Anna Hampton

I’m a theatre director based in London and a recent graduate of the MA Directing programme at LAMDA.

I’m a big-picture director with a sharp eye for text, visuals, and movement. I believe that theatre should be consuming, provocative, and political. My strong dramaturgical approach fuels a special love for recontextualising classic/modern plays and for new work development.

In September, I directed MACHINAL at the Orange Tree Theatre in Richmond in a contemporary staging that looked at the relationship between womanhood and mental health in city life.

Preceding MACHINAL, I assisted James Grieve on the new musical BERLUSCONI at Southwark Playhouse Elephant.

And in-house at LAMDA, I assisted Sara Malik on MOSQUITOES, Anna Barkan on THE LOWER DEPTHS, and Abigail Graham on the new play LONDON by Kieran Knowles. I also devised two plays – one an interactive piece based on Kathy Acker’s feminist punk epic BLOOD AND GUTS IN HIGH SCHOOL, and the other a polyamorous comedy called THREE’S A CROWD with final year MFA Acting students.

Following my graduation, I stayed on at LAMDA to assist Sonnie Beckett on ROMEO AND JULIET as part of the Shakespeare in Schools project; we toured secondary schools in London for two weeks.

I also assisted on Sean Lionadh’s film INADEQUATE and travelled to Atlanta, Georgia with my coursemates to observe on the set of THE ELECTRIC STATE, an upcoming Netflix film directed by Joe and Anthony Russo.

In July, I organised and directed a staged reading of Gertrude Stein’s TENDER BUTTONS at the Cedric Bardawil Gallery in Soho. This project drew on years of interest in the intersection of modernism, visual art, and performance – my final project at my undergraduate institution, Kenyon College, was an examination of political identity in Stein’s opera canon.

And before coming to London, I was New York-based. As theatre in the city emerged from the pandemic, I co-founded a company with classmates from Kenyon and self-produced two summer seasons at the Polaris North Theatre in Manhattan in 2021 and 2022.

I’m represented by Ben McDougal at the Soundcheck Agency. [ben@thesoundcheckgroup.com]

Credits

2023
DIRECTOR, Machinal, Orange Tree Theatre, 3 performances
ASST. DIRECTOR, Romeo and Juliet (schools tour), 2 week run
DIRECTOR, Tender Buttons, Cedric Bardawil Gallery, 1 performance (staged reading)
DIRECTOR, Three's a Crowd, LAMDA, 3 performances
ASST. DIRECTOR, Berlusconi, Southwark Playhouse Elephant, 2 month run
ASST. DIRECTOR, The Lower Depths, LAMDA, 3 performances
DIRECTOR, Dogs and Trees, LAMDA, 1 performance
ASST. DIRECTOR, Mosquitoes, LAMDA, 5 performances

2022
DIRECTOR, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf (excerpt), LAMDA, 2 performances
ASST. DIRECTOR, London, LAMDA, 5 performances
DIRECTOR, Do Big Kids Cry?, Polaris North Theatre, 1 week run
DIRECTOR, Stupid F*cking Bird, Kenyon College, 5 performances
ASST. DIRECTOR, Dance Nation, Kenyon College, 5 performances

2021
DIRECTOR, Hedda Gabler, Kenyon College, 5 performances
DIRECTOR, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Gynecologic Oncology Unit and Memorial Sloane Kettering Cancer Center of New York City, Polaris North Theatre, 1 week run
ASST. DIRECTOR, Antigonick, Torn Out Theatre, 1 week run
DIRECTOR, Far Away, Stagefemmes, 5 performances

Training

LONDON ACADEMY OF MUSIC AND DRAMATIC ART
MA DIRECTING, Distinction, October 2023

KENYON COLLEGE (Gambier, OH)
BA DRAMA, magna cum laude, May 2022
Artistic Director/ Producer, Kenyon College Players

NATIONAL THEATRE INSTITUTE (Eugene O’Neill Theater Center, Waterford, CT)
ADVANCED DIRECTING, Fall 2020

ATLANTIC THEATRE COMPANY - Spring Comprehensive, June-July 2019
6-week intensive training in Practical Aesthetics

Observerships -

STANDING AT THE SKY’S EDGE, assoc. dir. Elin Schofield
Gillian Lynne Theatre, March 2024.

SHE STOOPS TO CONQUER, dir. Tom Littler
Orange Tree Theatre, November 2023.

THE ELECTRIC STATE (film), dir. Joe and Anthony Russo
Netflix, January 2023.

THE CHERRY ORCHARD, dir. Katie Mitchell
Schauspielhaus Hamburg, November 2022.