ROYAL SHAKESPEARE COMPANY
Artistic Director
MICHAEL BOYD
will be featured on
The American Theatre Wing’s
”Downstage Center”
Beginning tomorrow Friday, July 4th at 6:00 PM,
and repeated throughout the weekend
“Downstage Center” airs weekly on XM Radio’s
”On Broadway” channel 28
Michael Boyd, Artistic Director of the Royal Shakespeare Company, will be interviewed on The American Theatre Wing’s “Downstage Center” on XM Radio channel 28. Boyd will appear as the special guest on Friday, July 4th at 6PM. The show will repeat on Saturday, July 5th at noon, Sunday, July 6th at 7PM, and Wednesday, July 9th at midnight. Beginning Tuesday afternoon July 8th, the program will become available as streaming audio on the American Theatre Wing’s website (www.americantheatrewing.org) and via an iTunes podcast.
On the program, Michael Boyd will discuss the overwhelming success of his recent History play cycle in both Stratford and London, his vision for ensemble theatre making and the future of the Royal Shakespeare Company.
The recent acclaim for Michael’s work at the RSC includes:
“Michael Boyd’s knock-out production (of Henry IV) is a thrilling all-day orgy of gore-dripping violence, gallows humour and craven betrayal. Boyd’s epic English history cycle will be remembered and talked about for decades to come.”
- Charles Spencer, Daily Telegraph
“Michael Boyd’s production is vivid and vital. Thanks to Boyd’s inventiveness and a company happy to climb ropes or be lowered from high above, the revival has an imaginative immediacy no television programme could match.”
- Benedict Nightingale, London Times
“***** FIVE STARS! Our theatre has seen nothing on this imaginative scale in years.”
- Michael Billington, The Guardian
About The Royal Shakespeare Company & Michael Boyd:
The aim of the RSC is to keep modern audiences in touch with Shakespeare as our contemporary. That means that as well as the work of Shakespeare and his contemporaries, our repertoire includes classic plays by international dramatists and work by living writers.
Michael was appointed as the RSC’s new Artistic Director in July 2002 and took up the position in April 2003 with a mission for the company to work as an ensemble, connecting people with Shakespeare and engaging with the world. Since then, the Company has gone from strength to strength. Under his leadership, the RSC staged the Complete Works Festival in 2006, performing all of Shakespeare’s 37 plays, long poems and sonnets, with 30 visiting companies from across the world. And as a Director, he has worked with a single long term ensemble of 34 actors to stage all eight of Shakespeare’s History plays. The productions opened in Stratford in 2007 and transferred to London this spring to enormous critical acclaim.
At the same time, the company has embarked on a major $225m project to bring actors and audiences closer together in a space Shakespeare would recognise, with the transformation of the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon into a thrust stage.
From 1996, Michael was as an Associate Director of the RSC, working alongside Michael Attenborough (Principal Associate Director, until July 2002) and two other Associate Directors Gregory Doran and Steven Pimlott (until May 2002). In 2001 he won the Olivier Award for Best Director for his productions of Henry VI, I.II,III and Richard III, part of the RSC’s This England: The Histories season.
Work for the RSC includes: Richard II, Henry IV parts I and II, Henry V(as part of the continuing Histories Cycle) 2007/8, Henry VI, parts I, II, III and Richard III for the Complete Works Festival (2006/7), Twelfth Night (2005), The Pilate Workshop (2004), Hamlet (2004), The Tempest (2002) Henry VI, parts I, II and III, Richard III, Romeo and Juliet (2000/1), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1999), Troilus and Cressida (1997/8), Measure for Measure (1996/7), Much Ado About Nothing (1994), The Spanish Tragedy (1994) and The Broken Heart.
About The American Theatre Wing:
The American Theatre Wing is best known as the creator of the Antoinette Perry “Tony” Awards®, which it presents annually with The Broadway League. The Wing’s other activities, dedicated to recognizing excellence and supporting education in theatre, include “Working in the Theatre,” now in its 29th year of telecasts on CUNY TV in New York and on other national cable outlets; “Downstage Center,” an hour-long weekly interview program on XM Satellite Radio; “Guides to Careers in the Theatre,” a video series developed for schools and libraries; a grants and scholarship program to New York City schools and not-for-profit theatre companies, which has awarded more than $2.5 million since its inception; the Theatre Intern Group, a career development program for young professionals; and SpringboardNYC, a two-week college-to-career boot camp for young performers moving to NYC. Visitors to www.americantheatrewing.org can view or download an archive of “Working in the Theatre” and the career guides and listen to “Downstage Center”, all as free, on-demand streaming audio and podcast. Sondra Gilman is Chairman of the Board of the American Theatre Wing; Doug Leeds is President of the Board and Howard Sherman is Executive Director.
About XM Satellite Radio:
XM is America’s number-one satellite radio company with more than 9 million subscribers. Broadcasting live daily from studios in Washington, D.C., New York City, the Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville, Toronto and Montreal, XM’s 2006 lineup includes more than 170 digital channels of choice from coast to coast: the most commercial-free music, premier sports, talk, comedy, children’s and entertainment programming; and the most advanced traffic and weather information. For more information about XM hardware, programming and partnerships, please visit www.xmradio.com.
# # #
Filed under: ROYAL SKAHESPEARE COMPANY | Tagged: ROYAL SHAKESPEARE COMPANY
