Following their 18-Month Residencies at The Royal Exchange, Sheffield Theatres and Birmingham Rep, Nickie Miles-Wildin, Taio Lawson and Madeleine Kludje are all flying high!

In May 2019 Graeae Theatre Company announced that Nickie would join them as Associate Director, following the departure of Amit Sharma. Nickie will lead on Graeae’s new writing programme, including Write to Play. Nickie has previously worked with Graeae as an Assistant Director for Blood Wedding and The House of Bernarda Alba. During her RTYDS placement she assisted on Mother Courage and her Children, Death of a Salesman, Frankenstein and Guys and Dolls. She also directed a site-specific version of The Tempest for The Royal Exchange Theatre. Nickie returns to the Royal Exchange in January 2020, directing Cuttin’ It in the Studio.

Following her residency at Birmingham Rep, Madeleine Kludje was appointed Trainee Associate Director. During her RTYDS 18-Month Residency, Madeleine assisted on Rebus, Edmund de Bergerac, Elephant, Woyzeck and the Rep Christmas show, The Wizard of Oz. She was associate on A Thousand Splendid Suns and will be on this Year’s Peter Pan. Madeleine also co-directed The Ultimate Lad and Library Lion. As part of her continued work Madeleine heads up Foundry 2019 and recently co-directed Brummie Iliad with the adult drama group. Next year Madeleine will direct a new piece of work for the Barry Jackson tour.

At the end of July, Taio Lawson joined RTYDS patron Indhu Rubasingham at The Kiln. Taio has been appointed as Associate Director, alongside Susie McKenna. Rubasingham said, “I am thrilled that Taio [and Susie] are joining us and am over the moon that two such wonderful directors will bring so much breadth, vision and expertise to Kiln Theatre and our team.”
At Sheffield, Taio was assistant director on Love and Information, Frost/Nixon, The Wizard of Oz and Desire Under the Elms. He also directed Hang at the Crucible Studio, Sheffield.

Madeleine, Taio and Nickie’s Associate Director appointments follow in the footsteps of previous RTYDS alumni. Daniel Bailey recently joined The Bush as Associate Director, Rebecca Frecknall is Associate at The Almeida and, following his tenure as Associate Artistic Director at The Royal Exchange Theatre, Matthew Xia is now Artistic Director of Actors touring company.

In other news RTYDS has also recently launched our new Associate Artistic Director scheme, read more here.