Helen Tennison
Director

Helen's production of A Midsummer Night's Dream is now playing at Vienna's English Theatre where she has previously directed Twelfth Night.

Most recent credits include Shirley Valentine (English Theatre of Copenhagen), Doggerland (the Netherlands), Most recently Helen won an Edinburgh Fringe First Award for Everything I See I Swallow Edinburgh Festival (winner of an Edinburgh Fringe First Award), which also played at The Lowry and in London, her new adaptation of Dracula played at The London Library and the Norrington Room at Blackwell's Bookshop in Oxford, she directed Orlando and Measure For Measure in Florida, A Midsummer Night's Dream at the Lovrijenac Fort, Dubrovnic, Stars in the Morning Sky at Camden People's Theatre and an alternative version of Cinderella for The Mill in Banbury. 

Helen's other work includes Alice at St Hugh's College, Oxford and at The Mill in Banbury, Hamlet and Twelfth Night at Lovrijenac Fort in Dubrovnic - produced by Honeyed Tongued, a Croatian company building creative links with the UK, Dracula for the Minnack Theatre in Cornwall, Titus Andronicus and a devised piece Ravens in Florida, a new version of Wuthering Heights - she both adapted and directed at the Yvonne Arnaud in Guildford and the Rosemary Branch in London before touring the UK, World Enough and Time at the Dalston Bunker, Much Ado About Nothing at the Courtyard Theatre and a staged reading of Diane Samuels' play The Arrest of Rosa Gold with Penny Downie and Claire Price.  

Previous credits include Sense and Sensibility at the Yvonne Arnaud Theatre in Guildford and on tour, Fay Weldon's adaptation of Madame Bovary Breakfast With Emma (nomination for Best Director - Off West End Awards 2012) at the Rosemary Branch and on a regional tour, a site specific production of Antony and Cleopatra and Tales From King James for Creation, A Midsummer Night's Dream and Love's Labours Lost for the Cambridge Open Air Shakespeare, Breathing Corpses at Hens and Chickens in London, Hamlet, The Tempest and Measure For Measure at the Rosemary Branch and Jean Genet's The Maids at the White Bear.

Helen was Artistic Director of Barefeet Physical Theatre for four years where she directed and choreographed movement for Of Cabbages and Kings, Icebound, Urban Angel, Someone Has Been Disarranging These Roses and Red.  Trained originally as a dancer, Helen has a special interest in mime and physical theatre and was Movement Director on Hussain and Harry for the Belgrade Youth Theatre and Cider With Rosie at the Theatre Royal, Bury St Edmunds.  She was also Assistant Director on The Mysteries at the Belgrade in Coventry, Assistant Text Worker on The Merry Wives of Windsor at Shakespeare's Globe and has directed Abducting Diana and Loveplay amongst other productions at the Drama Studio in London where she is Co-Artistic Director of 2 Year Studies.

Among the numerous other projects that Helen has been involved with are workshops for young professionals for the Old Vic - leading some of the sessions with Kevin Spacey, directing at the Drama Studio, founding a drama project to raise health awareness for Aboriginal children in Western Australia and facilitating drama workshops in prison and young offenders institutions.  She has also worked with the local youth refugee community for the Belgrade Theatre in Coventry, directed new scripts for the Off Cut new writing festival and worked on script development with the writers Alan Swift, Chad Armistad, Sarah Signal and Nick Walker.