Tao of Glass

Born in Baltimore, Maryland, Philip Glass is a graduate of the University of Chicago and the Juilliard School. In the early 1960s, Glass spent two years of intensive study in Paris with Nadia Boulanger and, while there, earned money by transcribing Ravi Shankar’s Indian music into Western notation. By 1974, Glass had a number of innovative projects creating a large collection of new music for The Philip Glass Ensemble and for the Mabou Mines Theater Company. This period culminated in Music in Twelve Parts and the landmark opera Einstein on the Beach, for which he collaborated with Robert Wilson. Since Einstein, Glass has expanded his repertoire to include music for opera, dance, theater, chamber ensemble, orchestra and film. His scores have received Academy Award nominations (Kundun, The Hours, Notes on a Scandal) and a Golden Globe (The Truman Show). Glass’s memoir Words Without Music was published by Liveright Books in 2015.

Glass received the Praemium Imperiale in 2012, the U.S. National Medal of the Arts from President Barack Obama in 2016, and 41st Kennedy Center Honors in 2018. Glass’s recent works include a circus opera Circus Days and Nights, Symphony No. 13, and Symphony No 14. Glass celebrated his 85th birthday in 2022 with a season of international programming.

Phelim McDermott is a founder member of Improbable and the company’s co-artistic director.

In addition to Tao Of Glass Improbable credits include: 70 Hill Lane; Lifegame; Animo; Coma; Spirit; Sticky; Cinderella; The Hanging Man; Theatre of Blood (in collaboration with the National Theatre); Panic; Beauty and the Beast (in co-production with ONEOFUS); The Tempest (a co-production with Northern Stage and Oxford Playhouse); Opening Skinners Box (a co-production with Northern Stage and West Yorkshire Playhouse); Lost Without Words (a coproduction with the National Theatre), My Neighbour Totoro (RSC and Nippon TV at Barbican) winner of six Olivier Awards including Best Director and best Entertainment of Comedy Play and five Whats On Stage Awards also including Best Director.

Opera credits with Improbable include: Philip Glass’s Satyagraha (ENO, LA Opera); The Perfect American, the Olivier Award-winning Akhnaten, Mozart’s Così fan tutte (ENO and Metropolitan Opera, NY); Aida (ENO) and; BambinO, an opera for babies (originally co-produced with Manchester International Festival and Scottish Opera, now with LA Opera); The Hours (Metropolitan Opera).

Other productions as director include: the Olivier Award-winning Shockheaded Peter; Alex (The Arts Theatre); The Ghost Downstairs (Leicester Haymarket); Dr Faustus, Improbable Tales (Nottingham Playhouse); The Servant of Two Masters, The Hunchback of Notre Dame; The Government Inspector (West Yorkshire Playhouse) and Artistic Collaborator on She’s Leaving Home (produced by 20 Stories High).

In 2003 Phelim was awarded a National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts (NESTA) fellowship to research new ways of rehearsing and creating theatre using improvisation and process-oriented conflict facilitation techniques. As part of this work he has facilitated many Open Space Technology events. He was made an Honorary Doctor of Middlesex University in 2007.

Kirsty Housley is a director, writer and dramaturg working across theatre, film and digital.

Recent work includes Drive Your Plow over the Bones of the Dead for Complicite (Additional Direction), Jekyll and Hyde by Evan Placey (director) for The National Theatre; Extinct by April de Angelis (director and dramaturg) for Theatre Royal Stratford East; The Long Goodbye (director of live show and livestream) with Riz Ahmed for Manchester International Festival/BAM; Can I Live for Complicite (Dramaturg); Mephisto (A Rhapsody) at The Gate Theatre (director); Rich Kids: A History of Shopping Malls in Tehran and The Believers are but Brothers (Director and co creator with Javaad Alipoor); Tao of Glass with Phillip Glass for Manchester International Festival (co-director); Avalanche: A Love Story at The Barbican and Sydney Theatre (Dramaturg); Misty at The Bush and the West End (Dramaturg); The Encounter for Complicite (co-director) and Myth for the RSC (director and co-writer).

Training:  RADA and Motley.

