Rupert Goold
Encyclopedia
Rupert Goold is an English theatre director. He is the artistic director
Artistic director
An artistic director is the executive of an arts organization, particularly in a theatre company, that handles the organization's artistic direction. He or she is generally a producer and director, but not in the sense of a mogul, since the organization is generally a non-profit organization...

 of Headlong Theatre (previously the Oxford Stage Company) and from 2010 he will be an associate director at the Royal Shakespeare Company
Royal Shakespeare Company
The Royal Shakespeare Company is a major British theatre company, based in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England. The company employs 700 staff and produces around 20 productions a year from its home in Stratford-upon-Avon and plays regularly in London, Newcastle-upon-Tyne and on tour across...

.

Early years

Goold was born in Highgate
Highgate
Highgate is an area of North London on the north-eastern corner of Hampstead Heath.Highgate is one of the most expensive London suburbs in which to live. It has an active conservation body, the Highgate Society, to protect its character....

, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 (a suburb of North London
North London
North London is the northern part of London, England. It is an imprecise description and the area it covers is defined differently for a range of purposes. Common to these definitions is that it includes districts located north of the River Thames and is used in comparison with South...

). His father was a management consultant, and his mother was an author of children's books. He graduated from Trinity College, Cambridge
Trinity College, Cambridge
Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Trinity has more members than any other college in Cambridge or Oxford, with around 700 undergraduates, 430 graduates, and over 170 Fellows...

 in 1994 and studied at New York University
New York University
New York University is a private, nonsectarian research university based in New York City. NYU's main campus is situated in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan...

 on a Fulbright Scholarship
UK Fulbright Commission
The US-UK Fulbright Commission was created by a treaty signed by both countries on 22 September 1948. It is a non-profit organisation based in London, UK. Its aim is to foster mutual cultural understanding through educational exchange between both nations...

. He was trainee director at Donmar Warehouse
Donmar Warehouse
Donmar Warehouse is a small not-for-profit theatre in the Covent Garden area of London, with a capacity of 251.-About:Under the artistic leadership of Michael Grandage, the theatre has presented some of London’s most memorable award-winning theatrical experiences, as well as garnered critical...

 for the 1995 season, and assisted on productions including 'Art' and Speed-the-Plow
Speed-the-Plow
Speed-the-Plow is a play by David Mamet which is a satirical dissection of the American movie business, a theme Mamet would revisit in his later films Wag the Dog and State and Main ....

 in the West End.

Career

Goold was artistic director of the Royal and Derngate Theatres in Northampton
Northampton
Northampton is a large market town and local government district in the East Midlands region of England. Situated about north-west of London and around south-east of Birmingham, Northampton lies on the River Nene and is the county town of Northamptonshire. The demonym of Northampton is...

 from 2000 to 2005. Prior to that, he was an associate at the Salisbury Playhouse
Salisbury Playhouse
Salisbury Playhouse is a theatre in the county of Wiltshire, it was built in 1976 and has two theatre spaces – the Main House and Salberg Studio ....

 in 1996-97. In addition to his work as a director he has co-authored three adaptions for the stage.

Goold directed Patrick Stewart
Patrick Stewart
Sir Patrick Hewes Stewart, OBE is an English film, television and stage actor, who has had a distinguished career in theatre and television for around half a century...

 (whom he had previously directed as Prospero) as Macbeth in his acclaimed Minerva Studio staging of Macbeth
Macbeth
The Tragedy of Macbeth is a play by William Shakespeare about a regicide and its aftermath. It is Shakespeare's shortest tragedy and is believed to have been written sometime between 1603 and 1607...

 at the Chichester Festival Theatre
Chichester Festival Theatre
Chichester Festival Theatre, located in Chichester, England, was designed by Philip Powell and Hidalgo Moya, and opened by its founder Leslie Evershed-Martin in 1962. Subsequently the smaller and more intimate Minerva Theatre was built nearby in 1989....

 in May 2007. In September 2007 the production transferred to the Gielgud Theatre
Gielgud Theatre
The Gielgud Theatre is a West End theatre, located on Shaftesbury Avenue in the City of Westminster, London, at the corner of Rupert Street. The house currently has 889 seats on three levels.-History:...

 in London, then the Brooklyn Academy of Music
Brooklyn Academy of Music
Brooklyn Academy of Music is a major performing arts venue in Brooklyn, a borough of New York City, United States, known as a center for progressive and avant garde performance....

