John really enjoyed his time at the College and appeared in many shows including John Proctor in ‘The Crucible’, Leontes in ‘The Winter’s Tale’ - two parts that earned him the nickname of The Broken Man which has stuck with him since leaving Stratford. Other appearances include Mr Jones in ‘Keeping up with the Jones’, The Mayor in ‘Seussical the Musical’ and Odysseus in ‘The Odyssey’.

John-Robert went on to gain a place at Birmingham School of Acting in 2005 and trained for three years and played such roles as The Devil in ‘Paradise Lost’, Schwartz in ‘Lulu’, Macduff in ‘Macbeth’, Aristach in ‘The Suicide’, Armand Duval in ‘Camille’ and Edward Ferrars in ‘Sense and Sensibility’. He graduated with a First Degree in Acting and was the winner of The Brian Shelton Meritum for Excellence in Performance.

Since graduation John-Robert has trained with the Royal Shakespeare Company working on Voice and Movement in Shakespeare. He also has performed in The Sam Wanamaker Festival as The Clown from ‘The Winter’s Tale’ at a packed Globe Theatre in London, an experience he will never forget and one he would love to experience again. John is also a regular performer for Mad About Productions appearing in Panto in Rochdale in 2009 and Essex in 2010 as Wishee Washee in ‘Aladdin’.

When John is not corpsing and looking behind him, he has been working as a Shakespearian Actor at The Shakespeare Birthplace performing extracts from some of the Bard’s Greatest Works.

Along with all that if he is not busy enough he also runs Tread the Boards Theatre Company based at The Attic Theatre, Cox’s Yard in Stratford-upon-Avon. A company whose reputation for producing excellent theatre is growing. In 2010 Tread the Boards performed at The Edinburgh Fringe Festival and subsequently won two awards for Best Actor and Best Play.

Most recently they have just completed a sell out tour of the UK premiere of ‘The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde’ and ‘A Christmas Carol’ both productions John himself directed.

John has finally returned to Stratford-upon-Avon College to work alongside the lecturers in helping other talented students to get the amazing chances that he has had the fortune to get, by giving workshops on both the acting side and business side of running a theatre company. John hopes to build on the relationship and be able to give something back to the College where it all started.

Tread the Boards are always on the look out for new and upcoming talent to perform in their productions or to train alongside professional technicians, directors, actors and producers which is hugely beneficial in going out into the world of the arts. If you wish to contact John or Tread the Boards Theatre Company you can email them on: tread.theboards@live.co.uk|