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York company Riding Lights appoints Paul Birch as artistic director and Oliver Brown as executive director at Friargate Theatre

Leading lights: Riding Lights’ new executive director Oliver Brown, left, and artistic director Paul Birch outside Friargate Theatre in York

RIDING Lights Theatre Company today announces the appointment of its new artistic director, Paul Birch, and executive director, Oliver Brown.

They will serve as joint chief executive officer of the national touring theatre company, based at Friargate Theatre, Lower Friargate, York.

Playwright, sketch writer, improv comedy trailblazer and theatre director Paul Birchrejoins the company as artistic director after holding early roles as its youth theatre director and associate director of education and community.

He succeeds Paul Burbridge, co-founder of the Christian theatre company and artistic director since its foundation in 1977, who died after a short illness in April 2023.

As a freelance writer-director, his work has been produced in many theatres nationwide, expanding into audio dramas and a practice focused on improvisation, collaborating with improvisers from all over the world.

Paul has developed a track record of applied theatre-making and was artistic director of Out Of Character, a York company comprising artists with lived experience of mental illness, for eight years.

 “I’ve had the privilege of working with Riding Lights for over 20 years. Paul Burbridge was a great mentor to me and offered me many early opportunities in acting, writing and directing,” he says. His influence and inspirational teaching in theatre-making has had a profound and lasting impact on my work.

“The creativity of Riding Lights has always been about making work with and for all kinds of people in all kinds of places; often those hardest to reach. I’m looking forward to finding new artistic ways to create powerful and joyful theatre in that spirit.”

Riding Lights’ new executive director, Oliver Brown, left, and artistic director Paul Birch in the black-box studio theatre at Friargate Theatre, York

Oliver Brown FRSA, at present associate director at Riding Lights,takes up the post of executive director after holding senior leadership roles in production and operations at venues including Hull Truck Theatre and CAST in Doncaster. He is the elected vice-chair and trustee director of the Association of British Theatre Technicians.

His first encounter with Riding Lights was in 1999, when the teenage Oliver knocked on the door of Friargate Theatre, soon after it opened, asking for a technical work placement. Over the subsequent decades, he has worked as a freelance technical and stage manager for the company on many occasions.

“After being a part of Riding Lights for nearly 25 years, I am delighted to be joining the company once again as executive director, having spent my summers at its annual residential summer school, my early years up a ladder amongst the lights in Friargate Theatre, and out on national tours,” he says.

“Along with Paul, I am looking forward to Riding Lights’ 50th anniversary in 2027 and planning for the future.

“I am passionate about communicating faith and social justice issues through theatre and community work – a tradition in which Riding Lights is a leader, and one in which I will be honoured to play a part as we develop the evolving vision of Riding Lights.”

Riding LightsTheatre Companyhas been making and touring theatre informed by a Christian faith for 47 years, making it one of Great Britain’s most productive and long-serving independent theatre companies. Its productions have been seen across the world, from the United States of America, through Europe, to Israel and Palestine.

John Emmett, chair of the board of directors, says: “I am delighted that Paul and Ollie have agreed to join Riding Lights. Both of them have a long association with the company and understand well Paul Burbridge’s remarkable legacy. I am confident that they will build on this in fresh and exciting ways to create theatre which entertains, challenges and inspires.”

Friargate Theatre has announced an autumn season of theatre, stand-up and improv comedy, storytelling, music, film and family shows that opens on September 5. For full details and bookings, head to: friargatetheatre.co.uk. Box office: 01904 613000.

Riding Lights is in rehearsal for Cups On A String, a new play by York playwright Bridget Foreman, directed by David Gilbert for an eight-week autumn tour across the UK, to be staged in partnership with Transforming Lives for Good, a charity that brings hope and a future to struggling children.

The brochure cover artwork for Friargate Theatre’s autumn return

Riding Lights: the back story

RIDING Lights Theatre Company was founded in 1977 by Paul Burbridge, Murray Watts and Nigel Forde and has been based in York ever since.

Riding Lights opened Friargate Theatre, in Lower Friargate, York, in 1999. It has since operated as the company’s office and rehearsal space and has two performance spaces: one a ground-floor cabaret-style space seating around 60 people; the other an upstairs black-box studio theatre seating 100. 

World premieres in recent years have included African Snow, a co-production with York Theatre Royal (York Theatre Royal, West End transfer and national tour); Augustus Carp Esq. by Himself (Friargate Theatre); Dick Turpin (Friargate Theatre) and an adaptation of Jerome K Jerome’s Three Men In A Boat (national tour, co-produced with Northcott Theatre, Exeter).

In Summer 2012, Riding Lights, in tandem with York Theatre Royal and York Museums Trust, produced the epic-scale, outdoor production of the York Mystery Plays in York Museum Gardens.

