Spring Awakening by Frank Wedekind, directed by Imogen Frances. Photography by Dane Juler.
Director
In 2022 Imogen directed the award-winning tell me straight by Paul Bradshaw at Chiswick Playhouse.
“Sharp and witty text, precise design, seamless direction and masterful performances” - London Pub Theatre
This year Imogen directed, intimacy directed and co-wrote (alongside Tanya Bridgeman) Star Cross'd.
Shakespeare's timeless tragedy, Romeo & Juliet, retold through the medium of spoken word, exploring class, queer identity and patriarchal power.
Imogen is also Associate Director of Chaskis Theatre, committed to innovate story-telling and actor training. During the summer of 2020 the company ran an Online Actor Training program. Then, in early 2021 Chaskis were commissioned by Rose Bruford College to run an Online Scene Studies project with BA (Hons) Actors and Actor Musicians. Imogen now regularly works as a visiting director across the BA program, having directed Yerma, Spring Awakening, Rocket To The Moon & The Crucible.
As a director, Imogen is passionate about queer-centric & female-led narratives, and is continuously drawn to stories that delve into sexuality, grief, power, love, & intimacy. Imogen's process is ensemble led, collaborative, and holds empathy and courage as two central values in order that the work created is evocative, daring & authentic.
“Taut direction from Imogen Frances” - Broadway World
“This is the type of honest and stripped back theatre you should be watching ” - Pocket Size Theatre
To find out more about this play, please read Imogen's guest blog written for Broadway World.
Directing Credits
Photography by Benkin Photography.
A two-act play, written & directed by Paul Bradshaw, movement directed by Imogen Frances.
A semi-autobiographical family drama set in London. It centres around Billy, a white working-class boy that gets a scholarship to a prestigious sixth form college. It focuses on how he navigates his new school life and how the pressures from his family and estate life affect this opportunity. As well as being a play about class/identity the central story is a love story between Billy and Yousef, a Muslim boy from his sixth form. It focuses on family, loyalty, the class divide, London, sexuality and friendship.
Two Cities received its first premier workshop performance at the Criterion Theatre in 2019, and is set to have further movement workshops this year, with the play reaching full production in 2025. Imogen has been collaborating with Paul in order to discover how the play might move and breathe. How Billy’s dreams might affect the way he tumbles through his reality, how moving between his estate life and college life might feel like he’s in conflict with himself, and how, for these two young boys to accept their sexuality in communities which don’t support them, might feel like death, or… being reborn.
Two Cities
Two Cities movement workshop, led by Imogen Frances. Photography by Rebecca Rayne
A one-act play written by Paul Bradshaw, directed by Imogen Frances.
Dani is done with Him and all his bullsh*t! He needs to ‘fix up and get him some rainbow flag waving D’. She’s heard it all – Soldiers. Chefs. Osama (not that one). He’s been through the lot of them and they’ve got one thing in common: they’re all straight. He has a plan: 30 days. NO BOOZE. NO FAST FOOD. NO SHAGGING. But like buses… ‘It’s like I’m a beacon. Some gay lighthouse on the curious shoreline and these straights squint from the distant sea and drift towards me.’
Bradshaw’s tell me straight is an explosive one-act play which follows Him trying to break this cycle. Will Him finally listen to Dani, or constantly get sucked in by the straightest of dicksand?
A semi-autobiographical, one-act, two-hander. tell me straight follows Him as he continually attracts straight/curious men with mostly disastrous results. Set in London, exploring the contemporary lives of gay, bisexual and curious men, the piece tackles issues including mental health, friendship, sexuality and consent.
Tell Me Straight
Tell Me Straight by Paul Bradshaw, directed by Imogen Frances at The King’s Head Theatre, 2021. Photography by Danny Kaan.
2023
Director & Intimacy Director
Star Cross'd, by Tanya Bridgeman & Imogen Frances
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Rose Bruford College
2022
Director & Intimacy Director
Yerma by Frederico Garcia Lorca, adapted by Ursula Rani Sarma
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Rose Bruford College
2022
Director & Intimacy Director
Spring Awakening, by Frank Wedekind
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Rose Bruford College
2022
Director & Intimacy Director
tell me straight, by Paul Bradshaw
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Chiswick Playhouse
2021
Director & Intimacy Director
tell me straight, by Paul Bradshaw
Gartland Productions
The King's Head
2021
Director
The Crucible, by Arthur Miller
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Rose Bruford College
2020
Director
A Rocket To The Moon, by Clifford Odets
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Rose Bruford College
2020
R&D Co-Director w/ Paul Bradshaw
Two Cities, by Paul Bradshaw
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The Criterion
2019
Director
Three Sisters, by Anton Chekhov (in a version by Benedict Andrews)
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Rose Bruford College
2019
Assistant Director to Raymi Ortuste Quiroga
La Realidad, by Denise Despeyroux
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The Cervantes Theatre
2018
Assistant Director to Glenn Tillin
The Owl and The Pussycat
The Quarter Too Ensemble
The Churchill Theatre
2016
Assistant Director to David Zoob
Shakespeare Scenes for the Sam Wanamaker Festival
Rose Bruford College
The Globe