Nick Sandys

Producing Artistic Director

 

Birthplace: Coventry, England

Latest News: Nick Sandys recently directed a series of staged readings of Shaw vs.Tunney, a new play by Douglas Post, based on Jay Tunney’s “The Prizefighter and the Playwright.” Prior to that he choreographed violence for Lyric Opera’s hit production of Jesus Christ Superstar and directed Strauss’ Elektra at Houston Grand Opera. Nick was also a Finalist in the 2018 Audie Awards for his narration of Bram Stoker’s Dracula (Brilliance/Amazon Classics) and his recordings of Shakespeare’s Sonnets and Hardy’s Far From The Madding Crowd have also recently been released.

Productions with Remy Bumppo

Director: Great Expectations, Pirandello’s Henry IV, The Life of Galileo, Travesties, Our Class, Seascape, Fiction, 365Days/365Plays, American Ethnic (thinkTank 2008)

Actor: Pygmalion, An Inspector Calls, The Chimes, Mourning Becomes Electra, The Goat or, Who Is Sylvia?, Les Liaisons Dangereuses, Old Times, The Marriage of Figaro, The Real Thing, Tartuffe, Aren’t We All, Arcadia, Hidden Laughter, Money, The Secret Rapture, No Man’s Land, Hapgood

Awards

APA Audie 2018 Finalist – Literary Fiction & Classics: Bram Stoker’s Dracula
AudioFile 2018 Earphones Award: Bram Stoker’s Dracula
The Helen Meier and Tim Meier Charitable Foundation For The Arts — 2011 Achievement Award
Joseph Jefferson Award — Requiem for a Heavyweight, 2008 (Fight Choreography) at Shattered Globe
Joseph Jefferson Nomination — The Man Who Murdered Sherlock Holmes, 2016 (Actor in a Leading Role in a Musical) at Mercury Theater
Joseph Jefferson Nomination — Travesties, 2015 (Director) at Remy Bumppo
Joseph Jefferson Nomination — Our Class, 2014 (Director) at Remy Bumppo
Joseph Jefferson Nomination — The Goat Or, Who Is Sylvia?, 2011 (Actor in a Leading Role) at Remy Bumppo
Joseph Jefferson Nomination — Blithe Spirit, 2011 (Actor in a Leading Role) at First Folio
Joseph Jefferson Nomination — Romeo & Juliet, 2011 (Fight Choreography) at First Folio
Joseph Jefferson Nomination — Les Liaisons Dangereuses, 2010 (Fight Choreography) at Remy Bumppo
Joseph Jefferson Nomination — Les Liaisons Dangereuses, 2010 (Actor in a Leading Role) at Remy Bumppo
Joseph Jefferson Nomination — Twelfth Night, 2010 (Actor in a Supporting Role) at First Folio
Joseph Jefferson Nomination — Much Ado About Nothing, 2008 (Actor in a Leading Role) at First Folio
Joseph Jefferson Nomination — Around The World In 80 Days, 2008 (Best Ensemble) at Lookingglass
Joseph Jefferson Nomination — The Defiant Muse, 2008 (fight choreography) at Victory Gardens
Joseph Jefferson Nomination — The Real Thing, 2007 (Actor in a Leading Role) at Remy Bumppo
Joseph Jefferson Nomination —The Misanthrope, 2004 (Actor in a Leading Role) at Next Theatre
After Dark Award — Outstanding Performance — The Secret Rapture, 2003 at Remy Bumppo
Dallas/Fort Worth Critics Circle Award–Best Actor — Thank You, Jeeves, 2002 at Stage West, TX
Stage West Awards — Best Supporting Actor–Rough Crossing, 1989

Bio

Nick Sandys is an award-winning actor, director, and fight choreographer, as well as an educator. He has been an Artistic Associate at Remy Bumppo Theatre Company since 2002, and took the lead as Artistic Director on February 1, 2012. He is also an Artistic Associate at First Folio Theatre and has performed in over 150 theatrical productions nationwide including performing at the Goodman, Northlight, The Mercury Theater, Chicago Shakespeare, Writers’ Theatre, Next Theatre, Lookingglass, Marriott Lincolnshire, Drury Lane Oakbrook, Light Opera Works, and Chamber Opera Chicago, as well as regionally and Off Broadway. He has received nine Joseph Jefferson Nominations as an actor, as well as an After Dark Award and a Dallas Critics Circle Award.

