Toby Hulse¹⁹⁶⁶

Hello. If you’re reading this, it means I have finally lost a twenty-five-year game of digital hide-and-seek. For a quarter of a century, I have actively, stubbornly, and somewhat proudly resisted having a website. I always preferred the idea of existing purely as a theatrical cryptid—someone you might hear about in the damp corridors of the Bristol Old Vic, or spot lurking at the back of a technical rehearsal at The Egg, holding a lukewarm cup of tea and a script covered in red ink. However, reality has rudely intervened. I recently realised that if I don’t put a flag in the digital sand, I run the very real risk of losing out on work to the very students I have spent years training to be better than me. And we simply can't have that. So, here we are. Welcome to my reluctant paper trail. If you are trying to figure out what it is I actually do, you have my deepest sympathies. My career is less of a ladder and more of a snake’s wedding. I am a playwright. I am a director. I am a dramaturg. I am a university lecturer and a creative practitioner. Sometimes I do all of these things in the same week; occasionally, in the same afternoon. Over the years, I’ve had the joy of making theatre with some remarkable accomplices. I’ve written and directed for Travelling Light, Polka Theatre, Oxford Playhouse, and my own touring company, Roustabout. I’ve adapted A Little History of the World for the Watermill, built Sherlock Holmes mysteries at the Barn Theatre, and spent an inordinate amount of time trying to figure out how to make serious, adult theatrical magic out of seemingly impossible, chaotic ideas. I’ve spent so long moving onto the next script, the next rehearsal room, and the next cohort of students that I rarely look back. But I will admit—grudgingly, and please don't tell anyone I said this—that being forced to sweep all this evidence into one pile has been surprisingly cathartic. When you spend decades making ephemeral things that exist only for an hour and a half in a dark room, it’s actually quite nice to see the paperwork laid out. It turns out, I’ve been quite busy and dare I say it. I’m quite good too. This website isn’t a pristine, corporate brochure because I am not a pristine, corporate entity. It’s a messy desk. It is a reflection of how my brain works and how theatrical collaboration actually happens: with lots of scribbled notes, spilled coffee, good fun, intentions, and a healthy dose of controlled chaos. Please, have a poke around. Rummage through the scripts, read the clippings, check the drawers. I hope that playing on this site gives you a decent understanding of who I am and the kind of work I make. Or, at the very least, I hope it kills five minutes and you find my contact details and get in touch. Yours, reluctantly on the grid, Toby Hulse