Director John Burgess has been associated with new plays and new writing since he began working at the Open Space Theatre in the early 1970s. Burgess joined the National Theatre in 1980 and, with Peter Gill, founded the National Theatre Studio, the experimental wing of the theatre, in 1984. In his 30-year career in theatre and film, Burgess has been the Literary Manager (New Writing) at the National Theatre, associate director of the National Theatre Studio, Resident Director of the National Theatre, Artistic Director of Drum Arts, and Associate Director of Riverside Studios.

Upon arriving at UC Davis his recent work included Judith Johnson’s Shellfish (English Touring Theatre), Coward’s Present Laughter (Aarhus Theatre, Denmark), Faith by Meredith Oakes (Royal Court Theatre Upstairs), The Neighbor by Meredith Oaks (National Theatre) and the documentaries Black Poppies (Theatre Royal Stratford East; BBC-TV) and What Country (National Theatre Studio). At UC Davis in 2002, Burgess directed Part I of Jean-Paul Sartre’s The Freud Scenario. During his 1993 Granada residency he directed Casimir and Caroline by von Horvath.