Helping emerging local directors find their feet in the rehearsal room.
We are delighted to be continuing the Insight Directors Scheme to support local theatre-makers interested in directing through Theatr Clwyd’s Spring / Summer 2026 Season.
This Scheme allows one local theatre-maker at an early stage in their journey the opportunity to “observe” rehearsals for a forthcoming Theatr Clwyd production. Recent recipients have found the Scheme useful to their development and have reflected –
“The Insight Directors Scheme has been an amazing opportunity for me to understand more about myself as a creative and gain further insight into a professional working environment. Schemes like this prove that you can survive as a Welsh artist, living and working in Wales. It’s really uplifting to feel like people want to support your career.”
Em Dulson, Insight Director on Tick, Tick… BOOM!
“The Directors Insight Scheme does exactly what it says on the tin – provides an incredible insight into the process of directing. The scheme allows someone, like myself, who is sidestepping into directing after 17 years of working as an actor in the industry, an insight that I’ve never been privy to before, despite the work I’ve undertaken in rehearsal rooms. Being on the other side of the room and engaging in all the meetings, conversations and advice provided across the theatres departments as a whole, feels like an invaluable launching point to an exciting new avenue I’ve been dreaming of pursuing. The cherry on top is the undeniably warm welcome you receive while working in the building!”
Danielle Bird, Insight Director on Cinderella
About our Insight Directors Scheme
The director is invited into rehearsals every Monday (or another day by mutual agreement) throughout the rehearsal period, tech and into previews. This enables them to follow the process of bringing the work to our stages and the journey of the production. They aren’t an Assistant Director and are solely there to observe the process. The Scheme also affords them the opportunity to start (or continue) a dialogue with the theatre and to gain an insight into creating work for our spaces.
The successful candidate will be invited to create a diary or blog about their experience – this is to support their reflective learning and development, to consider how they actively might apply their learning to their own practice and may be used as a resource to talk about the production.
The successful candidate will also have a mentoring relationship with Kate Wasserberg, Artistic Director of Theatr Clwyd, and Suzanne Bell, Director of Stiwdio Clwyd, and tickets to see the production. They also have a dialogue with the Assistant Director on the production.
Who can apply?
The Insight Director Scheme is open to anyone local (to the producing theatre*) over the age of 18 who want to focus on theatre directing, and is at an early stage in their career. They should not have professional directing credits – but may have created work at a fringe level, as a student, as part of a youth theatre or through other training.
The successful candidate will be provided with a fee of £1,050 for the Insight Director Scheme – this is the equivalent of £150 per day. There is not a budget to cover travel or subsistence so it is open only to local artists.
*For Theatr Clwyd productions, we define local as someone based in Flintshire, Denbighshire or Wrexham.
How to apply
We ask that people only apply for one production – please consider which production or which director you would most benefit from an opportunity to observe. Details on the productions, directors and rehearsal dates are listed below.
To apply please submit a current directing CV or bio and a brief expression of interest (no more than 300 words) that outlines why you are interested in observing the process on this production and this particular director and the questions you have coming into that process.
Applications are to be sent to stiwdio@theatrclwyd.com.
If you have any queries about this opportunity, please contact stiwdio@theatrclwyd.com for more information.
Upcoming Productions
Monument by Rhys Warrington (Sherman Theatre)
Something unimaginable has happened…
With the eyes of the world watching, the residents of Llanycoed gather in their Village Hall. An important decision needs to be made: should a memorial be built – a memorial that could define this village forever? As the question is debated, ideas of nationhood and community are tested and long-running tensions reach boiling point. When the time comes, which way will they and, as importantly, you, vote? Because with two alternative endings, your vote really does count.
Deadline for applications: Sunday 27 September 2026, 17:00
The Director;
Francesca Goodridge is the Artistic Director of Sherman Theatre, Cardiff. She was previously Associate Director at Theatr Clwyd. Working primarily with new writing and reimagined classics, she creates multidisciplinary, non-naturalistic theatre that incorporates music and movement. She recently directed Our Town, the inaugural production for Welsh National Theatre in co-production with The Rose Theatre.
In 2026, she will make her Royal Court debut with Monument, a new play by Rhys Warrington, co-produced with Sherman Theatre. She co-directed the revival of Nye by Tim Price alongside Rufus Norris for the National Theatre and Wales Millennium Centre. Francesca was part of the inaugural Warner Bros. Discovery Access programme, in partnership with Waterloo Road and the BBC, supporting the development of female directors for screen. In 2023, she was selected as a Development Artist with the RSC, mentored by Robert Icke and the international theatre company Cheek by Jowl. She trained on the National Theatre Directors Course and at the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts. She was the first recipient of the 18-month Carne Traineeship for Directors in Wales, mentored by Tamara Harvey, and previously as Trainee Director at The Other Room Theatre in Cardiff.
She co-founded The Far Away Plays, an online play-reading company championing Welsh and Wales-based creatives, dedicated to revisiting existing Welsh plays and exploring their relevance today. Francesca has also been a visiting lecturer and director at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, LIPA, the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, Mountview, and Leeds Conservatoire.
