Sean McGrath

I didn’t take a direct path into writing, directing, storytelling, and facilitation.  I left comprehensive school in the late 80's with no qualifications, no ambition, and very few prospects.  Completely lacking direction, I joined the army as a junior infantryman in the Parachute Regiment.  But enlisting at such a young age, before I’d fully found my place in the world, made military life a difficult fit.  After a brief but brutal time in service, I set off on a different kind of journey - spending several years travelling and working abroad.  During this time, I worked in bars, factories, warehouses, and on building sites - experiences that exposed me to different perspectives, sharpened my ability to observe human behaviour, and ultimately shaped my approach to storytelling and facilitation.

In my mid-20s, I returned to education, studying History, English, and Psychology at college.  It was  here that I fell in love with theatre.  What started as an interest quickly became a passion, leading me to transfer to a Performing Arts course.  On this course, I was fortunate enough to take part in both the National Student Drama Festival and a 5 star show at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, experiences that cemented my love for theatre and the power of storytelling.

Determined to pursue this path further, I trained as an actor at The Oxford School of Drama, and spent the next ten years working extensively in applied theatre projects and Shakespearean productions - two very different yet deeply influential strands of theatre that have shaped my practice tremendously.  Applied theatre showed me how storytelling could be used as a tool for social change, while working on Shakespearean texts gave me a profound appreciation for rhythm, structure, and the timeless nature of human experience.

I eventually became more drawn to the creative and conceptual side of storytelling - shaping narratives rather than performing them.  I retrained as a director, accessing training through The Young Vic Directors Programme, and began developing new work that blended storytelling with social impact.

In 2004, I co-founded AlterEgo Creative Solutions, which grew to become one of the UK’s leading applied theatre companies, delivering powerful, issue-based productions across the UK as well as in  the US, Canada, and Europe.  Through AlterEgo, I saw first-hand how storytelling could challenge perceptions, shift conversations, and create real change.

By 2021, I realised that I had written all of AlterEgo's plays, films and workshops, and was leading much of the creative development.  Wanting to deepen my craft and understanding of narrative, I chose to further my education, studying for an MSt in Writing for Performance at the University of Cambridge.  My focus on the course was on Narrative Theory - how stories create change, influence perception, and help us make sense of the world.

In 2023, I made the decision to close AlterEgo and founded Narrative Alchemy - a new creative venture that allows me to continue applied theatre work while expanding into other narrative forms.  With Narrative Alchemy, I integrate my long-standing interest in Narrative Theory into all aspects of my work, using storytelling as a tool for exploration, transformation, and creative expression.

Alongside running Narrative Alchemy, I am a creative associate with 2Pears Films and work as a freelance writer, director, storyteller, and workshop facilitator.  I collaborate on a range of theatre, storytelling,  and creative projects, as well as supporting performance and creative writing students in colleges and universities as they develop their craft and explore the power of narrative in their own work.

My interests lie at the intersection of performance, Jungian alchemy, psychology, sociology, and trauma, and my approach is deeply influenced by the work of practitioners and thinkers such as Carl Jung, Iain McGilchrist, Bessel van der Kolk, Johan Galtung, Bertolt Brecht, Augusto Boal, and Paulo Frieire.  My exploration of myth, story, and the deeper structures of narrative also led me to study on the 'Stalking the Rebel Soul' course led by world renowned mythologist Dr Martin Shaw at the West Country School of Myth - which further deepened my understanding of storytelling as an ancient and transformative art.

I am also a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (RSA) and a member of the Writers’ Guild of Great Britain (WGGB).

I’ve always been drawn to patterns, connections, and the deeper structures beneath things - whether in human behaviour, in the shape of a well-crafted story, or in the way narratives influence our lives.  This includes a deep fascination with the spirituality of story - how storytelling has, for centuries, served as a vessel for meaning, transformation, and collective understanding.  These qualities didn’t serve me in my youth, in the rigid framework of formal education, but have become my greatest strengths in creating narratives and creative problem-solving.

Whether working in theatre, film, workshops, or training spaces, my focus remains the same: to harness the power of stories - some to challenge and transform, others simply to entertain - and to explore how they help us reflect, grow, and reimagine the world around us.

In split my time between Northamptonshire and Devon, where I live with my wife Gemma, my wonderful children, and my bestest buddy Bruno the Dog!