Adrian Jackson is the founder-director and chief executive of a unique theatre company, Cardboard Citizens, in which most of the performers are homeless and ex-homeless people, refugees or asylum-seekers. Founded in 1992, the company tours theatre productions, especially inter-active Forum theatre, to all sorts of venues, including hostels, day centres, schools and theatres; apart from the interactive Forum Theatre shows the company is renowned for, it has also mounted a number of larger-scale usually site-specific productions, including The Beggar’s Opera (with ENO), The Lower Depths (with London Bubble), and Mincemeat. In September 2003, Adrian directed a co-production of Pericles for Cardboard Citizens with the Royal Shakespeare Company. This was followed in November 2004 with a co-commissioning of playwright Sarah Woods, resulting in a new play Visible which was performed at the RSC’s New Work Festival, and in 2006 at Soho Theatre and touring. In Autumn 2006 he directed a site-specific production of Timon of Athens, as part of the RSC’s Complete Works festival, and at Belfast Festival. In 2007, he devised and directed Down/Out, a reaction to George Orwell, Going Going Gone for Cardboard Citizens, and Home and Away for Formaat Theatre in Rotterdam.

In 2009, he directed Mincemeat, which gained five star reviews and won the Evening Standard award for best design. He also gave the keynote speech at the World Forum Theatre Festival in Austria.

He is also a well-travelled teacher and translator, having translated five books by Augusto Boal and taught the Theatre of the Oppressed extensively in Europe, Asia, Africa and Latin America. He is currently working on his own book, provisionally entitled The Art of the Joker.

Adrian Jackson has made a series of productions (Pericles, Timon, Mincemeat), which use text, testimony and devising techniques to place current and historical material within a theatrical context, without slavish adherence to notions of verbatim theatre.

This laboratory will explore the presentation of truth and history, personal and national. A particular focus of the exploration is likely to be the story of the Chagos Islanders who were forcibly removed from the island of Diego Garcia in the 1970's; the subsequent use of the island for military purposes, including extraordinary rendition flights; the documents relating to the creation of a Marine Protection Area around the islands in recent months.

The Centre for Performance Research has invited some of the most exciting and diverse Wales based and international theatre directors to Aberystwyth for an intensive participatory project that offers a rare opportunity for both experienced and emerging directors to gather and share the methods, approaches and skills of professional directing practice via laboratories and presentations, demonstrations and dialogue.

For more information or to book a place at the Directors' Forum please contact CPR

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The Centre for Performance Research, Parry Williams Building , Penglais Campus, Aberystwyth, Wales , SY23 3AJEmail: cprwww@aber.ac.uk Phone: +44 (0) 1970 622 133 Web: www.thecpr.org.uk

The Directors Forum has been made possible with the support of a project grant from the Arts Council of Wales. The Centre for Performance Research at Aberystwyth is a joint venture of The University of Wales Aberystwyth and Centre for Performance Research Ltd, working in close association with AU Department of Theatre, Film and Television Studies. Centre for Performance Research Ltd is an Educational Charity (No. 701544) limited by guarantee (Reg. No. 231 5790).