Theatre credits include: Caroline, Or Change ( Chichester Festival Theatre, West End, Broadway – nominated for Olivier and Tony awards for Best Costume Design); Paranormal Activity (West End, US tour, Broadway); The Ocean at the End of the Lane, Beginning, Middle, Pericles, I Want My Hat Back ( National Theatre/West End); Groan Ups ( West End and UK tour);  Henry V, Appropriate (Donmar, nominated Evening Standard Best Set Design Award); 50 First Dates the Musical ( The Other Palace); Macbeth (RSC,Barbican); Otherland, Vassa ( Almeida); Second Best (Riverside Studios); The Battle (Birmingham Rep, Manchester Opera House); The Winter’s Tale (Royal Lyceum); The Enormous Crocodile the Musical (Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre UK and US tour); La Boheme (Gothenburg Opera House); A Streetcar Named Desire, Scuttlers (Royal Exchange Manchester); Image of an Unknown Young Woman ( Gate, winner Off West End Award); The Prudes (Royal Court); Joe Lycett’s How do You Lycett It ( UK Tour and TV); The Best and Worst of Mr Swallow (West End); Nick Mohammed’s Show Pony UK Tour; A Christmas Carol-ishThe Musical ( Soho Place).

As Costume Designer: The Odyssey (National Theatre); Unreachable (Royal Court); Shipwreck (Almeida).

Work includes: Scots (Raw Materials) Riders to the Sea / Macbeth (Druid Theatre), Treasure Island (Royal Lyceum), Escaped Alone, Wolfie (Tron), Pride and Prejudice *Sort of (Criterion Theatre, UK and International Tour), Educating Rita, Oh When The Saints (Perth Theatre),  The Time Machine (Original Theatre), Cinderella (Dundee Rep Theatre), Leopards (Rose Theatre), Adults, This is Paradise, Still, The Devil Masters, Pandas, On the Exhale (Traverse) Two Sisters, Christmas Dinner (Edinburgh Lyceum), The King of Hell’s Palace (Hampstead Theatre), Gypsy, Macbeth, The Cherry Orchard, Kes (Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester), Black Watch, 365, Men Should Weep, The Bacchae, Granite (National Theatre of Scotland), An Improbable Musical, Still No Idea, 70 Hill Lane, Coma, The Paper Man, Spirit (Improbable), A Christmas Carol (Everyman Liverpool, Spymokey) Tamburlaine (RSC), The Mentor (Theatre Royal Bath & Vaudeville Theatre), Lost Without Words, Lifegame, Theatre of Blood (Improbable/Royal National Theatre), The Village Social (National Theatre of Wales), Beauty and the Beast (MCA, Chicago, Abrons New York, Adelaide Festival),The Caretaker (Liverpool Everyman, Trafalgar Studios, BAM), A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Half Life, The Mother, Forever Yours, Marie-Lou, Wild Goose Dreams, Xmas Eve (Theatre Royal Bath), Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (Theatr Clwyd, Best Lighting Award at the 2017 Wales Theatre Awards). The Elephant Man (Best Design CATS award). The Hanging Man (Best Design TMA awards).

Giles trained in Sound Technology at Liverpool Academy for Performing Arts.

Giles Thomas’ work in theatre as sound designer includes Kenrex at Sheffield Theatres, Southwark Playhouse, The Other Palace and Off Broadway; Romeo and Juliet, The Comeback in the West End. Man and Boy, The LeftBehinds (schools tour) for the National Theatre; A Christmas Carol(ish) at Soho Place, Portia Coughlan and They Drink It in the Congo at the Almeida; untitled f*ck m*ss s**gon play at the Royal Exchange, Manchester, Manchester International Festival and the Young Vic; Private Lives at the Donmar; Sons of the Prophet at Hampstead

As composer and sound designer work includes ‘Master Harold’ …and the boys and Pomona (also the Royal Exchange, Manchester and the Orange Tree) at the National Theatre; Dublin Gothic and An Octoroon at the Abbey, Dublin; Safe Space, Lord of the Flies, The House Party and The Vortex at Chichester; 1984 at Theatre Royal, Bath; The Crucible, The Contingency Plan and Contractions at Sheffield Theatres; The Glass Menagerie, The Almighty Sometimes and How My Light is Spent at the Royal Exchange, Manchester; Wish List and Yen at the Royal Exchange and Royal Court;

Awards: Olivier Award for Best Sound Design – KENREX

Peter first worked in theatre as member of the stage crew on Sweeney Todd in 1980. His career has almost entirely been in Opera and he has remounted Operas at many Opera Houses including, The Royal Opera House, English National Opera, The Metropolitan Opera, LA Opera, San Francisco Opera, Gran Teatre Del Liceu, Opera North, Glyndbourne and other festivals in the UK and Europe. He has a long term working relationship with Phelim McDermott covering almost 20 years. He trained as a Stage Manager at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama.

This autumn he will be reviving Sir David McVicar’s production of Faust for Houston Grand Opera and next year will be Phelim’s Associate Director on Einstein on the Beach for ENO.