Alan trained at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama and Glasgow University. After leaving college he was awarded the Thames Television Regional Theatres Directors' Training award and began his directing career with the Tyneside Theatre Company, Newcastle. He then became Associate Director of the Phoenix Theatre Company, Leicester, before becoming Artistic Director of the Wearabout Theatre Company, Sunderland. In 1982 he was invited to join the National Theatre.
Productions for the National include: The Pied Piper, a musical, which he also devised, featuring Matthew Kelly and Sylvester McCoy; Animal Farm, adapted by Peter Hall and Macbeth. As Associate Director: Antony and Cleopatra with Anthony Hopkins and Judy Dench; The Tempest, Cymbeline, and The Winter's Tale with Geraldine James, Eileen Atkins, Michael Bryant and Ken Stott. As Staff Director: Inner Voices with Ralph Richardson and Robert Stephens; Coming Into Land by Stephen Poliakoff with Maggie Smith; Coriolanus with Ian McKellen; You Can't Take It With You with Jimmy Jewell and Geraldine McEwan; Martine and Lorenzaccio, both by John Fowles and The Petition with John Mills and Rosmary Harris. After leaving the National, Alan was appointed Artistic Director of the Ludlow Festival. Productions include: Macbeth with Haydn Gwynne and David Rintoul; As You Like It with John Gordon Sinclair and Victoria Wickes and Othello with Greg Hicks and Wendy Morgan.
Alan's freelance work includes: Dangerous Obsession for the Theatre Royal Bath with Ian Ogilvie and Liza Goddard; Misery with Susan Penhaligon and Michael Pared; A Right Royal Farce; Lettice and Lovage, British tour; The Merchant of Venice for the English Shakespere Company; Just Between Ourselves and Absurd Peson Singular, both by Alan Ayckbourn; The Three Musketeers for the Crucible Theatre, Sheffield; The Darling Buds of May, British tour with Christopher Timothy and Gemma Craven; The Party's Over by Alan Bleasdale; Sexual Perversity in Chicago by David Mamet; Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, A Midsummers Night's Dream, all in New York; National Opera Studio productions at the Festival Hall, London; numerous pantomime productions including Peter Pan with Russ Abbot; Babes in the Wood at the King's Theatre Glasgow; Cinderlla at Cork Opera House as well as productions for Plymouth, Working, Nottingham, Milton Keynes and Newcastle. Alan was also Artistic Director of the New Vic Theatre Company, directing productions of Dracula, A Tale of Two Cities and The Hunchback of Notre Dame, which toured throughout Britain and the United States.
He was the Tour Director for the Royal Shakespeare Compay's Tantalus project by Peter Hall and John Barton, which originated in Denver, Colorado and, after an extensive tour, transferred to the Barbican Theatre, London. Much of Alan's work has taken him abroad, notably the Moscow Art Theatre, the Globe Theatre in Tokyo and Epidaurua in Greece. He also worked at the Cameri Theatre, Tel Aviv; the Theatre of Nations Festival in Baltimore, in addition to productions in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Vancouver, New York, Vienna, Helsinki, Madrid and Zurich. In addition, Alan has directed Shan Khan's award-winning play Office for BBC Scotland's Culture Show; presented an episode of Brass Tacks for the BBC; attended the National Film School; and was a shadow director to Richard Platt on EastEnders for the BBC.
Current projects include Alien Autopsy, the musical and a musical adaptation of Dickens' Great Expectations.