Published illustrator creating children's book images, esoteric artwork, educational materials, adult colouring in, tattoo illustration, concept art, line drawing, lettering.

Alex is an award-winning theater director, producer and educational practitioner with 14 years of experience in facilitating performance workshops. She also uses illustration and ceremony to create meaningful stories that encourage ecological and spiritual exploration. Her education work is rooted in self-led creative discovery, adventure and game.

https://www.alexcrampton.com/celebrant

Original, creative ceremonies

Creative Play workshops for educators and learners.

a digital festival full of inspired performances hosted by Huw Stephens and recorded at the stunning National Museum Wales, Cardiff.

The musicians joining us include electronic pop artist Ani Glass, accomplished Irish violinist Aoife Ní Bhriain, Welsh harpist Catrin Finch, Cardiff based rising star Juice Menace, post-punk poet Sinead O'Brien, multi-instrumentalist The Gentle Good and Trinidad-born rapper, producer, and songwriter BERWYN.

Gŵyl 2021 is brought to you in partnership by Other Voices Cardigan, Festival of Voice, Aberystwyth Comedy Festival and Focus Wales.

Lead for MYPT (Mwldan Young People's Theatre) - design & delivery of weekly performance workshops for three age groups (5-7yrs, 8-11yrs, 12-16yrs) in improvisation, scripted theatre, devised theatre, image theatre & Theatre of the Oppressed. Summer School intensive 2019 'Play in a Week' with three age groups, in full dress with tech.

Rebranding a popular & well known food festival, collaborating with Cardigan Castle for the first time in the festival's 20 year history. Additional funding secured, 'Slow & Sustainable' theme, expanded arts provision & participatory workshops. Over 5000 visitors attended the multi-site event.

Artistic & production support to Mark Down & company for the development of 'Henry'.

Residential at Il Funaro (Tuscany, Italy) followed by a short performance run at the Pleasance, Islington & Trestle Theatre (London, UK).

Assisting Mark Down on 'The Table', short run at the Spoleto Festival, USA.

Working intensively with primary school groups (over one week) to explore their responses to 'tomorrow' and the big challenges of today: what is the future of Food and School? Their final work was shared alongside other school groups in a central London venue, with tech.

Written & Performed by Karis Halsall

Luminary Theatre, IdeasTap
Theatre 503 & VAULTS Festival | 2015

Director & Dramaturgy Alex Crampton

Sound Samuel Organ | Video Vittoria Belli

“Halsall draws us into her character’s psyche – just her and a microphone, and under director Alex Crampton’s steady hand, we are off to an intriguing start. Crampton has her work cut out for her and keeps Halsall together as the audience is whisked through a cacophony of character, landscape and sound
… In Megalopolitan, every part is so different from the others that the beauty of it is the portrait these tiny pieces paint as a whole.”

★★★★ THEATRE FULLSTOP (Samuel Clay)

'Gamification & Devised Theatre', practical workshops with Devised Theatre module, Year One students.

THE LIGHTHOUSE (R&D)
Written by Rachel Claye
Produced by Space Productions & Arts Council England

Devised residential working with all-female school groups around themes of power and finding their voice in the 21st century. Their work was shared on the main stage of the Donmar.

LITTLE STITCHES
BAREtruth Theatre

Sleight Of Hand by Isley Lynn
Where Do I Start by Raul Quiros Molina
Dancing Feet by Bahar Brunton
Mutant by Karis E Halsall

Alex Crampton Director
Melissa Dean Producer

Performed at Theatre503, Gate Theatre, Arcola Tent

“Piercingly eloquent mini-dramas about FGM …
A profoundly upsetting series of plays, but ones that give enhanced clarity as they explores the barbarous ritual from various angles … Alex Crampton directs all four with vivid versatile actors in an excellent BARETruth production that does justice to the way, in some of the plays (one of which is verbatim), the horror steals into one’s ken gradually from within a comically depicted context. The gabby air-hostess who notices a mother holding onto her daughter for dear life.”
Independent
****

BRIGHT NIGHTS
Written by Isley Lynn
Produced by ScriptSpace

Script6 Festival Winner (new writing)

Rehearsed Reading
Performed by Sophie Steer & Tom Shepherd

HUSK
Written by Jon Barton
Produced by Equilibrium Productions

Rehearsed reading at Soho Theatre

ZERO POINT 2.0

In spring 2014, I came across Jamie Harper of Hobo Theatre who was swimming in the same waters of game design, and how game play can help us engage with real world social systems/problems.

