| Birth Name: | Jethro Samuel Compton |
| Birth Date: | 14 July 1988 |
| Alma Mater: | University of York |
| Occupation: | Playwright |
Jethro Samuel Compton (born 14 July 1988) is a British writer, director and theatre producer.[1] His most notable production to date has been the world première of The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (stage play).
Compton grew up in Cornwall and attended Budehaven Community School.[2] He graduated in 2009 from the University of York with a Bachelor of Arts (BA) in English Literature.
Compton's first published play, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (stage play), based on the short story by Dorothy M. Johnson, premièred at Park Theatre in London in 2014. The production received a largely positive critical response with Charles Spencer of The Daily Telegraph calling it "a genuinely gripping drama and one I warmly recommend" in his four-star review.[3] The première was directed by Compton, produced in association with Park Theatre and featured narration from Academy Award nominee, Robert Vaughn.
In 2015 Samuel French, Inc. published a trio of original Western plays by Compton entitled The Frontier Trilogy, which premièred at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe under Compton's direction. Sally Stott described the plays in her four star review for The Scotsman as "a rollercoaster ride through the kind of high-stakes drama great theatre is all about", and called Compton "a talented and prolific writer".[4]
Compton's adaptation of William Shakespeare's Macbeth featured as one third of The Bunker Trilogy, three plays that relocated classic stories to the First World War. Alongside Morgana and Agamemnon, written by Jamie Wilkes, the play premiered at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2013 under the direction of Compton, before transferring to Southwark Playhouse in London later that year. In 2014, The Bunker Trilogy was programmed from the Adelaide Fringe Festival, where it won the Best Theatre Award, to perform at the Seoul Performing Arts Festival in South Korea[5] with support from British Council.
Formerly one of four artistic directors of York based company Belt Up Theatre, in 2010 Compton received a bursary from Stage One, an organisation that 'aims to facilitate and encourage the development of the next generation of commercial theatre producers'.[6] In 2011 he became an Artistic Associate of Southwark Playhouse, London [7]