New Artistic Director for the New Vic
The New Vic informs us of the appointment of their new Artistic Director. Here are some details from their press release.
New Vic Theatre Trustees today announced the appointment of Theresa Heskins as the new Artistic Director of the Staffordshire producing theatre.Currently artistic director of Ludlow-based Pentabus Theatre, she will take up the post when Gwenda Hughes steps down as Artistic Director at the end of the year.
“The New Vic is one of the most dynamic theatres I know”, Theresa says. “And it’s one of the busiest with its programme of in-house productions and its tremendous work with local people. I'm looking forward to making theatre for the inspiring New Vic auditorium and choosing a programme of plays that will offer something for all the audiences of North Staffordshire and South Cheshire.”
Theresa has been artistic director of Pentabus Theatre since 1999, establishing its reputation as a centre for innovative new writing. Recent productions have included Alecky Blythe’s Strawberry Fields, a verbatim drama following the controversy surrounding a local strawberry farm; Julian Garner’s Silent Engine, a collaboration with the National Theatre Studio that earned the company a fringe First Award at the Edinburgh Festival and Bryony Lavery’s outdoor epic Precious Bane, acclaimed by The Guardian as one of the ten best site specific shows ever. Pentabus’s current production is WHITE OPEN SPACES: nine short single-person dramas exploring diversity in the countryside. A collaboration with BBC Radio Drama, it will be performed at the Edinburgh Festival this summer.
She studied English Language and Literature at Balliol College, Oxford, gaining a first class degree at the same time as winning a National Student Drama Festival award and the Times’ Best Student Show on the Edinburgh Fringe award.
As joint artistic director of Jade Theatre, a company aiming to integrate text with physical/visual disciplines, she commissioned and developed new work including the hit comedy Grace. Grace was nominated for the Channel 4 Comedy Award and the Total Theatre Award and transferred to the Arts Theatre, London.
Theresa becomes only the third Artistic Director of the New Vic. She follows founding director Peter Cheeseman, who led the company from 1962 until his retirement in 1998, and Gwenda Hughes who leaves at the end of 2006 after nine years.
The New Vic is the regional producing theatre for Staffordshire. The first purpose-built theatre-in-the-round in Europe.
2006-05-17 20:33:46