Chris Elwell

Director
1997 - 2025

Chris Elwell
Director 1997 – 31 January 2025

Chris was the Director/CEO of Half Moon Theatre, London, for 27 years between 1997 and January 2025.

During his tenure, the company became a respected and influential powerhouse of award-winning theatre for young audiences, offering a unique synergy between professional theatre and participatory programmes.

In partnership with Administrative Director Jackie Eley, they enabled the company to purchase the freehold of the building and complete a major physical transformation, through a series of capital development projects, valued at almost £2m, into a fully accessible, young-person-friendly destination for audiences, participants and artists to enjoy.

Some of the creative projects Chris was involved with include the curation of Exchange for Change and Narratives of Empathy and Resilience – sector-significant artform development programmes that challenged perceptions of the work produced in the young people’s sector.

These extensive programmes particularly engaged artists from non-theatre backgrounds (design, digital/new media, dance, spoken word) and those who are under-represented in the sector, as well as emerging young people’s theatre companies. Much of this work subsequently toured nationally through Half Moon Presents, the company’s producing arm.

​Chris has directed, written, adapted and devised over 60 pieces of work – many award-winning – across many age ranges, from babies to teenagers and young adults. A selection of his most recent credits include Ten in the Bed (2024), Hot Orange (2023), Daytime Deewane (2022), Party (2021), Dust (2020) and Crowded (2019), as well as a cannon of work presented bi-lingually in English and BSL including Baa Moo Yellow Dog (2009), which was also adapted for TV in 2010, Icicle Bicycle, (2007) Igloo Hullabaloo (2006) and My Friend Snow (2005).

He is also known for directing a series of spoken word theatre pieces, including The House That Jackson Built (2019) and Fairytales Gone Bad (2016).

One of Chris Elwell’s final projects at Half Moon was to secure the transfer of the companies complete physical and digital archive to the Archives and Special Collections of Queen Mary University of London Archives, in January 2025.

This was an extensive and previously inaccessible physical and digital archive, spanning the years 1972 to 2024, that had been stored by the company in Whitehorse Road since 1990. The transfer included the small physical archive held for many years at Royal Hollway University (ref: HMT1 & HMT2), much of which was digitalised in 2016 and uploaded to Stages of Half Moon.

Enquiries related to the collection should be directed to www.qmul.ac.uk/library/archives

​Chris started his career as a special needs and drama teacher in secondary schools in Liverpool and London in the 80s, and was Head of Community and Schools Programmes at the RSC, the Head of Education at English National Ballet and a Lecturer in Applied Theatre and Education at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama.

He was the have Chair of the Trustees of Apples and Snakes (2014-2023), a Trustee of Paines Plough, including 3 years as Chair (1996-2012) and a Trustee of the National Student Drama Festival (1994-2000).

​Chris was awarded a British Empire Medal for services to theatre and young people in the 2017 Queen’s Birthday Honours list.

Productions and Participation

Interview with Chris Elwell

Full interview. Chris Elwell talks about his time as Director of Half Moon Theatre on White Horse Road since 1997. Interviewed by Kavana Joyett.

Gallery

Interview snippets

Interviews about Chris Elwell

Alice Bigelow, who project managed the move to the White Horse Road building for Half Moon, talks about Chris Elwell’s immediate impact when he joined the company in 1997. Interviewed by Toni Tsaera.

Transcript

Press

Press