Professor
Ken Pickering
Academic
Consultant to ArtsInsight in the Theatre Arts
Ken is Professor of Arts
Education at the Institute for Arts in Therapy and Education and Chief Examiner
for Drama and Speech at Trinity/Guildhall. He has successfully combined the
careers of writer, theatre director and academic and is the author of fifteen
books on aspects of theatre and the study of drama and of a large number of
widely performed stage plays and musicals.
Originally trained in Drama
and Music at Goldsmiths’ College, London, Ken went on to gain degrees in Theatre
and Humanities from the Open University and the Universities of Wales, Sussex
and California together with Diplomas in Performance, Teaching and Directing.
He has been a constant
innovator in Arts Education: he was the first Chief Examiner for GCSE Drama and
established the first British University degree in Performing Arts and the first
degree with Classical Ballet as its core. He now acts as Chief External Examiner
to the Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts (created by Sir Paul McCartney)
and as External Examiner to degree programmes at the University of the Arts,
London and the University of Kent.
His Senior Academic
appointments have included Head of Theatre and Performance Studies at Nonington
College, Senior Course Co-Ordinator at the London College of Dance and Drama,
and Professor of Theatre at Gonzaga University in Washington State where he
taught and continues to contribute to courses in playwriting and directing.
Ken is probably best known
for his spectacular productions of The Mysteries in Canterbury and
Birmingham Cathedrals and in Malvern Priory and Tewkesbury Abbey, England, and
he is recognised as one of the leading directors of medieval drama. However, he
has also directed an opera company and has many modern and classical productions
to his credit on either side of the Atlantic. His production of As you like
it at Spokane Civic Theatre was awarded the critics’ title of ‘ Best
production in the North West’.
As a workshop leader he has
been in constant demand in the USA, UK and Germany and generations of students
have used his series of cassettes Let’s Communicate.
Kens’ acting career has
included appearing with the Sherman Arena Company in Cardiff and as Becket in a
special production for the Lambeth Conference of Bishops in Canterbury
Cathedral, England.
His book Drama in the
Cathedral was The Times literary editor’s choice as ‘book of the
week’ and he was librettist for the Dover Millennium Music project. He is
currently directing two professional productions: Monday Nights Have to be
Better for the Theatre Royal, Margate and the Old Vic and Vita and Harold
for a major tour. He frequently directs the Jasperian Theatre company that
specialises in Music Theatre for unusual venues and has just completed 12 years
as Chair of Channel Theatre Trust: one of Britain’s most successful theatre
companies.
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