Ellen McDougall News

Artistic Director Ellen McDougall today announced performers for the Gate Theatre's groundbreaking collaboration with English National Opera opening in May next year.

Ellen McDougall's inaugural production of Artistic Director of Gate Theatre will be The Unknown Island. She directs Jon Foster, Hannah Ringham, Thalissa Teixera and Zubin Varla in the adaptation of Nobel Prize winner Jose Saramago's short story, which is currently in previews for an opening on 18 September and runs until 7 October 2017. BroadwayWorld has a first look at the cast in action below!

It was three years ago that I first read Jose Saramago's story, The Tale of the Unknown Island. It's 28 pages long - so, perhaps more precisely, it's 28 pages short. When I finished it, I started breathing again.

Ellen McDougall today announced the full cast for The Unknown Island, her inaugural production of Artistic Director of Gate Theatre.  She directs Jon Foster, Hannah Ringham, Thalissa Teixera and Zubin Varla in the adaptation of Nobel Prize winner Jose Saramago's short story which opens on 18 September, with previews from 11 September, running until 7 October. 

Following the recent announcement of her inaugural season as Artistic Director of Gate Theatre, Ellen McDougall today announces two new Associates joining the Gate - Jude Christian, and Anthony Simpson-Pike. Former Associate Director Lynette Linton also re-joins the team as Director of the Young Associates programme.

Ellen McDougall announces her inaugural season as Artistic Director of the Gate Theatre, running from June 2017 to June 2018, comprising five full productions, and a one-day takeover of local Notting Hill festival InTRANSIT.

As part of the Finborough Theatre's celebrations of Canada's 150th birthday, a new production commissioned by the Finborough Theatre of the European premiere of Footprints On The Moon by one of Canada's most acclaimed playwrights, Maureen Hunter, runs at the Finborough Theatre, playing Sunday and Monday evenings and Tuesday matinees from Sunday, 28 May 2017.

"What's wrong with me? Something's got to be awful wrong with me. Why am I never enough for people?"

The final Wonder Noir production to play in the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse is one of Shakespeare's tragedies: Othello. Running in tandem with Webster's The White Devil, it concludes the winter season in suitably dark fashion, as befits Emma Rice's vision. This tale on the consequences of letting rumour guide your actions is highly apt in our scaremongering world.

The Lyric's annual panto returns when Aladdin flies into Hammersmith on his magic carpet for some festive fun in true Lyric style. Fresh for 2016, the show will be full of colourful characters, live music, lots of laughs and of course the magical Genie.

The Lyric Hammersmith today announces full casting for its Christmas show, Aladdin. The Lyric's annual panto returns when Aladdin flies into Hammersmith on his magic carpet for some festive fun in true Lyric style. Fresh for 2016, the show will be full of colourful characters, live music, lots of laughs and of course the magical Genie.

Headlong's Artistic Director Jeremy Herrin announces the company's plans for the future with an exceptional season of world premieres, re-workings, short films and country wide participation work. The season features provocative, constantly surprising theatre which addresses urgent questions about the way we live today with vitality, wit and theatrical intelligence.  Uniting an eclectic group of theatre-makers with a common aim to challenge the limits of what theatre can achieve, this programme develops Headlong's commitment to touring the most ambitious theatre to audiences around the UK and across the world.

The Gate Theatre today announces that Ellen McDougall has been appointed as its new Artistic Director. McDougall, who takes up the position in March 2017, is currently an Associate Artist at the Gate, served as Associate Director for two years from 2012, and directed an acclaimed production of Idomeneus at the theatre in 2014. She replaces Christopher Haydon who leaves to pursue a Clore Fellowship and a number of freelance opportunities.

Today, 14 June 2016, Christopher Haydon announced he will step down as Artistic Director of the Gate Theatre, leaving in January 2017 after five years of leading the company. His recently announced new season - Too Close To Home, will be his penultimate season at the Gate Theatre. Haydon will continue programming the Gate up until May 2017, with his last season being announced in late 2016. The post of Artistic Director at the Gate Theatre will be advertised shortly.

This winter the Lyric Hammersmith will stage two delightful productions that are sure to add some sparkle to the festive season. This year's Lyric pantomime, CINDERELLA, will dazzle audiences in the Main House while the charming and lovable Raymond Briggs' FATHER CHRISTMAS returns to enchant under 6s in the Lyric Studio.

This winter the Lyric Hammersmith will stage two delightful productions that are sure to add some sparkle to the festive season. This year's Lyric pantomime, CINDERELLA, will dazzle audiences in the Main House while the charming and lovable Raymond Briggs' FATHER CHRISTMAS returns to enchant under 6s in the Lyric Studio.

Autumn 2015 will see the Everyman & Playhouse collaborating with some of the greatest theatre makers in the country. The season begins with Simon Armitage's The Odyssey: Missing Presumed Dead, directed by Associate Director Nick Bagnall, a co-production with English Touring Theatre.

Final casting is announced today for the European premiere of Orson's Shadow, a critically acclaimed comedy by Austin Pendleton, about the time when Hollywood giants Orson Welles and Laurence Olivier worked together for the first time - the inspired idea of legendary theatre critic, Kenneth Tynan. 

1960. Backstage at London's Royal Court Theatre. Hollywood giants Orson Welles and Laurence Olivier have been persuaded to work together for the first time - the inspired idea of legendary theatre critic, Kenneth Tynan. Welles has agreed to direct Olivier and Joan Plowright in a production of Eugene Ionesco's masterpiece Rhinoceros. But with Olivier's eccentric wife Vivien Leigh added to the volatile mix, legendary egos collide both on stage and off.

An exhibition of new photographs by Simon Annand of some of Britain's leading playwrights will open at the Royal Exchange in Manchester this April, to mark the 10th anniversary of The Bruntwood Prize for Playwriting.