Royal Court Named Theatre of the Year in Stage 100 Awards

The Royal Court Theatre was named London's Theatre of the Year by The Stage in the newspaper's inaugural year of their Stage 100 Awards. The theatre, hailed as a "writing powerhouse," was recognized for its extraordinary season, which included acclaimed productions of Clybourne Park by American playwright Bruce Norris (playing in the West End from January 28 at Wyndham's Theatre), c*ckby Mike Bartlett, Sucker Punch by Roy Williams, The Empire by DC Moore, Wanderlust by Nick Payne and Spur of the Moment by Anya Reiss.

The Stage also recently lisTEd Royal Court Artistic Director Dominic Cooke in the #2 position on its list of London's most powerful people in theatre, alongside the National's Nicholas Hytner and the Donmar's Michael Grandage.

The honor is the latest recognition for the Royal Court, which also recently triumphed at the Evening Standard Awards, where its productions were nominated for 11 awards, winning in categories for Best Play, Most Promising Playwright, Best Design and the Editor's Award.

The Royal Court Theatre will be represented on Broadway this season with the transfer of Jez Butterworth's universally acclaimed and multi-award-winning new play, Jerusalem, starring Mark Rylance, who won the Oliver, Evening Standard and London Critics' Circle Awards for his performance.

The Royal Court Theatre is one of Europe's leading theatres and has presented new and innovative plays since 1956, including premieres by almost every leading contemporary British playwright from John Osborne's Look Back in Anger to Caryl Churchill's A Number. After 50 years, writers, directors, actors and audiences still look to the Royal Court for the classics of the future. In addition to its full-scale productions, the Royal Court also facilitates international work at grass-roots level, developing exchanges that bring young writers to Britain and sending British writers, actors and directors to work with artists around the world. The research and play development arm, The Studio, finds the most exciting and diverse range of new voices in the UK. The Studio runs play-writing groups including the Young Writers Programme; Critical Mass for Black, Asian and minority ethnic writers; and the biennial Young Writers Festival. Recent Royal Court transfers to New York include Chekhov's The Seagull in a new translation by Richard Hampton, Rock 'n' Roll by Tom Stoppard and Caryl Churchill's Drunk Enough To Say I Love You?

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