Staff
Director George Tarbuck
George Tarbuck trained in technical theatre at the E15 Acting School. His career in the performing arts has encompassed all forms of live entertainment including Theatre, Opera, Dance, Circus, Music, Corporate and Rock. He is an award winning lighting designer working nationally and internationally. He has worked on projects as diverse as the international Opera collaboration St Kilda, the G8 Summit in Gleneagles and Our Europe festival in Dresden. He has also worked as a Stage Manager, Set Designer, Sound Designer, Production Manager and Pyrotechnician.
As Subject Leader in Lighting and Sound at Queen Margaret University for sixteen years George ran a highly successful Theatre Production course with a 98% employment record. His graduates are currently working worldwide.
Associate Pete Searle
Pete Searle has always been a creative theatre practitioner starting as an electrician and progressing through lighting design and production management. For 9 years he was the first ever Technical Director of Scottish Ballet, before moving on to deliver that role for the Edinburgh International Festival. He then returned to Glasgow to physically create the only UK venue for Peter Brooke's Mahabarata. That space became the Tramway which he managed for its first 3 years as the central venue for Glasgow during its year as European City of Culture in 1990. During that time he founded his own production company working in theatre, museum, events concerts and commercial presentations. In 1992 he joined Glasgow Museums as Head of Creative Services to bring the speed and language of theatre into an otherwise formal institution. A later move to Higher Education saw him as Programme Leader of Theatre Production Arts at the RSAMD before moving to Queen Margaret University in Edinburgh to lecture in Stage and Production Management
Associate Martin Palmer
Martin Palmer has been in the entertainment industry for 30 years. He has lit award winning shows as diverse as Korean Drummers in Seoul and the Edinburgh Tattoo. Projects include contemporary and classical music, dance, film & TV, corporate, seasons at the Royal Lyceum and the Lyric Belfast, St Magnus Festival, commercial work at the EICC, and production managing Beijing Film Academy at the Edinburgh Festival.
He is a Post Grad from Edinburgh University and a City & Guilds qualified electrician. He is an authority on WSYWYG (lighting visualisation) for CAD systems.
Associate Ronnie McConnell
Ronnie trained at Queen Margaret University College and now works as a freelance sound designer. His skill with sound and music has seen him create the soundtracks to a vast range of theatre pieces including the Arches 15 year anniversary production "Inferno", the 2010 Enchanted Forrest show "Force Of Nature" and his own sound installation "News Reel" at the Edinburgh Feet First festival. He has designed sound for over 30 professional productions in the last five years as well as creating music for websites and short films.
Patron Francis Reid
Francis Reid is a veteran lighting designer of all forms of theatre from London West End via Edinburgh pantomimes to Glyndebourne Opera, author of many books on theatre technology, and lecturer on lighting across six continents. He has recently been awarded an honorary doctorate by RSAMD for services to theatre.
Freelance teaching staff
Teaching staff are all highly experienced professionals currently working in the industry.
