Paul Burbridge

Artistic Director

Paul is Artistic Director of Riding Lights. He has been involved as actor, director or writer in all the company’s major productions, from early award winning revues at the Edinburgh Festival to the world premiere of the comic masterpiece Augustus Carp Esq. and recent successful national tours of Simeon’s Watch, Crosslight, a different drum, and Origins & Lemons.

Most recently Paul co-wrote and directed the company’s national tour of Baked Alaska, a satirical show calling for action on climate change, produced in partnership with Christian Aid and Operation Noah. Baked Alaska is to be released in 2017 as a series of short films to help continued discussion about these urgent issues.

Previously Paul has directed Ben Jonson’s The Alchemist at the Belgrade Theatre, Coventry, Murray Watts’s play African Snow to mark the 200th anniversary of the Abolition of the Slave Trade, and his own adaptation of Three Men in a Boat at York Theatre Royal. In 2012 he co-directed the large scale production of the York Mystery Plays with a 500-strong community cast (co-produced with York Theatre Royal and York Museums Trust).

Current projects in development with Riding Lights include Counting The Clouds, a new play by Nigel Forde linking the story of Job with current scientific enquiry, a new play by Neil Duffield about conscientious objection and peace-making and a major contemporary re-telling of the Gospel to mark the start of Riding Lights 40th anniversary year.