, New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

 and then to the Lyceum Theater on Broadway. At the 2007 Evening Standard Theatre Awards
Evening Standard Awards
The Evening Standard Theatre Awards, established in 1955, are presented annually for outstanding achievements in London Theatre. Sponsored by the Evening Standard newspaper, they are announced in late November or early December...

, Macbeth
Macbeth
The Tragedy of Macbeth is a play by William Shakespeare about a regicide and its aftermath. It is Shakespeare's shortest tragedy and is believed to have been written sometime between 1603 and 1607...

 won two awards: Stewart won the Best Actor Award, while Goold won The Sydney Edwards Award for Best Director. It also won Goold a 2008 Olivier Award for Best Director. He says he wasn't concerned with thoughts of a career anti-climax. "I came home to an empty house after the Olivier Awards, clutching my trophy for Best Director and I realised that I'd peaked. It was now going to be downhill all the way. But I still felt quite comfortable with the realisation that nothing could get better after this." He won the Best Director Evening Standard Award again in 2009 for ENRON
ENRON (play)
ENRON is a 2009 play by the British playwright Lucy Prebble, based on the Enron scandal.-Productions:ENRON premiered at the Chichester Festival Theatre , before London transfers to the Jerwood Downstairs at the Royal Court Theatre from 17 September to 7 November 2009 and then the Noel Coward...

.

In 2008 he directed the UK premiere of Stephen Adly Guirgis
Stephen Adly Guirgis
Stephen Adly Guirgis is an American playwright, screenwriter, director, and actor. He is a member and co-artistic director of New York City's LAByrinth Theater Company. His plays have been produced on five continents and throughout the United States....

's The Last Days of Judas Iscariot
The Last Days of Judas Iscariot
The Last Days of Judas Iscariot is a 2005 play by American playwright Stephen Adly Guirgis first staged off-Broadway at The Public Theater on 2 March 2005 directed by Philip Seymour Hoffman.-Plot summary:...

 and a radical re-interpretation of Pirandello's Six Characters in Search of an Author
Six Characters in Search of an Author
Six Characters in Search of an Author is a play by the Italian writer Luigi Pirandello.The play is a satirical tragicomedy. It was first performed in 1921 at the Teatro Valle in Rome, to a very mixed reception, with shouts from the audience of "Manicomio!" .Subsequently the play enjoyed a much...

 at the Chichester Festival which he co-authored with Ben Power
Ben Power
Ben Power is a British dramaturg and playwright.Ben studied English at Cambridge University. He often collaborates with Rupert Goold and his Headlong company...

. This production subsequently transferred to the West End and toured the UK and later Australia. In 2009 he directed a hugely acclaimed West End revival of Lionel Bart
Lionel Bart
Lionel Bart was a writer and composer of British pop music and musicals, best known for creating the book, music and lyrics for Oliver!-Early life:...

's Oliver!
Oliver!
Oliver! is a British musical, with script, music and lyrics by Lionel Bart. The musical is based upon the novel Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens....

. Produced by Cameron Mackintosh
Cameron Mackintosh
Sir Cameron Anthony Mackintosh is a British theatrical producer notable for his association with many commercially successful musicals. At the height of his success in 1990, he was described as being "the most successful, influential and powerful theatrical producer in the world" by the New York...

