Tom Morris

Tom Morris

Tom Morris is Artistic Director of Bristol Old Vic.
In 2011 he won the Tony Award for Best Direction of a Play for the National Theatre Broadway production of War Horse, along with co-director Marianne Elliott.

At the helm of Bristol Old Vic, Tom Morris has directed Juliet and Her Romeo, Swallows and Amazons and A Middsummer Night’s Dream which toured the US. Tom has also overseen the development of Bristol Jam, the UK’s only festival of improvised performance, and Bristol Ferment, a programme which supports artists, as they develop their work and show it at regular intervals throughout the year.

Tom prevously held the post of Associate Director at the National Theatre where he developed and co-directed Every Good Boy Deserves Favour and War Horse and co-wrote A Matter of Life and Death with Emma Rice, with whom he also wrote The Wooden Frock and Nights at the Circus for Kneehigh.
Tom was Artistic Director at Battersea Arts Centre (BAC) from 1995 to 2004 where he revolutionised the programme, oversaw a radical management restructure and led the organisation from the verge of bankruptcy to financial stability. Whilst at BAC, Tom wrote Ben Hur, Jason and the Argonauts and World Cup Final 1966 with Carl Heap and directed many shows including Newsnight the Opera, Macbeth (with Corin Redgrave), and Othello Music. At BAC, Morris also founded BAC Opera, the Festival which launched The Shout’s Tall Stories, Jerry Springer: The Opera and the hugely successful contemporary opera company Tête à Tête.

Tom was a critic and feature writer for a range of national publications, including The Times Literary Supplement, The Daily Telegraph and The Observer.

Tom has also served on the boards of Complicite, the Arts Patrons’ Trust, Punchdrunk and is Patron and Founding Chair of the JMK Trust.