Joe Hill-Gibbins
Production: A Thought in Three Parts by Wallace Shawn
Joe was 24 years old when he recieved the JMK Award, and had graduated from Manchester University Drama Department in 1999.
Joe is now an Associate Director at the Young Vic theatre where he has directed acclaimed productions of The Changeling, The Beauty Queen of Leenane, The Glass Menagerie and Bertolt Brecht’s A Respectable Wedding. He also directs regularly at the Royal Court, where his productions include The Village Bike, The Girlfriend Experience, Bliss and Family Plays. He recently directed Absolute Hell at the National Theatre, assisted by former JMK Regional bursary recipient Ali Priestley.
For me winning the Award made the difference between being a director and not being a director. You can do workshops, process based work and assisting jobs (which all help) but until you are directing a play for production, you aren’t really a director. The Award gave me the opportunity to do the job for first time; an opportunity I couldn’t get anywhere else. Also it allowed me to follow my own passions, as I could choose the play I wanted to direct. The Award opened up many opportunities afterwards. It was for me a significant and brilliant experience – Joe Hill-Gibbins
This is a very strange evening that proves that Joseph Hill-Gibbins richly deserved his award and that Wallace Shawn is a radically different and always interesting playwright – Philip Fisher, British Theatre Guide
In 2002 the final shortlist contained six applicants. Our BAC workshops were run by Erica Whyman, then Artistic Director of the Gate Theatre and designer David Rogers.
Our 2002 Runner-up, Bijan Sheibani, produced The Stoning by Iranian playwright, Ghazi Rabihavi, and David Salter, runner up in 2000, directed The Life of Galileo by Bertol Brecht in the Main House at BAC, a production developed from his Trust application proposal. Finalists were Samantha Holdsworth, Sarah Sylvester, Kate Wild and Polly Wiseman.
