Ellie Hurt
Ellie is a Liverpool based director.
Recent directing credits include: Romeo & Juliet (Liverpool Everyman Theatre – winner of Broadway World award for Best Direction of New Production of a Play); The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (Storyhouse); A Christmas Carol (The Dukes); A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Storyhouse); Hamlet (National Theatre); A Christmas Carol (Shakespeare North Playhouse); The Owl that came for Christmas (UK tour) and Murder Ballads (Liverpool’s Royal Court, The Other Palace, Edinburgh Festival Fringe).
Ellie was assistant director on School For Scandal at the Royal Shakespeare Company as part of their 2024 summer season, and associate director on Fantastically Great Women Who Changed the World (Kenny Wax UK tour). She was a member of the Young Directors Programme at the Liverpool Everyman and Playhouse in 2017, which led to her first job as assistant director on Fiddler on the Roof as part of the newly formed REP Company at the theatre.
Session: We’re Just Wilde About Oscar
Oscar Wilde and his work were brilliant, subversive, and endlessly quotable and he remains one of literature’s most dazzling and complex figures. This week-long course explores, through practical application, highlights of Wilde’s extraordinary comedies that pulse with wit and whose dramas reveal the tensions of love, hypocrisy, and identity beneath the glittering surface of Victorian society.
By the end of the week, our explorations will reveal Wilde to be not only a comic genius, but also a dramatist who transformed the theatre into a mirror of desire, rebellion, and art.
During the week you will:
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Delve into and reflect on Wilde’s life and how he contributed to the rise of the modern comedy of manners
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Investigate Wilde’s stagecraft and wit through exploration of his play-texts
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Explore the wit and wisdom of The Importance of Being Earnest and how it translates into performance
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Discover, through practical work on the text the morality and hypocrisy in An Ideal Husband and A Woman of No Importance
This is a course for actors and directors who want to deepen their understanding, through practical exploration of a master of theatrical brilliance. No prior knowledge of Wilde’s work is required — only a love of sharp dialogue and keen observation.