The artistic director of London’s Bush Theatre, Lynette Linton, and associate artistic director, Daniel Bailey, are to exit the West London venue next year, after six years.
The pair will leave the Bush in spring 2025, with Bailey exiting in January, followed by Linton in March.
They will announce their last season at the end of this year and early next year, taking the venue through to mid 2026.
The process of looking for a new Artistic Director of the Bush Theatre has also started, with applications now open.
Highlights of their work at the Bush include Olivier Award-winning shows such as Red Pitch and Shifters, both of which have transferred to the West End, plus The P Word and Baby Reindeer.
In 2023, the Bush Theatre was joint winner of The Stage Awards for Theatre of the Year.
Lynette Linton’s production of Shifters starring Tosin Cole and Heather Agyepong is now playing at the West End’s Duke of York’s Theatre to 12 October 2024.
Following that show, Linton goes straight back to the Duke of York’s with a revival of Bess Wohl’s play Barcelona starring Lily Collins and Álvaro Morte, from 21 October 2024.
Daniel Bailey’s next project is directing Wolves On Road at the Bush Theatre, a world premiere from Beru Tessema starring Kieran Taylor-Ford and Hassan Najid, with Alma Eno.
Currently playing at the Bush Theatre is The Real Ones starring Nathaniel Curtis, to 26 October 2024; Statues, from 9 October to 9 November 2024; Wolves On Road from 9 November 2024 to 21 January 2025, and Tender from 19 November to 21 December 2024.
Book tickets to The Real Ones at the Bush Theatre London
Book tickets to Shifters at the Duke of York’s Theatre London
More about Lynette Linton
Lynette is a BAFTA nominated writer and director for theatre, TV and film, and took over as Artistic Director of the Bush Theatre in 2019. Her programming at the Bush has centred on ground-breaking debuts from UK and Irish writers. It has seen three consecutive Olivier Award wins for Richard Gadd’s Baby Reindeer, Igor Memic’s Old Bridge and Waleed Akhtar’s The P Word, nominations for Shahid Iqbal Khan’s 10 Nights and Margaret Perry’s Paradise Now!, and the West End transfer of Tyrell Williams’ Red Pitch. In 2023, the Bush was named Theatre of the Year at The Stage Awards.
For her production of Blues for an Alabama Sky at the National Theatre, she won the awards for Best Director at the 2022 Evening Standard Theatre Awards and 2022 Critics’ Circle Theatre Awards.
Lynette’s directorial screen debut, My Name is Leon, a feature-length television adaptation of Kit de Waal’s award-winning novel, aired on BBC2 in June 2022. In 2023, she was nominated for the Emerging Talent: Fiction BAFTA award for her work on the film.
Lynette directed the UK premiere of Lynn Nottage’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play Sweat (Donmar Warehouse, Gielgud Theatre) for which she won Best Director at the inaugural Black British Theatre Awards. Sweat also won the Evening Standard Theatre Award for Best Play and was nominated for an Olivier award for Best New Play in 2019.
Her other directing credits include: Clyde’s by Lynn Nottage (Donmar); As We Face The Sun by Kit Withington (as co-director with Katie Greenall, Bush); August in England by Lenny Henry (as co-director with Daniel Bailey, Bush); House of Ife by Beru Tessema (Bush); an adaptation of Jackie Kay’s Chiaroscuro (Bush); Richard ii (as co-director with Adjoa Andoh, Globe); Assata Taught Me (Gate); Function (National Youth Theatre). She was Resident Assistant Director at the Donmar Warehouse from 2017 to 2018.
As a writer, her credits include: Look at Me (ITV); Hashtag Lightie (Arcola); Chicken Palace and Step (Stratford East).
Lynette is featured in The Stage 100 list alongside Mimi Findlay and Daniel Bailey.
More about Daniel Bailey
Daniel joined the Bush in 2019 alongside Lynette Linton.
He was previously Associate Director at Birmingham Repertory Theatre, originally joining The REP as part of the Regional Theatre Young Director Scheme and where his work included artist development programmes for writers, theatre-makers and directors.
Directing work includes: Blue/Orange, Concubine, Stuff, I Knew You, Abuelo, Jump! We’ll Catch You, Made In India/Britain and Exhale.
He has previously been Resident Director at the National Theatre Studio, Associate Artist at Theatre Stratford Royal East and Resident Assistant Director at The Finborough Theatre. Daniel studied Modern Drama at Brunel University before participating in the Young Vic’s Introduction to Directing.
His previous theatre directing credits include: My Darling Wife (Talawa Theatre Company), Pre Judgment Day and Covered (New Heritage Theatre). Daniel was also Assistant Director on King Lear (Talawa/Manchester Rx/Birmingham Rep) Back Down, Anita and Me, (Birmingham Repertory Theatre), Silent Planet and Rachel (Finborough Theatre), Inherit The Wind (New Vic). His film director credits include: On Belonging (Young Vic), Malachi (S.E.D), Floating On Clouds (Kingdom Entertainment Group) and Y.O.L.O. Therapy (S.E.D).
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