Biography
Tom's main focus in recent years has been on travel journalism and copywriting; but he is a freelancer and has had a lot of experience as a writer, editor and director in other fields in the past. He continues to work in all the media below.
Tom's first degree was in Philosophy, Politics and Economics, at Balliol College, Oxford University.
Tom's first production as director was a "stunning account" (The Independent) of Albert Camus's Caligula. Subsequently, he directed productions of plays by Strindberg, Ibsen, Brecht, Buechner, Beckett and Shakespeare. As an assistant director, he worked in London at the Almeida and National theatres and in the West End, on productions of plays by Racine, Pirandello, Hare, Shakespeare, Chekhov, Beckett, Brecht and others, with actors including Juliette Binoche, Cate Blanchett, Alan Rickman, Sir Michael Gambon and Dames Helen Mirren and Diana Rigg. Tom was invited to speak about the Almeida's work at academic conferences. Click here for a published version of one of his talks – Book on French classical theatre with Tom's article on the Almeida's Racine productions |
Costume design from Tom's production of Buechner's
Woyzeck, designed by Alison Phillips |
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Rehearsal for Scottish Opera's Five 15, 2010
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Tom teaches the piano. You can read more about this work here – http://www.londonpianoschool.com/tutors/tomyarwood/profile.html He also became interested in singing as a result of his work as an opera director and took weekly lessons for 18 months from the late Howard Milner, a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Music in London. Through his work as a travel journalist, he has recently become more interested in forms of music outside the classical European tradition in which he was educated. He took some time to investigate the Gnawa music scene in Essaouira, Morocco; the music of noh theatre in Tokyo; and the fidjri music of pearl divers in Bahrain (see travel articles under "Journalism", above). |
Instruments in the Zawiya Hamadcha, Essaouira
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Tom has written several feature film scripts and directed three short films. He has worked as a script reader or editor for film and television companies including the BBC, Channel 4, Kudos Film and TV, and AMG (New York). He has also worked as a consultant on screenwriting competitions for Screen Yorkshire, a regional arm of the UK Film Council. Tom studied for a postgraduate degree in film directing and screenwriting as a Fulbright Scholar at Columbia University in New York. For information on his films (shorts & features), click below – Balham vs Clapham Dreaming of Leo Attila Humphries London Variations |
Still from Dreaming of Leo
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