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Dateline: 25th July, 2002 Boyd to Take over at RSC Michael Boyd is to take over the job of artistic director of the Royal Shakespeare Company when Adrian Noble leaves in March next year, it was announced today. An associate director of the company since 1996, Boyd won an Olivier earlier this year for his productions of the three parts of Henry VI and Richard III and is seen as a "safe pair of hands". Many rumours circulated for months about who would take over, and most of the big names were mentioned at one time or another: Kenneth Branagh, Jude Kelly, John Caird, Jonathan Kent, Ian MacDiarmid and, of course, the four associates (Attenborough, Boyd, Doran and Pimlott). However most of these took on other jobs, Pimlott just earlier this week taking over the Chichester Festival, which left Boyd, Caird and Doran in the running. Adrian Noble welcomed the appointment. "Michael Boyd is one of the most distinctive and original Shakespearean directors in the country," he said today. "He has flair, intellectual rigour and real powers of leadership." So far Boyd has said nothing about the his stance on Adrian Noble's plans for major changes, except that he would not want to go back to the Barbican. "The Barbican wasn't built for me," he said, "and I think, on balance, it would have been impossible to move really radically forward without breaking that mould." He went on to say that it is inevitable that the RSC would have to have a London home, even if not all the year round, but he is in no hurry to commit to anywhere so soon after severing the Barbican links. According to BBC News Online, Ian Brown, who has just taken over as artistic director of the West Yorkshire Playhouse, commented that Boyd's appointment is "a very exciting decision". "I think the RSC has released a passion in him which will pay great dividends in future," he said. ""He is his own person - and will make his own decisions on how to carry the company forward." Boyd did reveal, however, that his plans for the future of the company involve doing more new work, which he described as "crucial". He also hopes to attract back "stars" of the past, such as Vanessa Redgrave and Alan Rickman. The RSC should be, he believes, "courageous and inspirational." Associated link: our biography of Michael Boyd Please note that all three Archive indices are very long and will therefore take some time to download.
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