Craig Noel

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Craig Noel (born August 25, 1915) is a theatre producer.

Noel is the primary organizer of The Old Globe Theatre Shakespeare Festival in San Diego, California and Artistic Director and Executive Producer of The Old Globe Theatres. Began the annual Shakespeare Festival in 1949. The Old Globe began as an attraction at Balboa Park's 1935 California Pacific International Exposition with the presentation of 50-minute versions of Shakespeare plays. When the group reorganized as a community theatre, Noel acted in the initial production in 1937. He began directing and was named the Globe's general director in 1939. After a stint in Hollywood, then war service, he returned to The Globe in the late '40s and has never left, having directed over 225 productions and overseeing hundreds more.

In addition to The Old Globe, there is The Cassius Carter Theatre (built 1968) and the Festival Stage constructed in 1978 after the original Globe was destroyed by arson. The festival stage itself succumbed to arson several years later and has been rebuilt, now named The Lowell Davies Festival Stage. In 2005 Craig Noel celebrated his 90th birthday coinciding with the 70th anniversary of the Old Globe Theatre.

In 2007, Noel was awarded the National Medal of Arts.