, Goold recreated Sam Mendes
Sam Mendes
Samuel Alexander "Sam" Mendes, CBE is an English stage and film director. He is best known for his Academy Award-winning work on his debut film American Beauty and his dark re-inventions of the stage musicals Cabaret , Oliver! , Company and Gypsy . He's currently working on the 23rd James Bond...

' direction for the very successful London Palladium production. Goold's production was nominated for three Olivier Awards. The winners will be announced in March 2010.

In 2009, Goold directed a revival of Shakespeare's King Lear
King Lear
King Lear is a tragedy by William Shakespeare. The title character descends into madness after foolishly disposing of his estate between two of his three daughters based on their flattery, bringing tragic consequences for all. The play is based on the legend of Leir of Britain, a mythological...

 at the Young Vic in London's West End. Goold set his "Lear" in Northern England during the 1970s, fascinated by the fact that during this decade, Britain was enduring the power of women. He approached the play with a drastically different view, and as a result this production received mixed reviews.

His opera credits include productions at Batignano Opera Festival and Garsington
Garsington
Garsington is a village and civil parish about southeast of Oxford in Oxfordshire.-Notable Garsington buildings:The earliest part of the Church of England parish church of Saint Mary is the Norman tower, built towards the end of the 12th century. The Gothic Revival architect Joseph Clarke restored...

.

Personal life

Goold is married to actress Kate Fleetwood
Kate Fleetwood
Kate Fleetwood is an English actress. She was nominated for a Tony Award for her performance in Chichester Festival Theatre's Macbeth which transferred to the West End and Broadway....

. The couple met while working together on a production of Romeo and Juliet. They have one son, Raphael, and a daughter, Constance.

Stage productions

Directing
  • Travels with My Aunt
    Travels with My Aunt
    Travels with My Aunt is a novel written by English author Graham Greene.The novel follows the travels of Henry Pulling, a retired bank manager, and his eccentric Aunt Augusta as they find their way across Europe, and eventually even further afield...

     (1997, Salisbury Playhouse/ UK tour)
  • The End of the Affair
    The End of the Affair
    The End of the Affair is a novel by British author Graham Greene, as well as the title of two feature films that were adapted for the screen based on the novel....

     (1997, Salisbury Playhouse/ Bridewell Theatre)
  • Romeo and Juliet
    Romeo and Juliet
    Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy written early in the career of playwright William Shakespeare about two young star-crossed lovers whose deaths ultimately unite their feuding families. It was among Shakespeare's most popular archetypal stories of young, teenage lovers.Romeo and Juliet belongs to a...

     (1998, UK tour)
  • Dancing at Lughnasa
    Dancing at Lughnasa
    Dancing at Lughnasa is a 1990 play by dramatist Brian Friel set in Ireland's County Donegal in August 1936 in the fictional town of Ballybeg. It is a memory play told from the point of view of the adult Michael Evans, the narrator...

     (1998, Salisbury Playhouse)
  • Summer Lightning
    Summer Lightning
    Summer Lightning is a novel by P. G. Wodehouse, first published in the United States on 1 July 1929 by Doubleday, Doran, New York, under the title Fish Preferred, and in the United Kingdom on 19 July 1929 by Herbert Jenkins, London...

     (1998, Salisbury Playhouse)
  • Habeas Corpus
    Habeas Corpus (play)
    Habeas Corpus is a comedy stage play by the English author Alan Bennett. It was first performed at the Lyric Theatre in London on 10 May 1973, with Alec Guinness and Margaret Courtenay in the lead roles....

     (1999, Salisbury Playhouse)
  • The Colonel Bird (1999, Gate Theatre
    Gate Theatre (London)
    The Gate Theatre is a London fringe theatre above the Prince Albert pub in Notting Hill Gate, from which it takes its name. It opened in 1979.-External links:*...

    )
  • Broken Glass
    Broken Glass
    Broken Glass is the fourth album by Crowbar released on October 29, 1996.-Track listing:#"Conquering" – 2:48 #"Like Broken Glass" – 3:43 #" Turn Away from Dying" – 5:00 #"Wrath of Time Be Judgement" – 3:32 #"Nothing" – 5:29...

