Peter McAllister, BA, PGDip, MA

Peter trained at the University of London, the Laban Centre for Movement and Dance, and at the Central School of Speech & Drama. He was awarded a British Council - Polish Government scholarship to study theatre in Poland where he was attached to Andrzej Wajda’s celebrated production of Antigone.

He began his professional career as assistant director to Lindsay Anderson on his production of The Cherry Orchard at the Haymarket Theatre, London. He was a founding member of the Scottish classical theatre company, Theatre Babel, for whom he directed Twelfth Night, Hamlet, Julius Caesar, A Doll’s House, Macbeth, and King Lear touring England, Scotland, Northern Ireland, and the Channel Islands. Other directing credits include the British premiere of A Summer’s Day, and a revival of A Doll’s House for Perth Theatre. He has also worked as a voice coach for the Abbey Theatre Dublin on their productions of The Doctor’s Dilemma, Observe the Sons of Ulster Marching Towards the Somme, and Asylum! Asylum!

Peter has taught acting at many of the leading drama schools including teaching at the Guildford School of Acting (1985-87), the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama (1987-1991), and the Samuel Beckett Centre, Trinity College Dublin where he ran the first degree course in acting in conjunction with the Abbey Theatre (1994-2000). He has also taught masterclasses at the Abbey Theatre and at the International Theatre Symposium in Dublin.

Peter joined Central in May 2000 where he is Senior Lecturer in Acting specialising in actor training derived from the work of Stanislavski, Vakhtangov, Michael Chekhov and their American successors. His most recent public productions are Vassa Zhelezhnova, Stars in the Morning Sky, Barbarians, Absolute Hell and Music Lessons.