David Ashley

Dash trained with the Royal School of Church Music (RSCM) under the direction of Father John and Susan Beck and at the Tanwood Theatre School under the direction of Mollie Tanner. He has a BA(Hons) from City University and a diverse career currently spanning over 37 years.

As an actor, he has appeared in over 11 west end plays, musicals and concerts including, Cats, Les Miserables, Blood Brothers, Starlight Express, Dirty Blonde, Saucy Jack and the Space Vixens, Party, Ziegfeld & Me and My Girl. He has appeared in 14 Pantomimes, has worked across the UK and has also lived and worked in Paris.

As a freelance theatre creative and lecturer, he has worked extensively at The Royal Academy of Music, The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, ArtsEd, London College of Music, London Studio Centre, Millennium Performing Arts, The Oxford School of Drama, La Cigale in Paris and the Accademia Dello Spettacolo in Turin, Italy.

Dash created and directed: Grief Chorus for Complicité; The Threepenny Opera for the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama; The Wizard of Oz, Beauty and the Beast, Legally Blonde, Jack and the Beanstalk, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and Summer Holiday at the Wyvern Theatre, Swindon; Rapunzel at The Theatre in Chipping Norton; Aladdin at the White Rock Theatre in Hastings; The Sound of Musicals at the Teatro Murialdo in Turin (seasons 2018, 2022 and 2023); and Bad Girls for London College of Music. He was also musical director for Coram Boy at The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama and pre-production consultant for The Selfish Giant and Musicanti di Brema both for Mario Restagno at the Accademia Dello Spettacolo in Turin, Italy.

Dash is a new proposal reviewer for Methuen Drama Publications, an exam repertoire consultant for ABRSM and was a founder Trustee for Read College.