Philip Parr / United Shakespeare International Festival Chișinău

PHILIP PARR

Alongside a wide-ranging freelance practice as director of theatre, opera and festivals, Philip is Artistic Director of Parrabbola, who make large scale community plays in the UK and across Europe, and Director of the York International Shakespeare Festival, which celebrated its 10th anniversary year in 2025 www.yorkshakes.co.uk

 Theatre work has ranged from main house productions, to small scale rural touring, with a particular focus on site specific and promenade theatre and on Shakespeare.

 Current Shakespeare productions include Henry V [man and monarch], a solo show for actor Brett Brown, which has played around the world since 2017. FEAST: a play in one cooking, by Romanian writer Olivia Negrean for 6 actresses - exploring Shakespeare’s female characters, Codename Othello, a new play by the Ukrainian playwright Olga Annenko, which premiered in York in April 2025.

 His production of Pericles Prince of Tyre premiered in 2024 at the Hungarian State Theatre Csiky Gergely in Timisoara and was selected for the National Theatre Festival in Romania.

Agenda LiterNet / Mihai Brezeanu: Portul în care a ancorat bunătatea - Pericles la TESZT, 2024

.Larger work has included a site specific, promenade performances of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and Romeo and Juliet for the festival in Craiova, Pericles and The Winter’s Tale in Gdansk, a site-specific cross-border production of The Winter’s Tale which travelled between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, and Shake Fear | Break Walls in Gdansk - an exploration of borders real and imagined with five European partners.www.shakingthewalls.co.uk

 Philip teaches widely; he holds a post as Lecturer in Classical Theatre at the University of Gloucestershire and is an adjunct professor for Lewis and Clark College in Portland Oregon. He has also worked at RADA, Mountview and East15 Theatre Schools in London.

 Philip is a founding council member of the European Shakespeare Festivals Network and in 2021 was elected Chairman. He is an elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.