The Spanish Golden Age playwright Cervantes is best known for his novel Don Quixote de la Mancha. Brought up on a farm in North Devon, Philip Osment read Modern Languages at Keble College, Oxford and trained as an actor at Webber Douglas. He acted with leading alternative theatre companies including Gay Sweatshop, The Half Moon and Shared Experience and then went on to work as a director and writer. He has written and directed plays for two of the country's most prominent young people's theatre companies: Theatre Centre and Red Ladder. At the same time his trilogy of Devon plays was commissioned by Mike Alfreds and produced by Cambridge Theatre Company (aka Method and Madness). These were all nominated for Writers Guild awards and THE DEARLY BELOVED won the award for best regional play in 1993. More recently he directed for Graeae Theatre Co and his play WISE GUYS was the inaugural production at the new Contact Theatre in Manchester in February. In January 2001 he is directing BLOOD WEDDING in Manchester for Graeae. His last play for Method and Madness, BURIED ALIVE is to be revived at Plymouth Theatre Royal and Hampstead Theatre in 2001.
