Artistic Director Recruitment

Who we are

Recruitment support for the theatre industry

RTYDS is the UK’s foremost programme of paid professional development for theatre directors. We offer bespoke training opportunities to artists from the earliest stages of a career right up to leadership development in partnership with companies and theatres across the country.

The scheme has helped launch the careers of many of Britain’s leading Artistic Directors and freelance directors including Rupert Goold (Almeida), Lorne Campbell (National Theatre of Wales), Elizabeth Newman (Pitlochry Festival Theatre), Vicky Featherstone (Royal Court), Natalie Ibu (Northern Stage) Matthew Xia (Actors Touring Company); freelance directors include John Tiffany, Elayce Ismail and Rebecca Frecknall.

We can utilise our extensive network of partner theatres and organisations such as Ramps on the Moon, Class and Coronavirus, and Freelancers Task Force as well as our knowledge of directors and theatre makers across the country.

We have been developing recruitment processes for our schemes that maximise inclusivity, representation and artistic excellence. We work to the social model of disability. When working with you, there are practices that we encourage companies to adopt that we know leads to more equality of opportunity, and a diverse and talented candidate list.

As a registered charity this strand of our work supports our other programmes and furthers our mission to change the face of British theatre so that it is more representative of contemporary society.