N I K O L A I

F O S T E R

T H E A T R E  D I R E C T O R

Nikolai Foster was born in Copenhagen, Denmark and grew up in North Yorkshire. He trained at Drama Centre London and at the Crucible, Sheffield.

His work has been seen in most of the UK’s leading regional theatres, touring houses and internationally. Foster has been director on attachment at the Sheffield Crucible, the Royal Court Theatre and National Theatre Studio and served as an Associate Director at the West Yorkshire Playhouse, Leeds.

Plays in preparation : Sherlock Holmes - The Best Kept Secret by Mark Catley (West Yorkshire Playhouse, Leeds / National Tour / London); the Bernstein / Laurents / Sondheim musical West Side Story (NYMT, Victoria Warehouse, Manchester) Brecht’s The Good Person of Sichuan (Mercury Theatre, Colchester) & Calamity Jane (Watermill Theatre, Newbury & National Tour).

Recently, Foster has directed the 20th anniversary production of Jonathan Harvey’s Beautiful Thing (Arts Theatre, London / West Yorkshire Playhouse, Leeds, Brighton Theatre Royal & Liverpool Playhouse); the Sondheim / Furth musical Merrily We Roll Along (Clwyd Theatr Cymru); The Diary of Anne Frank (York Theatre Royal & The Touring Consortium / National Tour); a major new production of the Broadway musical, Annie (West Yorkshire Playhouse, Leeds); Shakespeare’s As You Like It (Grosvenor Park Open Air Theatre, Chester) & Macbeth (Singapore Repertory Theatre, Fort Canning Park, Singapore).

Further work includes : Roald Dahl’s James and the Giant Peach (Birmingham Stage Company @ Birmingham Old Rep & National Tour), adapted by David Wood, with original songs by Grant Olding; the Kander, Ebb & McNally musical play, Kiss of the Spider Woman (Arts Ed, London); a new adaptation of Dickens’ Great Expectations by Tanika Gupta (Palace Theatre Watford / ETT / National Tour); Flashdance (Shaftesbury Theatre, London), an original musical by Tom Hedley, Robbie Roth & Robert Cary; two major revivals of plays by Noel Coward : Hay Fever (Chichester Festival Theatre) & A Song At Twilight (Mercury Theatre, Colchester, Theatre Royal Windsor and National Tour); Ayckbourn’s Absent Friends (Oldham Coliseum / Harrogate Theatre); Bryony Lavery & Jason Carr’s A Christmas Carol (Birmingham Rep 2009 & West Yorkshire Playhouse 2010), Barry Hines’ Kes, adapted by Lawrence Till (Liverpool Playhouse & UK Tour); David Essex’s All the Fun of the Fair (UK tours 2008/09 & 2010/12, also on film, released Autumn 2012); Dempsey and Rowe’s The Witches of Eastwick (UK tour); Boucicault’s London Assurance (Watermill Theatre, Newbury & UK Tour); Shaffer’s Amadeus, the final play to be staged at Sheffield’s Crucible, before it closed for refurbishment; the new production of Andrew Lloyd Webber, Charles Hart & Don Black’s Aspects of Love (UK National Tour & Nelson Mandela Theatre, South Africa); Orwell’s Animal Farm, Louise Page’s Salonika & Amanda Whittington's Bollywood Jane (West Yorkshire Playhouse, Leeds); Johnson’s Dead Funny (Oldham Coliseum & National Tour – Manchester Evening News Award Nomination – Best Visiting Production 2007); Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Mercury Theatre, Colchester); Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci (Pegasus Opera and English Touring Opera - National Tour); the Sondheim / Weidman musical play Assassins (Crucible, Sheffield - TMA Award Nomination 2006 - Entire Company); Ayckbourn’s Season’s Greetings (Liverpool Playhouse); Steinbeck‘s Of Mice and Men (Mercury Theatre, Colchester); Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire (Clwyd Theatr Cymru); Corneille’s The Liar - translated and adapted by Ranjit Bolt (Cochrane Theatre, London); and A Chorus Line (Crucible, Sheffield).

Other projects include : Bryony Lavery’s Bourbon - The 24 Hour Plays 2006 (The Old Vic Theatre, London); Coleman / Zippel / Gelbart’s City of Angels (English Speaking Theatre, Frankfurt); Lerner & Loewe’s My Fair Lady (Larnaca International Festival, Cyprus [2006], Esplanade Theatre, Singapore and Plenary Hall, Kuala Lumpur [2007]); community productions of Comden & Green’s Singin’ in the Rain and Bart’s Oliver! (Courtyard Theatre, Hereford) and Andrew Lloyd Webber & Tim Rice’s Evita (Zouk Ampitheatre, Beirut).

Photograph : Jeff Hordley as Napoleon in Orwell’s Animal Farm - West Yorkshire Playhouse, Leeds, 2009

by Keith Pattison