Donmar Announces Second Trafalgar Residency

This year’s season, which will commence on 14 November (previews 10 November 2011) opens with Salt, Root and Roe running until 3 December. A new work by playwright Tim Price (For Once, Teamwork Under the Sofa) it will be directed by Hamish Pirie who was resident director at the Donmar in 2006. His work since has included Extreme Rambling on tour and at the Tricycle, the tour of Snails and Ketchup, Purgatory for the Arcola and His Ghostly Heart at the Bush. He was also staff director on the National Theatre of Scotland’s Black Watch world tour.

Conor McPherson’s Dublin Carol, which was last produced in London by the Royal Court in spring 2000, will be revived by Abbey Wright in December, running from 12 to 31 December (previews from 8 December 2011). Wright was assistant director at the Donmar from 2008-9 working with Sean Holmes, Peter Gill, Michael Grandage, Jamie Lloyd, Alan Rickman, Jeremy Herrin and John Tiffany. She has since directed The Ones That Flutter at Theatre503, Hidden Glory at the Lowry and on tour and The Winter’s Tale for Theatr Mwldan.

The season will then close with a production of Jean-Paul Sartre’s Huis Clos, translated by Stuart Gilbert and directed by Paul Hart. A rare opportunity to see Sartre’s 1944 existentialist masterpiece, it will run from 9 to 28 January (previews from 5 January 2012). As resident director in 2009 Hart he worked on Dimetos, Doll’s House, A Streetcar Named Desire, Life is a Dream and Red.

Announcing the season the Donmar’s artistic director Michael Grandage said: “Encouraging and nurturing directors of the future has been an important part of the Donmar’s work since the Resident Assistant Director’s scheme started over fifteen years ago. This three year commitment will see nine emerging directors create work with young designers and offer audiences the opportunity to engage with challenging and exciting work outside our Covent Garden home.”

Grandage also told The Stage that building a young creative team around the theatre’s graduate directors and allowing them helm an entire production had been “designed to support young talent that needs to be given some help to just get to the next rung of the ladder.”

The Donmar launched its Trafalgar Studios residency last year with a season of three plays: Beau Willimon‘s Lower Ninth, Italian playwright Alessandro Baricco‘s Novecento and a revival of Jean Cocteau’s Les Parents Terribles. Their annual residency at Trafalgar Studios is expected to present one further season in 2012.

The Donmar’s Resident Assistant Director scheme has run since 1994, giving paid, year-long placements to successful applicants. Previous graduates of the scheme include Josie Rourke who will succeed Grandage as artistic director at the Donmar.

Currently playing Trafalgar Studios 1 Tracie Bennett‘s portray of Judy Garland’s final London appearances End of the Rainbow ends its extended Olivier Award-nominated run on 21 May prior to a UK tour and mooted transfer to Broadway.

In Studio 2 Ella Hickson‘s Precious Little Talent starring Olivia Hallinan, Ian Gelder and Anthony Welsh continues until 30 April 2011.