Mike Willoughby
Mike Willoughby is an English Director, Producer, Writer and Actor. He was born in King’s Lynn, Norfolk but as an “Army Brat”, he has lived in many places in England and abroad.
He first appeared on stage in the Panto “Puss In Boots” for British Forces Antwerp in Belgium at the age of 9. He describes it as a terrifying experience, but has had a longing for the stage ever since (though not so much for Panto!).
Mike went into the business world working as a senior manager for multinationals such as G4S, Toyota Financial Services and Nestle. This gave him a firm grounding in Finance, Legal, Project Management and IT, but the primary skill from this experience is that of Staff Management, which he uses to build a strong and motivated crew on productions.
Mike has worked backstage in theatre since his teens and has done just about every job in a theatre (except cleaning the grid!). He currently keeps his hand in with this, working some touring productions at the Gordon Craig theatre in Stevenage.
In 2014, Mike was Producing and Directing Martin Sherman’s “Bent” for The Stoke Theatre in Guildford when he auditioned James de Val for the role of Wolf. James got the part and they have been firm friends and business partners since.
Mike has a love of drama in his writing and will always set himself writing challenges especially if he is told “It can’t be done”!
He studied The Meisner Technique under Scott Williams and this methodology informs Mike’s writing as well as his Directing and Acting.
Mike’s next challenge is to make the leap from Directing for stage to getting behind the camera to Direct a short film.
Keep the performance real, alive and magical.
Contact Mike at: mike@voodoo-productions.co.uk