Studying alongside professional game designers based in LA, Jamie was well versed in the basic concepts and terminology of game design. His problem was how to lift 2D, ‘paper-based’ games from a mechanical, abstract level to something more akin to drama. My problem was how to translate a sprawling, epic global theme into a manageable, functional game. Our shared problem was how to build story to game play, where the narrative is meaningful but not pre-determined.

So we decided to collaborate, selecting (pretty arbitrarily) a sub-theme of my broader umbrella: the Immigration System.

Our R&D looked like this –

Week 1: Jamie led me through a systems analysis of the Immigration system
Week 2: We each devised a series of games based on that analysis
Week 3: We turned our games into interactive performance-games, with the help of a team of actors

The challenge now was not to ‘gamify’ a story (as with my OVNVLab experiments), but to ‘dramafy’ a game based on a theme.

Compiling educational resource pack for all schools engaging with 'Father & Sons' main house production (interviews with cast & crew, research into performance history, context, themes, etc.)

"This is the best educational pack I've seen in years" (Lyndsey Turner, Director).

(Cheers Lyndsey! I rate you, hard...)

FLUSTERED
Written by Cat Kerridge

SALT Theatre
Southwark Playhouse | 2014

Directed by Alex Crampton


Performed by Barry McCarthy, Gillian Kirkpatrick & Sophie Steer

Write at the Heart: 1 was the launch event for SALT, a theatre company interested in the connection between stories of the past, and those of the present. King Lear was chosen as the springboard classic, with 6 different writers, directors and creative teams staging an evening of fresh work at the Southwark Playhouse.

Also featured: Bad Joke by Joseph Wilde, Broken Meats by Jodi Gray, Elephant and my Castle by Phoebe Eclair Powell, Pelican by Sam Grabiner and Selkie by Maud Dromgoole.

SALT are Liana Weafer, Maggie Ann Bain & Emma Deegan

“Lear … surfaced in Catriona Kerridge’s painfully sidesplitting “Flustered” as an elderly father, jet-setting and drug-smuggling in the throws of dementia. He tried to learn Welsh and catch an international flight, wandered naked into the hall after mistaking it for the bathroom, and roated a chicken stuffed with £10k of cocaine (surely these are the surreal, modern-day equivalents of wandering the heath decked in flowers with a fool during an thunder storm). Most of this lunacy was offstage, recounted by one daughter to the other. These stories were hilarious but bruising: parental decay became an accusation and filial duty and old favouritism were weaponised in a struggle over caregiving.”

– Litro

© Photos by Lester Barnes

ZERO POINT is a project devised by long-term collaborators, Alex Crampton (director) and Sam Haddow (writer and lecturer), co-produced by theatre-maker Scott Hurran, and sound installation artist Erik Medeiros.

The project is concerned with the systematic crisis point we are accelerating towards, and themes of sustainability and social change. It is not interested in how we should be responding to the crisis, but how we are. We are looking for a new theatrical model that will enable us to ‘co-create’ alternate realities with audience members, exploring these themes through an immersive theatre experience that responds, in real time, to audience behaviour.

DON QUIXOTE (R&D)
Invited (through the Young Vic Genesis Network) to collaborate with Annie Fitzmaurice & Paul Hunter on the development of 'Don Quixote', after Cervantes. R&D took place at Soho Theatre, London.

In-school engagement workshops with groups attending main house production of 'Roots'.

