We are very excited to be able to announce Benedict Andrews will be working with the programme for the 2017/18 cycle providing mentoring to studying artists – and leading a workshop.
 
“Benedict brings a very special artistic world and way of thinking to the MFA programme. He is one of the most prominent directors working internationally today, he is a specialist in staging classics, and he brings a very particular vision for the role set design can play in making a performance. He brings a distinct and unique approach to making work and as Cate Blanchett puts it ‘everyone wants to work with him’ – so indeed we are delighted that he wants to work with us. He will add a lot to the overall series of artist encounters that we will host throughout the course of the programme.”
Alexander Graham Roberts, programme director.
 
 
Benedict Andrews is a multi-award winning Australian director of theatre and opera. Over the past decade, Benedict has built up a remarkable and singular body of work in Australia and Europe. He is known for his radical versions of masterpieces by Shakespeare, Anton Chekhov and Tennessee Williams, as well as his stagings of cutting edge contemporary writers.
 
Benedict’s feature film debut Una (based on David Harrower’s play ‘Blackbird’ and starring Rooney Mara and Ben Mendelsohn) had its world premiere at the 43rd Telluride Film Festival. Una is also announced for the 2016 Toronto Film Festival and as part of the Official Competition at the 2016 London Film Festival .
 
Benedict’s Young Vic production of A Streetcar Named Desire (starring Gillian Anderson and Ben Foster) transferred to St Ann’s Warehouse in New York this Spring. In 2014 he took his Sydney Theatre Company production of The Maids (starring Cate Blanchett, Isabelle Huppert, and Elizabeth Debicki) to the Lincoln Center Festival. His prior Young Vic production Three Sisters (2012) won the London Critics Circle Best Director award. His prior STC production of Groß und Klein won him his third Helpmann Best Director award and toured to Paris, London, Vienna and Recklinghausen.
 
In autumn 2017, Dutch National Opera will revive Benedict’s production of La Bohème, a co-production with English National Opera. His prior ENO production, Detlev Glanert’s
Caligula (2012), was nominated for an Olivier Best New Opera Production award and toured to Teatro Colón, Buenos Aires in 2014. Other recent opera includes: Stiffelio at Frankfurt;
Verdi’s Macbeth at Royal Danish Opera; Le Nozze di Figaro at Sydney Opera House; The Fiery Angel at Komische Oper, Berlin, and Opera de Lyon; and The Return of Ulysses (ENO / Young Vic.).