Bill Hopkinson

Bill is Principal Lecturer in Acting at ICTheatre Manchester, contributing a range of practical teaching notably involving play-texts and psychophysical actor training, as well as coordinating  third year production modules.

Prior to returning to Manchester, Bill was Senior Lecturer in Drama at Edge Hill University from 2007 to 2021, where he led the MA Making Performance. He is a playwright, dramaturg and theatre director who has taught at conservatoires and universities over three decades. As Artistic Director of Manchester Youth Theatre (1997-2000) he explored integrated theatre productions with  young disabled and non-disabled performers. From 2000 to 2004 he was Literary Manager for Sgript Cymru, the national new writing company for Wales, and he was a dramaturg with the new writing development organization NWPlaywrights in Manchester for over twenty years.

He has worked extensively in Deaf-led theatre both in the UK and in New Zealand, notably in Liverpool he worked with Common  Ground Sign-Dance Theatre for over a decade as director and dramaturg devising work with both the professional company and in the community: as part of an ongoing project to integrate manual languages and expressive forms of European dance theatre. In 2009 and again in 2013 he received Writers’ Guild of Great Britain New Writing Development Awards for his work as dramaturg and director with emerging stage writers. He has premiered new plays for the stage in London, Manchester, touring nationally and  off-Broadway.