Ryan McBryde

Ryan McBryde is an award winning theatre director based in the UK.

He is formerly the Creative Director for the Mercury Theatre, Colchester (2019 - 2024)

His productions for the Mercury include: Midsummer, The Importance Of Being Earnest, Great Expecations, They Don’t Pay? We Won’t Pay! The Comedy Of Errors, Baskerville, Sleeping Beauty, Aladdin, Oliver - the Musical, Moll Flanders and Pieces Of String (the latter was nominated for UK Theatre Award for Best Musical Production and won Best New Musical at the Stage Debut Awards).

Other credits include: Romeo And Juliet for Theatre Trier, Germany; Faust and 1984 at the Alte Schauspielhaus, Stuttgart (1984 was nominated for the prestigious Theaterpreis Der Faust and Faust won the Stuttgart Audience Award); Love On The Links, Before The Party, Beauty And The Beast, Cinderella, Aladdin and Jack And The Beanstalk for Salisbury Playhouse (Jack won Best Pantomime 2018 at the Great British Panto Awards); The Invisible Man for the Queens Theatre, Hornchurch; Saturday Night Fever UK Tour; Angus, Thongs And Even More Snogging at the West Yorkshire Playhouse and The Who’s Tommy, European Tour. His production of Hamlet! The Musical at the Royal and Derngate, Northampton and Richmond Theatre, won the WhatsOnStage Theatregoers' Choice Award.

Ryan also directed the the world premiere of A Day at the Racists, Finborough Theatre / Barking Broadway, which won the Harold Pinter Playwright's Award; the world premiere The House Of Mirrors And Hearts, Arcola Theatre; a revival of On The 20th Century, Union Theatre; the German premieres of Spring Awakening and The Full Monty;  The Donkey Show, Proud London; The Ruling Class,  Sweet Charity,  Hysteria, Hair – The Musical, Deathtrap and The Fox for the Frankfurt English Theatre; Lia’s Guide To Winning The Lottery, Bridewell Theatre; the world premiere of Terje Vigen at the Royal Concert Hall, Oslo / Arts Theatre, London. Ryan also directed The Crucible and Fruhlings Erwachen for the Alte Schauspielhaus, Stuttgart.

Ryan co-founded Rogue State Theatre Company in 2002 and has directed five of their productions including – Heart of a Dog (The Assembly Rooms, Edinburgh), The Adding Machine (Courtyard Theatre, London) and Gogol’s Underdogs (The Underbelly, Edinburgh Festival). Ryan worked for the RSC on the development of their Matilda musical and the National Studio on Tory Amos’ The Light Princess. He was Resident Director on the musical’s Billy Elliot and Bat Boy in the West End, Cinderella at the Old Vic and Associate Director on The Common Pursuit at the Menier Chocolate Factory.