Robin Belfield

Robin Belfield is a British-Bahamian theatre writer, director, educator and producer. He has worked with amongst others the National Theatre, the Royal Shakespeare Company, the Globe Theatre, the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, The Oxford School of Drama and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.

Education

Robin Belfield grew up in Royston, Hertfordshire, where he attended Icknield Walk First School, Greneway Middle School and Meridian School. He graduated from the University of Bristol in 2001 with a First in BA Drama.

Career

Belfield was awarded a bursary from 2003 to 2005 as part of the Channel 4 Theatre Director Scheme.
From 2008 to 2010 Belfield was Staff Director at the National Theatre and from 2015 to 2021 Young People’s Performance Developer for the Royal Shakespeare Company. He is now pursuing a career as a freelancer.

Belfield and Slater Musicals

Belfield first met composer Simon Slater in 2010 on a production of Treasure Island which Belfield was directing for the Watermill Theatre in Newbury, Berkshire and for which Slater had composed the music. In 2013 the Watermill Theatre staged their second collaboration The Adventures of Pinocchio, which was followed in 2014 by Belfield and Slater's adaptation of Peter Pan, described by The Stage as ‘arguably one of the most engaging tributes to Neverland.’ The following year saw the pair collaborate on Alice in Wonderland at the Watermill Theatre and tour two shows adapted from books by Jonathan Emmett: The Santa Trap and Here Be Monsters , which was described by the British Theatre Guide as ‘a captivating swashbuckling show.’ As dramaturg, Belfield also collaborated with Slater on 'Drift', a dance production for the 'Mayflower 400' celebrations in Southampton in 2020.

Yellowtale Theatre Company

Belfield is artistic Director of the Yellowtale Theatre Company, a company that celebrates ‘multiracial stories and storytellers.’ In 2010, Yellowtale performed Belfield’s play 'Dat Bahamian Ting' at the second festival in Nassau, the Bahamas. The play had previously premiered at the Nuffield Theatre four years earlier. In 2012 Yellowtale returned to the festival with 'Othello or ', Belfield’s adaptation of Shakespeare’s tale of domestic abuse and rage. Belfield also penned and directed the Yellowtale comedy 'The Hibiscus Hotel' which was performed at the old colonial mansion of in the heart of Nassau in 2014.

Educational activities

Belfield teaches and directs at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, , and the , where he was Principal Lecturer 2021-2022. He is also an Associate Learning Practitioner for the .
At the Royal Shakespeare Company, he worked as Young People’s Performance Developer from 2015 to 2021 and launched their initiative which sought to deliver a UK-wide talent development programme.
He has also been instrumental in the creation of the RSC’s First Encounters productions of , and . These are 90-minute versions of Shakespeare’s plays aimed at younger/first-time audiences which tour schools. In an interview for the he commented ‘as a society we don’t take young people seriously enough.’
He is a trustee of the and sits on the advisory committees of and the .

Publications

In 2016 Belfield published Telling the truth: how to make verbatim theatre, a guide to creating a play out of heard conversation. The educational website Drama and Theatre wrote that “Robin Belfield draws on his own experience and some very useful research to offer a step-by-step breakdown of the process” and Inkpellet described it as an 'excellent book'.

Credits as Director

Source:
2003: Duck Variations by David Mamet | Nuffield Theatre
2004: The Entertainer by John Osborne | Nuffield Theatre; Kiss of the Spiderwoman by Manuel Puig | Nuffield Theatre
2006: A Christmas Carol by David Holman | Dukes Theatre
2007: Oleanna by David Mamet | Nuffield Theatre, Southampton 2007 Charlotte’s Web by Joseph Robinette | Dukes Theatre
2008: Trade It? by various writers inc. Mustapha Matura | Show of Strength Theatre; The Twits by David Wood | Dukes Theatre, Lancaster
2010: Treasure Island by Toby Hulse & Simon Slater | Watermill Theatre; Dat Bahamian T’ing by Robin Belfield | Nuffield Theatre; Venison by Tom Morton Smith | Yellowtale Theatre Company
2011: Othello by Robin Belfield | Nuffield Theatre, Southampton; The Wind in the Willows by Toby Hulse & Simon Slater | Watermill Theatre; The Odd Couple by Neil Simon | RWCMD, Cardiff; Spring Awakening by Duncan Sheik & Steven Sater | West Sussex County Youth Theatre
2012: Arabian Nights by Toby Hulse & Simon Slater | Watermill Theatre
2013: The Adventures of Pinocchio by Robin Belfield & Simon Slater | Watermill Theatre; Machinal by Sophie Treadwell | Oxford School of Drama, Royal Court Theatre; Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare | Sussex Actors Studio. Vincent in Brixton by Nicholas Wright | RWCMD, Cardiff
2014: Peter Pan by Robin Belfield & Simon Slater | Watermill Theatre; Sweeney Todd by Stephen Sondheim & Hugh Wheeler | Chichester University; A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare | Sussex Actors Studio; You Can’t Take It With You by Moss Hart & George Kaufman | RWCMD, Cardiff; Anna Karenina by Helen Edmundson | The Oxford School of Drama, Royal Court Theatre; Hibiscus Hotel by Robin Belfield | Yellowtale Theatre Company, Nassau, Bahamas
2015: Here Be Monsters by Robin Belfield & Simon Slater | Mayflower Productions, tour; Alice in Wonderland by Robin Belfield & Simon Slater | Watermill Theatre, Newbury; Walking the Chains by ACH Smith | Show of Strength Theatre & Circomedia, Bristol
2016: The Santa Trap by Robin Belfield & Simon Slater | Mayflower Productions, tour
2017: Sapho and Phao by John Lyly | The RSC, Next Generation
2018: The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare | The RSC, First Encounters tour
2022: Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare | The RSC, First Encounters tour; The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Helen Watts & Eamonn O’Dwyer | ICTheatre,Brighton Princess Essex by Anne Odeke | Queen’s Theatre, Hornchurch & Bush Theatre; Red Velvet by Lolita Chakrabarti | Richard Burton Theatre Company, RWCMD, Cardiff
2023: Blue/Orange by Joe Penhall,| Richard Burton Theatre Company, RWCMD, Cardiff; 37 Plays Project, The RSC, Beltane by Billie Collins, Go Back Home by Hannah Shury-Smith, Evie of Windrush by Joan Jackson-Callen

Credits as Associate/Assistant Director