Chelsea Walker Wins 2017 RTST Director Award

The Royal Theatrical Support Trust (RTST) and Nuffield Southampton Theatres (NST) are delighted to announce that Chelsea Walker has been awarded the 2017 RTST Director Award, with Tinuke Craig as runner-up.

As winner, Chelsea will now get the unique opportunity to direct a full-scale, fully-funded production of a classic play, to be co-produced by Nuffield Southampton Theatres, English Touring Theatre (ETT) and Theatr Clwyd in 2018.

The production, which will run from March to June, will premiere in the main house of NST's new city-centre theatre, NST City, before going on a tour of the main houses of theatres across the UK, concluding with a run in the Anthony Hopkins Theatre at Theatr Clwyd.

After a successful national call-out for entries, Chelsea was one of 7 finalists selected by a prestigious Selection Panel to demonstrate their directing skills in workshops and a final interview stage. The selection panel comprised: chair Sam Hodges (Director at Nuffield Southampton Theatres), Howard Brenton, Tamara Harvey (Artistic Director at Theatre Clywd), Patricia Hodge, Stephanie Street, Richard Twyman (Artistic Director at English Touring Theatre), and Danny Lee Wynter.

Winner, Chelsea Walker said: "I'm thrilled to have won the RTST Award, and I'm really grateful for their support as I make this next step in my career. These platforms for young directors are rare and invaluable. I feel very lucky to be given the opportunity to work with the brilliant NST, ETT and Theatr Clwyd. The process of applying for the award forces you to be rigorous and interrogate the kind of work you want to make. I'd like to thank the RTST, Sam Hodges, Tamara Harvey, Richard Twyman and the wonderful, welcoming panel for making the process so warm and invigorating."

The 2017 scheme supports the RTST mission as a charity dedicated to promoting theatre and drama. Chairman of the RTST, Sir Geoffrey Cass, said: "The RTST Director Award had 7 finalists of the very highest quality, selected from a strong field of 50 candidates. Two full days of workshops, at which the 7 finalists had to direct professional actors, observed by our very experienced panel of judges, followed by interviews, were a thorough test of their directing skills. The prize was a unique opportunity to direct a production, which would be staged by Nuffield Southampton Theatres, Theatr Clwyd, and English Touring Theatre. The collaboration of the RTST with these three companies has admirably achieved encouragement of emerging theatre professionals and the promotion of regional theatre - two of the Trust's primary objectives".

Mark Hawes, Deputy Chairman of the RTST, said: "RTST Director Award winner Chelsea Walker is demonstrably a director to watch, and NST City - Southampton's sleek, new-build led by Sam Hodges - will definitely be a theatre to watch. We're thrilled to be the catalyst for Chelsea's launch into mid-scale, main-house directing as part of NST City's first year programme - and for Nuffield Southampton Theatres' co-production with English Touring Theatre and Theatr Clwyd, which will propel a national tour of a re-imagined classic directed by Chelsea. Exciting times ahead for British regional theatre".

Samuel Hodges, Director at Nuffield Southampton Theatres, said: "It was an unbridled pleasure watching seven of the country's future directing stars generously share their process and ideas with us. Chelsea blew us away with her insight, openness and skill and she was a unanimous winner. I can't wait to work together and for audiences across Britain to see what she can do."

Chelsea Walker directed the first major revival of Low Level Panic by Clare McIntyre at the Orange Tree earlier this year. Her previous directing credits include P'yongyang by In-Sook Chappell and Chicken Dust by Ben Weatherill (Finborough Theatre), Klippies by Jess Sian (Southwark Playhouse) and Lean by Isley Lynn (Tristan Bates). She has also assistant directed on Wild by Mike Bartlett (Hampstead Theatre), Routes by Rachel de-lahay (Royal Court), and The Little Mermaid, adapted by Joel Horwood (Bristol Old Vic). She was a runner up in the JMK Young Directors' Award 2016, is a director on the Old Vic 12, and is a script reader for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize.

The RTST operates an annual award scheme for up-and-coming theatre directors: the RTST Director Award Scheme. The Scheme provides a rare opportunity for an up-and-coming director to direct a fully-funded production of a play as part of a main season of productions at a British regional theatre. The RTST Director Award Scheme is designed for the benefit of directors who have already built up a track record of professional directing experience and who are ready for the opportunity provided by the Scheme to progress to directing a production in the main house, or a comparably high-profile auditorium, of a regional theatre.

