Adam Penford

"Adam Penford’s staging is as fresh and sweet as new morning grass, full of rough invention." Lyn Gardner, The Guardian. Watership Down, 2016

Trained at the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts (LIPA).

For the National Theatre: A Small Family Business (Olivier), Dorfman Opening Gala (Dorfman), Is There Wi-Fi in Heaven (The Shed), Island (Cottesloe). Revival Director on One Man Two Guvnors (West End, Broadway, UK and International Tour). Associate Director on NT 50 Years on Stage. Staff Director on Season’s Greetings.

Other directing credits: Watership Down (Watermill Theatre), Deathtrap (Salisbury Playhouse), Ghost the Musical (ETF), Stepping Out (Salisbury Playhouse), The Machine Gunners and Run! (Polka Theatre), The Hostage (Southwark Playhouse), Holes (New Wimbledon Studio Theatre), Young Woodley, Tea and Sympathy (Finborough Theatre) and The Boys in the Band (Park Theatre and Vaudeville Theatre).

Assistant/Associate director credits: Kevin Spacey Gala (Old Vic), The Winter’s Tale (Propeller at the Watermill), The Vagina Monologues (National Tour), 50 Ways to Leave Your Lover (Bush), Imagine This (Theatre Royal, Plymouth), Dying For It (Almeida) and Charley’s Aunt (Oxford Playhouse).

Adam will direct Plantinum (Hampstead Theatre) in December 2016 and Committee (Donmar Warehouse) in 2017. His production of The Boys in the Band will transfer to the Vaudeville Theatre in the West End in 2017. 

Adam was made Artistic Director Designate of the Nottingham Playhouse in 2016.