A Natural Decision - Profile of OE Andy Burden, Director of the Natural Theatre Company

The second in our series of OE profiles, featuring Andy Burden (OE 1977-1985) who looks back to the moment he decided to follow a creative path and how this led to a career in theatre and his current role as Director of The Natural Theatre Company.

During most of my lessons at King Edward’s I would tend to stare out of the window. In breaktimes I would hang around the school hall, thinking of ideas for the Sixth Form review or practising my lines for the school play. I helped set up a school magazine and generally did anything that was creative, and which didn’t involve learning facts or writing essays.

I remember sitting in the middle of an A Level Physics class being taught how to calculate the surface tension of a bubble… That was the moment I made the major decision to change from Physics to English A Level so that I could go on to study Drama. I’m now Director of The Natural Theatre Company – the top street theatre company in Europe.

Quite frankly, most teachers probably would have given up on me. But at KES they didn’t. Constant encouragement from John Chambers, Jim Graham-Brown and many others meant that I put in the work needed to get myself onto a Drama degree.

I opted for a unique Performing Arts degree at Middlesex Poly (now Middlesex University) in London. The course covered lots of progressive styles of theatre and included invaluable options to study sound and lighting, arts management and directing. As well as gaining many production skills, I learnt how to be an arts administrator. It was a great degree and one which made me realise that I wanted to be a director rather than an actor.

My career has taken lots of interesting twists and turns. I worked in a record shop (I was basically the guy in High Fidelity), and I toured in bands as well as playing solo. I worked as a drama teacher for a bit, then started working at Leicester Haymarket before returning to Bath to work at The Theatre Royal as a lighting technician. It was around this time that I first made contact with The Natural Theatre Company, having applied for a job as a tour-technician for one of their shows. I didn’t get it, but the director asked me to audition as a performer instead. I got the job and performed with them on and off for about 15 years.

After co-founding a theatre company called Innerroom, I started making a name for myself as a director. In 2000 I took over The Rondo Theatre in Larkhall, building its reputation as a key venue for fringe theatre, increasing its audiences and improving its resources. This helped me make the contacts I needed to build a career as a freelance director, which saw me direct shows at The Lyric Hammersmith, The Tobacco Factory and other major theatres, as well as an outdoor piece to welcome the Olympic flame in Cornwall.

In 2013 I was going from show to show as a freelance director, and I decided that I would like to return to running an arts organisation. I saw the job at The Naturals advertised and the next stage of my career began. When I took over the company its best days were in the past; income was heavily depleted, and the Arts Council had removed all its funding. I liken it to turning around a tanker in shallow water: the company was about to stop forever. I rebuilt its business model, streamlined its operational processes and created a strategy to bring in new creative ideas alongside rejuvenating its classic pieces.  I have now been the Director for five years and we are thriving. Bringing the company back to life has been a huge challenge and one of the achievements I have been most proud of in my career.

The Natural Theatre Company is now going from strength to strength: we travel the world, working with the super-rich as well as with impoverished communities. Our work crosses boundaries and brings people together.

We create wandering comic scenarios at festivals, corporate events and parties. We provide interactive stories at heritage and tourism sites. We perform immersive shows like our famous Austen Undone on the streets of Bath, or Shakespeare Undone on the SS Great Britain. We engage with communities to help them tell their stories through multi-disciplinary arts projects. We train corporate clients using our techniques to build teams and enable more creative thinking. We work in schools, colleges and universities, sharing our skills and teaching people that theatre doesn't have to be on a stage.

At KES my reports referenced my habit of staring out of the window and said things like "Andy doesn't do his best”. Well, I still stare out of the window, but I can say, hand on heart, that I do better now. In fact, these days I do my best at all times.

http://www.naturaltheatre.co.uk