Kerry Michael is a second generation Greek Cypriot who was appointed as the new Director of the Theatre Royal Stratford East from September 2004.
Kerry was appointed the Artistic Director and Chief Executive of Theatre Royal Stratford East in September 2004 after being the Associate Director for the previous 6 years.
Kerry has vowed to uphold the theatre's commitment to develop new work and to provide a platform for those voices underrepresented in the ever-changing communities of the East End of London.
His debut play as Artistic Director was The Battle of Green Lanes written by Cosh Omar. Set amongst London's Cypriot community, it provided an early example of Kerry's commitment to those unheard voices.
More recent Stratford East directing credits include various new plays including Jamaica House by Paul Sirett, which had a site specific performance on the top floor of a tower block in Stepney, new musicals Make Some Noise and One Dance Will Do, Sammy and Come Dancing by Ray Davies.
Other credits include co-directing the Jonzi D hip hop show Aeroplane Man and an adaptation of Jules Verne's 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea. His recent directing credit The Harder They Come has obtained wide critical acclaim transferring to the Barbican Theatre, West End and Internationally. Most recently he directed the Barbican co-production of the John Adams' Opera I Was Looking At The Ceiling And Then I Saw The Sky. He has also has credits at the Edinburgh Festival, the King's Head, the Gate Theatre, a season of new work at Theatro Technis, programming the re-opening season at Greenwich Theatre and a residency at the Contact Theatre in Manchester.
In 2007 the theatre won an Olivier Award for Boy Blue Entertainment's Pied Piper and in the same year the theatre was also nominated for ‘presenting a powerful season of provocative work that reaches new audiences'. (In 2008 Kerry's production of Cinderella was also nominated for an Olivier). For many years now the theatre has seen its work both transfer and tour nationally and internationally.
In 2008 Kerry lead a consortium partnership to pilot the International Festival for Emerging Artists (IFEA) which saw forty-eight emerging artists from all over the world come together in East London to collaborate.
In 2009 he launched OPEN STAGE a landmark initiative giving audiences completely power over the theatre's programme for the first six months of 2012.
Kerry is a board member of Stratford Renaissance Partnership, a public/private partnership regeneration board; a trustee of Discover, which provide creative, play and learning opportunities for children and their carers in Stratford; a member of Equity's International Committee for Artists Freedom and chair of Stratford Rising, a consortium of Arts, Education and Cultural organisations based in area working together within the 2012 agenda.
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