from the ground up." In the theatre’s first season, Bond directed a new play by Sarah Rutherford, Adult Supervision, and a Christmas “anti-panto”, Sleeping Beauty, which he wrote with actor Mark Cameron. Bond also directed the 2014 and 2015 Christmas shows, Jack and the Beanstock and Rapunzel, both co-written with Cameron. In May 2015, Bond directed Hurling Rubble at the Moon, one segment of Avaes Mohammad's double bill about radicalization in the UK. In April 2017 Bond directed Miriam Margolyes in the world premiere of John Misto’s Madame Rubenstein, based on the story of cosmetics entrepreneur Helena Rubinstein. He also directed the first English-language production of Jean Poiret's La Cage aux Folles (play), translated by Simon Callow, in February 2020. While in its early years the majority of plays produced at the theatre were financed by external production companies, with Park Theatre acting as the host venue, Bond's intention was always to stage more in-house productions as financing became available, leading the theatre to devise innovative fundraising strategies. In July 2017, Bond directed Ian McKellen's one-man show, Shakespeare, Tolkien, Others & You, a fundraiser for the theatre that ran for eleven performances. The McKellen show and other fundraising efforts having permitted Park Theatre to produce more in-house productions each year, 2018 saw Bond direct Robert Schenkkan's post-Trump dystopia Building the Wall. In July 2019, the theatre staged Whodunnit [Unrehearsed], in which celebrity actors including Gillian Anderson, Damian Lewis, Joanna Lumley, and Jim Broadbent donated their time for one-off performances in a murder mystery. The stars, unlike the rest of the cast, did not see the script or attend rehearsals before their performance, and had to "solve the crime in real time, with only an earpiece feeding them lines as they attempt to crack the case." Nor did the audiences know beforehand which celebrity would be performing on any given night. The play ran from July 15 to July 27, selling out at every performance. A repeat success was achieved in February 2022 with Whodunnit [Unrehearsed] 2, with a new plot and celebrities including Emma Thompson, Brian Cox, Jonathan Pryce, Sue Perkins, and David Mitchell. References English theatre directors 1978 births Living people