Announcement from Globe

Maria Aberg? Heart sinks.

I'm expecting it to not be a white man, but that's all I've got right now. The tone of the tweet suggesting a surprise means Lucy Bailey is probably out. Maybe it's a surprise because it won't be an AD as such, but a guest curator or even a group, as suggested by someone on here before?

Aberg or Silbert? No thanx!
Bailey woild be my choice but who lmows with this board.

Well, she has good links with the Globe - but no directing experience as far as a quick google can reveal (though I haven't tried very hard!)

Wait and see on that one - but will stay hopeful

The AD doesn't necessarily have to be a director; the job description always called for a director or actor with no expectations that the actor would then have to turn director as long as they made sure they acted in at least one production a year. It's a pretty smart move to go for an actor though. Anyone who's trying to work their way through the AD ranks could easily have found this appointment a poisoned chalice at this point in time, the board having made it clear that too much innovation is an unwelcome thing, but brilliant directors wanting to do their own thing without feeling too much like the board will come down on them if they don't like it. This could either be the first major step on a director-track career for Terry, or it could just be an amusing diversion in an ongoing acting career, but either way coming fresh to it from the acting side means she's coming in with a much lower weight of expectations than any director may have had to face.

Kudos to the panel for managing to hit upon a solution that comes across as simultaneously the safest pair of hands you could hope for, and a genuinely fresh and exciting appointment.

Is she going to direct? When actors have run a company they have usually had directing experience (Evans, West, Branagh etc. Rylance was really not very good for years after taking the job.) but her cv indicates nothing. So, either she is going to have all directors brought in or have to take her first steps in both jobs at the same time. That is a tough ask. The former removes you from the main way that you communicate your artistic vision and the latter is a shot in the dark.

The interview panel didn't include anyone known for directing, most being administrators with just one actor. That's a strange omission and you'd think that with previous troubles they would have wanted to take on board comments from all aspects of the role. It's fine to say that you will take anyone but, without someone with substantial experience to help advise on each main aspect of being an AD, your choices are going to be shaky (and maybe they would have flagged up conflicts with Emma Rice at interview).

She has done some great contemporary productions such as Cleansed and it will be a real shame to have her take away from that. Unless we get some new Martin Crimp on the mainstage or a 4:48 Psychosis revival in the Sam Wanamaker!

To be fair, I can't imagine directing at the Globe post-Rice is that hard. So long as you dress everyone in a ruff, tell 'em to do a jig at the end, play to the groundlings, don't switch on a light and ensure there's no naked flames it's a job done.

thanks........gone over

be great to have superb actor leading from front.

her record with cross section of directors is superb.....Chris Luscombe to Katie Mitchell

passion for Globe not in doubt

I am happy at this.

It's quite a smart move for her as well as the theatre actually. Even an actor as brilliant and oft-seen as Michelle Terry must occasionally suffer from the fallow periods between acting jobs, so having something full time during the early years of her daughter's life must be extremely reassuring for her on a family level as well as incredibly exciting, especially as she'll be employed for all the productions in a year but won't have to put in the late nights for all of them.

A canny appointment. I'm sure she'll do well.