John E McGrath
Chair of PANDA Board
John E McGrath is Artistic Director of Contact, Manchester's award-winning space bringing new theatre to diverse young audiences. As a director John has recently worked with hip hop theatre artist Benji Reid (b like water), with poet Lemn Sissay (Storm and Something Dark), on a multi-media collaboration with writer Kaite O'Reilly and visual artist Paul Clay (Perfect) and with Contact Young Actors Company on the theatre installation Close Up.
Before coming to Contact, John trained and worked in New York for several years, including a stint as Associate Director of leading experimental company Mabou Mines. His first book, "Loving Big Brother: Performance, Privacy and Surveillance Space" was published by Routledge in 2004.
He is Chair of PANDA, the Performing Arts Network and Development Agency. In 2005 he was awarded the National Endowment for Science Technology and the Arts (NESTA) Cultural Leadership Award.