theatre 30^th March – 24^th April 1982, Hampstead Theatre, London.
Director, Verdict by the company, UEA Students’ Union DramaSoc August 1976, Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
Director, The Ascent of F6 1949 – 1950, Drama Department, Bristol University.

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Alby James

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