Joel Hall

Joel Hall is an award-winning Producer, Composer and Musical Director who trained at the University of Nottingham and the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire. Joel is currently the Senior Digital Programme Producer at the University of Oxford, leading the digital strand of the Cultural Programme with world-class artists and pioneering academics in the new state-of-the-art Schwarzman Centre, and he is the Vice Chair of Pentabus Theatre Company, the nation’s rural touring company.

Previously, Joel was a Digital Producer at the Royal Shakespeare Company, leading on the creation of innovative digital programmes, media and resources to millions of audiences worldwide for all major productions including Roy Alexander-Weise’s Much Ado About Nothing; Owen Horsley’s Henry VI: Rebellion and Wars of the Roses; Gregory Doran’s Richard III; Blanche Mclntyre’s All’s Well that Ends Well; Robin Belfield’s First Encounters: Twelfth Night; Phelim McDermott’s My Neighbour Totoro; Rachel Kavanaugh’s A Christmas Carol; Elizabeth Freestone’s The Tempest; Arti Banerjee’s Julius Caesar; Gregory Doran’s Cymbeline; Omar Elerian’s As You Like It; Pooja Ghai’s The Empress by Tanika Gupta; Wils Wilson’s Macbeth; Justin Audibert’s A Box of Delights by Piers Torday; Philip J Morris’ First Encounters: Romeo and Juliet; and Eleanor Rhode’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

Joel was also the Digital Producer for Watford Palace Theatre’s ground-breaking production of The Merchant of Venice 1936 directed by Brigid Larmour and starring Tracy-Ann Oberman which underwent a sell-out UK tour and run at the Criterion Theatre and Trafalgar Theatre in the West End and was nominated for a WhatsOnStage Award for Best Play Revival; for the Woodland Trust’s national events online, described by the Trust as “the biggest virtual celebration of woods and trees the UK has ever seen”; and Associate Artist at the Mixed Reality Lab, producing multi-arts festivals funded by Horizon Digital Economy Research. He has given keynote speeches on digital innovation at various conferences including MTN’s Musical Theatre Conference at the Royal Court Theatre. 

As a composer, Joel’s musical The Terrific Treevils with book and lyrics by Tom Ling premiered at Watford Palace Theatre as the UK’s first interactive ‘Musical in a Book’. Performed by West End and touring actors and introduced by award-winning radio and TV presenter Clive Anderson, the show was created with the Woodland Trust to inspire and educate young people about the beauty and importance of woodlands. Joel has also scored and musically directed new musicals of Robin Hood and The Wind in the Willows at the Lichfield Garrick Theatre; A Midsummer Night’s Dream, with mentorship from Les Misérables composer Claude-Michel Schönberg, and Baba Yaga and Vasilisa the Brave for British Youth Music Theatre; The Big Red Rock for Child’s Play Ltd and Inspire: Culture, Learning and Libraries; Judgment Day at the Patrick Centre, Birmingham Hippodrome; and new music for Let It Snow at Shoreditch Town Hall and for the Connection Concert Series at Paramount Theatre. Following an R&D at the Belgrade, Joel is developing a family musical entitled The Last Vampire, based on a series of books by his grandfather, playwright Willis Hall. As a pianist, Joel performed for Pentabus Theatre’s 50th Birthday Promenade alongside former Electric Light Orchestra guitarist and vocalist Dave Scott-Morgan; and for the Nottingham Playhouse having accompanied Olivier award-winner Jenna Russell as Edith Piaf and acclaimed writing duo George Stiles and Anthony Drewe’s new musical Identical directed by Sir Trevor Nunn.