The Genesis Future Directors Award 2018 is open for applications
1 June 2017
The Genesis Future Directors Award, funded by the Genesis Foundation, gives an emerging director a once in a lifetime opportunity to hone their skills at the Young Vic and stage a fully-resourced production in the Clare Studio. Details and guidelines for the 2018 Award, now open for application, are available here.
The Award is aimed at emerging young directors who have demonstrated a talent for, and commitment to, directing but have had limited opportunities to develop their work. It enables them to present a show in the Clare Theatre for a short run under the guidance of the Young Vic’s artistic team but without press scrutiny. This year, the judging panel calls for applications from D/deaf (Deaf and hard of hearing) or disabled emerging directors, and emerging directors who want to work with a cast that includes D/deaf or disabled actors.
Previous recipients of the Genesis Future Directors award include:
- 2017 – Nancy Medina, a Bristol-based freelance director who will be directing Yellowman at the Young Vic in Autumn 2017
- 2017 – Lucy J Skilbeck, who directed the gender-binding adaptation of Chekhov’s The Bear / The Proposal in March 2017
- 2016 – Bryony Shanahan, co-artistic director of the Snuff Box Theatre, who is currently the Staff Director on Yaël Farber’s Salome at the National Theatre
- 2016 – Ola Ince, a freelance director who recently directed Start Swimmingby James Fritz at the Young Vic, which will be part of this year’s Edinburgh Fringe Festival
- 2011 – Ben Kidd, co-artistic director, Dead Centre, who co-directed Chekhov’s First Play which is still on tour and goes to Théâtre de Vidy in Switzerland and the Helsinki Festival in Finland. Hamnet, which he also co-directed, will premiere at the Abbey Theatre as a part of the Dublin Theatre Festival
Meanwhile, current Young Vic Genesis Fellow Gbolahan Obisesan has recently run Springboard, a week-long series of workshops at the Young Vic for emerging directors from across the country as part of their Directors Program. The participants considered the balance between creative ambition on the one hand and the skills and responsibilities required of a director on the other.
Gbolahan Obisesan said: “The week was curated to allow access to established theatre makers with the broadest approach toward making theatre, allowing the directors to cultivate an eclectic practical knowledge of how different artists utilise their unique artistic and technical talents to make great theatre.”
The Genesis Foundation has supported the Young Vic for nearly 15 years, including the Young Vic’s Directors Programme since its inception. The Genesis Foundation funds the Genesis Fellow (past Fellows include National Theatre’s director Rufus Norris, Carrie Cracknell, Natalie Abrahami and Joe Hill-Gibbins) and Genesis Fellow Production Fund, the Genesis Future Directors Awards and the Genesis Directors Network at the Young Vic.
