About
Welcome to matthewparker.net; the official site for Theatre Director Matthew Parker.
Matthew is an award winning Theatre Director, Actor and the former Artistic Director of The Hope Theatre. He trained on the Postgraduate Directing Course at Drama Studio London and Bretton Hall College, gaining a First Class Degree in Theatre Arts: Acting.
He has a passion for bringing his vivid visual imagination and physical approach to his storytelling and relishes a collaborative process, creating highly theatrical, detailed work, rich in emotion and with a tight connection to the audiences heartbeat.
Matthew has received 8 nominations as Best Director at the Off West End (OFFIE) Awards, 5 of which were for productions at The Hope Theatre: The House Of Yes, The Lesson, Her Aching Heart, Sea Life and the European premiere of Lovesong of the Electric Bear, which later transferred to The Arts, West End and won 2 OFFIE awards in 2016. His other nominations were for his revivals of Thark in 2017, Trestle in 2021 and the West End transfer of The Hope show Thrill Me: The Leopold & Loeb Story in 2022.
Matthew won Best Director of a Musical at the 2023 OFFIE Awards for his direction of Thrill Me. In 2017 Matthew won the Best Artistic Director OFFIE Award for his work at The Hope Theatre in 2016; the same year that The Hope was nominated as UK Fringe Theatre of the Year at The Stage Awards. His adaptation of Chekhov’s Ward No.6 gained a Best Ensemble nomination at The Stage Awards 2009 and Time Out Critic’s Choice upon its transfer to London.
Directing credits include I Wish My Life Were Like A Musical (Gilded Balloon & Wilton’s Music Hall), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Cambridge Shakespeare Festival), Thrill Me: The Leopold & Loeb Story (Jermyn Street Theatre) Vinegar Tom, The Comedy of Errors and Henry V (all OVO), Trestle (Jack Studio Theatre), Her Aching Heart (Winner Best Off West End Play, Spy In The Stalls Awards 2016), Steel Magnolias (Winner of Best Off West End Production, Break A Leg Critic’s Choice Awards 2016), Sea Life, The Lesson & Brimstone and Treacle, (all The Hope Theatre), Lovesong of the Electric Bear (Arts Theatre, West End), Brainville At Night (UK Tour) Thark (Drayton Arms), The Cherry Orchard, A Scent of Flowers, A Woman Alone (all Jack Studio Theatre), Ward No.6 (C Venues, transferred to Camden People’s Theatre), Mary Rose (Riverside Studios), The Possibilities (Tristan Bates), Two (Dispense Theatre) and The Late Edwina Black (Sheringham Summer Rep).
For further details on his Directing work please click on his CV or Portfolio pages.
Matthew combines his work as a theatre maker with teaching emerging artists in drama schools. As a faculty member of Drama Studio London, Matthew taught acting classes and courses including stagecraft, text analysis, creating character physicality and audition technique and has directed many productions with the graduating students including 20th and 21st century classics, Pantomime tours, new writing, Restoration Comedy and devised work. He has also taught and led courses, seminars and workshops in various acting and theatre-making disciplines at the MTA, Mountview, Trinity Laban and University of East London. Matthew has created and facilitated actor-training workshops for professional actors at various London branches of Equity and on the London fringe.
Matthew also regularly works as a Movement Director and Choreographer and recent work includes I Wish My Life Were Like A Musical at Gilded Balloon and Wilton’s Music Hall, Persephone, Taro and Cinderella at The Jack Studio Theatre as well as regular choreography work for Cabaret troupe Scales of the Unexpected.
Matthew also works as an Actor and PR for Off West End shows. For more info on these strands of Matthew’s work please click on his Acting and PR pages.
He is represented by Savages Personal Management.
Best Director of a Musical, OFFIE Awards 2023
Best Artistic Director, OFFIE Awards 2017