     (1999, Salisbury Playhouse/ Watford Palace Theatre
    Watford Palace Theatre
    Watford Palace Theatre, opened in 1908, is an Edwardian Grade II listed building on Clarendon Road, Watford.- Refurbishment :In September 2004 the theatre re-opened after a two year £8.8million Lottery funded refurbishment, which included more public space, two bars, a daytime café, air cooling and...

    )
  • Gone To LA (2000, Hampstead Theatre)
  • Privates On Parade
    Privates on Parade
    Privates on Parade: A Play with Songs in Two Acts is a 1977 farce by English playwright Peter Nichols , with music by Denis King.-Plot:...

     (2001, New Vic Theatre
    New Vic Theatre
    The New Vic Theatre is situated in Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire. It was purpose-built as a theatre in the round and opened in 1986, replacing a converted cinema, the Victoria Theatre, Hartshill, Stoke-on-Trent.-History:...

    )
  • Scaramouche Jones (2001, international tour)
  • The Wind In The Willows
    The Wind in the Willows
    The Wind in the Willows is a classic of children's literature by Kenneth Grahame, first published in 1908. Alternately slow moving and fast paced, it focuses on four anthropomorphised animal characters in a pastoral version of England...

     (2001, Birmingham Rep)
  • Arcadia
    Arcadia (play)
    Arcadia is a 1993 play by Tom Stoppard concerning the relationship between past and present and between order and disorder and the certainty of knowledge...

     (2002, Northampton)
  • Betrayal
    Betrayal (play)
    Betrayal is a play written by Harold Pinter in 1978. Critically regarded as one of the English playwright's major dramatic works, it features his characteristically economical dialogue, characters' hidden emotions and veiled motivations, and their self-absorbed competitive one-upmanship,...

     (2002, Northampton)
  • Waiting for Godot
    Waiting for Godot
    Waiting for Godot is an absurdist play by Samuel Beckett, in which two characters, Vladimir and Estragon, wait endlessly and in vain for someone named Godot to arrive. Godot's absence, as well as numerous other aspects of the play, have led to many different interpretations since the play's...

    / The Weir
    The Weir
    The Weir is a play written by Conor McPherson in 1997. It was first produced at The Royal Court Theatre Upstairs in London, England, on 4 July 1997. It first appeared on Broadway at the Walter Kerr Theatre on 1 April 1999. It has since been performed in Toronto, Dublin, Belfast, Boston,...

     (2003, Northampton)
  • Sunday Father (2003, Hampstead Theatre
    Hampstead Theatre
    Hampstead Theatre is a theatre in the vicinity of Swiss Cottage and Belsize Park, in the London Borough of Camden. It specialises in commissioning and producing new writing, supporting and developing the work of new writers. In 2009 it celebrates its 50 year anniversary.The original theatre was...

    )
  • Othello
    Othello
    The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in approximately 1603, and based on the Italian short story "Un Capitano Moro" by Cinthio, a disciple of Boccaccio, first published in 1565...

     (2003, Northampton/ Greenwich Theatre
    Greenwich Theatre
    The Greenwich Theatre is a local theatre located in Croom's Hill close to the centre of Greenwich in south-east London.-Building history:The building was originally a music hall created in 1855 as part of the neighbouring Rose and Crown public house, but the Rose and Crown Music Hall was...

    )
  • Insignificance (2004, Northampton)
  • Summer Lightning
    Summer Lightning
    Summer Lightning is a novel by P. G. Wodehouse, first published in the United States on 1 July 1929 by Doubleday, Doran, New York, under the title Fish Preferred, and in the United Kingdom on 19 July 1929 by Herbert Jenkins, London...

     (2004, Northampton)
  • Hamlet
    Hamlet
    The Tragical History of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, or more simply Hamlet, is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1599 and 1601...

