Mike Alfreds

Mike Alfreds (born Michael Guy Alexander Alfreds in London on 5 June 1934) is an English theatre director, dramatist and playwright, who won a Critics' Circle Theatre Award and a British Theatre Managers Association award for Best Director. He has directed over 160 productions. He also was teaching at universities such as Tel Aviv University, the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art and Northumbria University.

Michael Alfreds was born in London in 1934 as son of Jewish parents.

He studied dramatic arts at the Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh in the United States. Afterwards he worked as stage director in the Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, and in the Theatre West in Tucson, Arizona. Back in Britain, he enrolled at LAMDA, the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art in London.

He directed plays in a number of theatres in UK and was artistic director of an ensemble at the National Theatre.

Alfreds had worked in many countries all over the world, such as Canada, Germany, Norway, China, Belarus, Australia, New Zealand, Mongolia and Israel.

From 1970-1975, Mike Alfreds visited Israel and worked there. He was senior lecturer at the theatre department of Tel Aviv University, and from 1972-1975, he was artistic director of the Khan Theatre in Jerusalem and contributed immensely to its development. His assistant in the Khan theatre was Ouriel Zohar. Amongst the actors of his ensemble in Jerusalem was Sasson Gabai. Mike Alfreds also directed plays at the Cameri Theatre in Tel Aviv, at the Bimot theatre, at the theatre in Haifa and at the theatre in Beer Sheva.

In 1975 after return to Britain, he founded and toured with his own ensemble called Shared Experience, in 1986, he won a Critics' Circle Theatre Award for directing The Cherry Orchard at the National Theatre, from 1991–1999, he was director of the Cambridge Theatre Company renamed Method and Madness, and was directing the Royal Shakespeare Company, or Mark Rylance in productions at Shakespeare's Globe Theatre etc.

He adapted for the stage, translated texts of several of his productions for the theatre, and wrote own pieces.

Alfreds is also known for his special method of instructing actors, inspired amongst others by the principles of Constantin Stanislavski and Rudolf Laban, with emphasis on physical activities, spontaneity and interaction with others during the play in minimalistic productions. He instructs ensembles with his method in different countries.

• 2011 : The Tin Ring adapted by Jane Arnfield, Mike Alfreds, The Lowry, Salford
• 2001 : Cymbeline by William Shakespeare, The Globe
• 1998 : The Black Dahlia by James Ellroy, National Theatre
• 1985 : The Cherry Orchard by Anton Tchekhov, National Theatre (won him a Critics' Circle Theatre Award)
• 1982 : A Handful of Dust by Evelyn Waugh, Shared Experience
• 1996 : Jude the Obscure, by Thomas Hardy, Taunton
• 1993 : The Love in the Country by Mike Alfreds and Anthony Bowles, Almeida Theatre, Soho Repertory Theatre
• 1987 : The Wandering Jew by Mike Alfreds and Margareth Wanda, after Eugene Sue, National Theatre
• 1984 : Marriage by Nikolai Gogol, Shared Experience

• La Mandragola (The Mandrake) by Niccolò Machiavelli.
• The Persian protocols
• An evening of sketches by Anton Chekhov
• Woyzeck by Büchner
• The Cherry Orchard by Anton Chekhov
• Ghosts by Henrik Ibsen
• Les Emballeurs de valises by Hanoch Levin, premiered at the Cameri Theatre, 1983
• À tous les diables, adaptation of the stories by Isaac Bashevis Singer at the Cameri Theatre, 2001

• A Shared experience: The actor as story-teller Series: Theatre papers, Published 1980 by Dartington College of Arts
• Wandering Jew by Michelene Wandor, Mike Alfreds, Published 27 May 1988 by Heinemann Educational Books
• Different Every Night: Putting the play on stage and keeping it fresh Published 1 April 2008 by Nick Hern Books
• Then What Happens? Storytelling & Adapting for Theater, Published 2013 by Nick Hern Books, ISBN 978-1-84842-270-4
• Different Every Night: Freeing the Actor, Published 21 August 2014 by Nick Hern Books, ISBN 978-1-85459-967-4
• Surprise of Love by Pierre Carlet De Marivaux, adapted by Mike Alfreds, Published 2011, by Oberon Books, ISBN 978-1-84943-183-5, Published as e-book ISBN 978-1-84943-711-0