FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – 16 April 2018

PRESS RELEASE The Royal Theatrical Support Trust and Royal & Derngate Northampton invite entries for the RTST Sir Peter Hall Director Award 2018, in partnership with

The Royal Theatrical Support Trust (RTST) and Royal & Derngate Northampton are delighted to announce that the 2018 RTST Sir Peter Hall Director Award Scheme is now open for entries.

Now in its third year, and its second bearing the name of the RTST co-founder, Sir Peter Hall, the award will be made to an up-and-coming director who demonstrates exceptional directing skills in a rigorous competitive process.

The winner will get the opportunity to direct a full-scale, fully funded production of a classic or modern play (which may be an existing play or a new adaptation of a novel or film), to open in 2019 on the Royal Stage, as part of Made In Northampton, in a co-production between Royal & Derngate and English Touring Theatre (ETT), and then tour to theatres across the UK. The RTST will make a grant of £50,000 to Royal & Derngate to be applied towards the costs of the winner’s production.

The Scheme promotes the RTST’s charitable objects in two main ways: it supports emerging talent in the theatre and it supports British regional theatres. The Scheme is intended to appeal to a diverse range of candidates and to play a part in promoting diversity in the theatre, onstage and offstage, and among audiences.

The winning director will be chosen by a Selection Panel comprising: chair James Dacre (Artistic Director of Royal & Derngate), and judges Kwame Kwei-Armah OBE (Artistic Director of the ); Olivier Award-nominees Tanya Moodie and Samantha Bond; Olivier Award-winner Dame Harriet Walter; Jenny Sealey MBE (Artistic Director of Graeae and Co-Director of The London Paralympic Games Opening Ceremony); four-times Olivier Award-winner Paule Constable (Associate, National Theatre); and Richard Twyman (Artistic Director of English Touring Theatre).

To enter for the Scheme, a candidate must be UK resident and be able to demonstrate a professional track record as a director and satisfy certain other criteria. Each candidate is required to submit, in writing, ideas for directing a play of their choosing. Short-listed candidates are required to participate in directing workshops with actors – observed by the Selection Panel – in order to demonstrate their directing skills before a final interview stage.

Chair of the RTST, Sir Geoffrey Cass, said: “We’re doubly-delighted that Royal & Derngate is collaborating with us on the 2018 RTST Sir Peter Hall Director Award and that English Touring Theatre is

bringing a UK tour dimension to this scheme for the second year running. The 2016 and 2017 Award winners and official runners-up – Kate Hewitt and Rebecca Frecknall (2016); and Chelsea Walker and Tinuke Craig (2017) – are having tremendous success, which augurs well for the winner of this year’s Award.”

The RTST ran the inaugural RTST Director Award scheme in 2016 with Sheffield Theatres, with the winner Kate Hewitt directing the British regional premiere of Tribes by Nina Raine. The RTST ran the re- named 2017 RTST Sir Peter Hall Director Award Scheme with Nuffield Southampton Theatres resulting in the winner Chelsea Walker directing a bold contemporary version of Tennessee Williams’, A Streetcar Named Desire, in a co-production between NST, Theatre Clywd and English Touring Theatre, which recently opened at NST City in Southampton and is now on tour to seven other theatres.

Entries for the RTST Sir Peter Hall Director Award Scheme 2018 are now open. To enter, and for further details of the award, please visit the RTST’s website: www.rtst.org.uk. The closing date for entries is 6pm on Monday 4 June 2018.

ENDS

Media Contact Details

RTST Matt Harvey [email protected] 07595 248937 Royal & Derngate Amanda Howson [email protected] 01604 655719

NOTES TO EDITORS

About The Royal Theatrical Support Trust

Patron: The Earl of Wessex Chair: Sir Geoffrey Cass Deputy Chair: Mark Hawes

The RTST is a charity whose mission is to promote the public’s knowledge, experience and appreciation of theatre and drama, and thereby play a part in securing the future of British theatre. The charity is supported by many of the leading names in British theatre.

The RTST aims to fulfil its mission by diverse means, including: supporting new and established theatre companies, including regional companies; supporting up-and-coming theatre practitioners; promoting the works of major internationally renowned dramatists; and encouraging theatre-going. Support is provided in the form of grants and in other forms including the RTST Sir Peter Hall Director Award, profile-raising through some of the leading names associated with the RTST and awareness-building through its developing promotional channels. Visit www.rtst.org.uk.

The RTST is registered as a charity in England and Wales with registered number 254671. The RTST is a company limited by guarantee incorporated in England and Wales with registered number 921909. Registered office: First Floor, 100 Victoria Embankment, London, EC4Y 0DH.

About Royal & Derngate

Patron: The Rt Hon Earl Spencer Chief Executive: Martin Sutherland Artistic Director: James Dacre

Royal & Derngate is the main venue for arts and entertainment in Northamptonshire, with audience members and participants numbering more than 474,000 last year, in Northampton and beyond. Recent years have cemented the increased profile of Royal & Derngate as one of the major producing venues in the country, including being named Regional Theatre of the Year by the inaugural Stage 100 Awards in 2011, an accolade for which it was nominated again in 2016. The theatre won the award for Best Presentation of Touring Theatre in the UK Theatre Awards 2015 for its Made in Northampton produced work.

Royal & Derngate’s Made in Northampton productions are staged in its Royal auditorium, which opened as the Royal Theatre and Opera House in 1884 and was designed by the renowned Victorian theatre architect, C J Phipps. It is a Grade II listed building and has a capacity of 460 over stalls, dress circle and upper circle levels.

The Made in Northampton 2018 season will include the world premiere stage adaptation by of Alice Sebold’s The Lovely Bones, David Grieg’s adaptation of Joe Simpson’s best-selling memoir Touching The Void and the world premiere of Kazuo Ishiguro’s The Remains of the Day, adapted

by Barney Norris. Highlights of its 2017 season included Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman, a revival of Harold Pinter’s The Caretaker and a vivid new adaptation of The Jungle Book.

Other recent highlights include major tours of The Herbal Bed (Best Touring Production in the UK Theatre Awards 2016) and world premieres of Soul, a new play by Roy Williams about Marvin Gaye, Arthur Miller’s The Hook and Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World. Other notable past productions include Spring Storm and Beyond the Horizon, which transferred to the National Theatre, and four time Olivier Award- nominated End of the Rainbow, which transferred to the West End and Broadway.

The venue also presents a diverse range of visiting productions on both the Derngate and Royal stages, including musicals, dance, comedy and music (including a residency from the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra). Its wide-ranging Get Involved programme engages with schools, families and communities in Northamptonshire and beyond, with over 26,000 participants last year.

About English Touring Theatre

English Touring Theatre is one of the UK’s leading touring companies, winning the UK Theatre Awards Best Touring Production in 2014, 2015 and 2016. ETT works with exciting artists to stage an eclectic mix of new and classic work for audiences throughout the UK and overseas; theatre that is thrilling, popular and engaged in the contemporary world. At the heart of everything ETT does is the passionately held belief that everyone, wherever they are in the country, deserves to have access to world class theatre. In 2017 ETT toured to 40 venues throughout the UK, with productions including Sam Holcroft’s Rules for Living, Richard Twyman’s critically acclaimed production of and the 20th anniversary tour of The Weir, which finished its nationwide tour this year, winning the Manchester Theatre Award for Best Visiting Production. 2018 sees the company celebrate its 25th anniversary. www.ett.org.uk @ETTtweet