Campbell Kay is a poet, playwright, and theatre director who has spent most of his professional life working as an arts educationalist in comprehensive, grammar and independent schools and who, for several years, was Head of English, Drama and Communications at one of the largest sixth form colleges in England.

The recipient of an Arts Council Writer's grant, and winner of the Winifred Riley Award for poetry, his poems have appeared in anthologies and literary magazines and been published in the collections Graffiti In A Narrow Room and The Waste Remains by Aquila / The Phaeton Press. His most recent publication is Devils' Wine a collection of new and selected poems. He has performed poetry at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe as well as giving readings in colleges, community centres, libraries, pubs, schools and universities; and, as a visiting poet, has participated in creative writing sessions at a maximum security prison. Campbell is available for poetry readings, please contact.

While a member of the Director's Guild of Great Britain, Campbell Kay directed over one hundred productions including musicals, music halls, operas, pantomimes, plays and revues. Amongst these productions were Abigail's Party (Mike Leigh), A Doll's House (Ibsen), Agnes of God (John Pielmeier), Can't Pay, Won't Pay (Dario Fo), Communicating Doors (Alan Ayckbourn), Dr Faustus (Marlowe), Endgame (Samuel Beckett), The Dumb Waiter (Pinter), The Lesson (Ionesco), The Lion in Winter (James Goldman), The Pocket Dream (Elly Brewer and Sandy Toksvig), Rumours (Neil Simon), Sexual Perversity in Chicago (David Mamet), Skirmishes (Catherine Hayes), Straight and Narrow (Jimmy Chinn), Tons of Money (Evans, Valentine and Ayckbourn), Aladdin, Babes in the Wood, Cinderella; The Boy Friend (Sandy Wilson), Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (Lloyd Webber and Rice), Pal Joey (Rodgers and Hart) and Trial by Jury (Gilbert and Sullivan).

He has also written over thirty full length and one act plays, many of which have been performed by youth and community drama groups. Of his plays for the professional theatre, Phoenix Rising, which premiered at Nottingham Playhouse, has twice toured nationally and was presented at the 2011 Adelaide Festival, whilst Fatal Friendship and Divine Mountebank, both of which premiered at Nottingham Arts Theatre, have toured the midlands.

A CD recording of Phoenix Rising directed by John Tams, was produced to accompany the 2011-12 tour and a film version Inside the Mind of Mr Lawrence directed by Armand Attard, was released in 2013. Click here to watch a preview of the movie.

Phoenix Rising was last performed, as a co-production with Nottingham Playhouse, and subsequently transferred to The Tristan Bates Theatre in the West End in September 2015.