Philip Parr

Philip has worked as an actor, singer, musician, composer and puppeteer and is now a theatre and opera director. He was director of the 2006 Bath International Shakespeare Festival, and from 2000-2006 Director of the Swaledale Festival in Yorkshire. In 2008 he was Artistic Director for the Holocaust Memorial Day National Event, part of the European City of Culture celebrations in Liverpool.

As a director of opera and theatre, his productions have been seen around the world.Philip has been a staff director at Glyndebourne Festival Opera, The Bayerisches Staatsoper and at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden. He was founder and Artistic Director of Spitalfields Market Opera, a purpose built chamber opera house for London and the first opera house built in London for over 100 years.

In the theatre Philip has made a particular reputation in large scale community plays, having led projects in Withernsea and Rotherham in Yorkshire, in Ayr in Scotland, in Thurrock in Essex, and in Manchester, Portsmouth and Liverpool.
Current Parrabbola projects include the management of the World Arts Platform, a programme to maximise opportunities for multicultural artists in Hertfordshire, a community play based on the Chartist settlement at Heronsgate near Rickmansworth, and artistic direction of The Scouse Operas, a community play project in Liverpool and the Wirral.

Philip is a founding council member of the European Shakespeare Festivals network. In August 2010 he directed a pan European site specific community play production of Pericles for the International Shakespeare Festival in Gdansk.