John E McGrath is the Artistic Director of Manchester International Festival.  Appointed to the role in 2015, John was previously Artistic Director of National Theatre Wales, which he launched in 2009, achieving a reputation for large-scale site-specific work, digital innovation, international collaboration and community involvement.  Productions directed for NTW included The Radicalisation of Bradley Manning by Tim Price, in Water I’m Weightless by Kaite O’Reilly, Love Steals Us from Loneliness by Gary Owen, and The Opportunity of Efficiency by Alan Harris.  John trained as a theatre director in New York, where he also worked as Associate Director of Mabou Mines, and was Artistic Director of Contact Theatre in Manchester from 1999 to 2008. Awards include the National Endowment for Science Technology and the Arts (NESTA) Cultural Leadership Award (2005) and an Honorary Doctorate from the Open University (2015).