Brice Stratford (born February 1987) is an English

director Director may refer to: Literature * ''Director'' (magazine), a British magazine * ''The Director'' (novel), a 1971 novel by Henry Denker * ''The Director'' (play), a 2000 play by Nancy Hasty Music * Director (band), an Irish rock band * ''D ...

, writer, and

actor-manager An actor-manager is a leading actor who sets up their own permanent theatrical company and manages the business, sometimes taking over a theatre to perform select plays in which they usually star. It is a method of theatrical production used co ...

. He has focused on classical theatre, the

New Forest The New Forest is one of the largest remaining tracts of unenclosed pasture land, heathland and forest in Southern England, covering southwest Hampshire and southeast Wiltshire. It was proclaimed a royal forest by William the Conqueror, featu ...

area of

Southern England Southern England, also known as the South of England or the South, is a sub-national part of England. Officially, it is made up of the southern, south-western and part of the eastern parts of England, consisting of the statistical regions of ...

, and

British folklore British folklore includes topics such as the region's legends, recipes, and folk beliefs. British folklore includes English folklore, Scottish folklore and Welsh folklore.See discussion in, for example, Chainey 2018: 7-9. See also *Celtic myth ...

and

mythology Myth is a genre of folklore consisting primarily of narratives that play a fundamental role in a society. For scholars, this is very different from the vernacular usage of the term "myth" that refers to a belief that is not true. Instead, the ...

. He founded the Owle Schreame theatre company, which focused on Renaissance plays. He has written two books on British mythology.

Career

Theatre

Stratford founded the Owle Schreame theatre company, which specialized in Mediaeval and Renaissance theatre, in Cambridge in 2008. In 2013 at

St Giles-in-the-Fields St Giles in the Fields is the Anglicanism, Anglican parish church of the St Giles, London, St Giles district of London. The parish stands within the London Borough of Camden and forms part of the Diocese of London. The church, named for Saint ...

in Camden he produced, directed and performed in the company's ''

The Unfortunate Mother Thomas Nabbes (1605 – buried 6 April 1641) was an English dramatist. He was born in humble circumstances in Worcestershire Worcestershire ( , ; written abbreviation: Worcs) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in t ...

'' (1640) by

Thomas Nabbes Thomas Nabbes (1605 – buried 6 April 1641) was an English dramatist. He was born in humble circumstances in Worcestershire, was educated at as a King's scholar at the King's School, Worcester (1616–1620), and entered Exeter College, Oxf ...

, '' Honoria and Mammon'' (1659) by

James Shirley James Shirley (or Sherley) (September 1596 – October 1666) was an English dramatist. He belonged to the great period of English dramatic literature, but, in Charles Lamb (writer), Charles Lamb's words, he "claims a place among the worthies of ...

and ''

Bussy D'Ambois ''Bussy D'Ambois: A Tragedie'' (probably written 1603–1604; first published 1607) is a Jacobean stage play written by George Chapman. Classified as either a tragedy or "contemporary history," ''Bussy D'Ambois'' is widely considered Chapman' ...

'' (1607) by

George Chapman George Chapman ( – 12 May 1634) was an English dramatist, translator and poet. He was a classical scholar whose work shows the influence of Stoicism. Chapman is seen as an anticipator of the metaphysical poets of the 17th century. He is ...

; the three authors had all been interred in the churchyard, and two of the plays (''Honoria and Mammon'' and ''The Unfortunate Mother'') had apparently never previously been performed. In 2016 the company revived three

Interregnum An interregnum (plural interregna or interregnums) is a period of revolutionary breach of legal continuity, discontinuity or "gap" in a government, organization, or social order. Archetypally, it was the period of time between the reign of one m ...

Droll A droll is a short comical sketch of a type that originated during the Puritan Interregnum in England. With the closure of the theatres, actors were left without any way of plying their art. Borrowing scenes from well-known plays of the Elizabe ...

plays at the

Edinburgh Festival Fringe The Edinburgh Festival Fringe (also referred to as the Edinburgh Fringe, the Fringe or the Edinburgh Fringe Festival) is the world's largest performance arts festival, which in 2024 spanned 25 days, sold more than 2.6 million tickets and featur ...

