Simon Godwin

Simon Godwin is an English theatre director based in London, where he is currently an Associate Director of the Royal Court Theatre and Associate Artist at Bristol Old Vic. In 2010 he was nominated for an Evening Standard Award for Best Newcomer for his direction Nick Payne's Wanderlust at the Royal Court Theatre in London. In 2012 he won the newly created Burberry award for an emerging theatre director at the Evening Standard Awards.^[1]

Career

After reading English at Cambridge University,^[2] Godwin directed a production of Romeo and Juliet^[3] for the Cambridge Arts Theatre and the Marlowe Society. Godwin was then assistant director to Dominic Dromgoole and Tim Supple. He then co-founded Straydogs, a new theatre company, producing Inkle and Yarico, as well as Eurydice at the BAC before it transferred to the Whitehall Theatre in the West End,^[4][5] which made it one of the youngest companies ever to have work staged in London's West End. This was followed by All's Well That Ends Well for a national tour.

For the West Yorkshire Playhouse Godwin directed the world premiere of Mister Heracles by Simon Armitage.

Godwin became Associate Director of the Royal and Derngate Theatre in Northampton in 2001 and directed seven main stage shows, including The Seagull, Habeas Corpus, Relatively Speaking and with Salisbury Playhouse, and Quartermaine's Terms by Simon Gray.

At the Tabard Theatre his production of The Country by Martin Crimp was well received, and in 2008 he became part of the Royal Court International Residency. At the Almeida Theatre in 2009 he directed All The Little Things We Crushed by Joel Horwood, followed by a critically acclaimed national tour of The Winter's Tale for Schtanhaus and Nuffield Theatre Southampton, in association with Headlong.

Godwin subsequently joined Bristol Old Vic as Associate Director, directing productions of Far Away (Caryl Churchill) and Faith Healer (Brian Friel). The latter was subsequently remounted in 2012 as part of the Hong Kong Arts Festival ^[6]

In 2010 he directed Nick Payne's Wanderlust^[7] in the upstairs theatre at Royal Court Theatre. For this he was longlisted for Evening Standard Awards Best Newcomer in 2010.^[8]

He directed his second play at the Royal Court Theatre Anya Reiss' The Acid Test directing Denis Lawson, Lydia Wilson, Vanessa Kirby and Phoebe Fox in Spring 2011.^[9] In April 2011, Simon became a full-time Associate Director at the Royal Court Theatre.

Simon recently directed his first production at the National Theatre, directing Anne Marie Duff in "Strange Interlude" in the Lyttelton Theatre.^[10] Simon's next project will be "The Little Mermaid" at Bristol Old Vic for Christmas 2013. Next year, he will make his debut at the RSC, directing "The Two Gentlemen of Verona" at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre.^[11]

In 2015 he directed Ralph Fiennes in George Bernard Shaw's Man and Superman in the Lyttelton Theatre, George Farquhar's The Beaux Stratagem in the Olivier Theatre and William Shakespeare's Richard II, starring Charles Edwards at Shakespeare's Globe.

In 2016 he directed Hamlet for the Royal Shakespeare Company.

Work

Godwin's directing career includes:

References

• Simon Godwin on IMDb