about us
we turned 10!
January 2025 and the Arts Theatre - a jewel in the heart of the West End but proudly independent - is launching a new studio space. Enter Shrapnel Theatre, a new company created to for that very purpose, producing the 25th anniversary production of Jim Cartwright’s Two. Shrapnel goes on to produce shows at the VAULT and Edinburgh festivals as well as Trafalgar Studios 2 and 59E59 Theaters in New York, among others.
In 2018, with the support of a Stage One bursary, Shrapnel became Paul Virides Productions and started to take on more commercial work, general management and consultancy. Now, at 10 years old, having expanded and dipped its toe into various different genres and scales, PVP is refining its priorities, defining how a 21st century company could make theatre in a more principled, nimble and ambitious way.
You can find out more about the work we do right here, or read on for more about Paul.
about Paul
Paul has worked as a producer of theatre and live events since 2011, where he cut his teeth as producer for TakeOver Festival for York Theatre Royal in summer 2012. After leaving York, he took his first show to Edinburgh, and on graduating and returning home to London, joined Hartshorn - Hook Productions as their associate producer until 2015.
In 2016, Paul joined Iris Theatre as marketing manager, and after initially leaving in 2018, was invited back in 2019 to become interim senior producer. From autumn 2019 to summer 2020, Paul was executive director and joint-CEO of Iris alongside artistic director Paul-Ryan Carberry.
From 2022 to 2024 Paul was general manager for David Adkin Limited.
In 2018, Paul was awarded the Stage One Bursary for New Producers, and in 2022 took part in the Stage One/Columbia New York exchange. He is a member of the League of Independent Producers and UK Theatre.
As well as running PVP, Paul also writes You Could Drive a Person Crazy, a weekly Substack newsletter all about producing and managing theatre.
Outside of PVP, work includes…
For Hartshorn - Hook Productions: Rotterdam (Olivier Award for Affiliate theatre - Theatre503, Trafalgar Studios, 59E59 Theaters, Arts Theatre); A Christmas Carol, I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change, Rachel’s Garden, and Beulah (Above the Arts); The Blues Brothers: Xmas Special, American Idiot, Treasure Island, and The Rat Pack - Live at the Arts (Arts); The Easter Rising - and thereafter, and Lesere (Jermyn Street); Kingmaker (Above the Arts & Brighton Festival); Jurassic Park (VAULT Festival); Away From Home (Jermyn Street, Above the Arts, Auckland and Edinburgh festivals); The Rat Pack and The Blues Brothers (C venues, 2013 and 2014); Cocktails with the Diva, A Midsummer Night’s Dream: The Rock Opera and Eugenie Grandet (Edinburgh Festival Fringe), and various development projects.
For Iris Theatre: As marketing manager: Arabian Nights (Hoxton Hall); The Three Musketeers, The Tempest, Hansel & Gretel and the Witch Baba Yaga, and Macbeth (Actors’ Church). As producer: A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and Robin Hood (cancelled due to Covid); The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Xmas Factor: All Stars, and A West End Christmas (Actors’ Church).
For David Adkin Limited: Afterglow, Operation Epsilon, and Windfall (Southwark); Disruption and The Shape of Things (Park); F**king Men (Waterloo East); A Christmas Carole (Southend Palace, for Trafalgar Entertainment); and Bright Half Life (King’s Head), and various development projects.
Other projects include: Honk (Union); As You Like It, and Scarberia (York Theatre Royal); The Mikvah Project (workshop), and numerous events for the Actors’ Church.
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Productions
Producer, general manager, consultant… we work on a range of productions across a broad set of scales and genres.
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10-year roadmap
10 years into this journey, we’re looking ahead to the next decade and the company we want to be.
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Get in touch
Artist ready to pitch a project? Investor wanting to hop on? Producer needing a general manager? Let’s say hi.
