William Kerley is represented by Rayfield Allied worldwide.

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William Kerley

Stage director

  • William Kerley's modern-dress production of The Rake's Progress packed a well-honed punch.
    Anna Pickard, The Independent
  • William Kerley's strikingly independent productions rode on strong performances, creative staging and choreography.
    Anne Midgette, The Washington Post
  • William Kerley's staging of The Rake's Progess was one of the best I have seen anywhere ... Kerley staged the fable brilliantly.
    Hugh Canning, Opera Magazine

  • William Kerley was born in London and is a director of opera and theatre.

    In 2009 Maestro Lorin Maazel appointed him Resident Stage Director at the Castleton Festival, Virginia, USA where he has directed new productions of Britten’s The Rape of Lucretia, The Beggar’s Opera, Albert Herring and The Turn of the Screw, Rossini’s The Barber of Seville, Bizet’s Carmen, Puccini’s Trittico and La Bohème, as well as double bills of Stravinsky’s The Soldier’s Tale/de Falla’s Master Peter’s Puppet Show and Ravel’s L’Enfant et les Sortileges/Weill’s Seven Deadly Sins,  all of which were conducted by Maestro Maazel.  His Castleton Festival productions have been performed at the Opera Company of Philadelphia and to CAL Performances in Berkeley, California.

    William has worked as assistant and associate director in theatre at the Royal Shakespeare Company, the National Theatre and the Almeida Theatre, and in opera at Glyndebourne Festival, Birmingham Opera Company, the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, Opera North, Scottish Opera and Welsh National Opera.  Directors he has assisted include Tim Albery, Bill Alexander, Jonathan Kent, Phyllida Lloyd, Jonathan Miller, Graham Vick and Matthew Warchus.

    A renowned Britten specialist, William directed the 50th anniversary Aldeburgh Festival production of Gloriana at the Snape Maltings.  He also directed a new production of Britten’s children’s opera, Let’s Make an Opera at the Aldeburgh Jubilee Hall, where the piece had its premiere in 1949.

    In 2011 William directed the Chinese premiere of Rossini’s Il Barbiere di Sivilgia at the National Centre for the Performing Arts in Beijing.  In 2012 he directed a new production of Bizet’s Carmen at the Teatro Petruzzelli in Bari, Italy.  Recent productions also include the world-premiere of Giorgio Battistelli’s The Embalmer at Almeida Opera and a new production of Donizetti’s La Fille du Regiment for Opera Holland Park.  His Guildhall double-bill of Hindemith’s Long Christmas Dinner and Berkeley’s A Dinner Engagement was nominated for a Royal Philharmonic Society Award.

    Future plans include La Bohème conducted by Lorin Maazel at the Royal Opera House, Muscat, Oman and a new production of Thomas Ades’ Powder Her Face at the Opera Company of Philadelphia.

    William Kerley is represented worldwide by Ben Rayfield at Rayfield Allied.
    This biography is for information only and should not be reproduced.

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