Melissa Ratcliffe

My name is Melissa. My pronouns are she/her. I am a Theatre Director and Workshop Facilitator based in the North West but originally from Bolton. I have recently completed a masters in Theatre & Drama Facilitation at the Liverpool Institute For Performing Arts. I am also a recent graduate of the Liverpool Everyman and Playhouse Young Directors course where I was one of five young directors on attachment to the theatre over the course of two years. In 2021, I was accepted onto the Regional Theatre Young Directors Scheme as part of their New Directions North Programme in collaboration with Manchester’s Royal Exchange Theatre.

I’m particularly interested in working class stories and new writing. I want to tell the stories of the people I grew up around, stories of local people. To create theatre where they feel seen. I want to create theatre that has an impact, that makes us question society and the world around us.

As well as directing, I also work as a Facilitator for a number of organisations such as LIPA, The Lowry, National Theatre Connections, Everyman and Playhouse Youth Theatre and No place productions. Most of my facilitating work to date has been working with young people and communities. My work has taken me across Europe to places such as Lisbon and Lille, where I have worked on Erasmus projects.

Credits

DIRECTOR, Sorry, You’re Not a Winner, Liverpool Everyman and Playhouse, 2 nights, 2022.

DIRECTOR, Life on the Lane, Site specific Liverpool, 1 day, 2022

ASSISTANT DIRECTOR, Our Town Needs a Nando’s, Liverpool Everyman and Playhouse, 3 weeks, 2022.

DIRECTOR, There’s a Leak, Liverpool Everyman and Playhouse, 2 nights, 2022.

DIRECTOR, Box Clever, Liverpool Everyman and Playhouse, 2 nights, 2021.

DIRECTOR, Parliament Square, Unity Theatre, 3 nights, 2019.

CO-DIRECTOR, Confessions of a Toilet Cubicle, John Foster Drama Studio, 2 nights, 2018

DIRECTOR, Yen, Joe H Makin Theatre, 1 day, 2018

ASSISTANT DIRECTOR, A Midsummer Nights Dream, Ben Kingsley Theatre, 3 nights, 2015

Training

RTYDS New Directions North Scheme 2021

Young Directors Course, Liverpool Everyman & Playhouse Theatre, 2019-2021

Introduction to Assistant Directing with Laura Keefe in Collaboration with Wise Children & RTYDS

Directors and Design Intensive course with Amy leach and Hayley Grindle, Leeds Playhouse Theatre

Working with Lived Experience Workshop: All things considered Theatre

Roy Alexander Weise & Bryony Shanahan Workshop in collaboration with RTYDS.

Legislative Theatre Workshop with Katy Rubin

Emma Rice: Wise Children Workshop

Matthew Xia Masterclass