Josie Rourke
   HOME
*



picture info

Josie Rourke
Josie Rourke (born 3 September 1976) is an English theatre and film director. She is a Vice-President of the London Library and was the artistic director of the Donmar Warehouse theatre from 2012 to 2019. In 2018, she made her feature film debut with the Academy Award and BAFTA-nominated historical drama ''Mary Queen of Scots'', starring Saoirse Ronan and Margot Robbie. Early life and education Rourke was born in 1976 in Salford, Greater Manchester, to Vivienne and Sean Rourke. She has one brother, Damian. She attended St Mary's RC Primary School, Swinton, St Gilbert's RC Primary School, Winton, St Patrick's RC Secondary School, Eccles, and Eccles College of Further Education. She was the first person in the history of her school to attend Cambridge University, where she studied English at New Hall, now Murray Edwards College. She began directing for theatre at Cambridge and, amongst other credits, was the first woman in history to direct the Footlights Pantomime, which was co-w ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Mary Queen Of Scots (2018 Film)
''Mary Queen of Scots'' is a 2018 historical drama film directed by Josie Rourke (in her feature directorial debut) and with a screenplay by Beau Willimon based on John Guy (historian), John Guy's 2004 biography ''Queen of Scots: The True Life of Mary Stuart''. The film stars Saoirse Ronan as Mary, Queen of Scots, and Margot Robbie as her cousin Elizabeth I of England, Queen Elizabeth I. Jack Lowden, Joe Alwyn, David Tennant, and Guy Pearce also star in supporting roles. ''Mary Queen of Scots'' had its world premiere on closing night of AFI Fest on 15 November 2018, was released in the United States on 7 December 2018, and in the United Kingdom on 18 January 2019. The film received mixed reviews, with praise for the performances (particularly Ronan and Robbie) and costumes, but was criticised for the screenplay and several historical inaccuracies. The film received three nominations at the 72nd British Academy Film Awards, and two nominations, for Academy Award for Best Costume ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Richard Ayoade
Richard Ellef Ayoade ( ; born 23 May 1977) is a British actor, comedian, broadcaster and filmmaker. He is best known for his role as socially awkward IT technician Maurice Moss in Channel 4 sitcom ''The IT Crowd'' (2006–2013), for which he won the 2014 BAFTA for Best Male Comedy Performance. From 1998 to 1999, Ayoade was the president of the Footlights club whilst a student at the University of Cambridge. He and Matthew Holness debuted their respective characters Dean Learner and Garth Marenghi at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2000, bringing the characters to television with '' Garth Marenghi's Darkplace'' (2004) and ''Man to Man with Dean Learner'' (2006). He appeared in the comedy shows ''The Mighty Boosh'' (2004–2007) and ''Nathan Barley'' (2005), before becoming widely known for his role in ''The IT Crowd''. After directing music videos for Kasabian, Arctic Monkeys, Vampire Weekend, and Yeah Yeah Yeahs, he wrote and directed the comedy-drama film ''Submarine'' (201 ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  




Orpheus Descending
''Orpheus Descending'' is a three-act play by Tennessee Williams. It was first presented on Broadway on March 17, 1957 but had only a brief run (68 performances) and modest success. It was revived on Broadway in 1989, directed by Peter Hall and starring Vanessa Redgrave and Kevin Anderson. The production ran for 13 previews and 97 performances. The play is a rewrite of an earlier play by Williams called ''Battle of Angels'', which was written in 1940. Williams wrote the character of Myra Torrance for Tallulah Bankhead, but she turned down the role, saying "The play is impossible, darling, but sit down and have a drink with me." The production previewed in Boston the same year, starring Miriam Hopkins. It was the first produced play written by Williams and by his account it "failed spectacularly". At one point, Boston's city censors and the City Council threatened to shut down the production over its "lascivious and immoral" language. ''Battle of Angels'' remained un-produced ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


Nicholas Hytner
Sir Nicholas Robert Hytner (; born 7 May 1956) is an English theatre director, film director, and film producer. He was previously the Artistic Director of London's National Theatre. His major successes as director include ''Miss Saigon'', ''The History Boys'' and ''One Man, Two Guvnors''. He has also known for directing films such as ''The Madness of King George'' (1994), ''The Crucible'' (1996), ''The History Boys'' (2006), and ''The Lady in the Van'' (2015). Hytner was knighted in the 2010 New Year Honours for services to drama by Queen Elizabeth II. Early life and education Hytner was born in the prosperous suburbs of south Manchester in 1956,Andrew Dickson"A life in theatre: Nicholas Hytner" ''The Guardian'', 16 October 2010. Retrieved 28 October 2012. to barrister Benet Hytner and his wife, Joyce Hytner, Joyce.Paul Harris"A Knight At The Theater – But Just Call Him Nick" ''Jewish Telegraph ''. Retrieved 28 October 2012. He is the eldest child of four, and has described ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


Merrily We Roll Along (musical)
''Merrily We Roll Along'' is a 1981 American musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and a book by George Furth. It is based on the 1934 play of the same name by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart. ''Merrily'' premiered on Broadway on November 16, 1981, in a production directed by frequent Sondheim collaborator Hal Prince, with a cast almost exclusively of teenagers and young adults. The show was not the success the previous Sondheim–Prince collaborations had been: after a chaotic series of preview performances, it opened to widely negative reviews, and closed after 16 performances and 52 previews. In the years since, the show has been extensively rewritten and has enjoyed several notable productions, including an off-Broadway revival in 1994, and a London premiere in 2000 that won the Laurence Olivier Award for Best New Musical. The show will have its first Broadway revival in fall 2023, directed by Maria Friedman, which will be a transfer of the 2022 off-Broadway ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  




