Twelfth Night

Trevor Nunn is an English director. After studying at Cambridge, he won a director's scholarship to the Belgrade Theatre, Coventry, in 1962, where he became resident director. In 1964 he joined the RSC, becoming in 1965 an associate director and in 1968 its artistic director; from 1978 to 1986 he was its chief executive and joint artistic director with Terry Hands. Under his leadership the RSC was seen as one of the major companies in the world. His many outstanding RSC shows demonstrate an ability to create a convincing world on stage and allow individual actors to flourish. They include The Revenger's Tragedy (1966), his own adaptation of Hedda Gabler (1975), Macbeth with Ian McKellan and Judi Dench (1976), The Life and Times of Nicholas Nickleby (1980) and an Edwardian All's Well That Ends Well (1981). In 1981 he began his successful association with Andrew Llyod Webber, directing Cats (1981), Starlight Express (1984), and Aspects of Love (1989). The English had caught up with the Americans in the staging of musicals - a point he underlined as co-director with John Caird of the highly successful Les Misérables (1985). He became artistic director of the National Theatre in 1997, and was praised for his work with an ensemble there, in particular Summerfolk and The Merchant of Venice (both 1999). He is currently artistic director of the Theatre Royal, Haymarket. William Shakespeare (1564-1616) was an English dramatist, poet, and actor, generally regarded as the greatest playwright of all time.