Steven Rumbelow - Director - Writer
Steven Rumbelow has directed over 200 productions in all media (9 feature films, about 70 major stage productions, 64 episodic TV productions, scores of music videos, about 20 commercials, TV Specials, opera and dance). These productions have won over 100 awards between them including several Bessies for the commercials, three Outstanding Film of the Year awards at the London Film Festival and his production of Moby Dick (starring William L. Petersen and Ted Levine) was nominated for 11 Chicago Jefferson Awards of which it won four. His reputation has been built on cutting-edge and high-quality independent productions in all media that are conceptual and visually dynamic.
Feature Film
He has directed 9 feature films: King Lear , St. Joan , Faust , The Search , The Proteus Chronicles , Queen City Blowout , The Covenant, Lost Souls and Autumn. Between them they won over 20 awards at film festivals throughout the world. Upcoming films include Over the Edge , Cafe X and Where Horses Die . All three productions are signed to a slate with Equinoxe Films.
Music Videos
He has directed music videos for major labels such as A&M/Sony, WEA, Polygram, Atlantic etc. with A, B and C bands. His music videos have appeared on high rotation in all major television markets including MTV, Much Music, BET and BBC.
Television
Television experience is mainly special interest programming such as the anarchy event series “The New Television”, Toronto 's improvised satellite station QTV and his 90 minute TV special Ghosts for The Space Channel. Most recently all 52 episodes in the paranormal series Beyond and Rocking Horse Dreams the 90-minute documentary about Canada 's young Olympic equestrian hopeful for 2008: Andrina Calder.
Commercials
He has directed a number of Bessie Nominated or Awarded commercials, worked as a staff director for Derek Van Lint (DVLA) directing high-end commercials during the 1990's and later “pools” of spots with Renegade for places like the Canadian National Exhibition.
Stage
On stage, Steven has worked at The Old Vic, The Royal Shakespeare Company, The Bristol Old Vic, Steppenwolf Theatre - Chicago, The Goodman Theatre - Chicago, The West End (7 productions), the legendary Arts Theatre in London, as well as having led production projects for Grotowski's Theater Laboratorium. He was founder of one of the world's foremost physical theatre companies, Triple Action Theatre which was the resident company at the London New Arts Lab (Institute for Research in Art and Technology). New Arts Lab was the leading force in London in the late 60's for alternative theatre and film. In Canada he has directed at many prominent theatres including Theatre Passe Muraille, Premiere Dance Theatre and Buddies in Bad Times. His stage production of Dr. Faustus was the longest running tour in British stage history which was last seen in Toronto in 1997. His theatre work was the subject of four books during the 1970's.
Writing
He has about 100 produced works to his credit in all media for writing. These include several stage and feature film productions as well as commercials, television and one radio drama.
Teaching
Steven has lectured at 68 Universities and Institutes in Europe and North America, executing experimental acting programs at many of them. He set up the Post Grad Improvisation Program at York University in Toronto and also held a special course for the Communications Department at Northwestern and ran a project comparing human and primate communications at London Zoo. His workshop program "Leap In the Dark" was attended by over 10,000 actors around the world in the 1980's and most recently his ACTRA accredited 'Edge' Series in Toronto and Regina have been attended by about 400 actors.
Other
He was co-founder of The Woman's Film Co-op and the Independent Theatre Council which is now Britain 's main regulatory body for employment and safety standards in theatre. He also served on committees for the British Actors Equity Association and was instrumental in drafting and passing the Equity Co-op and the Equity C touring agreements which facilitated the membership of over 2000 members who previously had been non-union working talent. Steven also ran several collaborations between Triple Action Theatre in the UK and Jerzy Grotowski's world renowned Theatre Laboratorium in Poland .
Interests
He played for Bristol City Rugby Union , Boxed in the WABA semi-finals, broke the Western Junior Squat Record (lifting 480lbs) and practiced at competition level Kendo, Judo and Fencing. Steven also raced motorcycle combination (under-age) in the UK , played competition Chess for Bristol City and studied Chi Dance with Dr. Darwin Teng (Director of Cultural Studies - University of Shanghai ). He has performed transpersonal field studies with five shamans in remote areas of the world concentrating on the mechanics of ‘literality' in performance and the anthropology of the performer. Computer Graphics, digital media and webcasts has also been a continuous process of learning and improvement for the past six years.
