Today we welcome Miranda Cromwell, Dr Sophie Duncan and Lynn Nottage as new Artistic Associates. Clint Dyer, will also continue working with the National Theatre as an Associate Artist.
Together this artistic group will work closely with Director and Co-Chief Executive Indhu Rubasingham, Deputy Artistic Director Robert Hastie, and the wider team to support and shape our creative vision, providing the broadest access to high-quality theatre anywhere in the world.
These appointments come at a pivotal moment as Indhu Rubasingham, the new Director and Co-Chief Executive of the National Theatre, is due to present her first season of productions next week.
Speaking about the appointments, Indhu Rubasingham, said:
I am really happy to be welcoming Miranda, Sophie, and Lynn as our new Artistic Associates. Alongside Clint, who continues his inspiring work with us as an Associate Artist, this brilliant group brings a wealth of experience, passion and different perspectives to our NT community. Their distinguished careers as leading practioners in their fields speak volumes about their extraordinary talent and their unwavering dedication to pushing and challenging artistic boundaries.
Miranda Cromwell
I am elated to join such an esteemed group of Artistic Associates at the National Theatre at this exciting and pivotal time. It is thrilling to be here at the start of a new chapter of history for the NT with the assiduous and inspiring Indhu Rubasingham and Kate Varah at the helm.
Miranda has directed for theatres including the National Theatre, Manchester Royal Exchange, Nottingham Playhouse, Almeida, Talawa, Soho, The Bush, Kiln, Young Vic, Bristol Old Vic and Hudson Theatre New York.
Her awards include a Best Direction Olivier award for co-directing Death of Salesman and a Black British Theatre Award for Best Director for and breathe…(Almeida).
Her recent directing credits include The Little Mermaid (Bristol Old Vic) Mlima’s Tale (The Kiln), The Beekeeper of Aleppo (Nottingham Playhouse), Rockets and Blue Lights (National Theatre/Royal Exchange Theatre) and Death of a Salesman on Broadway.
Miranda began her career as Young Company Director for Bristol Old Vic for seven years where she championed access for all young people across the city. She was previously the Associate Director at Chichester Festival Theatre and most recently appointed new co-Artistic Director of Bristol School of Acting.
Dr Sophie Duncan
Indhu Rubasingham’s vision for the National Theatre is both strikingly contemporary and true to the NT’s original mission: to bring the best of everything theatre has to offer to audiences in the UK and internationally. I’m thrilled to be joining her as Artistic Associate to work on plays old and new.
Dr Sophie Duncan is a Research Fellow and Dean for Welfare at Magdalen College in the University of Oxford. She writes extensively on Shakespeare and theatre history and has advised theatre companies, broadcasters, and heritage organisations including Shakespeare’s Globe, the New Vic, the Kenneth Branagh Theatre Company, the BBC, and the National Trust. Her collaboration with Indhu Rubasingham began in 2012 with Red Velvet at the Tricycle Theatre, now the Kiln.
Dr Duncan’s books include Searching for Juliet: The Lives and Deaths of Shakespeare’s First Tragic Heroine (Sceptre, Hachette); Shakespeare’s Props (Routledge); and Shakespeare’s Women and the Fin de Siècle (Oxford University Press). For Bloomsbury, she is the editor of Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House and Hedda Gabler. She is a Trustee of the Oxford School of Drama and works to improve access both to Higher Education and to live theatre.
Clint Dyer
It is with great pride and joy that I join this exciting new era for the NT as Indhu’s Associate Artist.
Clint Dyer is the former Deputy Artistic Director of the National Theatre. He is one of the very few, if not the only person, that has held a senior management position whilst having written, acted and directed at the National Theatre.
His work at the National Theatre includes playing the role of Cutler in the Olivier winning production of Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom for which he won best actor at the I.A.R.Awards. Clint co-wrote and also directed the award-winning Death of England series, including the BAFTA nominated film Death of England: Face to Face. The series of plays subsequently transferred to Sohoplace in the West End to great acclaim and garnered an Olivier nomination for Paapa Essiedu. Also at the NT, Clint directed the 5 star WhatsOnStage production of Othello, securing the Critics Award for best actor for Giles Terera.
Other directing credits include Get Up, Stand Up! The Bob Marley Musical in the West End, and Roy Williams’ Kingston 14 at Theatre Royal Stratford East. Clint also transferred the Olivier/Evening Standard nominated musical The Big Life from Stratford East to the Apollo Theatre, making it the first Black British Musical to achieve a West End transfer. Over the course of his award-winning career, Clint has worked in many theatres and across film and TV as an actor, writer and director.
Lynn Nottage
Indhu Rubasingham is a visionary leader, and I’m beyond excited to be invited to be part of the vibrant and vital community that she is creating at the National Theatre.
Lynn Nottage is a playwright and a screenwriter, and the first woman in history to win two Pulitzer Prizes for Drama.
Upcoming work includes This House, an opera co-written with Ruby Aiyo Gerber and composed by Ricky Ian Gordon, which will premiere at Opera St. Louis in June 2025; and In the Rush, an opera co-written with Ruby Aiyo Gerber and composed by Carlos Simon commissioned by LCT/THE MET. She is also currently developing the 1933 novel Imitation of Life into a stage musical alongside composer/lyricist John Legend and directed by Liesl Tommy.
Other recent work includes the libretto for Intimate Apparel the Opera [LCT], the book for MJ The Musical [Broadway] and Clyde’s [Broadway, 2st]. Other work includes The Watering Hole (Signature), Floyd’s (Guthrie) the book for the musical The Secret Life of Bees (Atlantic Theater), and Sweat (Pulitzer Prize, Obie Award, Susan Smith Blackburn Award). She was a writer and producer on the first season of Netflix series She’s Gotta Have It, directed by Spike Lee. Nottage is a Professor at Columbia University School of the Arts, and the recipient of a MacArthur “Genius Grant” Fellowship, Steinberg “Mimi” Distinguished Playwright Award, Doris Duke Artists Award and PEN/Laura Pels Master Playwright Award, among others. She is also a member of the Dramatists Guild and the Theater Hall of Fame.