Ellis Jones (actor)
Ellis Jones (born 15 November 1943, Petersfield, Hampshire) is a British director and actor.In recent years he has been involved in training and directing many of today's most exciting actors - for sixteen years as a resident director at London's Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA), and more recently as a guest director for other leading drama schools in London and abroad, including the Royal Central School, and the Shanghai Theatre Academy. He became known for his role as a young apprentice named 'Hal Adden', a pun that reflects the flavour of the successful 1970s children's comedy series Pardon My Genie. He went on to appear in many other television productions, such as "The Squirrels", "1914 All Out". "King Lear" and "Measure for Measure" In recent years he has worked extensively in the field of actor training, and as a theatre director and producer.
Career
After graduating from the Drama Department of Manchester University Ellis Jones worked as an actor, director and writer in theatre, radio and television, and was awarded an Arts Council Associate Director's Bursary in 1984. He has directed at many British regional theatres, and from 1990 to 1993 was Artistic Director of the Century Theatre, Keswick, the precursor of the Theatre by the Lake.
He joined the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art as Head of Acting in 1993, was the Academy’s Vice Principal from 1998 to 2003, and Creative Director of RADA Enterprises from 2003 to 2009. In 2003 he created a programme of classic plays featuring RADA graduates on board the Cunard ocean liner, the Queen Mary 2 which is still a popular feature of transatlantic crossings. Ellis Jones is currently Lecturer in London Theatre for the New York University Tisch School of the Arts, and during 2010-11 was consultant Director of Acting Programmes for Tisch Asia, Singapore. He is also a guest director at the Shanghai Theatre Academy, China, and in October 2010 directed there the first-ever Chinese-language version of an Alan Ayckbourn play, "Taking Steps". In the autumn of 2012 he directed Rodney Ackland's "Absolute Hell" with final-year students at the Royal Central School, London. In 2015 Ellis will direct workshops at the Shanghai Theatre Academy and at Peking University, two public rehearsed reading of a new play co-written with Martin Wimbush" "Miss Wilson"s Waterloo" at the Finborough Theatre London, and in July-August Ellis has been invited to direct a series of European comedy workshops for the NYU Tisch Open Arts Program in Manhattan.
He is Director of www.teachyourselfacting.com, and author of the associated popular TYA blog, which has an increasing international readership.
Acting summary
References
External links
