Biografi
Kerry, a second generation North London Cypriot, was Artistic Director & Chief Executive of Theatre Royal Stratford East (TRSE) from Sept 2004 to Sept 2017. For 13 years, he forged the Theatre's commitment to develop new work & provide a platform for voices under-represented. In 2007 TRSE was nominated for an Olivier Award for 'a powerful season of provocative work that reaches new audiences.' Its hip-hop production Pied Piper won an Olivier that year, and Kerry's production of Cinderella was nominated for an Olivier, the first pantomime nominated in the Awards' history. Other nominations include You Me Bum Bum Train, Roadkill, Oh What A Lovely War & The Government Inspector. More info here
In March 2018 Kerry won Artistic Director Of The Year at the OFF WEST END Awards, and in April he was awarded the Freedom of the City of London.
In the 2018 Queen's Birthday Honours List, he was made a Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (MBE) for services to the Arts.
Kerry's Theatre directing credits includes: Cosh Omar's The Battle of Green Lanes, John Adam's opera, I Was Looking At The Ceiling & Then I Saw The Sky (co-production with Barbican), The Harder They Come, (transferred to the West End & tours of Canada and USA), Ray Davies' Come Dancing (Winner What's On Stage Best New Musical) and a new production of The Who's Tommy - embedding creative BSL, Captioning and Audio Description. (Winner UK Theatre Awards Best Touring Production 16/17).
Kerry instigated IFEA - International Festival for Emerging Artists. IFEA consists of 48 partners from around the world, identifying emerging artists to meet in London and collaborate.
He pioneered OPEN STAGE, where TRSE became the first theatre to hand over complete programming power to its audience in a six months season running up to the 2012 Games.
With partners from Brazil, he produced Home Theatre (UK) where 30 performances simultaneously took place in 30 homes occurred across London (available on www.stratfordeast.tv). Home Theatre has now been presented in the UK, Rio, Dublin and Pretoria (South Africa).
Over the last 13 years, Kerry has led TRSE's Musical Theatre Initiative, which has worked with hundreds of Composers and Writers placing the theatre at the forefront of developing new British musicals.
Kerry is a founding member of Stratford Rising a consortium lobbying to place arts, creativity & education at the heart of Stratford's regeneration & a member of British Actors Equity International Committee for Artists' Freedom
