Luke Beattie - Co-Artistic Managing Director
Born and raised in Vancouver, Canada, Luke studied Theatre at the University of British Columbia, earning a Class-1 degree and the Yvonne Firkins Prize for outstanding achievement in direction and staging. Among his favourite roles at UBC were DeLacey in Frankenstein, Baron Tuzenbach in Three Sisters, and Barnette Lloyd in Crimes of the Heart.After graduating, Luke founded Vanguard Theatre Society. He directed Vanguard's productions of The Star-Spangled Girl at the Jericho Arts Centre, which was remounted upon the venue's request for a gala night, and Iphigenia among the Taurians at the Havana Theatre. While Vanguard is now only semi-active, Luke remains the Artistic Managing Director, and occasionally involves the Society in collaborative projects.
In the same period, Luke supplemented his training with on-camera study at various institutions, and acted in many theatre, film, television, voice, and print projects. The most noteworthy roles among the theatre productions were Gilbert Blythe in Carousel Theatre's Anne, Henry and Mr. Birkbeck in Rock-Paper-Scissors' Design for Living, and Stan and Klausen in the Playwrights Theatre Centre's workshop of Wedgie; most significant on-camera projects were Lifetime's A Job to Kill For, and Awake Films' The Zoo Project; other noteworthy projects include voice work in Cowie and Fox Creative's Air Boom Box promo for Wild Planet, 29 Productions' telephone vocal ring tones for Zeebuzz, emcee work for Vancouver Fashion Week's Desert Lores fashion show, and print work for Grey Worldwide Northwest's Accessibility campaign for VanCity. He also directed Ruddigore for UBC's Gilbert & Sullivan Society, as well as projects for the Walking Fish Festival, and Two Trees Theatre's 10x10 Festival. Additionally, Luke was a guest instructor at Point Grey Secondary School teaching Shakespeare to advanced senior acting students, and he did tech work for the Sea Vancouver Festival and UBC's Brave New Play Rites Festival.
Luke then relocated to England, where he earned an MFA in Staging Shakespeare at the University of Exeter, graduating with Distinction. He was co-winner of the Edwin Rudd Scholarship and recipient of the 2008 Cymbeline Prize, and also worked as a teaching assistant. During his time in the programme, he performed as Falstaff in The Merry Wives of Windsor, Antipholus of Syracuse in The Comedy of Errors, Marcus in Titus Andronicus, The Old Athenian in Timon of Athens, and in a show at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, among others. He spent time training at Shakespeare's Globe in London, where he earned Gold stage combat certification for level-1 rapier and dagger, single sword, and unarmed stage combat from the BADC. Among his directing projects were productions of The Tempest, Macbeth, a fusion of Shakespeare's and Fletcher's work titled The Taming of the Tamer...Tamed, and a production of Pericles, Prince of Tyre in Stratford-upon-Avon for the Royal Shakespeare Company-sponsored summer festival at the Dell. He was also a regular contributor to the University's 87.7 Xpression FM's news department's bulletins and weekly Raving Report news show, qualifying as a radio presenter and leading bulletins in 2007.
Luke currently resides in London, while pursuing a PhD in Drama from Exeter. His doctoral study has been supported by the Exeter Research Scholarship, Overseas Research Studentship, Doctoral Research Studentship, and a Maintenance Scholarship, and investigates the previously unproduced manuscript play collection of James Compton, 3rd Earl of Northampton (a significant Royalist figure in the period of England's Civil War and through the 17th century); Luke is in the process of staging the world premieres of the ten plays in this collection, and the projects have taken him to Exeter, Bath (Bath Spa University), London (Richmond Shakespeare Society), Seattle (Outsider's Inn Collective), and Vancouver (UBC) so far. In 2008 he presented a paper at the Globe for a symposium concerning Bassianus, one of the collection's plays. In 2009, he was the Associate Producer responsible for Canadian participation in the 21 for 21 worldwide Howard Barker Festival; he also acted in the lead role of The Road, The House, The Road in a staged reading in London's West End as part of the Festival. He has just finished serving as script editor and textual coach on a production of Kyd's The Tragedy of Soliman and Perseda at The Rose, Bankside.
Luke is looking forward to the challenges and rewards of helping to establish Foul Papers Theatre Company.
