JMK Award partners with Orange Tree Theatre

Published: 23 December 2018
Reporter: Sandra Giorgetti

JMK Award has new partner

London's Orange Tree Theatre is to host the JMK Award winner’s production going forward.

For the last seven years, the Award winner's production has been staged at The Young Vic but, under a new partnership with the Orange Tree Theatre, the JMK Award winner’s production of a classic text will feature as part of the venue's annual programming.

Award applicants, who are aged 35 or under, are invited to create a production from a pre-selected shortlist of works; the deadline for first round applications for the coming year is 30 January.

Stephen Fewell, chair of the JMK Trust, has said “The Orange Tree has a longstanding commitment to developing directing talent—it's part of the building's DNA, so we are thrilled that together we are able to announce a new and unique opportunity for early career directors.

“In the current climate, we believe the Orange Tree offers a precious combination of security and intimacy so important to the nurturing of developing artists. The work it programs represents many differing voices, attracting and exciting new audiences, in a way that we hope will both inspire and give a platform to a generation of theatre makers right across the country. It’s testament to our previous hosts the Young Vic that the JMK Award production is now considered alongside other major London openings, and we are grateful to them for their commitment to all the remarkable theatre directors we have supported together."

Past years' winners of the JMK Award include Thea Sharrock, Orla O’Loughlin, Bijan Sheibani, Joe Hill-Gibbins, Natalie Abrahami, Roy Alexander Weise and Polly Findlay.

The JMK Award runs alongside the JMK Trust's Regional Directors Programme which provides year-round training, mentoring, bursaries and support for directors of all ages. The Trust was founded in memory of young director, James Menzies-Kitchin, to give opportunities to theatre directors of similar ability and vision.

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