The Scheme involves a collaboration between the RTST and a regional theatre selected by the RTST. The RTST makes a significant grant to the participating regional theatre to be applied towards the costs of the Award winner's production. It is a condition of the grant that the regional theatre facilitates the implementation of the Scheme and the realisation of that production.

The RTST Director Award winner emerges from a rigorous competitive process among candidates. 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 at the participating regional theatre. Certain criteria for the play are specified each year. Shortlisted candidates are required to participate in directing workshops with actors in order to demonstrate their directorial skills. Finalists are interviewed.

The Award winner is selected by a panel of distinguished theatre practitioners appointed by the RTST. There is an official runner-up.

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 RTST's intention is to run the Scheme annually, and to work with different regional theatres. The detailed terms of the Scheme in any given year will be published on the RTST's website. The terms may vary from year to year.

The RTST ran the inaugural RTST Director Award Scheme in 2016 with Sheffield Theatres. The winner, Kate Hewitt, was selected by a Selection Panel comprising Daniel Evans (Chair), Robert Hastie, Ian McKellen, Dawn Walton, Richard Wilson and Penelope Wilton. Kate has won the opportunity to direct the British regional premiere of Tribes by Nina Raine in the Crucible Studio Theatre. Tribes will run from 30 June to 22 July 2017 (press night: 3 July 2017). The production costs are being supported by a grant of £25,000 from the RTST to Sheffield Theatres.

For the 2017 Award, run by the RTST in conjunction with Nuffield Southampton Theatres, the winner was Chelsea Walker, and runner up was Tinuke Craig. The remaining shortlist was: Rachel Bagshaw, Rebecca Frecknall, Max Gill, Becky Hope-Palmer and Antony Lau. The RTST is to make a grant of £50,000 to Nuffield Southampton Theatres to support the production costs of the play to be directed by Chelsea in the main house of NST City prior to its national tour.

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 and repertory 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 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.

Nuffield Southampton Theatres is one of the UK's leading professional theatre companies. The Company is led by Samuel Hodges, supported by a team of associates: directors Blanche McIntyre, Natalie Abrahami, Michael Longhurst and Abbey Wright, designer Tom Scutt and playwright Adam Brace, and develops and produces work with some of the UK's most exciting and dynamic regional theatres. NST won 'Regional Theatre of the Year' at The Stage Awards 2015 & Best Design UK Theatre 2015 (The Hudsucker Proxy).

NST will soon take over a second venue in Southampton's new £28M city centre arts venue. This new venue will include a flexible 450 seat main house theatre, a 135 seat studio, screening facilities, rehearsal and workshop spaces. It will transform NST's ability to show high quality professional work from local, national and International Artists and allow the programme to include dance, film and music. NST will run the new city centre venue alongside its existing theatre on the University of Southampton's Highfield Campus.

Nuffield Southampton Theatres is an Arts Council National Portfolio Organisation and a registered charity, receiving additional core funding from the University of Southampton, Southampton City Council and Hampshire County Council.

Theatr Clwyd produces exciting, dynamic, vibrant theatre for Wales and beyond. Led by Artistic Director Tamara Harvey and Executive Director Liam Evans-Ford, it is a champion of world-class drama, new writing, musical theatre and family friendly work. Overlooking the Clwydian Hills yet only forty minutes from Liverpool, it has three theatres, a cinema, café, bar and three art galleries, offering a rich and varied programme of visual arts, film, theatre, music and comedy. As well as producing up to 14 shows a year, Theatr Clwyd works extensively with the local community, schools and colleges as well as creating award-winning work for, by and with young people.

Over 200,000 people a year come through the doors and in 2015 Theatr Clwyd was voted the Most Welcoming Theatre in Wales.

English Touring Theatre is one of the UK's most successful and influential touring companies, winning the UK Theatre Awards Best Touring Production in 2014, 2015 & 2016. The company works with leading 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 the very best work. In 2017 ETT will tour to 40 venues throughout the UK. This September the company will produce new versions of Sam Holcroft's Rules for Living and Conor McPherson's The Weir.