THE DOLPHIN'S BACK
  • shows
    • 2021 - Fulgens & Lucres
    • 2019 - The Misfortunes of Arthur
    • 2017 - The Woman in the Moon - Sam Wanamaker Playhouse
    • 2015 - Samuel Daniel & John Danyel
    • 2014 - The Woman in the Moon - Rose Playhouse
    • 2014 - The Massacre at Paris
  • workshops
  • name
  • who
 James Wallace 
​   artistic director

He grew up in London and Rio de Janeiro, went to the University of Edinburgh, then trained as an actor at the Central School of Speech and Drama, graduating in 1993

He has acted in the West End, on Broadway, with the National and the RSC, and in theatre throughout the UK, Ireland and North America, as well as in film and TV 

Involved with Shakespeare's Globe since 1998, acting, directing, teaching and researching, he has staged over 70 plays by Shakespeare's contemporaries for their long-running Read Not Dead project 

He has written for Shakespeare Bulletin, Around the Globe magazine,  contributed a chapter on Read Not Dead in Shakespeare's Globe: A Theatrical Experiment (CUP), and has presented new research on the Court dramatist John Lyly at conferences at King's College, London, and at the Shakespeare Association of America
Picture
Photo - Anna Hull

director

for THE DOLPHIN'S BACK

2021
Fulgens & Lucres by Henry Medwall
​   Live Zoom performance for Stanford Renaissances Focus Group

2019
Christmas, His Masque by Ben Jonson
   Spitalfields Market, for MOLA & The Curtain, Shoreditch


Burbage v Brayne, legal documents of The Theatre, Shoreditch
    Shake It Up Festival, Shoreditch Town Hall


The Misfortunes of Arthur, Uther Pendragon's Son by Thomas Hughes
    Gray's Inn Chapel

2018

Christmas, His Masque by Ben Jonson
   Spitalfields Market, for MOLA & The Curtain, Shoreditch


2017
The Woman in the Moon by John Lyly
    The Sam Wanamaker Playhouse

​​
2015
Samuel Daniel & John Danyell
    The Britten Theatre 

2014
The Massacre at Paris by Christopher Marlowe
    The Rose Playhouse, Bankside

The Woman in the Moon by John Lyly
    The Rose Playhouse, Bankside
​
also...
​

​2017-18

Before Shakespeare workshop series

for READ NOT DEAD
Shakespeare's Globe

​

2019
Edward I by George Peele, Sam Wanamaker Playhouse
The Dismissal of the Grecian Envoys by Jan Kochanowski,
   translated by 
Charles Kraszewski, Sam Wanamaker Playhouse
The Captain by John Fletcher, St Leonard's Church, Shoreditch

2018
​Sir Thomas More by Munday & others, Sam Wanamaker Playhouse
Sir John van Olden Barnavelt by Massinger, Sam Wanamaker Playhouse
​
2017
  co-ordinator Before Shakepeare RND season, including:
Mucedorus by anon, Sam Wanamaker Playhouse

Sapho and Phao by John Lyly, Sam Wanamaker Playhouse

2016
Sejanus His Fall by Ben Jonson, Sam Wanamaker Playhouse
The Scornful Lady by Beaumont and Fletcher, Tudor Hall at Gray's Inn
​
2015
The Troublesome Reign of King John by George Peele, Inner Temple Hall
The Lover's Melancholy by John Ford, Sam Wanamaker Playhouse
The Fancies, Chaste and Noble by John Ford, Sam Wanamaker Playhouse
The Injured Princess, Thomas D'Urfey's Restoration version of Cymbeline 
​
2014
Life Is A Dream by Calderón de la Barca, Arcola Theatre
Amends For Ladies by Nathan Field, Sam Wanamaker Playhouse
Damon and Pythias by Richard Edwards, Middle Temple Hall
​
2013
The Woman in the Moon ​by John Lyly, at the Glastonbury Festival
Gallathea by John Lyly, at the Wilderness Festival
Supposes ​by George Gascoigne, Tudor Hall at Gray's Inn 
​
1998 - 2012
Directed fifty more, including plays by Philip Massinger, John Ford, George Chapman, James Shirley, Thomas Kyd, Lording Barry, John Fletcher, Thomas Jordan, Robert Wilson, Richard Brome, William Davenant, Thomas Heywood, John Day, Thomas Dekker, William Haughton, Anthony Munday and Thomas Middleton. He has acted in a further 40

​also...
2018
Kill Shakespeare : Live Show
by Anthony Del Col and Conor McCreery, illustrations by Andy Belanger.
Co-directed with James Askill.
Sam Wanamaker Playhouse 

other directing work
​
 
​
Samuel Foote's The Liar
Readings of 
Lady Audley's Secret in Alexandra Palace
   & John Lyly's 
Gallathea in Inigo Jones' Queen's House at Greenwich
also...
Five filmed scenes for the AHRC funded Shakespearean London Theatres (ShaLT) project in conjunction with the Victoria & Albert Museum, working with John Wyver of Illuminations Films

actor

3 year actor training
Central School of Speech & Drama

first job
in 1993, straight out of drama school, touring 75 towns and cities around Italy for five months, playing Vladimir in Waiting for Godot
Shakespeare . . .
Sea Captain & Priest in Twelfth Night The National Theatre, Simon Godwin
Don John in Much Ado About Nothing
     
