Topher has over 20 years of outputs spanning broadcasting, theatre, performance, writing, experimental film and site-specific work. His focus has been on sexuality, masculinity, race, human rights, memoir and climate change.
Topher will leading the MA/MFA Collaborative Theatre Making programme where MA/MFA practitioners are encouraged to think critically about the world they live in and asked to explore themes and ideas that question and provoke as much as they enlighten and entertain. In this way the MA/MFA will develop theatre practitioners who are embarked on making new and challenging work through performance, directing and dramaturgical training in the collaborative theatre making process.
Niamh Dowling, Head of School of Performance says “I am delighted to welcome Topher to Rose Bruford College! Topher has the vision, breadth of skills, and outstanding professional experience to lead this programme in the changing landscape of contemporary theatre making and relevant social issues. We are very excited to welcome him to join our creative community as Programme Director of MA Collaborative Theatre Making!”
Topher Campbell says “I am very excited to be joining the team at Rose Bruford College. Being able to contribute to the evolution of education towards a more equitable environment that truly welcomes all is important to me. I am very much looking forward to working with the college, and also with their highly motivated next generation of Theatremakers.”
Topher was an alumni of the Regional Theatre Young Directors Scheme In 2005 and was awarded the Jerwood Directors Award. He was nominated for the 2011 what’s On Stage Theatre Event of the Year Award. In 2017 he was Longlisted for the inaugural Spread the Word Life Writing Prize for his forthcoming memoir Battyman.
Topher co-founded rukus! Federation in 2000 a black queer arts collective with photographer Ajamu X. This culminated in the Internationally recognised rukus! Archive currently held in the London Metropolitan Archives. The rukus! Archive won the 2008 Landmark Archive Award. His films have appeared in festivals worldwide including his first film The Homecoming a meditation on art masculinity and sexuality, featuring commentary by Stuart Hall, which was also part of Isaac Julien’s film course at NYU. His latest film FETISH, a collaboration with 2014 Mercury Music Prize Winners is shot on the streets of New York. It was premiered at the Barbican Centre, London , Official Selection for the 2018 Aesthetica Short Film Festival and 2018 Scottish Queer International Film Festival. It was also a featured presentation at OOPS Festival Copenhagen and The British School in Rome, Italy. Topher is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, a Patron of Switchboard and in 2017 was awarded an Honorary Doctorate by the University of Sussex, Brighton, England.