Brice Stratford (born February 1987) is an English director, writer, and actor-manager. He has focused on classical theatre, the New Forest area of Southern England, and British folklore and mythology. He founded the Owle Schreame theatre company, which focused on Renaissance plays. He has written two books on British mythology.
Career Theatre Stratford founded the Owle Schreame theatre company, which specialized in Mediaeval and Renaissance theatre, in Cambridge in 2008. In 2013 at St Giles-in-the-Fields in Camden he produced, directed and performed in the company's The Unfortunate Mother (1640) by Thomas Nabbes, Honoria and Mammon (1659) by James Shirley and Bussy D'Ambois (1607) by George Chapman; the three authors had all been interred in the churchyard, and two of the plays (Honoria and Mammon and The Unfortunate Mother) had apparently never previously been performed.Potter, Lois "Better (very) late than never.", The Times Literary Supplement, 29 November 2013Osborne, Helen Review: Bussy D'Ambois, Cahiers Élisabéthains: A Journal of English Renaissance Studies No 86, Autumn 2014 In 2016 the company revived three Interregnum Droll plays at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe,Harding, James Drolls, the illegal comedies that time forgot, Broadway Baby, 2016 and later produced other drollsRemaking Shakespeare Undergraduate Module Reading List, English and Comparative Studies, University of Warwick, Accessed 24 April 2023 – performing a selection of Mummers plays at the Old Red Lion Theatre in 2017Loxton, Howard A Yuletide Droll, The British Theatre Guide, 2017 and reviving the obscure 1660 droll version of A Midsummer Night's Dream at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2018.Moyser, Tom, Edinburgh Review: A Midsummer Night’s Droll at theSpace on the Mile, Exeunt Magazine, 2018
In 2013, via online public vote, Stratford received the award for the People's Favourite Male Performance at The Offies for his 2012 performance as Lord Chamberlain in Ondine at The White Bear Theatre.
In 2014 he held the Owle Schreame Awards, which were for innovation in classical theatre.Loxton, Howard The Owle Schreame Awards for Innovation in Classical Theatre, The British Theatre Guide, 19 September 2014"Brice Stratford talks to us about the Owle Schreame Awards of engraved glass skulls..." OffWestEnd.com, (2014)
In December 2017 he founded The Owle Schreame Theatre Company Limited in Lyndhurst, Hampshire in the New Forest; the company was dissolved in January 2020.
Historical research In 2017, while researching the history of Glasshayes House in Lyndhurst, Stratford discovered sketches in the Richard Lancelyn Green archive which indicated that Arthur Conan Doyle had been the architect of the 1912 redesign of the building, apparently as an example of Spiritualist architecture.Bird, Steve Conan Doyle 'haunted hotel' under threat of demolition, Daily Telegraph, 20 March 2021Victorian Society, "Save Conan Doyle’s last building from demolition", 2017Yandell, Chris. "Historic hotel facing demolition was designed by Sherlock Homes creator", Bournemouth Echo, 23 September 2017"Lyndhurst 'Conan Doyle' hotel planning appeal withdrawn", BBC News, 21 December 2018
Stratford has written two books, both published in 2022. New Forest Myths and Folklore, concerning the New Forest area of Southern England, was published by The History Press.Goater, Dan Lyndhurst councillor Brice Stratford pens book on New Forest folklore, New Milton Advertiser and Lymington Times, 3 September 2022 Anglo-Saxon Myths: The Struggle for the Seven Kingdoms, a collection of stories from the Anglo-Saxon period, was published by Batsford Books.Larman, Alexander In brief: Courtiers; Anglo-Saxon Myths; Unmasking Our Leaders – review, The Observer, 27 November 2022.
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