Each year the JMK Trust provides up to 20 talented young directors with awards, guidance and development opportunities. We present the annual The James Menzies-Kitchin Young Director Award (The JMK Award) to one outstanding candidate, supported in 2010 by the Jerwood Charitable Foundation.

The JMK Award is the single most sought-after prize for outstanding young theatre directors. Great directors acknowledge that you learn to direct by directing – but opportunities to do so are extremely scarce. The JMK Award allows participants to do exactly that. For many, winning this award is the breakthrough moment in their directing career. Increasingly, simply taking part in the Trust’s unique selection process has itself given a powerful impetus to the best theatre practitioners of the future.

A second award, supported by The Ian Ritchie Foundation, provides a smaller cash sum to be used to fund either a production or to enable further research to a selection of runner-up candidates.

Since 1998 the JMK Trust has discovered and nurtured a new generation of exciting, visionary young directors whose work and influence can be seen throughout the British theatre industry.

Matthew Evans directs for Gameshow, a collaborative group that has created shows including The Tiger That Isn’t, The Spanish Tragedy and is currently developing The Jewish Wife, The Chekhov Project and Robin Hood – a pantomime for Christmas 2010. Other directing credits include Julius Caesar (Physics, Oxford), Arcadia (OUDS on tour) and Little Shop of Horrors (Edinburgh Fringe). He has trained at the Young Vic and National Theatre Studio and has assistant directed A Midsummer Night’s Dream for Gameshow (Port Meadow, Oxford), Sleeping Beauty (Oxford Playhouse), Saturday Night (Arts Theatre), Eurydice (ATC tour). Matthew has also worked with Peckham Shed youth theatre, Punchdrunk, Rose Theatre Kingston and Theatre Royal Plymouth. He assesses for Total Theatre Awards and OffWestEnd.com Theatre Awards.

This is a great opportunity and I would encourage all young directors, no matter what their background or experience, to apply for this award. I learnt so much from the application process alone. The JMK Trust is a huge support and an important player in today’s theatre – Matthew Evans

Matthew’s winning proposal of Bertolt Brecht’s The Jewish Wife opens at BAC on July 21st 2010.

Frankfurt, 1935. As a fascist government takes control, a woman plans her escape. A woman abandons her home, friends and family in an intimate moment played out across 1930s Germany. Immersing the audience in a landscape of domesticity and fear throughout the building, JMK winner for 2010, Matthew Evans, presents epic theatre on a small scale.

Supported by Arts Council England in 2009, Direct Access took the work and ethos of the JMK Trust into the regions for the very first time helping to inspire the next generation of theatre makers.

Our first series of five workshops ran from October to December 2009 and reached a massive 282 participants in Newcastle, Plymouth, Bristol, Manchester and London.

Workshop leaders were: Tom Morris, Roxana Silbert, Bijan Sheibani, Stephen Fewell, Mark Rosenblatt, Orla O’Loughlin, Joe Hill-Gibbins, Hannah Bentley and Patrick Burnier.

Whether you have little or some experience, these full day workshops will give you an expert and practical introduction to developing the skills and techniques needed to fulfil your potential as a director and to succeed.

Direct Access is not an age-specific opportunity. It is directed at early-stage career directors of all ages or those wishing to pursue directing as a career. During our pilot scheme in 2009, 28% of all participants were aged over 30.

“It exceeded my expectations by a long way. It was relaxed, informal, non-scary and very, very informative.”

“I learnt about awards, funding, and avenues to pursue that I hadn’t been aware of before as well as very helpful advice about the JMK Award itself.”

“I was worried the day might focus on those applying for the JMK Award. This wasn’t the case.”

“I was delighted they addressed the issue of fear and felt hugely comforted by understanding that this is common.”

“I felt I learnt from everybody there because of the way a genuine exchange was set up between the workshop leaders and participants.”

“This was the first time in 15 years I have encountered a workshop of this sort in the South West.”

We hope to provide more Direct Access workshops during the last quarter of 2010, so check back here for more news.

Our latest runner up award – a Designer/Director Development Week for all current finalists – took place at BAC in July 2009. Jon Bausor led an award-winning team of creatives including Ian MacNeil, Ben Oremerod, Mark Espiner and Dan Jones of Sound and Fury, Douglas O’Connell, Ian Dickinson and Jon Clark.

In March 2009 all eight finalists received a week of intensive workshops supported by Step Change and using the resources and facilities of BAC. The practitioners who took part, chosen by the finalists, were Katie Mitchell, Richard Eyre, Akram Khan, Melly Still, Wendy Spon, Laura McDermott, Ruth Little, Joe Hill-Gibbins, Mike Bradwell, Kathryn Hunter and Daniel Kramer.

Photo by Gemma Riggs: finalists on our recent Development Week March 2009.