RTST Sir Peter Hall Director Award 2026
The annual RTST Sir Peter Hall Director Award is designed:
- to provide an up-and-coming director with a career-transformative first-time opportunity to originate and direct, as sole or lead director, a fully-funded production as part of a main season of plays on the main stage of a mid-scale British regional theatre and to take that production on tour to other mid-scale regional theatres, and
- to provide grant support to that regional theatre for the creation of that production.
The name of the Award honours the memory of the RTST’s co-founder Sir Peter Hall.
How to enter, rules and further information can be found here.
IMPORTANT NOTE: It is commonly recognised in the theatre industry that the opportunities for directors to progress from directing on the small-scale to directing on the mid-scale are rare. This Award scheme is designed for directors who already have a track-record of professional on-stage directing experience and who aspire to originate and direct their own production on the mid-scale but have not yet had the opportunity to do so. The Award creates such an opportunity. It does not, however, circumvent the need for a director to have sufficient prior professional experience to be judged ready to take on the considerable challenges of originating and directing a mid-scale production for their first time – that being a production whose creation will involve significant expenditure by the participating theatres and the RTST. For that reason, the Award Rules stipulate strict minimum criteria regarding professional experience that candidates must satisfy in order to be eligible to enter.
How the RTST Sir Peter Hall Director Award 2026 Works
The RTST is delighted to be running its 2026 RTST Sir Peter Hall Director Award with Exeter Northcott Theatre, in partnership with Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch; Northern Stage, Newcastle; Salisbury Playhouse; and Royal & Derngate, Northampton.
The winner of the Award will win the opportunity to create and direct a brand-new production as part of the main season of plays to be staged at the Exeter Northcott Theatre on its main stage in autumn 2026 (“the Production“), and subsequently at Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch; Northern Stage, Newcastle; Salisbury Playhouse; and Royal & Derngate, Northampton in a co-production between all those theatres.
The RTST Sir Peter Hall Director Award 2026 will be awarded to an up-and-coming director for demonstration of excellence and high promise in directing skills and appreciation of how to create theatre that appeals to audiences in Exeter, Hornchurch, Newcastle, Salisbury and Northampton. The winner will emerge from a rigorous competitive process which has been organised by the RTST in conjunction with Exeter Northcott Theatre.
We are particularly keen to see candidates from a diversity of backgrounds, interests and needs.
For any candidate requiring access support, information on how we can help is provided (under the heading of “Accessibility”) in the “Rules and Information” mentioned below.
We welcome entries from parents and carers who need to balance their caring responsibilities with their working lives.
The RTST Sir Peter Hall Director Award opened for entries on 27 July 2026 and the closing date for entries is 6.00pm on Monday, 21 September 2026.
Candidates are invited to pitch their ideas for directing a production that will bring together a range of exciting practitioners to create an imaginative, engaging and popular production for the widest possible range of audience members.
Candidates can choose a classic or modern play (in the English language), or an existing adaptation for the stage (in the English language) of a novel or film. The candidate’s ideas for their chosen play must demonstrate their artistic potential and the potential of their production to cultivate new and existing audiences.
While it is intended that the play directed by the Award-winner will be the play that is the subject of their entry, this outcome cannot be guaranteed owing to a variety of factors, such as: availability of rights; pre-arranged or historical programming at Exeter Northcott Theatre and the other participating theatres named above; and/or new ideas arising from the creative relationship struck between the winning director and Exeter Northcott Theatre and its co-producers.
Candidates are therefore invited to propose, in brief terms, other play options. In 2023, the play directed by the 2022 winner was the play featured in their entry; in other years, the play ultimately directed by the winner has been different from the one featured in their entry; but, in every case, the play ultimately directed has been chosen by mutual agreement between the winner and the producing theatre.
Entries will be considered by the RTST with the assistance of Exeter Northcott Theatre with a view to producing a Long-list of up to 20 entries.
The Long-list will be submitted for consideration by a Selection Panel comprising Chair, Martin Berry, Creative Director and Joint Chief Executive of Exeter Northcott Theatre; Sir Nicholas Hytner, Artistic Director of the Bridge Theatre; Natalie Ibu, Artistic Director of Northern Stage; Jesse Jones, Artistic Director of Royal & Derngate; Gareth Machin, Artistic Director of WiltshireCreative/Salisbury Playhouse; Prema Mehta, Lighting Designer; Hannah Sinclair Robinson, actor; Alex Thorpe, Creative Director of Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch;and Roy Williams, playwright.
