Declan Donnellan

Declan Donnellan (born 4 August 1953) is an English film/stage director and author. He co-founded the Cheek by Jowl theatre company with Nick Ormerod in 1981. In 1992, he received an honorary degree from the University of Warwick and in 2004 he was made a Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres for his work in France. In 2010, he was made an honorary fellow of Goldsmiths' College, University of London.

Biography

Donnellan was born in Manchester and grew up in Ealing, London. He was educated at St Benedict's School, Ealing and Queens' College, Cambridge, where he read English and Law. After leaving Cambridge, he was called to the Bar at Middle Temple in 1978.

He founded Cheek by Jowl with Nick Ormerod in 1981. Since 2006 the company has been part of the Barbican's International Theatre Program (BITE) resulting in co-productions of The Changeling (2006), Cymbeline (2007) and Troilus and Cressida (2008).

For the Royal Shakespeare Company he has directed The School for Scandal, King Lear (Academy 2002) and Great Expectations. He has also directed Le Cid for the Avignon Festival, Falstaff for the Salzburg Festival and the ballet of Romeo and Juliet for the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow. Other work in Russia includes The Winter's Tale for the Maly Drama Theatre of Saint Petersburg.

Cheek by Jowl

Cheek by Jowl is an international theatre company founded in the United Kingdom by director Declan Donnellan and designer Nick Ormerod in 1981. Donnellan and Ormerod are Cheek by Jowl’s artistic directors and together have directed and designed all but two of Cheek by Jowl’s productions. Cheek by Jowl's current productions are the French language Ubu Roi, by Alfred Jarry and the Russian language production of William Shakespeare's Measure for Measure. Cheek by Jowl is an Arts Council England National Portfolio Organisation.

The company has performed in the UK since 1981 and internationally since 1984, when its productions of Vanity_Fair_(novel) and Pericles were invited to the Almagro, Valladolid, and Jerusalem festivals. As of 2015, Cheek by Jowl has toured to over 390 cities in over 50 countries, including Peter Brook's Bouffes du Nord in Paris, the Chekhov International Festival in Moscow and New York's Brooklyn Academy of Music. Cheek by Jowl is an Associate Company of the Barbican Centre, London.