About

He studied Latin and English at The University of North Carolina and did post graduate studies in the theatre of Villanova University. George left the States after three years of teaching Latin at the Episcopal Academy to study theatre in London. George attended the London School of Dramatic Art. In his travels he learned German, Dutch, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese and a smattering of new Greek.

 

He first worked as a clown and as Gloria, a dancing gorilla in the Cheskoo Raree show that toured Sweden and Germany.

In 1976 he founded the group Sheer Madness. The group toured in street festivals in England. Sheer Madness created a children’s show The Rainbow Show that toured troubled Northern Ireland. After eight years in London he crossed the channel with Sheer Madness to work on the continent. In 1980 the group played his comedy Shakespeare’s Greatest Hits in the Festival of Fools. This delightful fast paced comedy was played at international festivals throughout Europe and was awarded the Konstantin Wecker Prize in Berlin 1981. With this group he also created The Poe Show, Akropolis Now, Napoleon, The Cow of the Baskervilles, and The Portrait of Dorian Gray.

 

Mr. Isherwood also worked as a guest actor with the Linsay Kemp Company (The Big Parade), The Phone Booth (Jesse James), ESTA (A Kind of Alaska) and Perspekt (Technical theater-Ragnorok).

He attended workshops with Jaques le Coq, Philip Gaulier, Augusto Boal, Micheline Vandepoel, Puppet workshops in Dordrecht and Stephan Gorries and Frank Sohle (Object theater).

Mr Isherwood has directed his own plays in Schauspielhaus Bochum (Robinson’s Other Island) and in the Theater der Jugend in Vienna (Odysseus). Mr Isherwood is the director of the N.N.Theatre of Cologne and was awarded the Cologne Theatre prize for the children’s play Brötchenbraut und Pinselprinz in 1994. He has directed N.N. versions of Faust, Maria Stuart, Nosferatu and Midsummer Night’s Dream, die Nibelungen, Der Schimmelreiter, Der Taugenichts, Romeo and Juliet and Michael Kohlhaas (the last two both with Ute Kossmann).
In Theater Ueberzwerg in Saarbruecken he directed his Shakespeare’s Greatest Hits, The Black Spider and Faust- a Western. In Muenster he directed Robinson’s Other Island, The Woman in Black, Alice in Wonderland, The Odyssey. In Schwedt and Halle he directed Shakespeare’s Greatest Hits. In Berlin he directed two Palestinian–Israeli youth theater projects for Karin Rieckmann as part of the Schoene Wort Festival.

In Austria he has directed his version of Odysseus and Hunchback of Notre Dame in for Theater im Hof in Enns. In Linz he directed the children’s musical Katzen. For some 20 years he has given a comedy workshop in the International Theater Akademie in Graz, Austria. He collaborated on the puppet animation films of Ellen Meske as animator, lighting camera man and puppet maker (Schoon Genoeg and Capriccio). These short films appeared on television throughout Europe and were shown at many film festivals.

Mr Isherwood has directed four programs for the cabaret group Die Tanten in Bamberg. Other cabaret programs include Wir Kellerkinder with Didi Jünemann in Cologne and Noch Kaas, Noch Couscous by PH Neutral in Amsterdam and Den Haag for Culture Coalition. He directed a further three cabaret solos for Amar el Ajjouri.

In the Netherlands he had a big succes with Picnic by theater group Vis a Vis which he directed and co-wrote. The show toured through Europe and Australia.

Until his death in 2018 he wrote and directed several one man plays for Joris Lehr (Othello, Cyrano, amongst others)