Theatre Royal Bury St. Edmunds , Abigail Anderson
Antonio in The Tempest Liverpool Playhouse, Philip Franks
Hortensio in 
The Taming of the Shrew Regent's Park, Rachel Kavanaugh
Theseus in 
A Midsummer Night's Dream  Regent's Park, Ian Talbot
Poins in 
Henry IV parts 1 & 2 RSC Barbican, Michael Attenborough
Bassanio in 
The Merchant of Venice Edinburgh Lyceum, Kenny Ireland
Rosencrantz in Hamlet 
        Almeida at Hackney Empire, & on Broadway, Jonathan Kent
    Nominated Best Revival, 49th Tony Awards 1995
    Winner of the The Sir Tyrone Guthrie Award- for Best Production at the    
​        Shakespeare Globe Awards -  
. . . and others
Volpone by Ben Jonson
​The Duchess of Malfi by John Webster 
   both at Greenwich Theatre, Elizabeth Freestone
​Tartuffe by Moliere
    Almeida Theatre, Jonathan Kent

The Mayor of Zalamea by Calderón
    
Liverpool Everyman, Gemma Bodinetz
Ireland & Scotland
for Rough Magic and Lynne Parker
Richard Brinsley Sheridan's The School for Scandal  Gaiety Theatre, Dublin
Terry Johnson's Dead Funny Project Theatre, Dublin
Frances Sheridan & Liz Kuti's The Whisperers
   
Dublin, Cork, Limerick, Sligo, Galway, and Traverse, Edinburgh
and also...
​Michael Frayn's Benefactors for B*Spoke, Samuel Beckett Theatre, Dublin
Tennessee Williams UK premieres
Something Cloudy, Something Clear Finborough - Tamara Harvey
The Notebook of Trigorin Northcote Exeter, as Trigorin 
new work
After Electra ​by April de Angelis, Plymouth Drum & Tricycle, Samuel West​
55 Days by Howard Brenton, Hampstead Theatre, Howard Davies
    Nominated Best New Play 2013 WhatsOnStage awards

Backbeat by Iain Softley and Stephen Jeffreys
    West End, Toronto & Los Angeles, David Leveaux
    Nominated 
Best Ensemble Performance 2012 WhatsOnStage awards
Mathematics of the Heart by Kefi Chadwick, Donnacadh O'Briain
    Winner 2011 Brighton Fringe Festival Best New Play
    Winner Argus Angel for Outstanding Show
Vermilion Dream by Chris Lee, Salisbury Theatre Studio, Nina Raine
around the UK
Bernard Nightingale in Arcadia by Tom Stoppard 
    The Library Theatre at The Lowry, Chris Honer
    Nominated Best Supporting Actor & Best Production MEN Awards 2011
​Elyot in Private Lives by Noel Coward
    Manchester Library Theatre, Chris Honer 
    Nominated Best Play, MEN Awards 2007
Rosencrantz in Rosencrantz & Guildenstern are Dead by Tom Stoppard 
​    English Touring Theatre,  Stephen Unwin
Witwould in The Way of the World  by William Congreve
    Wilton's Music Hall, & Northampton Theatre Royal, Selina Cadell
Henri in Life X3 Yasmina Reza 
    The Watermill Theatre, Sarah Esdaile,
Algernon in The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde 
    West Yorkshire Playhouse, Lynne Parker
Cecil Graham in Lady Windermere's Fan ​by Oscar Wilde
​    Chichester Festival Theatre, Richard Cottrell 


Wives as The Were, and Maids as They Are by Elizabeth Inchbald
Animal Magnetism by Elizabeth Inchbald
Dangerous Corner by  J. B. Priestly
    all at Theatre Royal, Bury St Edmunds, Colin Blumenau


Norman in Round and Round the Garden by Alan Ayckbourn
    Mill Theatre at Sonning, Abigail Anderson

teaching

Globe Education Practitioner and Faculty Member,
   working with The Royal Conservertoire of Scotland,
   Exeter University,
   East 15,
   and students from New Zealand, and from across the USA.

Central visiting director – Othello, As You Like It, Pericles
LAMDA visting director – Women Beware Women,  Jacobean Scenes
Arts Educational visiting director – Jacobean Scenes

one last thing . . .
​
​
 James spoke the opening lines, as The Chorus, in Christopher Marlowe's Doctor Faustus , directed by Sonia Ritter for The Lion's Part – the very first play to be performed within the walls of the Rose Playhouse since 1605 
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shows

workshops
our name​