With the single exception of Natalie Ibu, none of the members of this 2026 Selection Panel has served on the Award Panel in any previous year.
The Selection Panel will select a Short-list of up to eight candidates.
Short-listed candidates will be invited to Director Workshops in London on the weekend of Saturday 7 and Sunday, 8 November 2026, at which they will be required to demonstrate their skills by directing actors in a text-based scene of a play, after which they will be interviewed by the Selection Panel.
The particular scene will be settled with candidates in advance of the Workshops. The Selection Panel will observe the Workshops.
On the second day of the Workshops, up to four finalists will be selected for a further interview, this being the final stage in the selection process.
The Selection Panel will choose the ultimate Award-winner and official Runner-up, who will be publicly announced after the Workshops.
Although there can only be one Award-winner and one official Runner-up, the Award scheme is designed to provide a positive and meaningful professional experience for all the candidates who are selected for participation in the Workshops. They will all receive constructive feedback from the Selection Panel after the winner of the Award is announced.
It is intended that the Award winner will benefit from the spotlight of publicity generated by the promotional activities of the RTST and Exeter Northcott Theatre and its co-producers in relation to the Award and the Production.
The winner’s success will be celebrated at an Award reception in London organised by the RTST, to which leading theatre practitioners will be invited. The runner-up is also celebrated at this reception.
The winner’s touring Production will be staged in autumn 2027. The Award winner will not be required to seek funding for the Production. The RTST has agreed to make a grant of £60,000 to Exeter Northcott Theatre to be applied towards the costs of staging the Production. It is a condition of the grant that Exeter Northcott Theatre participates in the Award scheme and facilitates the Production. While the RTST’s contribution is significant, the majority of the costs of the Production will, however, be borne by Exeter Northcott Theatre and its partner/co-producing theatres.
The Award winner will be the sole director of the Production and will be paid a fee of £9,000 plus expenses by Exeter Northcott Theatre for undertaking this role. The Production’s cast and stage crew will be paid at the prevailing UK Theatre rates or higher.
The official Runner-up will receive mentoring and professional support from Exeter Northcott Theatre.
For the rules of, and information about how to enter, the 2026 Award scheme, please visit our Rules & Information here.
Comments from the organisers:
“We’re proud that, once again, our unique Award and associated grant will be the catalyst for a regional touring production directed by the winner as their mid-scale directing debut. The opportunity for the winner is career-transformative. But the Award scheme doesn’t only benefit participating theatres and the winner. For directors who reach an advanced stage in the selection process, the Award provides valuable professional experience, recognition and connections – many have reported that this has opened doors for them. The winner of our 2024 Award won on her sixth attempt, yet she reported that, even in the “unsuccessful years”, the connections that the RTST enabled her to make helped her to grow and brought her work.”
– Mark Hawes, Director of the RTST
“The RTST is one of the most exciting opportunities available to an emerging director anywhere in the UK, with an incredible legacy, and we’re thrilled to be hosting the 2026 award here in Exeter. It embodies so much of what we believe in at the Northcott: outstanding theatre, nurturing talented artists to push their careers to the next level, and the power of collaboration. Working alongside our friends in Hornchurch, Newcastle, Salisbury and Northampton, and the exceptional team at the RTST, we’re looking forward to welcoming the next generation of directing talent. If you’re eligible, apply. I can’t wait to meet the artists who’ll shape the future of our industry.”
– Martin Berry, Creative Director and Joint Chief Executive of Exeter Northcott Theatre
The RTST Sir Peter Hall Director Award scheme is run by the RTST, a registered charity, in fulfilment of its charitable objects. All of the RTST’s work in setting up and running the Award scheme to provide this unique career opportunity for directors and the associated catalytic production grant to a theatre company – in this case, Exeter Northcott Theatre in Exeter – is undertaken by the Director of the RTST and the other Trustees and volunteers for no remuneration. The members of the Panel who are freelancers or acting in a personal capacity are offered fees. The actors who participate in the Director Workshops are paid fees. The production grant made by the RTST pursuant to the Award scheme is provided out of its charitable funds, which derive wholly from donations to the RTST.