Speaking Volumes
Chris Jaeger MBE, FRSA, GODA
Professional Adjudicator (GODA)
Freelance Director
After-Dinner Speaker
Freelance Writer
Freelance Director
After-Dinner Speaker
Freelance Writer
Freelance Arts Consultant
CONTACT:
chris@onarole.co.uk
07594 230268
General
Chris Jaeger is a highly-experienced writer, musician, actor and director. He is Director of the Worcester Festival and Managing Director of ‘On A Role’ (see other pages on this website), a company which specialises in touring small-scale theatre nationally and internationally. He is a Fellow of the University of Worcester and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. Also, a Drama Advisor to the Royal Navy and former Chairman of the English Symphony Orchestra. In 2013, he was awarded the MBE by the Queen for services to the Arts.
Professional Adjudicator (GODA)
Chris is a senior member of the Guild of Drama Adjudicators (GODA) and is currently its Chairman. He adjudicates drama festivals all over Britain and beyond and has adjudicated two British One-Act finals, three Welsh finals, four English finals and a Northern Irish Final, plus many full-length festivals. He has adjudicated over 150 drama festivals. He is also a drama advisor to the Royal Navy.
Freelance Director
Chris was for seventeen years Director of the Swan Theatre Worcester and Artistic Director of the Worcester Repertory Company. He now runs ‘On A Role’ (see other pages on this website), a company which specialises in touring small-scale theatre shows nationally and internationally. He writes most of the work and directs all of it. In the last seventeen years, he has directed fourteen Shakespeare productions, ten professional pantomimes (all of which he wrote or co-wrote), twelve outdoor shows, a good quantity of small-scale new work (Swan Studio), and several community-based main-house shows, with a strong emphasis on music.
Chris has worked with both professional and amateur actors continuously for the last seventeen years. His last six reviews of plays in The Stage have all been 4****, some for writing, some for directing. He is comfortable in any genre and with any size cast, straight play or musical, professional, amateur, adult and youth. Need a professional director? Get in touch for a chat.
After-Dinner Speaker
Chris Jaeger is an entertaining and experienced after-dinner speaker. He has a wealth of life experience - he spent some time working for William Hill the bookmaker as a settler, had a spell in the Irish Guards and taught in secondary schools for 18 years. He was Chief Executive of Worcester Live for 24 years, bringing back both Huntingdon Hall and the Swan Theatre from bankruptcy and turning them into successful and flourishing venues, re-inventing the Worcester Repertory Company on the way.
He is currently Director of the Worcester Festival, and runs ‘On A Role’ (see other pages on this website), a company which specialises in touring small-scale theatre shows nationally and internationally. He was until recently the Chairman of the English Symphony Orchestra, is a senior adjudicator for the Guild of Adjudicators…and holds an equity card under the name of Christmas Jaeger! (Don’t ask!) Chris has a fund of stories, some involving very famous people, and will entertain any audience with a talk full of amusing anecdotes.
Freelance Writer
For twelve years he wrote and directed the Swan Theatre Worcester’s professional pantomime and the professional outdoor summer show. He has written a one-woman show about the music hall star Vesta Tilley, the lyrics of a ‘Worcestershire Song Cycle’ which was premiered at the Three Choirs Festival and a play about Charles Stuart. Also, he has written an ‘energy play’ commissioned by Worcester Bosch and a fifty-year history of the Swan Theatre for the 2015 Golden Anniversary. Also, a play about King John and Magna Carta commissioned by Worcester Cathedral and four new plays all of which premiered at the Swan Theatre in 2016/ 2017. He has also written a highly successful one-woman show about Agatha Christie, which is currently touring the country and is working on a play about Enid Blyton.
He has written ten pantomimes, adapted fourteen Shakespeares, adapted four classics turning them into ‘spoofs’, including ‘The Hound of the Baskervilles’ and ‘Pride and Prejudice’, a one-woman show about the music hall star Vesta Tilley, the lyrics of a ‘Worcestershire Song Cycle’ which was premiered at the Three Choirs Festival. He has also written a highly successful one-woman show about Agatha Christie, which is currently touring the country and is currently working on a play about Enid Blyton. Also, several highly successful small-cast studio plays including ‘Suitable for Shopwork’, ‘Conclusions’ and ‘Bah Humbug’.
Chris also writes commissioned work, and these include a play about Charles Stuart commissioned by the Battle of Worcester Society, an energy play for Key Stage 2 children commissioned by Worcester Bosch which toured 50 junior schools in Worcestershire, and a play about King John and Magna Carta commissioned by Worcester Cathedral.
If you need something written, a book, a play, a speech, Chris Jaeger would be a great starting point.
Freelance Arts Consultant
Chris Jaeger was for seventeen years Chief Executive of Worcester Live, Director of the Swan Theatre Worcester and Artistic Director of the Worcester Repertory Company. He brought back both Huntingdon Hall and the Swan Theatre from bankruptcy and is still currently Director of the Worcester Festival. He was responsible for all aspects of running the venues including raising money, programming, staffing, volunteers, being the ‘face’ of the venues, managing the politics, the health and safety and much, much more. Need help, advice or some training for your management team?
Most venues share common problems but most arts practitioners are so busy ‘firefighting’ that they rarely have time to take a step back and perhaps take a new look at problems. Chris can lead sessions on most aspects of venue management including fund-raising, volunteers, programming, paperwork, dealing with trustees, or just generally looking at how you do things and discussing them in depth with an outside view. Maybe some new ideas, maybe some new approaches, maybe confirmations of good practice, maybe just the ‘therapy’ of talking to an experienced arts practitioner who understands – all these things can be very helpful. Get in touch for a chat!