Michael Boyd

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Michael Boyd is a British theatre director who took over as Artistic Director of the Royal Shakespeare Company in March 2003. He has regularly collaborated with stage designer Tom Piper since they first worked together on a pantomime for the Tron Theatre in Glasgow.[1] You can hear a recording of his voice on TheatreVoice.

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[edit] Private life

Michael Boyd was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland, on 6 July 1955. He was educated at Latymer School in London, Daniel Stewart's College, Edinburgh and at the University of Edinburgh where he gained an MA in English Literature.

He lives in London with his partner Caroline Hall who works in television and they have three children.

[edit] Career

Boyd trained as a director at the Malaya Bronnaya Theatre in Moscow and in 1979 took up his first post as a trainee director at the Belgrade Theatre in Coventry, graduating to Assistant Director a year later.

In 1982 he joined the Sheffield Crucible as an Associate Director and three years later became founding Artistic Director of the Tron Theatre in Glasgow[2] where he was to stage an acclaimed production of Macbeth starring Iain Glen, and an award winning adaptation of Janice Galloway’s The Trick is to Keep Breathing, as well as Michel Tremblay’s Quebec plays, The Real World? and The Guid Sisters.

Michael Boyd joined the RSC in 1996 as an Associate Director, notably staging the three parts of Henry VI together with Richard III at the Young Vic in London in April 2002, as part of the This England: Histories Cycle, winning the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Director.

During this time he was also Drama Director of the New Beginnings Festival of Soviet Arts in Glasgow in 1999, and directed Miss Julie in the Frank McGuinness version at the Theatre Royal Haymarket in February 2000.

Taking over from Adrian Noble in 2003, Boyd assumed control of the RSC, burdened with a deficit of £2.8m, with a remit to turn its fortunes around. By a combination of artistic excellence and quiet husbandry, including a year-long Complete Works of Shakespeare Festival (begun in April 2006 and which involved other companies as well as the RSC) plus a financially successful London season at the Novello Theatre in 2006, Boyd slowly rebuilt the company’s fortunes and reputation.

In 2007 he launched the long-awaited RSC’s Stratford theatre redevelopments. This included construction of the temporary Courtyard Theatre to provide a Stratford venue while work was in progress, designed to house The Histories cycle[3], before its transfer to the Roundhouse in London in 2008.

Talking of these achievements with typical modesty he told the Evening Standard in December 2007: “There was a bit of gardening to do, but we are now beginning to show signs of walking the walk.” [4].

[edit] References

  1. ^ The British Theatre Guide interview with Tom Piper: [1],
  2. ^ Tron Theatre history: [2]
  3. ^ RSC press release: [3]
  4. ^ ‘The Man Who Remade the RSC’ [4]

[edit] External links