In 2010 she was named best director in the NW Theatre Review for her groundbreaking production Slave – A Question of Freedom (the true story of Mende Nazer’s enslavement and escape) which was also honoured with the inaugural Pete Postlethwaite Award for Best New Play and following its London premier and subsequent tour was awarded the inaugural Human Trafficking Foundation Media Award 2010, presented in the House of Commons.
Caroline enjoys working with Welsh National Opera and in 2013 was Associate Director/Movement Director, Lulu, (David Pountney), and as her time as a staff director there she directed the new commission of Mis Bach Du, revived, House of the Dead, (org dir Pountney) and also at the Teatro Massimo in Sicily. She has worked regularly with Opera North over a period of 15 years and directed, Something Wonderful, revived, Paradise Moscow, for touring and at the Bregenz Festival, Austria. (Pountney). In 2006 she directed the new musical From the Hart, (Kernan), at the New End Theatre Hampstead.
She enjoyed time at the Buxton Festival, directing Il Campenello, and the new commission Burning Water. For Mecklenburgh Opera, (BAC Festival), Look No Hands and for before Opera Circus, Conference of the Birds. For Manchester Camerata she staged the first dramatic piece at the Bridgewater Hall A Feast of Fables; the closing gala at the Free Trade Hall and the opening gala at the Bridgewater for the Halle Orchestra as well as the first British staging of The Silly Little Mouse, (Shostakovich) and in 2013 the children’s interactive chamber work A Rumble in the Jungle (Pickett). She also directed the children opera Brundibar by Hans Krasa prior to the opening of the Imperial War Museum North with Ed Gardner conducting.
As a freelance producer she is in demand to create specialist large scale events and was delighted to be asked to direct the Millennium Eve celebrations in Manchester with live BBC coverage; the VE Day Celebrations, the Lord Mayors Ball and international Women’s Day Festivals.
Caroline was named Lancashire Women of the Year in 2005, awarded the Angel Award for Artistic Excellence in 2006, and presented to Her Majesty the Queen at the opening of The Lowry Theatre. Feelgood were honoured with a Lord Mayors Civic Reception in 2006 in recognition of their contribution to the cultural life of the North West and Caroline was awarded the John Thaw Fellowship at The University of Manchester in 2007. In the same year she was delighted to be given the prestigious Horniman Award at the Manchester Evening News Awards for “outstanding contribution to live theatre”.
Caroline is passionate about theatre and is an advocate of using theatre to not only entertain but also to educate. She mentors young artists and lectures in the Opera Department at the Royal Northern college of Music and for the outreach department is the director of Youth Perform, a specialist group for young people to develop skills through musical theatre. She also lectures at the University of Manchester and Manchester Metropolitan University School of Drama.
Feelgood’s education work in schools and universities is second to none, working with organisations and charities to ‘make a difference’ and give a platform for those who do not have a voice. Through the play Slave – A Question of Freedom sufficient monies were raised to build a school in the remote Nuba Mountains of Sudan to create a lasting legacy.
Meet the Director - CAROLINE CLEGG
Caroline enjoys an eclectic career, having spent 25 years’ as a professional actor, international theatre and opera director, performance coach and lecturer. She has performed in the West End, on film and TV and has been invited to perform and debate at the House of Lords with one of Feelgood’s most memorable and ground breaking shows Slave – A Question of Freedom.
Caroline founded Feelgood in 1994 to create theatre with a sense of risk and adventure and is delighted to be celebrating its twentieth anniversary with the incredible team of artists who have made it possible. Feelgood has pioneered site specific work and innovative cultural partnerships in both the UK and internationally, performing in London’s West End, USA and Africa.
You can see the full extent of the work of Feelgood here.
As a freelance director Caroline is currently working on Nicola Lefanu’s new opera Tokaido Road which has its world premiere at the Cheltenham Festival on 6th July and in 2015 she is delighted to be directing Rigoletto for Longborough Festival Opera.
Most recently she directed the semi-staged production of Kurt Weill’s The Seven Deadly Sins at the Bridgewater Hall with the Halle (cond Sir Mark Elder) and directed Anya17 (Gorb) (an opera against human trafficking) for Liverpool TenTen Festival which was also performed in Romania at the Timisoara Philharmonic as the centre piece to an international conference on trafficking; it won the Human Trafficking Foundation (HTF) Media Award, 2012.
