Shakespeare's Globe announces Michelle Terry as new artistic director

Michelle Terry will be the new artistic director of the Globe from April 2018.

The Olivier Award-winning actor and writer has starred in multiple Globe productions including Rosalind in As You Like It (2015), as Titania/Hippolyta in A Midsummer Night’s Dream (2013) and as the Princess of France in Love’s Labour’s Lost (2007). She also directed Richard III, King John and As You Like It for The Complete Walk (2016), a series of short films created as part of the Globe’s celebration of the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death.

Her more recent work includes a performance at the Donmar about giving birth and she played the title role in Robert Hastie's production of Henry V at Regent's Park Open Air Theatre.

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On the appointment, Terry said: "The work of Shakespeare is for me timeless, mythic, mysterious, vital, profoundly human and unapologetically theatrical. There are no other theatres more perfectly suited to house these plays than the pure and uniquely democratic spaces of the Globe and the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse.

"I am so proud and excited that I will be in the privileged position where I can offer artists the opportunity to come together to reclaim and rediscover not only Shakespeare, but the work of his contemporaries, alongside new work from our current writers. For us to then share those stories with an audience that demands an unparalleled honesty, clarity and bravery, is all a dream come true."

Neil Constable, chief executive of Shakespeare’s Globe, said: "I am delighted to announce Michelle Terry as the Globe’s next Artistic Director. Audiences have loved her sparkling and intelligent performances on our stage over the years – now they will have the opportunity to see her fresh artistic vision come to life as she moves into a new phase of her impressive career.

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Terry replaces Emma Rice, who leaves the role after just two years following her resignation earlier this year. She has since launched the new company Wise Children, based in the south west.

Terry's most recent stage credits also include Katie Mitchell’s production of Cleansed for the National Theatre. Other stage credits include All’s Well That Ends Well (National Theatre), Privacy (Donmar Warehouse) and In The Republic of Happiness (Royal Court). She won an Olivier Award for her performance in Tribes at the Royal Court in 2010 and is an associate artist for the Royal Shakespeare Company.

The panel formed to recruit the artistic director designate comprised: Neil Constable, Louise Jury, Claire van Kampen, Philip Kirkpatrick, Jamie Parker, Emma Stenning and Jenny Topper.