THE TRIAL
Adaptation by Alex Crampton, Felix Mortimar & Josh Nawras

Dramaturgy by Alex Crampton

“RETZ’s creation of a near-constant high level of anxiety in surveillance heavy London is a masterstroke and would surely pass muster with Kafka himself.”
**** WHAT’S ON STAGE

Through East London’s nooks and crannies, The Trial is a version of Kafka’s seminal work spread across Hoxton. The audience follow Joseph K as he searches for the reason why he’s been arrested and discovers a sinister fate.

© All photos by Camilla Greenwell

Powder Her Face (R&D)
Directed by Joe Hill-Gibbons

A week of development workshops with other young directors from the Young Vic Genesis Network,

LIFE CYCLES
Written by Nick Myles

The Miniaturists

Arcola | 2012

Directed by Alex Crampton


Performed by Ellie Burrow, Christopher Lane, Helen Reuben, Haydn Whiteside

"Just because something’s small doesn’t mean it can’t be beautiful. Or experimental, or poignant or thought provoking. For proof of this, look to the Miniaturists, a regularly staged event that celebrates the possibilities of the short play…
"
(Natasha Tripney)

DEATH IN GREENWICH
Written by Andrew Doyle

Laugh Your Farce Off
Big Bear Productions

Pleasance Islington | 2012

Director Alex Crampton

Executive Producer Ursula Early
Cast Ian Keir Attard, Sophie Dickson, Molly Logan, Tom Walker

The inaugural ‘Laugh Your Farce Off’ – an evening of perfectly formed farces, 20 minutes long. The only brief: they must include 3 doors.

Laugh Your Farce Off became a regular event at the Pleasance London, and travelled to their Edinburgh venues for the 2013 festival. Featuring new work by Danielle Ward, Gabriel Bisset-Smith, Jon Brittain John Luke-Roberts, Caitlin Shannon, Charlie Partridge and Hannah Rodge.

Alex is an associate artist for Big Bear Theatre Company

"Laugh Your Farce Off is terrific fun to watch and the night has a friendly and exuberant vibe about it. True to the nature of farce, each script had the power to surprise and shock
"
– A YOUNGER THEATRE

"Bringing farcical comedy into the 21st Century"

– PUBLIC REVIEWS

© Photos by Andy Hui

KING LEAR
Written by William Shakespeare

Almeida Theatre | 2012
Director Michael Attenborough


Design Tom Scutt | Lighting Jon Clark | Sound Dan Jones | Fight Director Terry King | Movement Imogen Knight
 | Assistant Director Alex Crampton

Performed by 
Kieran Bew, Ian Gelder, Jenny Jules, Jonathan Pryce, Zoe Waites, Clive Wood
Phoebe Fox, Richard Hope, Chook Sibtain, Andrew Nolan, Ben Dilloway, Richard Goulding, Steven Elliott, Barry McCarthy, Trevor Fox, Christopher Tester, Alix Wilton Regan

© Photos by Keith Pattison

www.keithpattison.com

DEAD PILE
Written by Laura Jacqmin

OVNV, TS Eliot US/UK Exchange Award

Old Vic | 2012

Director Alex Crampton

Producer Ursula Early

Sound Nic Smith | Design Vasiliki Syrma & Vana Karamanou

Cast Ian Keir Attard, Helen Duff, Lekan Lawal, Richard Maxted, Tom Shepherd

Emerging theatre makers are offered space and funding for creative projects, ongoing professional development opportunities and invaluable networking workshops with peer and industry mentors.TS Eliot Exchange brings the best US and UK talent together to stage new work. Writers, directors, producers and performers are given one week to stage new work at the Old Vic.

Old Vic New Voices

© Photos by Gui O’Connor

SpaceWorks - community arts engagement project & three-tiered company, nestled in Tower Hamlets.

A programme of training and production opportunities in performance, technical theatre and arts administration for Space Cadets (primary), Space Youth Drama (secondary) and adults (WorkSpace).

