Profile
YVONNE BREWSTER OBE FRSA D.UNIV
Born in Kingston Jamaica, Yvonne Brewster went to the UK to study Speech, Drama and Mime at the Rose Bruford College and the Royal Academy of Music. She holds two Licentiates from the Royal Academy of Music and successfully graduated from Rose Bruford. Subsequently she returned to Jamaica where she taught drama and produced and presented her own shows on radio and television.
Yvonne is Founder of the Barn - Jamaica's first professional theatre company which is still thriving as a producing theatre today, nearly 40 years later. She also worked on many films, among them The Harder They Come, Smile Orange and The Marijuana Affair, and for BBC TV the Fight Against Slavery and My Father Son Son Johnson. Yvonne has also been Chief Executive of the Jamaica Festival Commission which operated out of the Office of the Prime Minister.
Since being based in Britain, Yvonne has undertaken a vast variety of directorial work in all media ranging from the first ever black production of Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest at Opera Houses in England and Ireland, to a two-hander by Derek Walcott, Pantomime in a public house and Lorca's Blood Wedding for the Royal National Theatre. Her work has been internationally acclaimed, and her skills have been employed in festivals, conferences and productions in Europe, the United States of America and Canada.
As one of Britain's most respected theatre directors, Yvonne is founder of the country's leading black theatre company Talawa, established in 1985. During her seventeen years at the helm she directed a succession of ground-breaking productions for Talawa ranging from Wole Soyinka's The Road to Shakespeare's King Lear, Medea In The Mirror by Cuban playwright José Triana, theTrinidadian farce Beef, No Chicken by Derek Walcott, Flying West by celebrated African-American playwright Pearl Cleage, to an Othello based on African-American personalities, General Colin Powell and O.J Simpson and One Love by Kwame Dawes which enjoyed sensational runs at Britain's oldest theatre The Theatre Royal Bristol and at the prestigious Lyric Theatre in London's Hammersmith. She returned to Jamaica to direct Trevor's Rhone's most recent play Bellas Gate Boy at the Barn in 2003.
Yvonne, along with a number of international theatre directors, was invited to participate in the inaugural workshop season at Sam Wannamaker's New Shakespeare's Globe Theatre. For BBC Radio 4 Yvonne directed Ola Rotimi's The Gods Are Not to Blame starring Sir Trevor Macdonald and Sir Robert Stephens. For BBC Television she directed Romeo and Juliet which received two BAFTAs and a Royal Television Award.
Amongst her international work Yvonne fulfilled a commission to direct Harold Pinter's The Lover in Florence Italy at the Teatro della Limonaia. In the US she directed Ti Jean and His Brothers Tennessee's Williams' Streetcar Named Desire at University of California Davis as Artist in Residence, Femi Euba's The Eye of Gabriel in Baton RougeLouisiana.
As an actress Yvonne has appeared in many Television dramas and 'soaps' including Maybury with Patrick Stewart, Doctors, The Bill, EastEnders Family Affairs, ITV's Rose and Maloney among others. She plays a lead role in the BBC Radio 4 regular comedy series Do Nothing Till You Hear From Me .
Yvonne has served on the British Council's Drama and Dance Advisory Committee, the Gulbenkian Enquiry into Director Training in Britain The Arts Council of England's Black Regional Initiative for Theatre (BRIT), on the Boards of the Black Theatre Forum, the London Arts Board (for 8 years) and The Theatres Trust and as a Non-Executive Director of The Brent Kensington and Chelsea Mental Health NHS Trust.
Yvonne was one of the principal judges for the Olivier Awards for London's West End Theatre in 2004 and is one of the three judges for The British Theatre Book Prize in 2005. Yvonne is one of the Judges for the Commonwealth Writers Prize 2005.
Since the publication of her autobiography The Undertaker's Daughter she has been in great demand at literary festivals including Jamaica's Calabash 2005 Durham Literary Festival, Lewisham's Black History Month and Sheffield's Off the Shelf Festival.
She is proud to be Patron and Fellow of her Alma Mater Rose Bruford College of Speech and Drama and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. She was delighted to receive the Living Legend Award from the National Black Theatre Festival in Winston Salem North Carolina and an Arts Council Woman of Achievement Award. She received the Heritage Award from the European Federation of Black Business Owners in 2001.
In the 1993 New Year's Honours list, Yvonne received the Order of the British Empire from Her Majesty the Queen for Services to the Arts. In June 2002 The Open University conferred on her the Degree of Honorary Doctor of the University. Britain's Central School of Speech and Drama will confer a Fellowship on her in 2005 in recognition of her contribution to British Theatre.
Publications:
- Volumes 1, 2, 3 Black Plays published by Methuen edited by Yvonne Brewster
- The Undertaker's Daughter pub. by BlackAmber Books(Oct 2004)
- Who's Who page 324
