The JMK Trust is delighted to announce that the next JMK Award for theatre directors will include a production in the Maria theatre at the Young Vic. Young Vic artistic director Nadia Fall will provide a list of titles from which applicants choose a play and submit a proposed production. The winning production will be selected through a rigorous selection process, overseen by a panel of industry professionals, and will be staged at the Young Vic in late 2026. More information about the application process will be announced in due course.
Nadia Fall said: “The Young Vic has long been known as a directors theatre and we are delighted that the JMK Award will return to us in 2026, providing young directors with much needed time and space to practice and experiment, but also, most importantly, to direct!”
The Young Vic hosted the JMK Award from 2011 until 2017, when productions moved to the Orange Tree Theatre in Richmond. Incoming co-chairs of the JMK Trust Emma Baggott and Derek Bond said:
“We’re immensely grateful to the Orange Tree Theatre for their incredible support for emerging directors and the JMK Trust. And we cannot express how excited we are that the JMK Award is returning to its spiritual home at the Young Vic. In a time when theatres are becoming increasingly risk averse, collaborations like the JMK Award allow theatres to take a chance on exciting emerging voices.”
Orange Tree Theatre Artistic Director, Tom Littler, said: “The Orange Tree Theatre has been proud to host and produce the JMK Award in recent years: the award-winning productions have been highlights of our programme, and emerging directors will always be a part of this theatre’s DNA. We’re excited for the JMK Trust’s next chapter, and we will be cheering on both the Trust and the directors applying for this unique award.”
Derek and Emma are taking over Chair of the Trust from founding Trustee Stephen Fewell, who steps down after fourteen years in the role. Stephen said:
“After setting up the JMK Trust in 1997, I was lucky enough to become Chair when we first moved to the Young Vic in 2011. Having worked with their team so fruitfully for many years, supporting directors like Roy Alexander Weisse, Kate Hewitt and Liz Stevenson; I am thrilled to be leaving with this exciting news of a return.
The JMK Trust has always been funded and run with the charitable support of donors and staff who are themselves working members of the theatre industry, giving what they could afford to see the industry grow and change for the better, via the remarkable artists we’ve supported. I’d like to thank everyone who has funded and contributed to the positive reach of our work.
Personally, I’m also proud to see that legacy continue, and witness a generation of theatre makers for whom the JMK Trust has been ‘part of the furniture’, believe in its mission and methodology so strongly as to want to be part of the organisation’s survival and success. Being Chair has been a unique, profound privilege, and at times a singular vocation, supporting such diverse and special theatre directors. I’m so excited that Emma and Derek will get to help many more people encounter their breakthrough moment as they lead the JMK Trust on to even greater things at the Young Vic.
Our work has seldom been more needed.”
Emma and Derek added: “More recently, Stephen has shepherded the Trust through COVID and its aftermath, and has since been instrumental in launching the careers of artists including Diane Page, Indiana Lown-Collins, Kalungi Ssebandeke and most recent JMK Award winner Adam Karim. He’s done it all with great leadership, commitment and care and we cannot thank him enough.”
The JMK Trust was established in 1997 in memory of James Menzies-Kitchin, a young director of exceptional promise. The Trust supports the next generation of theatre directors through its annual JMK Award. Many winners and finalists have gone on to shape British theatre, including Natalie Abrahami, Polly Findlay, Mark Rosenblatt and Bijan Sheibani. The JMK Trust is committed to opening pathways into directing and providing practical, career-changing opportunities to emerging talent across the UK.
Co-chair Derek Bond
Co-chair Emma Baggott
