Shakespeare’s Globe names Gregory Doran as recipient of the 2012 Sam Wanamaker Award 17 June 2012 Shakespeare’s Globe has named Gregory Doran, newly-appointed Artistic Director of the Royal Shakespeare Company, as recipient of the 2012 Sam Wanamaker Award. The award, the most prestigious prize granted by the theatre, is given annually in the name of Globe founder Sam Wanamaker to celebrate work which has increased the understanding and enjoyment of Shakespeare.
Sam spent the final 23 years of his life tirelessly campaigning, advancing research into the appearance of the original Globe and planning its reconstruction. The Sam Wanamaker Award was instituted by Shakespeare’s Globe in 1994 to honour work which has a similar quality to Sam’s own pioneering mission. Gregory Doran follows former illustrious recipients of the Award, the first of whom was Dr Rex Gibson, creator and editor of the Cambridge School Shakespeare; Janet Arnold for her pioneering research into Elizabethan clothing; Professor Stanley Wells, Shakespeare scholar and former Chairman of the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust; John Barton, founding member of the Royal Shakespeare Company; and actor and director, Mark Rylance. In accepting the Award Gregory Doran said “I am delighted and flattered to receive the Sam Wanamaker Award. At university, back in the late seventies, I ran a student Shakespeare Company. We called ourselves ‘The Poor Players’, though it might have been more accurate to have been called the "strutting and fretting" company. However, Sam heard about us and invited me to come and talk to him at the Bear Gardens Museum. He told me all about his thrilling plans to rebuild Shakespeare's Globe, and invited my little budding troop to come and perform. His plans took longer to mature than my little company survived, but I have always treasured that brief encounter, and am thus deeply touched to be honoured with this award in his name.”
Gregory Doran is recognised as one of the great Shakespearians of his generation, and has worked tirelessly for the last 25 years to bring Shakespeare to new audiences. He joined the Royal Shakespeare Company as an actor in 1987, before becoming Assistant Director the following season. He will take up the post of Artistic Director in September 2012, succeeding Michael Boyd.
Gregory has produced an array of highly-acclaimed and award-winning productions, including over half the Shakespeare canon, as well as plays by Shakespeare’s contemporaries, and new writing. He is a champion of seldom-performed Elizabethan and Jacobean plays, and led seasons dedicated to these often neglected works in both 2002 and 2005. He has also pioneered the translation of stage productions to screen. His filmed version of Hamlet was broadcast in the UK on Boxing Day 2009 and
in the US on PBS. His other film work includes Macbeth and A Midsummer Night's Dreaming, and he directed extracts from various Shakespeare plays for Michael Wood's BBC series, 'In Search of Shakespeare'. His current production of Julius Caesar, part of the World Shakespeare Festival, produced by the RSC, plays in Stratford, London and on tour - with a filmed version to be screened on BBC 4 as part of the BBC ‘Shakespeare Unlocked’ season for London 2012. Gregory’s writing credits include Woza Shakespeare! co-authored with Antony Sher about their production of Titus Andronicus in South Africa in 1995, The Shakespeare Almanac, and Shakespeare's Lost Play: In search of Cardenio. He is an Honorary Fellow of the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, and in 2011 was awarded Honorary Doctorates by the University of Nottingham and the University of Bristol. Congratulating Gregory on his Award, Neil Constable, Shakespeare’s Globe Chief Executive commented, “I am personally delighted that Greg is this year’s worthy recipient of the Sam Wanamaker Award. I have worked with Greg both as an actor and as a director and I have always been impressed by his continued championing of both the Shakespeare canon and the less well known plays of his contemporaries with his bold, exciting and illuminating productions.” The Sam Wanamaker Award will be presented to Gregory Doran on stage at Shakespeare’s Globe after a forthcoming performance in The Play's The Thing season.
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Further information Eleanor Lovegrove Press Officer, +44 (0)20 7902 1468 or eleanor.l@shakespearesglobe.com Notes to Editors:
Previous winners of the Sam Wanamaker Award include Glynn MacDonald and Giles Block (2011), Professor Stanley Wells (2010), Professor Andrew Gurr (2008), Jenny Tiramani, Claire van Kampen and Mark Rylance (2007), Dawn Saunders QSM (2006), John Orrell (2004), Stephen Unwin and Barry Rutter (2003), Paul Scofield CBE (2002), John Barton CBE (2001), Cicely Berry OBE (2000), Glynne Wickham (1999), Janet Arnold (1998), William Hutt (1996), Leon Garfield (1995) and Dr Rex Gibson (1994). Globe Education presents a programme of workshops, lectures, events and staged readings all year round. For more information this programme of events call Globe Education 020 7902 1438 or visit www.shakespearesglobe.com/education Globe Exhibition and Tour is open all year round. For more information visit www.shakespearesglobe.com/exhibition 2012 Shakespeare’s Globe will present Globe to Globe, a multi-lingual Shakespeare festival to celebrate the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympics Games. Over the course of six weeks, starting on 21 April 2012, all of Shakespeare’s 37 plays will be performed in a different language, by different companies from around the world. Indoor Jacobean Theatre: Shakespeare’s Globe is currently fundraising to build an indoor Jacobean theatre, opening in 2013. For further information please visit www.shakespearesglobe.com/indoorjacobeantheatre
Globe on Tour: The Globe’s productions tour the UK, Europe and America and the Globe is currently developing its touring schedule, as well as screening productions in cinemas. For more information www.shakespearesglobe.com/theatre/on-tour Globe Shop stocks a variety of products, including theatre season specific merchandise. Shakespeare's Globe is a registered charity and all profits from sales go towards supporting our educational mission. Items can be bought at the onsite shop or online at www.shakespearesglobe.com/shop Swan at the Globe bar and restaurant is open all year round. For reservations please call 020 7928 9444. www.loveswan.co.uk The Shakespeare Globe Trust is a registered charity No.266916. Shakespeare’s Globe receives no public subsidy.