Phyllida Lloyd

Phyllida Lloyd (born June 17, 1957) is an English director, best known for her work in theatre.

In 2006, Lloyd received two academic honours: Oxford University named her Cameron Mackintosh Visiting Professor of Contemporary Theatre [cite web |url= http://www.admin.ox.ac.uk/po/060119cama.shtml|title= Phyllida Lloyd named Cameron Mackintosh Visiting Professor|accessdate=2008-04-20|date= 2006-01-19|work= |publisher= University of Oxford] , and she was awarded an honorary degree from Bristol University. [cite web |url= http://www.bris.ac.uk/cms/go/statutes/records/hongrads.html|title= Honorary Graduates|accessdate=2008-04-20|date= 2006-07-31|work= |publisher= University of Bristol] She was also named one of the 100 most influential gay and lesbian people in Britain by the Independent. [cite news |first= Andrew|last= Tuck|authorlink= |title= Gay Power: The pink list|url= http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/this_britain/article1153578.ece|work= The Independent|publisher= Independent News & Media|location= London|date= 2006-07-02|accessdate=2008-04-20 ]

Biography

Lloyd is from Bristol. After graduating from Birmingham University in 1979, she spent five years working in BBC Television Drama. In 1985 she was awarded an Arts Council of Great Britain bursary to be Trainee Director at the Wolsey Theatre, Ipswich. The following year she was appointed Associate Director at the Everyman Theatre, Cheltenham, then in 1989 Associate Director of the Bristol Old Vic, where her production of "The Comedy of Errors" provided her with a calling-card [http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4158/is_19970429/ai_n14114359/pg_2] . She moved on to the Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester where she directed "The Winter's Tale", "The School for Scandal", "Medea", and an acclaimed production of "Death and the King's Horseman" by Wole Soyinka [http://www.royalexchange.co.uk/history/1990/DEATH%20AND%20THE%20KINGS%20HORSEMAN.htm] . In 1991 she made her debut at the Royal Shakespeare Company with a well-received production of a little-known play by Thomas Shadwell, "The Virtuoso". Although she followed this in 1992 with a successful production of the rarely-seen "Artists and Admirers" by Alexandr Ostrovsky, she has, as of 2007, never returned to the RSC.

Also in 1992 came her first commercial success: her Royal Court Theatre production of John Guare's "Six Degrees of Separation" transferred to the West End. In 1994 she made her debut at Royal National Theatre with a production of "Pericles" which divided the critics [see "Pericles at the Royal National Theatre" by Melissa Gibson, in "Pericles: Critical Essays" (Shakespeare Criticism, Volume 23)] . There was general praise, however, for her productions of "Hysteria" by Terry Johnson at the Royal Court and Bertolt Brecht/Kurt Weill's "The Threepenny Opera" at the Donmar Warehouse.

By this time, Lloyd's work had come to the attention of Nicholas Paine, then running Opera North. For her debut as an opera director he steered her to what was, at least in the UK, an obscurity - "L'Etoile" by Chabrier. The production was a great success, setting Lloyd on a significant and award-winning career as an opera director. Productions since then include "La Boheme", "Gloriana", Cherubini's "Medea", Albert Herring and Peter Grimes for Opera North; "Dialogues of the Carmelites" for English National Opera/Welsh National Opera; Verdi's "Macbeth" (for the Bastille Opera and the Royal Opera House Covent Garden); the premiere of Poul Ruders' opera "The Handmaid's Tale" (from the novel by Margaret Atwood); and a controversial Ring cycle for ENO. She also directed [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0273631 a film version of "Gloriana"] for which she received an International Emmy, a FIPA d’Or and the Royal Philharmonic Society Award.

In spite of the mixed reception accorded to her first production at the National Theatre, Lloyd nonetheless returned to direct productions of "The Way of the World", "Pericles", "What the Butler Saw", "The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie" and "The Duchess of Malfi", which were well-received. She directed an award-winning production of "Boston Marriage" at London's Donmar Warehouse in 2001. Other recent work includes Schiller's "Mary Stuart" for the Donmar, which will transfer to Broadway in 2008.

In 1999 Lloyd was offered the chance to direct the ABBA musical "Mamma Mia!", which became a hit, not only in the West End and on Broadway, but world-wide. She directed the 2008 big screen adaptation, which marked her feature debut.

Notes

References

* [http://books.guardian.co.uk/departments/classics/story/0,6000,1600872,00.html Interview with Lloyd and Margaret Atwood in "The Guardian"]
* [http://www.playbill.com/celebritybuzz/whoswho/biography/11087.html Playbill biography]
* [http://www.stratfordians.org.uk/ Biography at "Stratfordians: a dictionary of the RSC"]
* [http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4158/is_19970429/ai_n14114359/""Together wherever we go" in "The Independent" Apr 29, 1997]
* [http://www.britishfilmmagazine.com/ "British Film Magazine" - Song and Dance : Lloyd Directs Mamma Film]