I led all aspects of the project (marketing, budgeting, monitoring, administration, volunteer management, networking, recruitment) & designed the programme of activity in consultation with the Artistic Director (Adam Hemming).

Part of an intimate senior management team, experienced in all other aspects of venue management.

KID ARTHUR & THE KNIGHTS OF THE REVOLUTION
Written by Sam Haddow

Space Productions

The Space | 2011


Directed by Alex Crampton

Produced by Emma Sampson & Alex Crampton


Designed by Irina Borisova & Emma Thatcher | Costume by Emily Stuart | Lighting by Andy Straw
Performed by Eamon Ali, Jodie Bloom, Robert Eldridge, Mark Lawson, Josh Nawras, Stacey Sobieski, Rita Walters

A new age. A new empire. A new Arthur …

The year is 2060. A new global empire holds court at Canary Wharf: dreams have been outlawed, and imagination has all but vanished. A young schoolboy named Arthur has a vision of a great uprising and finds himself hunted down by unfriendly forces. He doesn’t know what they want him for; he only knows he has to keep running.

His world is turned upside down when Marlin, a mysterious female wizard, takes him on a mind-boggling journey of self-discovery in which he begins to understand the role he can play in righting the wrongs of the country and restoring order. Is he strong enough to succeed?

© Photos by Laura Oliver

A DOLL'S HOUSE
Written by Henrik Ibsen

Space Productions 
Arcola (2011)

“Director Alex Crampton really can deliver.”

GUARDIAN (Lyn Gardner)

Space Productions, under the direction of Alex Crampton, has successfully brought Ibsen’s work to life at the Arcola Theatre. There is much to be admired, and it is certainly an intense and alluring production that – even within its closing moments – keeps the audience on the edge of their seats. It’s great to see a classic brought to life once more … Crampton delivers a challenging use of direction.
A YOUNGER THEATRE (Jake Orr)

This is one of the best examples of fringe productions – willing to take risks based on sound analysis, a strong vision and confident creativity.
★★★★ LONDON THEATRE (Peter Brown)
 
Directed & Co-Produced by Alex Crampton
Dramaturg & Creative Producer – Mari Rettedal-Westlake | Associate Producer – Rowan Rutter | Designed by Irina Borisova & Emma Thatcher | Costume by Vasiliki Syrma | Lightingby Anna Sbokou | Sound by Arnulf Lindner | Choreography by Anna Melander | Music by Andrew Venning | Associate Director Emma Sampson.

Performed by Gina Abolins, Tim Blackwell, Emma Deegan, Alex Gatehouse, Dominik Golding, Elisa King, Chloe Lewis, Maria Toledo

A Doll’s House @ Arcola
© photos by Bjarte Rettedal

Weekly performance workshops for 11-15 year olds, with end of term productions on the main stage. Scripted, devised & physical theatre.

A DOLL'S HOUSE
Written by Henrik Ibsen

Space Productions

The Space (2010) 

Directed by Alex Crampton

Dramaturg & Creative Producer – Mari Rettedal-Westlake | Designed by Irina Borisova & Emma Thatcher | Costume by Vasiliki Syrma | Lighting by Anna Sbokou | Choreography by Hannah Dean | Music by Andrew Venning 

Performed by Gina Abolins,Hannah Dean, Emma Deegan, Dominik Golding,Adam Hemming, Carolina Main, Rob Stott, Charlotte Tallack

Off-west end award shortlist for best set design (2010)

A Doll’s House @The Space


© Photos by Dave King

Production of Sarah Daniel's 'Gut Girls'.

Performed at the Space in 2009

Advertising & Marketing Industry

Assisting Jonno Ellicott of Tangled Feet Theatre. Weekly workshops for 11-18 year olds in devised performance.

Mentored in directing by Artistic Director, Carrie Cracknell. Supporting all departments with the theatre: Education & Participation, Development, Marketing, General Management and Administration.