A letter from Artistic Director, Emma Rice
Dear future Artistic Director of Shakespeare’s Globe,
I am writing this as the deadline for applications looms and my final Summer Season, The Summer of Love, prepares to launch. Before the Globe story is thrown up into the air again and the pieces fall in a new pattern, I wanted to share some thoughts with you.
Firstly, congratulations! By the time you are offered this most precious of jobs, you will have survived and triumphed over a rigorous and detailed interview process. You will have imagined a life dedicated to this most joyous and vibrant of spaces and will have shifted the tectonic plates of your own, equally precious life, to make this union happen.
And a union it is. The Globe is not a job, it is a vocation and an all-consuming, delicious tangle of histories, hopes, passions and agendas. You will be the latest in a line of experimental radicals and you will be in for the most intoxicating experience of your life. I have learnt much in my short time here and I thought I would take a moment to pass some of this knowledge to you, dear theatre friend, as you begin your own journey at the Globe.
I have learnt that a Globe audience is the best audience! Alert, excited and often standing, they are actively willing the night to be the best of their lives; they are generous beyond anything I have known before. Alive to the tragedy of life as well as the fun, they have taught me to speak with them not to them and to capture the moment with instinct, meaning and wit. They are the heartbeat and energy of this extraordinary place and will tell you not only what they need, but what you need.
I have learnt to work with other directors and what a gift they have been! Heroes, friends and inspiration all, they have cracked open my experience as a theatre maker and shown me such wisdom, ferocity, vision and dedication. I salute and thank them all.
I have learnt that there are as many opinions about what the Globe and Shakespeare should be as there are people you talk to.
I have learnt not to say that I sometimes find Shakespeare hard to understand.
I have learnt to trust my team with my heart and soul. They are true lovers and fighters, dedicated to a radical and relevant artistic mission and loyal beyond belief. They will listen to you, help you and support you and dance with you as they make real all your dreams. Take care of them for me.
I have learnt to love Shakespeare.
I have learnt where my personal and professional boundaries were. Born to please, I have enjoyed a life filled with encouragement, delight and love. I walked into the Globe expecting this to continue but my blessed path was crossed and I had to call on my beliefs, principles and integrity for guidance.
I have learnt, never again, to allow myself to be excluded from the rooms where decisions are made.
I learnt that I have many friends.
These precious things I have learnt and I am profoundly grateful.
But, dear friend, no more lessons. I chose to leave because, as important and beloved as the Globe is to me, the Board did not love and respect me back. It did not understand what I saw, what I felt and what I created with my actors, creative teams and the audience. They began to talk of a new set of rules that I did not sign up to and could not stand by. Nothing is worth giving away my artistic freedom for, it has been too hard fought for.
Like you, I have happily given my life to theatre. It has been my lover, my partner, my children and my future. I do not choose what I see, feel and do, it chooses me. I have spent my life developing my skills to be able to hear my instincts, reveal my inner stories and to be able to communicate them with my temporary community of strangers, my audience. And to reveal these truths, I have always used whatever medium best tells that story.
The Globe has been the making of me. Here, I have found my fight and my ‘right’, I have stood up for what I believe in and tried to do it with kindness, care and seriousness. However, in the wake of recent events, the Globe is wrestling with what, at its core, it now stands for. It is still in the process of deciding and clarifying what its fight and its ‘right’ are. I had to choose to leave because I choose myself and my work. Never think that my decision to step down in 2018 was simply about lights and sound, it was about personal trust and artistic freedom. You must make sure that your own freedom is assured.
So, ask the right questions, not only of the Globe but of yourself and take on the challenge with independence, caution and resolve. The Globe deserves an Artistic leader so fierce and true that they would steal a building and carry it over the river for what they believe in. It needs a leader who will shout to the heavens about what it is to be free and loving and one who is determined to make a difference during their brief time on the planet.
The Globe will always be part of me, so know I am here for you to enjoy beer, or tears, or dancing – and believe me, there will be all three of these pleasures in this place of rare humanity! Remember, you are part of a magnificent line of fearless theatre animals; in its astonishing 20-year history, this warm belly of humanity has been conceived, built and led by free-thinkers devoted only to Shakespeare, theatre and above all, the audience. You are not alone. As I plan and dream of the theatre adventures I am yet to have, I hand you the baton with pride, celebration and sadness as I say goodbye to this glorious chapter of my life.
I envy you so, but my heart cheers you on with a war cry of hope,