, and later produced other drolls – performing a selection of Mummers plays at the

Old Red Lion Theatre The Old Red Lion (ORL), also known as the Old Red Lion Theatre (ORLT) and The Old Red, is a pub and fringe theatre, at Angel, in the London Borough of Islington. The theatre was founded in 1979 as the Old Red Lion Theatre Club. The pub was Grad ...

in 2017 and reviving the obscure 1660 droll version of ''

A Midsummer Night's Dream ''A Midsummer Night's Dream'' is a Comedy (drama), comedy play written by William Shakespeare in about 1595 or 1596. The play is set in Athens, and consists of several subplots that revolve around the marriage of Theseus and Hippolyta. One s ...

'' at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2018. In 2013, via online public vote, Stratford received the award for the People's Favourite Male Performance at

The Offies The Off West End Theatre Awards, nicknamed The Offies, were launched in 2010 to recognise and celebrate excellence, innovation and ingenuity of independent Off West End theatres across London. Over 80 theatres participate in the awards, with more ...

for his 2012 performance as Lord Chamberlain in ''

Ondine Ondine is a variation of undine, the category of elemental beings associated with water Ondine may also refer to: Literature * ''Ondine'' (novel), a novel by Shannon Drake (1988) * ''Ondine'' (play), a play by Jean Giraudoux (1938) * ''Ondine ...

'' at

The White Bear Theatre The White Bear Theatre is a fringe theatre founded in 1988 at the White Bear pub in Kennington, London, and run by Artistic Director and founder Michael Kingsbury. It is one of London's leading pub theatres, as well as one of the longest establis ...

. In 2014 he held the Owle Schreame Awards, which were for innovation in classical theatre.Loxton, Howar
The Owle Schreame Awards for Innovation in Classical Theatre
The British Theatre Guide, 19 September 2014 In December 2017 he founded The Owle Schreame Theatre Company Limited in

Lyndhurst, Hampshire Lyndhurst is a large village and civil parish situated in the New Forest National Park in Hampshire, England, about nine miles () south-west of Southampton. Known as the "Capital of the New Forest", Lyndhurst houses the New Forest District, Ne ...

in the

; the company was dissolved in January 2020.

Historical research

In 2017, while researching the history of Glasshayes House in Lyndhurst, Stratford discovered sketches in the

Richard Lancelyn Green Richard GordonBurke's Landed Gentry, 18th ed., vol. 3, ed. Hugh Montgomery-Massingberd, 1972, 'Lancelyn Green of Poulton-Lancelyn' pedigree Lancelyn Green (10 July 1953 – 27 March 2004) was a British scholar of Arthur Conan Doyle and Sherlock ...

archive which indicated that

Arthur Conan Doyle Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle (22 May 1859 – 7 July 1930) was a British writer and physician. He created the character Sherlock Holmes in 1887 for ''A Study in Scarlet'', the first of four novels and fifty-six short stories about Hol ...

had been the architect of the 1912 redesign of the building, apparently as an example of

Spiritualist Spiritualism may refer to: * Spiritual church movement, a group of Spiritualist churches and denominations historically based in the African-American community * Spiritualism (beliefs), a metaphysical belief that the world is made up of at least ...

architecture. Stratford has written two books, both published in 2022. ''New Forest Myths and Folklore'', concerning the

area of

, was published by

The History Press The History Press is a British publishing company specialising in the publication of titles devoted to local and specialist history. It claims to be the United Kingdom's largest independent publisher in this field, publishing approximately 300 ...

. ''Anglo-Saxon Myths: The Struggle for the Seven Kingdoms'', a collection of stories from the

Anglo-Saxon period Anglo-Saxon England or early medieval England covers the period from the end of Roman imperial rule in Britain in the 5th century until the Norman Conquest in 1066. Compared to modern England, the territory of the Anglo-Saxons stretched north ...

, was published by

Batsford Books Batsford Books is an independent British book publisher. Batsford was founded in 1843 by Bradley Thomas Batsford. For some time it was an imprint of Pavilion Books. Upon the purchase of Pavilion Books by HarperCollins, on 1 December 2021, B. T. Ba ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Stratford, Brice Living people English theatre directors English writers Actor-managers English male stage actors Artistic directors 1987 births