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Dateline: 6th February, 2005
Lyddiard to Leave Northern Stage Alan Lyddiard, chief executive and artistic director of Newcastle's Northern Stage, is to leave the company. He joined it in 1992, overseeing its move from the New Tyne Theatre to the Newcastle Playhouse, and leaves as the theatre is undergoing an £8m refurbishment which will create an additional performance space. The company is due to move into the rebuilt theatre in 2006. Lyddiard's ambition has been to bring British and European theatre closer together and he formed the Northern Stage Ensemble to create a permanent company which would be able to work in a way which is closer to the European model, spending more time on exploring the pieces it works on. His aim is for the refurbished Playhouse to become a European centre of excellence in the performing arts. He was the first in the region to appoint a dramaturg, Duska Radosavljevic. Under his leadership the company has created strong links with the Netherlands and collaborated, along with the West Yorkshire Playhouse, with Barcelona's Teatro Romea on a production of Orwell's Homage to Catalonia, which premiered last year to less than enthusiastic reviews. George Owell, in fact, has formed an important part of the company's work, with its highly successful Animal Farm being frequently revived, to the extent that it is known in NE theatre circles as Annual Farm! The production has been well received on its numerous tours, as have a number of its other keynote productions, Orwell's 1984, the second part of the Orwell trilogy (Catalonia being the third), and Anthony Burgess' A Clockwork Orange. He will now concentrate on his freelance work in Europe. "It has been a rewarding time in Newcastle," he said, "but the time is right for me to move on and to concentrate on my artistic work. I have the opportunity to develop my career internationally and hopefully secure new partnerships for the arts in the North East. I have had the pleasure of working with a group of exceptionally talented individuals at Northern Stage and the new building will provide the opportunity for theatre to thrive in Newcastle." Mike Worthington, the chair of Northern Stage, said that Lyddiard's contribution to the arts in the Newcastle has been "immense" and added, "I hope there will be opportunities for us to work together again." ACE NE executive director Andrew Dixon agrees. "The Arts Council is keen to maintain Alan's engagement with the region," he said, "and we look forward to working with him as an individual artist to support his future plans." He is currently directing Wings Of Desire in Copenhagen and in April will travel to Romania to direct Black Eyed Roses for the Hungarian State Theatre in Cluj. He will step down from the post of chief executive immediately but will be directing the company's co-production with Nottingham Playhouse, 1001 Nights Now, in October. The search for a new chief executive begins immediately, but the Board has said that there will be no movement on the appointment of an artistic director until a chief exec is appointed. The BTG understands that the company's producer Gregory Nash will be meeting with the company in the coming week to plan the short-term future. Please note that all three Archive indices are very long and will therefore take some time to download.
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