Richard Cottrell (born 15 August 1936) is an English theatre director. He has been the Director of the Cambridge Theatre Company and the Bristol Old Vic in England, and of the Nimrod Theatre in Sydney, Australia. He has also directed for the Royal Shakespeare Company, the Chichester Festival, the Stratford Shakespeare Festival in Stratford, Ontario, the National Theatre of Portugal, and other theatre companies around the world.

Cottrell is also a translator of plays, and an author of a book on art appreciation.

Career Cottrell was born 15 August 1936, in London. He attended Cambridge University, and trained as an actor in Paris.1969 Bio on McKellen.com

Work in Britain From 1964 to 1966 Cottrell was General Manager of the Hampstead Theatre Club. The first play he directed there was Georges Feydeau's The Birdwatcher, with Michael Bates and Prunella Scales.

From 1966 to 1969, Cottrell was co-founder and Associate Director of the Prospect Theatre Company in Oxford.Prospect Theatre Company His work for Prospect included works by Anouilh, Pinter, and Feydeau. His production of Farquhar's The Constant Couple, with Robert Hardy and Timothy West, transferred to the New Theatre in London. Cottrell's own translation of The Cherry Orchard, starring Lila Kedrova and Patrick Wymark, transferred to the Queen's Theatre in London in 1967. Cottrell was instrumental in the career of Ian McKellen, inviting him to star in, and directing him in, his acclaimed Richard II in 1969.Shewring, Margaret. King Richard II. Manchester University Press, 1998. p. 81.

Cottrell translated Georges Feydeau for the Prospect Company, and, with Lance Sieveking, adapted E. M. Forster's Howards End and A Room with a View. With Edward Bond, Cottrell translated Three Sisters for the Royal Court Theatre.

From 1969 to 1975, Cottrell was Director of the newly formed Cambridge Theatre Company. There, in 1970 he directed his own translation of The Seagull, with Lila Kedrova as Madame Arkadina. In 1974 he directed the young Ian Charleson as Hamlet.

From 1975 to 1980, Cottrell was Director of the Bristol Old Vic Company, where his notable productions included The National Health, Hedda Gabler, As You Like It, A Doll's House, and A Midsummer Night's Dream.

Move to Australia Cottrell became a resident of Australia in 1984. From 1985 to 1987, he was Director of the Nimrod Theatre Company in Sydney. He received a Sydney Critics Award for his first season, in which a permanent company of 16 actors played a season of classical plays in repertoire. His work at Nimrod included The Winter's Tale, Les Liaisons Dangereuses, All's Well That Ends Well, Wild Honey, The Merchant of Venice, and Arms and the Man.Richard Cottrell at International Casting Associates

For the Sydney Theatre Company, Cottrell has directed Lettice and Lovage and Vita and Virginia, both starring Ruth Cracknell. For the National Institute of Dramatic Art, he directed his own specially commissioned translation of Racine's Britannicus in 1992. For the Belvoir St Theatre in Sydney, he has directed When the Wind Blows; and for the Marian Street Theatre Company in Sydney he directed Benefactors, Prin, Henceforward..., Neville's Island, and Things We Do for Love.

Cottrell's work in Britain in the 1990s included The Rivals at the Chichester Festival and in the West End; The School for Scandal, Lady Windermere's Fan, also at Chichester; and Three Hours After Marriage for the Royal Shakespeare Company.

Cottrell's recent productions include Ying Tong, A Walk with the Goons, and Travesties for the Sydney Theatre Company. He has directed King Lear for the National Theatre of Portugal in Lisbon, The Uneasy Chair for Playwrights Horizons in New York, and Simone de Beauvoir's The Woman Destroyed at 59E59 in New York.

Cottrell has done opera directing as well. For the Victorian State Opera he directed Andrea Chénier, for which he won a Victorian Green Room Award for Best Opera Production of the Year, and Tannhäuser. For the Opera Theatre of St. Louis he has directed The Merry Widow.

Teaching Cottrell has taught and directed at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London, the Hong Kong College of the Performing Arts, Boston University, the University of California, the Juilliard School in New York, and all of Australia's leading theatre schools.

