In this first episode from the Theatre Deli Podcast, Co-Artistic Director Roland Smith talks to Tom Morris, Artistic Director of Bristol Old Vic and Associate Director of the National Theatre.

Now, Tom is known to most people as the co-director of War Horse, the producer of Jerry Springer: The Opera or even as the younger brother of Chris Morris.

When they first met, Tom was the Artistic Director of Battersea Arts Festival (BAC) and Roland was an aspiring director, who was drifting around London collecting rejection letters from every directing training course or award going.

Together they talk about whether audiences are important or not, who first thought to call it a 'scratch night' and why sometimes you just need to talk to the most interesting artist in the room.

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Image and biography of Tom Morris taken from United Artists

Recorded on 17 July 2017 at the National Theatre
Interview by Roland Smith
Produced by Lydia Thomson
Theme music by Luke B. Ford
Special thanks to Fran Miller at the National Theatre

Tom Morris Biography

Tom Morris is Artistic Director of Bristol Old Vic and has been Associate Director of the National Theatre since 2004. He was the Artistic Director of Battersea Arts Centre (BAC) from 1995 to 2004 and prior to that was an arts journalist and freelance producer.

At Bristol Old Vic Tom has directed Swallows and Amazons, Juliet and Her Romeo, and Does My Society Look Big in This? In 2013 Tom collaborated again with Handspring Puppet Company for the first time since War Horse to create A Midsummer Night’s Dream which launched at Bristol Old Vic in 2013 and toured worldwide.

Other credits include: The Death of Klinghoffer (ENO & Metropolitan Opera); Every Good Boy Deserves Favour (National Theatre); War Horse (as co-director for National Theatre; 2011 Tony Award for Best Director); A Matter of Life and Death (adapted from the film with Emma Rice, National Theatre); Coram Boy (developed with Melly Still, National Theatre); Disembodied, Newsnight: The Opera, Kombat Opera Klubneit, Home, Passions, Unsung, To The Island With The Goose, Macbeth, Oedipus The King, Othello Music, Trio, All That Fall (all BAC, as director); World Cup Final 1966, Jason and the Argonauts, Ben Hur (all BAC, co-written with Carl Heap); Jerry Springer: The Opera (for BAC as producer); Oogly Boogly (devised and directed); Nights at the Circus, The Wooden Frock (both written with Emma Rice for Kneehigh).