Christopher Haydon has been appointed Artistic Director of Notting Hill’s Gate theatre. The director will take over the running of the fringe venue from January 2012.
Associate Director of experimental company On Theatre, Haydon is also an Associate Director of the much lauded Bush theatre, where he is currently working with Artistic Director Josie Rourke to curate and oversee the venue’s forthcoming epic performance cycle Sixty Six Books.
Haydon studied at Cambridge University before training at the Central School of Speech and Drama and the National Theatre Studio. The director began his career assisting at regional theatres Chichester Festival Theatre and Salisbury Playhouse before directing Monsters and Notes From Underground at the Arcola theatre and A Safe Harbour For Elizabeth Bishop at the Southbank Centre.
Haydon will make his Gate theatre directorial debut this summer with Wittenberg as part of current joint Artistic Directors Natalie Abrahami and Carrie Cracknell’s final season. Talking about his appointment, the director said: “I am thrilled to be taking over at the Gate. It is a small space with limitless horizons located in one of the most exciting parts of London. I can’t think of a better place to be making theatre today.”
As well as directing, Haydon is an award-winning arts journalist and has written for The Financial Times, The Scotsman, Prospect Magazine and The Guardian.
Speaking on behalf of the Gate theatre, Chair of the Gate Board of Directors, Jonathan Hull, congratulated Haydon on his new role: “Christopher is an exciting voice in British theatre and has a proven record for creating work that is challenging, adventurous and of the highest quality. Christopher’s bold vision for the Gate will build on a legacy set by previous artistic directors of producing innovative international theatre in our intimate Notting Hill venue.”
Abrahami and Cracknell will step down in January following nearly five years at the venue.
CM