Mehmet Ergen
Mehmet Ergen is a Turkish theatre director, producer and entrepreneur, currently based in London Borough of Hackney. Biography After completing a nine-month acting course in Turkey, Mehmet decided to become a director. He put an ad in The Stage inviting applicants to join a new theater company, and began putting on plays in pub theaters. Soon after, Ergen co-founded the Southwark Playhouse with Juliet Alderdice, Tom Wilson and Annabelle Harvey-Longmire in 1993. Ergen and his colleagues created the Theater after identifying possible areas in need for an accessible theater, which would provide its surrounding community with a hub for creativity. They converted a disused workshop into a theater space which quickly gained popularity, and by working closely with local teachers, the city council, businesses and government agencies, they were able to develop an innovative, free at source, education program. He was also the theatre's first artistic director between 1993 and 1999. Mehmet went on to become Associate Producer at the BAC (Battersea Arts Centre) from 1999 to 2001. While there he directed Scott Joplin's Treemonisha, Kurt Weill's Lost in the Stars and had a workshop performance of Marc Blitzstein's The Cradle Will Rock. It was during this period he also