Dominic Dromgoole is to step down from his 10-year tenure as Artistic Director of Shakespeare’s Globe on 23 April 2016.
The announcement comes as the acclaimed Bankside venue announces a global tour of Globe To Globe’s Hamlet, which will travel to all 205 countries of the world, beginning on the 450th anniversary of Shakespeare’s birth and ending on the 400th anniversary of his death, the same date as Dromgoole’s departure.
A company of eight actors will travel by boat, train, jeep, tall ship, bus and aeroplane to present the production that will be staged in a wide range of venues across the world, from village squares and national theatres to palaces and beaches, continuing the alfresco venue’s commitment to internationalising the bard’s plays following last year’s Globe To Globe festival.
Talking about the upcoming world tour, which follows the production’s journey around the UK, Europe and the United States in 2011 and 2012, Dromgoole said: “In 1608, only five years after it was written, Hamlet was performed on a boat – the Red Dragon – off the coast of Yemen. Just 10 years later it was being toured extensively all over Northern Europe. The spirit of touring and of communicating stories to fresh ears, was always central to Shakespeare’s work. We couldn’t be happier to be extending that mission even further.”
Dromgoole, who succeeded Mark Rylance as the leader of the world famous venue in 2006, has enjoyed a hugely successful tenure at the Globe, most recently overseeing its first ever Broadway transfer, with the Rylance-led productions of Richard III and Twelfth Night set to open in New York later in the year, and the development of the new indoor Sam Wanamaker theatre, which will present its first season in 2014.
This year, the Artistic Director has enjoyed success with his critically acclaimed production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream starring Olivier Award winner Michelle Terry, which currently plays as part of a season that has also seen Eve Best make her directorial debut with Macbeth and Roger Allam return in The Tempest following his Olivier Award-winning performance in Henry IV Parts 1 and 2 in 2012.