     (2005, Northampton)
  • Speaking Like Magpies (2005, RSC)
  • The Tempest
    The Tempest
    The Tempest is a play by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in 1610–11, and thought by many critics to be the last play that Shakespeare wrote alone. It is set on a remote island, where Prospero, the exiled Duke of Milan, plots to restore his daughter Miranda to her rightful place,...

     (2006, RSC)
  • Restoration (2006, Headlong/ Bristol Old Vic
    Bristol Old Vic
    The Bristol Old Vic is a theatre company based at the Theatre Royal, King Street, in Bristol, England. The theatre complex includes the 1766 Theatre Royal, which claims to be the oldest continually-operating theatre in England, along with a 1970s studio theatre , offices and backstage facilities...

    : UK tour)
  • Faustus (2006, Headlong/ Hampstead Theatre)
  • The Glass Menagerie
    The Glass Menagerie
    The Glass Menagerie is a four-character memory play by Tennessee Williams. Williams worked on various drafts of the play prior to writing a version of it as a screenplay for MGM, to whom Williams was contracted...

     (2007, Apollo Theatre)
  • Macbeth
    Macbeth
    The Tragedy of Macbeth is a play by William Shakespeare about a regicide and its aftermath. It is Shakespeare's shortest tragedy and is believed to have been written sometime between 1603 and 1607...

     (2007, Chichester Festival Theatre/ West End
    West End theatre
    West End theatre is a popular term for mainstream professional theatre staged in the large theatres of London's 'Theatreland', the West End. Along with New York's Broadway theatre, West End theatre is usually considered to represent the highest level of commercial theatre in the English speaking...

    / NYC)
  • Rough Crossings
    Rough Crossings
    Rough Crossings: Britain, the Slaves and the American Revolution is a history book and television series by Simon Schama.This gives an account of the history of thousands of enslaved African Americans who escaped to the British cause during the American War of Independence...

     (2007, Headlong:Lyric Hammersmith
    Lyric Hammersmith
    The Lyric Theatre, also known as the Lyric Hammersmith, is a theatre on King Street, in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, which takes pride in its original, "groundbreaking" productions....

    / Birmingham Rep, Liverpool Everyman/ WYP
    West Yorkshire Playhouse
    The West Yorkshire Playhouse in Leeds, England is a theatre which opened in March 1990 as part of the regeneration of the Quarry Hill area of the city...

    )
  • The Last Days of Judas Iscariot (2008, Headlong:Almeida Theatre
    Almeida Theatre
    The Almeida Theatre, opened in 1980, is a 325 seat studio theatre with an international reputation which takes its name from the street in which it is located, off Upper Street, in the London Borough of Islington. The theatre produces a diverse range of drama and holds an annual summer festival of...

    )
  • Six Characters in Search of an Author
    Six Characters in Search of an Author
    Six Characters in Search of an Author is a play by the Italian writer Luigi Pirandello.The play is a satirical tragicomedy. It was first performed in 1921 at the Teatro Valle in Rome, to a very mixed reception, with shouts from the audience of "Manicomio!" .Subsequently the play enjoyed a much...

     (2008, Headlong: Chichester/ West End)
  • No Man's Land
    No Man's Land (play)
    No Man's Land is a play by Harold Pinter written in 1974 and first produced and published in 1975. Its original production was at the Old Vic Theatre in London by the National Theatre on 23 April 1975, and it later transferred to Wyndhams Theatre, July 1975 - January 1976, the Lyttelton Theatre...

     (2008, Gate Theatre
    Gate Theatre
    The Gate Theatre, in Dublin, was founded in 1928 by Hilton Edwards and Micheál Mac Liammóir, initially using the Abbey Theatre's Peacock studio theatre space to stage important works by European and American dramatists...

