I'm Jude Benning, an early-career theatre director and casting associate based in West London and Oxford. I’ve recently completed a year at Royal Holloway, University of London, studying for an MA in Theatre Directing (graduating in December 2025). Taught the Practical Directing modules by Katie Mitchell, I have received a thorough grounding in her process, which is forensic in its detail and based on observations of psychological realism. My education from Mitchell has equipped me with rigorous world-building tools to enable actors to suspend themselves safely in the lives of their characters. A generous educator, Mitchell also supported her students with masterclasses from many of her collaborators, from set designers to sound designers.

Also taught by Dr Rebecca McCutcheon, founder of Lost Text / Found Space, I have a new fascination with and appetite to stage site-specific work and was delighted to be appointed as Casting Associate on her latest production of FAR AWAY by Caryl Churchill at Ambika P3.

My directing style

In the past, my focus has been on ensemble-led pieces that are energetic, joyful and outward-looking. As my practice has developed, the pace of my work has slowed, enabling me to stage moments of intense emotion and psychological depth. My focus has been on supporting actors in their connection with one another enabling them to build truthful relationships on stage. As a director, I have steered away from work that too inward-looking or introspective, instead I forefront human connection. My goal is to stage work that is nuanced, rich in compassion and frailty, relatable and compelling. My preference is to move away from traditional, proscenium arch theatre and to enable the audience to get closer, to shift to the edge of their seats, to feel somehow involved in the action themselves.

Some words that inspired me from Owen Teale, in an interview about A CHRISTMAS CAROL at The Old Vic (2022).

“There’s a word in the Welsh language, which is ‘hwyl’, and hwyl can mean great spirit. And this hwyl to me is very much brought about by a collective, so it happens when people sing. It’s about losing yourself in the great. You kind of go into another level of existence.”

Tenebrism and theatre of darkness

A particular focus I have developed in my directorial work is tenebrism, chiaroscuro and darkness. By working in a darkened rehearsal room, I have found that actors are more easily able to lose their inhibitions and can more readily land themselves in the world of the play. As an early-stage director, budgets are tight and working with darkness and light enables productions to make impact without complicated set-builds or props. Darkness tunes up dramatic focus and enables actors and audiences to tune out the noise of life outside the show. If you want to hear more about what this means in the rehearsal room, get in touch - I wrote my dissertation about it.