Frequently characterised by quirky satire, Riding Lights’ productions challenge audiences to engage with topical themes and issues, often examining the reverberations of historical events in today’s society.

Classic plays such as Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale (two national tours), Ben Jonson’s The Alchemist (the inaugural production at Friargate Theatre), Dario Fo’s Mistero Buffo (Friargate Theatre and national tour) and Max Frisch’s The Fire Raisers (Bridewell Theatre, London) have found fresh and arresting relevance in Riding Lights productions.

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Riding Lights launches The Word Bank new writing fund in memory of Paul Burbridge

Paul Burbridge, 1953-2023

RIDING Lights Theatre Company is launching The Word Bank, a new writing fund in memory of co-founder and artistic director Paul Burbridge.

The fund was announced by Paul’s widow, Bernadette, at the conclusion to his two-hour service of service and thanksgiving, held on June 10 at St Michael-le-Belfrey, the church they attended regularly.

Further details can be found in Riding Lights’ June newsletter. “Paul believed that Riding Lights is called to make kingdom-centred theatre that is responsive, urgent, visionary, insightful and prophetic, and that in order to do that we need new plays,” Bernadette says.

“Paul was genuinely excited when a first draft dropped into his inbox. A skilful wordsmith himself, he became an excellent commissioner and dramaturg: a midwife of new work and encourager of writers.”

The Word Bank will support the commission and production of new writing, ensuring that it remains at the heart of Riding Lights’ work.

“When Paul died, he was – as ever – full of plans for Riding Lights. But underpinning plans, Paul always had a vision of theatre that was abundant and generous, because it was a response to the abundance and generosity of God,” says Bernadette.

“He was very amused, in the early days of the company, when a stern critic accused him of employing ‘unnecessary humour’. Years later, he described the work that Riding Lights makes as a precious outpouring, like Mary’s jar of perfume poured over Jesus’s feet: an apparently unnecessary, costly offering; an act of witness, and an expression of the abundance of the kingdom.”

The Word Bank will remain open for donations until the end of July 2024. For full details of how to make a regular or one-off donation, along with information on increasing the gift’s value through Gift Aid, go to: ridinglights.org/TheWordBank.

“As we invite you to give to The Word Bank in Paul’s memory, we hope that you will do so with that spirit of abundance, no matter how much or how little you can give…to nurture the creation and presentation of new work as Riding Lights moves into the future,” says Bernadette.

Introduced by the Reverend Iain Lothian, Paul’s memorial service was packed to the rafters for tributes by Riding Lights luminary Murray Watts and regular designer Sean Kavanagh, a reflection by Geoffrey Stevenson and contributions by daughters Erin Burbridge and Caitlin Harland and son Patrick Burbridge, plus playwright and co-writer Bridget Foreman.

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Paul Burbridge (1953-2023): A tribute

Paul Burbridge: Artistic director of Riding Lights Theatre Company for more than 40 years

A SERVICE of thanksgiving and celebration for the life of Riding Lights Theatre Company artistic director Paul Burbridge (1953-2023) will be held at St Michael le Belfrey, High Petergate, York, on June 10 at 2pm. All are welcome.

Paul, who ran the Christian theatre company and Friargate Theatre artistic programme in Lower Friargate, York, died on April 19 after a short illness.  

A statement from the board and staff on the Riding Lights website reads: “Paul, along with Nigel Forde and Murray Watts, founded Riding Lights in 1977, and led the company for over 40 years with unwavering vision and extraordinary creativity.

“His commitment to the company and to all who encountered it in any way was inspiring and infectious, as were his kindness, warmth and humour.

“He was an encourager, guide, mentor and friend to many, whose faith and faithfulness to God flowed into the lives of others. Riding Lights was his life’s work, his calling, and a source of deep joy to him.

“We know that this will come as a great shock and sadness to many, and that you may wish to be in touch with the company. Any messages can be sent to info@rltc.org , and we will do our best to respond in due course.”

The statement concludes: “There will be an opportunity to make donations to Riding Lights in memory of Paul, in order to continue the work he loved. In the meantime, we value your prayers of thanksgiving for Paul’s life, for all of us at Riding Lights, and most of all for Bernadette [Paul’s wife], Patrick, Caitlin and Erin, that they may be comforted and surrounded by the love of God.”

Here CharlesHutchPress reflects on Paul Burbridge’s contribution to York’s theatre world with Damian Cruden, artistic director of York Theatre Royal from 1997 to 2019.

“WHEN I started, we met up, and right from the word go, Paul was one of those people who was always very welcoming and very easy to have a conversation with and always very constructive too,” remembers Damian, now CEO and artistic director of Alnwick Playhouse in Northumberland.

