The Stage

Theatre manager Paul Iles dies aged 59

Published Tuesday 3 May 2011 at 09:59 by Alistair Smith

Paul Iles, the founder general manager of the Edinburgh Festival Theatre and a former chief executive of the Blackpool Grand, has died aged 59.

Iles passed away on April 30, following a battle with cancer. Most recently, he had been working as principal lecturer at the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts, as an associate director of the Georgian Theatre Royal Richmond and a director of Northern Broadsides.

During a 40-year career, Iles worked for many of the major venues in UK regional theatre - including the Watermill in Newbury, the Manchester Royal Exchange, the Oxford Playhouse and two times running the Blackpool Grand. He was also in charge of the Festival Theatre in Edinburgh when it opened in 1994.

Meanwhile, he also worked for a period in Australia, serving as general manager and director of Nimrod Theatre in Sydney, general manager of the State Theatre Company at the Adelaide Festival Centre and as founding producer of the North Queensland Theatre Company.

John Stalker, chief executive of the Festival City Theatre Trust, said: “Paul was an extraordinary character, steeped in the heritage, history and excitement of the theatre business. The Festival Theatre owes a tremendous debt of gratitude to the care he brought to its construction and founding in 1994.

“He took the building through the entire building programme, the refurbishment, the additions and all of that. I remember coming to a hard hat tour of the building site that Paul was describing very lovingly what would be happening. He took it through until its opening in 1994 and stayed until 1996.”

A full obituary will appear in a future print edition of The Stage.