Major directing credits The Birdwatcher, Hampstead Theatre Club, London, 1966 Thieves' Carnival, Prospect Theatre Company, UK cities, 1966 The Constant Couple, Prospect Theatre Company, UK cities, 1967 The Cherry Orchard, Prospect Theatre Company, UK cities, 1967 The Birthday Party, Prospect Theatre Company, UK cities, 1967 Blithe Spirit, Prospect Theatre Company, Lincoln, UK, 1967 The Promise, Prospect Theatre Company, Leicester, UK, 1968 Richard II, Volkstheatre, Vienna, 1969 Staircase, Prospect Theatre Company, UK cities, 1969 Richard II, Prospect Theatre Company, UK cities, 1969 The Alchemist, Cambridge Theatre Company, UK cities, 1970 Semi-Detached, Cambridge Theatre Company, UK cities, 1970 The Seagull, Cambridge Theatre Company, UK cities, 1970 The Recruiting Officer, Cambridge Theatre Company, UK cities, 1970 Chips with Everything, Cambridge Theatre Company, UK cities, 1970 Hay Fever, Cambridge Theatre Company, UK cities, 1971 Three Sisters, Cambridge Theatre Company, UK cities, 1971 Trelawny of the 'Wells', Cambridge Theatre Company, UK cities, 1971 You and Your Clouds, Cambridge Theatre Company, UK cities, 1972 Popkiss, Cambridge Theatre Company, UK cities, 1972 Ruling the Roost, Cambridge Theatre Company, UK cities, 1972 Twelfth Night, Cambridge Theatre Company, UK cities, 1973 Aunt Sally or the Triumph of Death, Cambridge Theatre Company, UK cities, 1973 Jack and the Beanstalk, Cambridge Theatre Company, UK cities, 1973 French Without Tears, Cambridge Theatre Company, UK cities, 1974 Hamlet, Cambridge Theatre Company, UK cities, 1974 Six Characters in Search of an Author, Cambridge Theatre Company, UK cities, 1974 Bloomsbury, Cambridge Theatre, London, 1974 Entertaining Mr Sloane, Cambridge Theatre Company, UK cities, 1975 A Far Better Husband, UK cities, 1975 The National Health, Bristol Old Vic Theatre, Bristol, U.K., 1975 Hard Times, Bristol Old Vic Theatre, Bristol, U.K., 1975 Macbeth, Bristol Old Vic Theatre, 1976 Evening Light, Bristol Old Vic Theatre, 1976 Le Weekend, Bristol Old Vic Theatre, 1976 The Duchess of Malfi, Bristol Old Vic Theatre, 1976 Aladdin, Bristol Old Vic Theatre, 1976 Love's Labour's Lost, Bristol Old Vic Theatre, 1977 Hamlet, Bristol Old Vic Theatre, 1977 Hedda Gabler, Bristol Old Vic Theatre, 1977 She Stoops to Conquer, Manitoba Theatre Centre, Winnipeg, MB, Canada, 1977. The Provok'd Wife, Bristol Old Vic Theatre, 1978 The Seagull, Bristol Old Vic Theatre, 1978 Cabaret, Bristol Old Vic Theatre, 1978 As You Like It, Bristol Old Vic Theatre, 1978 The Man Who Came to Dinner, Bristol Old Vic Theatre, 1978 Destiny, Bristol Old Vic Theatre, 1979 Troilus and Cressida, Bristol Old Vic Theatre, then Edinburgh Festival, both 1979 A Bee in Her Bonnet, Manitoba Theatre Centre, 1979 Waiting for the Parade, Lyric Hammersmith Theatre, London, 1979. A Midsummer Night's Dream Bristol Old Vic Theatre, London, 1980 Edward II, Bristol Old Vic Theatre, 1980 Illuminations, Lyric Hammersmith Theatre, 1980 Cyrano de Bergerac, Milwaukee Repertory Theatre, Milwaukee, WI, 1980 Betrayal, UK and European cities, 1981 The Revenger's Tragedy, Adelaide, Australia, 1981 Camino Real, Sydney, Australia, 1982 The Taming of the Shrew, Mid-East cities, 1982 The Taming of the Shrew, Hong Kong Arts Festival, Hong Kong, 1982 All's Well That Ends Well, Stratford Shakespeare Festival, Stratford, ON, Canada, 1982. Uncle Vanya, Milwaukee Repertory Theatre, 1983 Richard II, Stratford Shakespearean Festival, 1983 The Country Wife, Stratford Shakespearean Festival, 1983 A Doll's House, Bristol Old Vic Theatre, 1984 Widowers' Houses, RADA, London, 1988 Don's Party, Australia, 1984 Pack of Lies, Brisbane, Australia, 1985 When the Wind Blows, Sydney, 1985 Arms and the Man, Nimrod Theatre Company, Sydney, 1985 Benefactors, Nimrod Theatre Company, Sydney, 1986 Wild Honey, Nimrod Theatre Company, Sydney, 1986 The Merchant of Venice, Nimrod Theatre Company, Sydney, 1986 All's Well That Ends Well, Nimrod Theatre Company, Sydney, 1986 The Winter's Tale Nimrod Theatre Company, Sydney, 1987 Les Liaisons dangereuses, Nimrod Theatre Company, Sydney, 1987 Andrea Chénier, Victorian State Opera, Melbourne, Australia, 1988 Strike Up the Banns, Theatre Clywdd, Wales, 1988 The Rivals, Chichester Festival Theatre, 1994 The School for Scandal, Chichester Festival Theatre, 1995; Theatre Royal, Bath, 1996 Three Hours After Marriage, Royal Shakespeare Company, Swan Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon, and Barbican Theatre Centre, London, 1996 Lady Windermere's Fan, Chichester Festival Theatre, 1997 Vita and Virginia, Sydney Theatre Company, 1997–1998 King Lear, National Theatre of Portugal, Lisbon, 1997 Bloody Funny, Lookout Theatre, Sydney, 1998 The Uneasy Chair, Playwrights Horizons, New York, 1998 Things We Do for Love, Marian Street Theatre, Sydney, 1999 She Stoops to Conquer, Sydney Theatre Company, 2000 Indian Ink, Canadian Stage Company, Toronto, 2002 The Woman Destroyed, 59E59 Theater, New York, 2004 Ying Tong, A Walk With the Goons,Wren, Celia. "'Ying Tong'? Why, That's English for Postwar Silliness". The Washington Post. 9 March 2008. Sydney Theatre Company and Australian cities, 2007–2008 Travesties, Sydney Theatre Company, 2009 Loot, Sydney Theatre Company, 2011

Bibliography Cottrell, Richard. Looking at Paintings: A Private View. Murdoch Books, 2009.

References 1969 Bio on McKellen.com Richard Cottrell at International Casting Associates

Notes

External links Richard Cottrell – Official Site Richard Cottrell at Theatricalia.com

Bio on McKellen.com