“The first major piece we did together was the Riding Lights/Theatre Royal collaboration on African Snow [Murray Watts’s play about slave ship captain John Newton, of Amazing Grace fame], directed by Paul in 2007. We then did Three Men In A Boat, directed by Paul at the Theatre Royal in April 2008.”

Paul had first adapted Jerome K Jerome’s late-Victorian tale of a trip up the Thames 18 years earlier for Riding Lights, reuniting with his original designer, Sean Cavanagh, for his Theatre Royal version of Jerome’s riparian mishaps and ineptitudes.

A community production of Anthony Minghella’s Two Planks And A Passion, co-directed by Paul and Theatre Royal associate director Juliet Forster in the round at the Theatre Royal in July 2011, was to be the precursor to the zenith of the Theatre Royal and Riding Lights creative partnership: the 2012 York Mystery Plays in the Museum Gardens.

“Paul was just very easy to work with because he always gave space,” says Damian, his co-director for that unforgettable open-air production. “He didn’t have an ego about himself. Instead, his artistic ego connected with the work of the community that he inspired. Above all, he was just really good fun to be with.

“For years, around the time of the opening of the panto, we cooked  a Christmas dinner in two sittings, one for the panto cast in the afternoon and then everyone else from the two companies in the evening, with the executives of the Theatre Royal and Riding Lights doing all the cooking.

“Afterwards, Paul would usually arrange a cabaret of some sort, with music and Paul doing some sketches as he was very amusing. Very Pythonesque, with a real sense of the absurdity of the world.”

Damian recalls how Paul’s faith was his bedrock. “We talked about it in depth when we were doing the Mystery Plays together; Paul as someone of faith, me as someone not of faith, wondering whether that would be difficult, and what it would mean in terms of creating the work, which I saw primarily as a big story, but for him it had a very different resonance,” he says.

“It was very important to have that mix,  people who have faith, people who were agnostic,  with me and Mike [writer Mike Kenny] as non-believers, Paul and Sean (designer Sean Cavanagh) as believers. It never got in the way at all. It was always very much about focusing on the telling of the story, and I think that faith was an important aspect in how we discussed it.

“I don’t think the production would have been as meaningful without that balance. The community cast that told that story was of a similar diversity of belief and non-belief, who discovered respect for each other’s position, and that was testament to Paul’s ability as an artist and leader to be magnanimous, to allow space, to be so highly inspirational in that way.

“He always wore his faith lightly but with an incredible depth of belief. I would say his faith was unshakeable, and his perception of the world found him working with faith groups in Palestine, stretching across faiths and the barriers that had been created.”

Paul was instrumental in Riding Lights establishing its headquarters in Lower Friargate in May 2000, taking over the 19th century building that previously had housed the Friargate Wax Museum until its closure in 1996.

Aptly, the opening production in the 100-seat studio theatre was Ben Jonson’s satire, The Alchemist, Paul having converted the base metals of a redundant museum into the universal elixir of theatrical gold.

“He was a very good leader, very intelligent, very knowledgeable, very talented,” says Damian. “He wasn’t self-obsessed and always knew why he was doing what he was.

“Riding Lights has been very successful in terms of its shows but also in terms of fulfilling its purpose. It’s a really important venue in York with a really strong commitment to youth theatre and a very clear sense of the community around it, which all theatres need to have.

“While its mission revolves around faith, you don’t feel like you’re going to have a religious diatribe when you go to a show. In many ways, Paul’s work has been superbly humanist, focusing on humanity. Very grounded, very connected.”

Reflecting further on Pauls’ leadership prowess, Damian says: “He would be one of the first people to say Riding Lights wasn’t just about him. He chose people around him that were good at what they did and that let Riding Lights become a potent organisation.”

Assessing Paul’s legacy, Damian starts by saying: “If you just think about the number of people who got up and strutted their stuff because Paul made it possible: whether through the youth theatre, summer projects, presenting work by community theatre companies and welcoming touring performers, on top of putting on all those Riding Lights productions.

“He made all that possible within York, and I can’t imagine how many people he’s influenced. All those people who started out at Riding Lights, it’s a huge list, all inspired by Paul and what the company stands for.”

Looking at Paul’s wider legacy, Damian says. “I hope that York continues to be a place that is absolutely engaged in presenting work that is there for the community and the creativity of that community, and that it remains something that is valued and given proper support.

“In a way, that’s the thing that would most upset Paul: if community creativity were left to wither on the vine. Community theatre, and the broad spectrum it covers, requires constant nurturing: the way Paul did it.

“He was a theatre gardener, knowing how to make sure the garden of theatre could survive in straitened time and be rich and productive in good times.”

God bless you, Paul, and thank you, guiding light of Riding Lights and Friargate Theatre.