Joe Douglas is a director, writer, creative producer, dramaturg and occasional performer. He is the Chair of Theatre Directors Scotland.
As a child, Joe would visit the Tron at Christmas with his Glaswegian grandparents and these visits meant that theatre filled Joe’s imagination for the rest of the year. Communicado’s Tall Tales for Small People changed his life - the bit with the stagecoach! He directed his first show aged eighteen, a community production of T.S.Eliot’s Murder in the Cathedral at St Aidan’s church in Wythenshawe and went on to graduate with a BA in Directing from Rose Bruford College, London. He has worked predominantly in Scotland since 2007, when he won a place on the Regional Theatre Young Directors Scheme and became the first Trainee Director for the National Theatre of Scotland. He served his apprenticeship under the guidance of John Tiffany and Vicky Featherstone, where his first gig in Scottish theatre was becoming an honorary member of The Bacchae! For the national company, he has directed or co-directed: Dear Billy, The Cheviot, the Stag and the Black, Black Oil, Dear Scotland, The Last Polar Bears, Our Teacher’s A Troll, Allotment. Joe was also Associate Director on three international tours of Black Watch.

Joe was Artistic Director of the Live Theatre in Newcastle upon Tyne (2018-20), where he directed Clear White Light, a new play with the songs of Lindisfarne and featuring former band members. He also co-directed Christmas Crackers and Fed Up, a project about food poverty with the extraordinary Live Youth Theatre. Joe’s time at Live also saw the English Premiere of The Cheviot… and he had been so excited to announce Children of the Night - a new play about working class club culture in the 90s featuring the tracks of QFX - when the covid pandemic struck. The enforced hiatus forced a rethink of priorities and he resigned, to be closer to family and friends in Scotland. He was Associate Artistic Director of Dundee Rep (2016-17) where he first directed the highly acclaimed new production of John McGrath’s The Cheviot, the Stag and the Black, Black Oil, which was reimagined for two sell out tours in 2016 and 2019 (with NTS and Live Theatre). The Cheviot was due to run at The Pavilion in Glasgow before embarking on a fourth tour in 2020, before the pandemic curtailed plans.

At Dundee Rep, Joe also directed Death of a Salesman (winner of Best Actor, Best Production and Best Ensemble at the Critics Awards for Theatre in Scotland in 2017),George’s Marvellous Medicine, The Resistable Rise of Arturo Ui, Spoiling and The BFG. He was very proud of his contribution to the programming of the Rep, with more community touring, inventive use of the acting ensemble and booking new touring acts such as Limmy.

Joe was Co-Artistic Director (with Gareth Nicholls) of new-writing, touring company Utter (2011-2017), where he co-created Educating Ronnie (Edinburgh Festival & two national tours), Bloody Trams (Traverse) and Stand By (Edinburgh Festival & two national tours). The much missed David Maclennan gave great opportunities to Joe to practice directing and dramaturgy at Oran Mor, where he has now made around fifteen shows. His love affair with A Play, a Pie and a Pint continues under the Artistic Direction of Jemima Levick and he will return to direct there in 2024.

Joe collaborates regularly with activist and comedian Mark Thomas, with whom he has created the shows The Red Shed, Showtime from the Frontline and Ouch! Mark has inspired Joe to experiment more with writing and performing and Joe worked with Faisal Abu Alhayjaa to co-write and perform The Peace Piece, a satirical, faux-podcast about conflict in the Middle East, colonialism and wellness culture. Joe played the hideous podcast host, Boswell Duff.

Other work as freelance director or co-director includes: The Arabian Nights (Lyceum), Dr Stirlingshire’s Discovery (Lung Ha/Grid Iron), My Friend Selma (Terra Incognita), Letters Home - Details (Grid Iron/Edinburgh International Book Festival). His work has won four Fringe First awards for Educating Ronnie (2012), Letters Home (2014), The Red Shed (2016) and Stand By (2017).

He has previously collaborated with Gary McNair on the five star rhyming masterpiece, McGonagall’s Chronicles (Which Will Be Remembered For A Very Long Time). The form of Dear Billy owes a lot to that production and the risk-taking which the environment of A Play, a Pie and a Pint allows.