For details about Ensemble 52, visit www.ensemble52.com. For Fruit, visit www.fruitspace.co.uk

The coming year promises much for Hull director Andy Pearson and his theatre company, as he tells Will Ramsey ...

G iven his involvement with Hitler's piano player and the SAS, Andy Pearson can be forgiven for looking a little dark under the eyes.

Fortunately, any tiredness is more to do with the arrival of his second child than a shadowy plot.

Beneath the slight fog cast by the nights of broken sleep, the director of Hull theatre company Ensemble 52 is bustling with energy.

"Because of the baby, I've decided to use this time to write and prepare," said Andy.

"I had a really busy time during the first half of last year – then it goes quiet while you prepare the next plays. This coming year will be really busy for us."

The director is looking after a roster of projects that are set to be staged in the city this year – ranging from three new dramas to a scheme to encourage musical theatre writing.

At the moment, Andy's busy researching a play about Ernst Hanfstaengl, a half-American, half-German pianist known as Putzi, who became Hitler's confidante.

The Harvard-educated musician was asked by the American foreign office to investigate German politics – but instead found himself transfixed by the future Fuhrer.

"Putzi was a fascinating guy who has become a bit of a forgotten historical figure," said Andy, who first found mention of his name in a novel.

"Hitler would call him at two in the morning and say 'I'm stressed, get over here' – Putzi would find him marching up and down and screaming, it was only by playing Wagner that he would gradually help Hitler to depressurise.

"It was during these times he would open himself to Putzi – which was later used by the Americans to put together these dossiers for propaganda purposes on Hitler's sexual inadequacies.

"As soon as I found a reference to him, I knew there must be a great story in there."

Andy's also helping to develop Gibraltar, a drama about the media reaction to the SAS killings of three IRA suspects in 1988. The plans are to stage the play – which has seen Ensemble 52 work with an ex-legal manager at the Sunday Times – at the end of the Leveson Enquiry into press ethics.

"A lot of the background information is the stuff of a Bourne Identity film," said Andy.

"And with the Iron Lady in the cinemas at the moment – things such as the shoot to kill policy are back in the frame."

The third drama in the company's plans for the year – Euphoria, by Hull playwrights Dave Windass and Morgan Sproxton – will follow clubbing culture through the ages from tea dances to raves. The plan is to use the warehouses surrounding Fruit – the Humber Street arts venue Andy co-founded – as the setting for the different eras.

"It seemed to lend itself to that kind of presentation, as it's the idea of belonging to a club," said Andy.

"It's also about wanting to prove we can do things like that in the city – to produce really exciting and unusual theatre."

There's also plans to encourage new musical theatre writing – see the accompanying panel – alongside the continued support for aspiring dramatists through Scratch, the regular script-in-hand readings of new plays at Fruit.

"Writing can sometimes be a bit of a lonely profession, when you're up in your garret on your own," said Andy.

"With this, we've built up a community of writers – who can not only see their work performed, but also a place to exchange ideas and help in a practical way."

Andy also hopes Ensemble 52 – which has staged new plays in London and Manchester in recent years – will make a return trip to the capital.

"There seem to be new theatre companies popping up in Hull every week," he said.

"It's a good time – that's why I am happy to be busy. People are doing it for themselves and I am really pleased we are able to take plays out elsewhere.

"What people don't sometimes realise is there's a decent amount of culture here.

"The more people can take it out, to show the world, the better."