    , Dublin/West End)
  • King Lear
    King Lear
    King Lear is a tragedy by William Shakespeare. The title character descends into madness after foolishly disposing of his estate between two of his three daughters based on their flattery, bringing tragic consequences for all. The play is based on the legend of Leir of Britain, a mythological...

     (2008, Headlong: Liverpool Everyman/Young Vic)
  • ENRON
    ENRON (play)
    ENRON is a 2009 play by the British playwright Lucy Prebble, based on the Enron scandal.-Productions:ENRON premiered at the Chichester Festival Theatre , before London transfers to the Jerwood Downstairs at the Royal Court Theatre from 17 September to 7 November 2009 and then the Noel Coward...

     (2009), Minerva Theatre
    Minerva Theatre, Chichester
    The Minerva Theatre is a studio theatre seating at full capacity 283. It is run as part of the adjacent Chichester Festival Theatre, located in Chichester, England, and was opened in 1989...

     and Royal Court Theatre
    Royal Court Theatre
    The Royal Court Theatre is a non-commercial theatre on Sloane Square, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. It is noted for its contributions to modern theatre...

    )
  • Romeo and Juliet
    Romeo and Juliet
    Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy written early in the career of playwright William Shakespeare about two young star-crossed lovers whose deaths ultimately unite their feuding families. It was among Shakespeare's most popular archetypal stories of young, teenage lovers.Romeo and Juliet belongs to a...

     (2010), RSC
    RSC
    RSC is a three-letter initialism that can stand for several things:-Science & Technology:* Chromatin Structure Remodeling Complex* Reconfigurable Supercomputing - a method of supercomputing that takes advantage of reconfigurable computing architectures * Reverse Standards Conversion - a video...

  • Earthquakes in London
    Earthquakes in London
    Earthquakes in London is a play by Mike Bartlett. It received its world premiere at the Royal National's Cottesloe Theatre on 4 August 2010, following previews from 29 July 2010. The production was directed by Rupert Goold in a co-production with Headlong....

     (2010), Cottesloe Theatre, National Theatre
  • The Merchant of Venice
    The Merchant of Venice
    The Merchant of Venice is a tragic comedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1596 and 1598. Though classified as a comedy in the First Folio and sharing certain aspects with Shakespeare's other romantic comedies, the play is perhaps most remembered for its dramatic...

     (2011), RSC
    RSC
    RSC is a three-letter initialism that can stand for several things:-Science & Technology:* Chromatin Structure Remodeling Complex* Reconfigurable Supercomputing - a method of supercomputing that takes advantage of reconfigurable computing architectures * Reverse Standards Conversion - a video...



Writing
  • The End of the Affair (1997) - a musical, adapted with Caroline Butler, from the novel by Graham Greene
    Graham Greene
    Henry Graham Greene, OM, CH was an English author, playwright and literary critic. His works explore the ambivalent moral and political issues of the modern world...

  • Faustus (2004) - adapted with Ben Power
    Ben Power
    Ben Power is a British dramaturg and playwright.Ben studied English at Cambridge University. He often collaborates with Rupert Goold and his Headlong company...

     from Dr Faustus by Christopher Marlowe
    Christopher Marlowe
    Christopher Marlowe was an English dramatist, poet and translator of the Elizabethan era. As the foremost Elizabethan tragedian, next to William Shakespeare, he is known for his blank verse, his overreaching protagonists, and his mysterious death.A warrant was issued for Marlowe's arrest on 18 May...

  • Six Characters In Search of an Author (2008) - adapted with Ben Power
    Ben Power
    Ben Power is a British dramaturg and playwright.Ben studied English at Cambridge University. He often collaborates with Rupert Goold and his Headlong company...

     from the play by Luigi Pirandello
    Luigi Pirandello
    Luigi Pirandello was an Italian dramatist, novelist, and short story writer awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1934, for his "bold and brilliant renovation of the drama and the stage." Pirandello's works include novels, hundreds of short stories, and about 40 plays, some of which are written...


External links

  • Profile at Headlong's Official site.
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