London's Donmar Warehouse has announced the final season of its three-year initiative to promote the work of young directors, including new commissions from playwrights Penelope Skinner, Conor McPherson and Anthony Weigh.
The twelve-week residency at Trafalgar Studios will give graduates of the Donmar's prestigious Resident Assistant Director programme, of which current artistic director Josie Rourke was once a member, the opportunity to stage a production under the Donmar Warehouse banner.
This year, Alex Sims, Titas Halder and Simon Evans will direct The Promise by Aleksei Arbuzov in a new English version by Penelope Skinner (15 November to 8 December), The Dance of Death by August Strindberg in a new English version by Conor McPherson (13 December 2012 to 5 January 2013) and The Silence of the Sea by Vercors in a new version by Anthony Weigh (10 January to 2 February 2013) respectively.
Rourke said of the scheme, "As a graduate of the Donmar’s Resident Assistant Director Scheme myself, I can confidently say it gives the best training to an aspiring director. Not only did it give me an amazing insight into the great craft of British theatre, the relationships I made started my career as a professional director.
"The first two years of the Donmar Trafalgar season have been a huge success with critics and audiences alike, and I wanted to build on this by commissioning leading playwrights Penelope Skinner, Conor McPherson and the Donmar’s Associate Artist Anthony Weigh to write new versions of European classics for this year’s young directors."
The RAD scheme has been running since 1994 and has included, apart from Rourke, the directors Sam Buntrock, Toby Frow, Rupert Goold and Sacha Wares. The post is advertised each October.