»Nicholas Allen  »Daniel Winder »Christina Laurer  »Eric Lomas »Rudolph Wojta 

   Nicholas Allen was born in Leeds, Yorkshire. After spending part of his childhood in Cologne he went to boarding school in England, including five years at Rugby School. Before going on to Sussex University, he spent six months in Vienna in early 1965, studying singing and earning his keep working in a supermarket. He gained extensive theatrical and musical training both at Rugby and at Sussex. Finding himself unhappy away from Austria, he was back in Vienna by November 1966 and has been there ever since, apart from a short interlude in 1969/70. As well as studying, he started working for ›Vienna’s English Theatre‹ in 1967.

Since then there are few aspects of theatre-work of which he has not had first-hand experience. From 1971 to 1986 he toured all over Austria, creating and organising a schools touring operation that reaches even the most remote villages as well as the large towns. During this time he managed, drove, acted and sang in a total of 26 tours, most of which he directed as well. In his spare time he worked for Austrian Radio as actor, speaker, author and translator and was also area-editor for a major American guide-book to Austria.

>From 1986 to 1989 Nicholas Allen worked as assistant to his mentor: co- founder of ›Vienna’s English Theatre‹, Prof. Dr. Franz Schafranek, O.B.E. He remained responsible for the school touring operation and, in 1989, returned to touring all year round, as well as writing and directing. In 1991 he was awarded the Austrian Cross of Honour for Science and the Arts.

In 1994, there followed three years at the ›British Bookshop‹ in Vienna. Working in the English Language Centre, these years afforded him the unique opportunity to gain insight into and identify with the world of schools, teachers and pupils and proved invaluable when Julia Schafranek welcomed him back to ›Vienna’s English Theatre‹ in 1997 to start up a new Workshop Project in Austrian schools. This project is now in its tenth successful year.

In February 2001 he was awarded Austrian citizenship, shortly after the publication, in two volumes, of plays written for pupils of all ages, in schools of all types, to perform in class and in public. In his efforts to promote crosscurricular theatre-pedagogy in Central Europe, he has become well-known as a teacher-trainer in Austria and southern Germany.

In July 2002, after a year’s preparation, he initiated, together with Rudolph Wojta, a new two-week European theatre-workshop-festival ›Shakespeare in Styria‹ - producing a shortened version of A Midsummer Night’s Dream for public performance with 25 young actors, drama students and teachers. The success of this venture has led to its becoming a fixture as the ›European Youth Theatre‹ and is now in its fifth year. He is a member of the Directors Guild of Great Britain.


   Daniel Winder In 2007 british actor-director, Dr. Dan Winder was appointed Artistic Director of Shakes- peare in Styria, enabling Nick Allen to concentrate on the administration. His inspiring production in 2007 of "Romeo and Juliet" in Murau attracted considerable interest and ushered in a new phase in the development of this exciting project. Dan Winder will be directing the 2008 production of "Hamlet", starring Anwar Kashlan in the title role and John Harwood as Actor in Residence who will be the Ghost. Roberta Brown will once more be bringing in her expert Hollywood combat experience as Artist in Residence. www.danielwinder.com


   Christina Laurer As a native of Vienna, Christina Laurer has specialised in languages since school time, acquiring her A-levels in German, English, French, and Italian. During her studies of English and Italian at the Universtiy of Vienna, she spent two years in Canterbury doing linguistic research at the University College London next to teaching at the acclaimed ›King's School‹. She continued her professional career in another six months teaching English and German at a technical high school in Turin in Italy. After having been awarded her MA in English and Italian she pursued her academic career doing PhD research into sociolinguistic phonetics. Her PhD thesis Poor Paul: L Vocalisation and the Process of Syllable Coda Weakening will be published. In 2000 she achieved qualified teacher status in Britain and is presently teaching at the Theresianum in Vienna. Since March 2006 she has been lecturing practical phonetics at the Linguistics Department, University Vienna.

Since her early childhood Christina has indulged in dance and theatre. She has a fifteen-year education in ballet and musical as well as in latin-american and classical dance. As a director, she revived the theatrical spirit at the Theresianum with fabulous productions of Three Canterbury Tales (after Geoffrey Chaucer), Thornton Wilder's The Long Christmas Dinner and Mice by Nick Allen. In the last two years, theatre improvisation courses have proved an enriching challenge for her experience on stage. In the ›Shakespeare in Styria‹ productions A Midsummer Night's Dream , Twelfth Night , The Taming of the Shrew as well as The Merry Wives of Windsor she has been a dedicated actress, playing leading roles.


   Eric Lomas Eric began his theatre career with the Westcountry Theatre Company in the UK. After his return to Austria, he founded his own Youth Theatre, producing, directing and designing shows ranging from Shakespeare to Strindberg, Frisch and Brecht.

Since September 2004, he has been working as a professional actor, stage manager and technical director for the International Theatre, Vienna. Roles have included George Gibbs in Thornton Wilder's Pulitzer- price-winning play Our Town and Christopher Wren in Agatha Christie's The Mousetrap as well as Fred and Young Scrooge in their annual production of Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. Apart from his own artistic work, Eric also works extensively in Theatre-in-Education and teaches English for the LSR of Lower Austria.

For the European Youth Theatre, he has appeared as Demetrius in A Midsummer Night's Dream, Malvolio in Twelfth Night and Grumio in The Taming of the Shrew. In addition to his acting credits, Eric has gotten more and more involved with the company's administrative work, assisting in the preparatory processes and stage managing the actual performances. The Tempest will be Eric's fourth production with the EYT.


   Rudolph Wojta was born and educated in Vienna. After completing his studies he joined the weekly newspaper ›Wochenpresse‹ as writer for theatre and cultural affairs. Later he also focussed on art history and the international art and museum scene. In 1979 he became co-founder and first editor of ›Wiener‹ before subsequently returning to the ›Wochenpresse‹.

He gained first-hand theatre experience as a young man working backstage with prominent stage- designers at theatres including Die Komödianten am Börseplatz. In 2002 he was responsible for the staging of A Midsummer Night’s Dream in Murau as well as Twelfth Night the following year.

complete »Cast & Crew«