Peter Nichols (playwright)
Peter Richard Nichols (31 July 1927 – 7 September 2019) was an English playwright, screenwriter, director and journalist. Life and career Born in Bristol, England, he was educated at Bristol Grammar School, and served his compulsory National Service as a clerk in Calcutta and later in the British Army's Combined Services Entertainment Unit in Singapore where he entertained the troops alongside John Schlesinger, Stanley Baxter, Peter Vaughan and Kenneth Williams, before going on to study acting at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School. He later claimed to have studied acting because there were no dedicated courses for playwrights. While working as a teacher, he began to write television plays that achieved notice. His first play for the stage was ''The Hooded Terror'', part of a season of new plays at the Little Theatre in Bristol. He later wrote ''A Day in the Death of Joe Egg'' for the stage. ''A Day in the Death of Joe Egg'' is a one-set drama in music hall style. '' The ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


Michael Grandage
Michael Grandage CBE (born 2 May 1962) is a British theatre director and producer. He is currently Artistic Director of the Michael Grandage Company. From 2002 to 2012 he was Artistic Director of the Donmar Warehouse in London and from 2000 to 2005 he was Artistic Director of Sheffield Theatres. Early years Grandage was born in Yorkshire, England, and raised in Penzance, Cornwall, where his parents ran a family business. He was educated at the Humphry Davy Grammar School before training as an actor at the Royal Central School of Speech & Drama through 1984. He spent twelve years working as an actor for companies such as the Royal Exchange and the Royal Shakespeare Company and was also a member of National Youth Theatre before turning to directing. He made his directorial debut in 1996 with a production of Arthur Miller's ''The Last Yankee'' at the Mercury Theatre, Colchester. In 1998 he was invited by Sheffield Theatres to direct ''Twelfth Night'', his first Shakespeare product ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Sam Mendes
Sir Samuel Alexander Mendes (born 1 August 1965) is a British film and stage director, producer, and screenwriter. In 2000, Mendes was appointed a CBE for his services to drama, and he was Knight Bachelor, knighted in the 2020 New Year Honours, 2020 New Years Honours List. That same year, he was awarded the Shakespeare Prize by the Alfred Toepfer Stiftung F.V.S., Alfred Toepfer Foundation in Hamburg, Germany. In 2005, he received a lifetime achievement award from the Directors Guild of Great Britain."Sam Mendes gets directing honour"
BBC. Retrieved 18 June 2012
In 2008, ''The Daily Telegraph'' ranked him number 15 in their list of the "100 most powerful people in British culture". Born in Berkshire to a Trinidadians and Tobagonians, Trinidadian Catholic father and an ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


Watford Palace Theatre
Watford Palace Theatre, opened in 1908, is an Edwardian Grade II listed building in Watford, Hertfordshire. The 600-seat theatre on Clarendon Road was refurbished in 2004. It houses its own rehearsal room, wardrobe, cafe and bar. History The theatre was originally built for the Watford Hippodrome Co., Ltd. The foundation stone of what was to become the Palace Theatre was laid on 3 June 1908. Five days later Mr H.M. Theobald, the architect, lodged the notification of his intention to build the theatre. Construction was undertaken by Barker Brothers of Maidenhead, and took six months, opening on 14 December 1908. The opening proprietors were the Watford Palace of Varieties Co., the Managing Director: Mr. T.M. Sylvester. In early days it put on variety shows and plays, mostly imported from other theatres. Variety artists who appeared at the Palace included Marie Lloyd, Evie Greene and Lottie Lennox. The theatre also puts on regular Christmas pantomimes. For almost a decade (aro ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


Dangerous Corner
''Dangerous Corner'' was the first play by the English writer J. B. Priestley. It was premiered in May 1932 by Tyrone Guthrie at the Lyric Theatre, London, and filmed in 1934 by Phil Rosen. Priestley had recently collaborated with Edward Knoblock on ''The Good Companions'' and now wished "to prove that a man might produce long novels and yet be able to write effectively, using the strictest economy, for the stage." While it was praised highly by James Agate, ''Dangerous Corner'' received extremely poor reviews and after three days he was told that the play would be taken off, a fate that he averted by buying out the syndicate. It then ran for six months. Priestley's action was further vindicated by the worldwide success the play was to enjoy, although he soon lowered his estimate of this work and as early as 1938 remarked "It is pretty thin stuff when all is said and done." Plot introduction Robert and Freda Caplan are entertaining guests at their country retreat. A chance re ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  




Laurie Sansom
Laurie Sansom is a British theatre director. Early life and education Sansom grew up in East Peckham, near Tonbridge, Kent. He attended the local East Peckham Country Primary School and later Mascalls Comprehensive School in Paddock Wood. Sansom's early theatre 'training', whilst at primary school included an amateur dramatics society in nearby Hadlow where he appeared in a number of productions including pantomime. He later trained with the National Youth Theatre and is an alumnus of the National Student Drama Festival. He graduated from Cambridge University. Career Sansom was the Artistic Director and Chief Executive of the National Theatre of Scotland between 2013-2016. Sansom was previously Artistic Director of the Royal & Derngate Theatre in Northampton(2006 - 2013), Associate Director to Alan Ayckbourn at the Stephen Joseph Theatre, in Scarborough (2002–06) and an Arts Council England Trainee Director at the Watford Palace Theatre (1996-7). In 2019, it was announ ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]