Young Vic and the Genesis Foundation celebrate 10th anniversary – Matthew Xia receives Genesis Future Directors Award

Tuesday, 11 June 2013

2013 marks the tenth anniversary of the partnership between David Lan’s Young Vic and the Genesis Foundation supporting the professional development of directors in the UK.

This long-standing partnership has created a thriving and unparalleled Program to nurture emerging talent. It remains a pioneering initiative with few precedents around the world, boasting past alumni including Rufus Norris, Bijan Sheibani, Carrie Cracknell, Joe Hill-Gibbins, Matthew Dunster, Gbolahan Obisesan and John Fulljames.

David Lan established the Genesis Directors Program for emerging directors at the Young Vic in 2003, enabled by the substantial commitment of the Genesis Foundation. A decade on this partnership has grown to encompass three major initiatives from an investment of £2 million: the Genesis Directors Network, the Genesis Fellowship and Future Directors Award.

Young Vic artistic director David Lan said:

“The way that the Genesis Foundation changed the game was by committing to the Genesis Directors Program at the Young Vic over a really long period. We could dream, we could plan, we could make mistakes, we could learn, we could grow, we could flourish – and they were still with us. It’s hard to exaggerate how rare this is. It is to a large extent due to John Studzinski’s deep understanding of how art is made, and how artists become themselves, that the Young Vic is today one of the best-known theatres in Europe. Of course directors get their inspiration from many sources – but it’s no coincidence that there are directors working all over this country, from the NT to Edinburgh, who have in one way or another been part of this Program. Barely a week goes by without me receiving an email or a call from a young person who describes themselves as ‘a Genesis director’. There is a Genesis generation. For that it’s not only us but the whole of UK theatre who should be grateful to the Genesis Foundation.”

Matthew Xia is the winner of this year’s Genesis Future Directors Award, a major prize established in 2012. The Award was created to nurture an emerging young director by providing them with an opportunity to explore and develop their craft as they create their first fully resourced production at the Young Vic.

Matthew was Associate Director at Theatre Royal Stratford East from 2009-2010 and is currently Director in Residence at the Liverpool Everyman and Playhouse, funded through the Regional Theatre Young Director Scheme, where in October he will direct the world premiere of Daniel Matthew’s debut play, Scrappers. Matthew was Assistant Director on the world premiere of Blackta by Nathaniel Martello-White at the Young Vic in autumn 2012. He will now direct a work of his choice for The Clare to open in autumn 2013 with the support and mentorship of David Lan and the current Genesis Fellow, Natalie Abrahami.

Matthew follows in the footsteps of Ben Kidd who was the first recipient of the Genesis Future Directors Award. Ben staged a sold-out run of David Mamet’s taut and brilliantly suspenseful drama The Shawl in The Clare last November.

Matthew Xia, Genesis Future Directors Award winner:

“It’s an absolute honour winning the Genesis Future Directors Award. The Young Vic have been supportive from the moment I joined the Genesis Directors Network, and this award now gives me the opportunity to present my work in one of the country’s most progressive and exciting theatres. I believe it is nigh on impossible for working class urchins like myself to make a career in British theatre without the support of those forward-thinking organisations such as the Genesis Foundation and The Young Vic who have a genuine commitment to artistic development.”

John Studzinski, Founder and Chairman of the Genesis Foundation commented:

“Not only are we thrilled to celebrate ten fruitful years of partnership between the Foundation and the Young Vic but this marks a new chapter in our development as we announce Matthew Xia as our new Genesis Future Director. We look forward to his first production at the theatre and building on the remarkable creative network that includes our current Genesis Fellow, Natalie Abrahami.”

The Genesis Foundation is a UK-based charity established in 2001 by John Studzinski. It nurtures and develops artistic excellence in collaboration with leading organisations working in the fields of music, theatre, dance and the visual arts by funding specially created programmes that support young directors, playwrights and choral singers. The Foundation’s established partners are: the Royal Court, The Sixteen, Welsh National Opera and the Young Vic. In addition, the Genesis Foundation supports graduate and post-graduate training programmes at LAMDA and the Royal College of Art. Its focus is on mentoring and development work.

For more information, please visit www.genesisfoundation.org.uk