Glenn Hayden

Glenn Hayden has spent over 40 years in the performing arts as a director, actor, playwright, educator, arts leader, and advocate.

Trained at WA Academy of Performing Arts (1986), he worked as a professional actor in theatre, film, and television before directing his first production at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival in 1993. Since then, he has directed more than sixty professional productions, commissioned over forty new works, and led three major arts and community festivals, including the Fremantle Festival. In 2002, he wrote and directed a new version of Aladdin for a South African national tour. He has also written four plays for CPA Youth Theatre’s youth program.

A founding member of The Blue Room Theatre in Perth, Glenn went on to work as Associate Artist with both Deckchair Theatre and Melbourne Workers Theatre. He then served as Artistic Director and CEO of Urban Myth Theatre Company in Adelaide (2004–2014), a nationally recognised company producing up to twelve productions annually and engaging more than 350 participants weekly through its year-round workshop programs.

His production Also a Mirror, exploring dementia, received several international awards. As an advocate for safer, more ethical performance practices, he co-authored India’s Live Performer’s Guidelines for the Intimacy Collective India in 2021. In 2025, he received the Emotions Scientist Award from Andhra University.

Glenn is a committed theatre educator and acting coach, with thirty-five years of international teaching experience across Australia, India, and Southeast Asia, having taught thousands of emerging and established artists. His teaching and guest-directing work includes WA Academy of Performing Arts, Drama School Mumbai, Adelaide College of the Arts, and the Jeff Goldberg School of Performing Arts. He has also worked as a corporate trainer for organisations including SHRM, Mahindra Finance, and Indian Oil.