Toby Park
Toby began a lifetime of working in theatre with inspirational drama teachers Bill Stanton and Stella Webley at Trinity School Leamington Spa.
BA (hons) in Drama from Hull University (1987).
Trained at National Youth Theatre (1983), Fool Time Circus School, Bristol (1987-88), and at the École Philippe Gaulier et Monika Pagneaux in Paris (1990-91).
Toby has worked in music and theatre as a busker, actor, variety performer, circus artist, Las Vegas porn-clown, improvising musician, composer, musical director, creative producer, graphic designer, director and physical comedy consultant.
Early work included solo street performance and membership of the German circus/rock-n-roll/comedy group The Jumpin' Juggins (1988-90). With fellow Gaulier students he formed Comecon, a polyglot physical theatre company based in Cologne, producing UBU ROI (1991) and UROBORUS (1992). From 1994-97 he was musical director and actor with Karl’s Kuhne Gassenchau, the lZurich-based site-specific performance company, creating with them the quarry-based spectacles S.T.E.I.N.B.R.U.C.H (1994, 1997), R.U.P.T.U.R.E (1995) and GRAND PARADIS (1997).
In 1997 he formed Spymonkey with Aitor Basauri and Petra Massey, with whom he has performed all of their shows to date, including STIFF (dir. Cal McCrystal 1998), COOPED (dir. Cal McCrystal 2001), ZUMANITY (with Cirque du Soleil 2003-05), BLESS (dir. Cal McCrystal 2007), MOBY DICK (dir. Jos Houben & Rob Thirtle 2009), LOVE IN (dir. Christopher Green 2011), OEDIPUSSY (dir. Emma Rice 2012), EVERY LAST TRICK (dir. Paul Hunter 2014), THE COMPLETE DEATHS (dir. Tim Crouch 2016), A CHRISTMAS CAROL (dir. Ed Gaughan 2018).
Other performance work has included The Walking Orchestra’s OTHELLO MUSIC (dir. Tom Morris, BAC 1999); member of the Improbable Theatre LIFEGAME company (1998) which ran off-Broadway in 2000, and ANIMO (1999); Sandi Toksvig and Ronnie Corbett's CHRISTMAS CRACKER at the Royal Festival Hall (2009). TV appearances include Cirque Images’ 2003 series SOLSTROM for Bravo Cable Network and BBC2 HYPERDRIVE.
Toby is an acclaimed teacher of clown, physical comedy and music, including Central School of Speech and Drama, National Theatre Connections programme, National Drama Teachers Conference, University of Kent, University of Winchester, LIPA, Hull Truck and New York Clown Festival.
Trustee of Tall Stories Theatre Company since 2002.
DIRECTING & PHYSICAL COMEDY
MUSIC
physical comedy showreel
SPYMONKEY
COOPED / THE COMPLETE DEATHS / STIFF / CHRISTMAS CAROL
Mack & Mabel (CFT 2015)
Merry Wives of Windsor (RSC 2018)
Fabulous Backstrom Brothers (2015)
music for theatre showreel
SPYMONKEY'S CHRISTMAS CAROL
SPYMONKEY / LIVERPOOL EVERYMAN & PLAYHOUSE 2018
HALF A PIECE OF COAL
lyrics and music by Toby Park, arranged by Ross Hughes, performed by Sophie Russell / Toby Park, band Ross Hughes / Marcus Penrose / David Insua Cao
directed by Ed Gaughan
THE COMPLETE DEATHS
SPYMONKEY / ROYAL & DERNGATE NORTHAMPTON / BRIGHTON FESTIVAL 2016
directed by Tim Crouch, written by Tim Crouch and Spymonkey, performed by Spymonkey
RICHARD III
music composed and recorded by Toby Park
CLEOPATRA
music composed and recorded by Toby Park
DEATH COME GRIN ON ME
words by William Shakespeare
composed and arranged by Toby Park
HECTOR (ONLY YOU)
song by Yazoo / arranged for boomwhacker by Toby Park
FUNERAL OF THE FLY FROM TITUS ANDRONICUS
Fly Theme composed and recorded by Toby Park
A Closer Walk With Thee arranged by Toby Park
OEDIPUSSY
SPYMONKEY / ROYAL & DERNGATE NORTHAMPTON 2012
directed and adapted by Emma Rice, written by Carl Grose and Spymonkey
OEDIPUSSY THEME
words and music by Neil Filby and Toby Park
I AM BLIND (BUT YOU ARE THE ONE WHO CANNOT SEE)
words and music by Toby Park
OEDIPUS BLINDED
words and music by Neil Filby and Toby Park
FABULOUS BACKSTROM BROTHERS
KAPSAKKI THEATRE HELSINKI 2014
Clown opera performed by Jouni Backstrom, Petri Backstrom and Jukka Nykanen, a collsion of particle physics, modern opera, Wagner and Johnny Cash.
Toby devised and co-directed with Aitor Basauri, and wrote the libretto and co-composed with Jukka Nykanen the original music. The show was later recorded for YLE (National Finnish Broadcaster) and was the Finnish entry for the Prix Italia Television Award 2018.
Toby Park talking introduces the show for YLE in 2017:
CUPS SONG / RITE OF SPRING
This mashup of Stravinsky and the cup-song meme has had 650k views on Facebook and 180k on YouTube:
BIG BANG SIEGFRIED
HAGEN SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA, GERMANY 2016
This symphonic version of the Backstrom Brothers' show was created at Theater Hagen in 2016. Orchestral arrangements by Jonne Valtonen.
THE GOD PARTICLE
libretto by Toby Park, music by Jukka Nykanen & Toby Park
WE ARE THE QUARKS
libretto by Toby Park, music by Jukka Nykanen & Toby Park
WE DESTROY EACH OTHER
libretto by Toby Park, music by Jukka Nykanen & Toby Park
BLESS
SPYMONKEY / ONE YELLOW RABBIT CALGARY CANADA 2007
TILL WE'RE MARRIED
lyrics, music composed and recorded by Toby Park
EVERY LAST TRICK
ROYAL & DERNGATE NORTHAMPTON 2014
Feydeau's classic farce 'Le Systéme Ribadier', reimagined by Tamsin Oglesby, directed by Paul Hunter.
BOOM BOOM BOOM GOES MY HEART
lyrics and music by Toby Park
OLD MAIN
COMMISSION FOR MARSHALL UNIVERSITY, WEST VIRGINIA 2017
'A capella' close harmony choral piece celebrating the oldest building on the Marshall University campus
Words and music by Toby Park
THE FLOP
HIJINX / SPYMONKEY 2018
Hijinx are one of Britain's leading neurodivergent theatre companies
The Flop was a co-production between Hijinx and Spymonkey, directed by Ben Pettit-Wade & Toby Park