Nick has also directed shows for Remy Bumppo, First Folio, Eclipse, Noble Fool Theatricals, Chamber Opera Chicago, Fort Worth Shakespeare in the Park, Stage West, Circle Theatre (TX), among others.  And his Jeff-award-winning fight direction has been seen all over Chicagoland, including over 50 productions at Lyric Opera of Chicago and over 25 at Goodman Theatre, as well as on Broadway (Steppenwolf’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?), at The Metropolitan Opera (NYC), and regionally. Nick is a certified Fight Director with The Society of American Fight Directors and has been adjunct faculty at The Theatre School at DePaul University since 1995.

Nick holds MAs in English Literature from both Cambridge University and Loyola University Chicago. He is the recipient of a 2011 Achievement Award from The Helen Coburn Meier and Tim Meier Charitable Foundation For The Arts.

Other Theater Credits

As an actor, The Tempest (Notre Dame Shakespeare Festival), Captain Blood, Turn of the Screw, Blithe Spirit, Twelfth Night, Much Ado About Nothing, Richard III, A Midsummer Night’s Dream (First Folio—Artistic Associate); My Fair Lady (2016), Camelot, My Fair Lady (2009) (Light Opera Works); The Man Who Murdered Sherlock Holmes (Mercury Theater); The 39 Steps (Cleveland Playhouse/Syracuse Stage); Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Pride and Prejudice (Northlight);  Around the World in 80 Days (Lookingglass); Othello, Romeo & Juliet (Chicago Shakespeare); Oedipus Complex (Goodman Theatre); Duchess of Malfi (Writers’ Theatre); Sherlock’s Last Case (Drury Lane Oakbrook); The Misanthrope (Next Theatre); Ariadne Auf Naxos (Lyric Opera of Chicago); Persuasion, Jane Austen’s Pride & Prejudice (Chamber Opera Chicago); My Fair Lady (Marriott Theatre); Macbeth, A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Riverside Theatre Shakespeare Festival); Making History (Irish Repertory); Othello (Shakespeare on the Green); Dancing at Lughnasa (Madison Repertory); Twelfth Night (Northern Stage/UWM); The Count of Monte Cristo (Ball State University – Guest Artist); Importance of Being Earnest (Texas Stage); Thank You Jeeves, Jeeves & The Feudal Spirit, Ion, Lend Me Tenor, King Lear, Twelfth NIght, Away, Sisterly Feelings, Serious Money, Blithe Spirit, Rough Crossing (Stage West); Pirates of Penzance, The Tempest (Virginia Shakespeare Festival);  Once In A Lifetime, Red Noses, Les Liaisons Dangereuses (Dallas Theater Center); Dracula (Centenary); Camille (Long Wharf Theatre); Sherlock Holmes & The Hands of Othello (Off-Broadway), and 14 seasons with Fort Worth Shakespeare in the Park where roles included Prospero, Lear’s Fool, Oberon, Iago, Henry V, Benedick, Petruchio, Angelo, Hotspur, Fr. Lawrence, and Aguecheek

As a director, productions for First Folio Theatre (The Merry Wives of Windsor, Romeo & Juliet, Macbeth), Eclipse Theatre (Bedroom Farce), Noble Fool Theatricals (Twelfth Night), Chamber Opera Chicago (Persuasion, The Consul), Fort Worth Shakespeare in the Park (Hamlet, Much Ado About Nothing, Merry Wives of Windsor), Stage West (A Walk In The Woods, Breaking The Code, I’m Not Rappaport, Zoo Story), and Circle Theatre (Separation, Goodnight Desdemona Good Morning Juliet).

Television

Empire (ep. 318); Voice-overs for national commercials for Polaroid, McDonald’s, Samsung, Nintendo, and Hampton Inns (UK), Web commercials for Hoover, American Express, Vitamints, HBO’S True Blood and for Hampton by Hilton.

Film

The Shadow; In Love with a Nun (2009 Cannes Short); Tinsel

Audio Books

The Ragged Edge of Night by Olivia Hawker; Far From The Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy; Winter Men by Jesper Bugge Kold; Looking For God In Harry Potter; Finding God In The World of Narnia; Twilight Zone Radio Dramas (8 episodes); The Bible; and over 25 titles in the Start-To-Finish reading series for teens.

Online Interviews/Articles

Click here for a video of Nick accepting his Jeff Award for Requiem for a Heavyweight
Click here to read an interview Nick conducted with Steven Dietz in August 2006
Click here to read an interview with Nick conducted in October 2006
Click here to listen to an audio interview with Nick conducted in November 2006