Edward Kemp (playwright): Difference between revisions

{{shortShort description|English playwright and theatre director (born 1965)}}

| birth_date = {{Birth year and age|1965|10}} <!-- {{Birth date and age|df=y|1965|10|DD9}} -->

| birth_place = [[Oxford]], UKEngland

| death_date = <!-- {{Death date and age|df=y|YYYY|MM|DD|1965|10|DD9}} -->

| occupation = Playwright, theatre director<br/>former Director of [[Royal Academy of Dramatic Art|RADA]]

| notableworks = ''5/11''

'''Edward Thomas Kemp''' (born 9 October 1965<ref>{{citeWho's webWho|websiteid=EndoleU251429|title=MrKemp, Edward KempThomas|urldoi=https:10.1093/ww/suite9780199540884.endole013.co.uk/insight/people/5309217-mr-edward-kemp|access-date=7 February 2020U251429}}</ref>) is an English playwright and theatre director. SinceHe 2008 he has beenwas Director of the [[Royal Academy of Dramatic Art]] (RADA) from 2008 to 2021.<ref name="Elkin" /><ref name="RADA">{{cite web|website=RADA|title=Edward Kemp|url=https://www.rada.ac.uk/about-us/management-administration/edward-kemp/|access-date=6 February 2020}}</ref>

Kemp was born in [[Oxford]] in October 1965, the son of [[Eric Kemp]] (then an Oxford theologian, later [[Dean of Worcester]] and [[Bishop of Chichester]]) and his wife Patricia {{nee|Kirk}}, daughter of [[Kenneth Kirk]] (also an Oxford theologian, latterly [[Bishop of Oxford]]).<ref>{{cite book|last=Kemp|first=Eric|year=2006|title=Shy But Not Retiring: Memoirs|pages=109–110|publisher=Bloomsbury Academic |isbn=9780826480736|url=https://books.google.co.ukcom/books?id=bI5Aa5s9lj4C&pg=PA109|access-date=8 February 2020}}</ref>

HeKemp was a chorister at [[Worcester Cathedral]] and a pupil at the [[King's School, Worcester]]. He trained with the [[National Youth Theatre]], and studied English Language and Literature at [[New College, Oxford]].<ref name="Kemp-bio">{{cite web|website=edwardkemp.co.uk|title=Edward Kemp: Biography|url=httphttps://www.edwardkemp.co.uk/page20.htmpages/biography|access-date=65 FebruaryApril 20202024}}</ref><ref name="Elkin">{{cite web|last=Elkin|first=Susan|date=20 July 2015|website=The Stage|title=RADA's Edward Kemp: ‘Today’s'Today's students demand dynamism and flexibility’flexibility'|url=https://www.thestage.co.uk/features/interviews/2015/radas-edward-kemp-todays-students-demand-dynamism-and-flexibility/|access-date=6 February 2020}}</ref>

After university, Kemp worked with the National Youth Theatre, before becoming an assistant director at the [[Chichester Festival Theatre]], then with the Compass Theatre Company founded by Sir [[Anthony Quayle]].<ref name="Kemp-bioElkin"/><ref name="ElkinKemp-bio"/>

From 1991 to 1996, Kemp was Staff Director at the [[Royal National Theatre]], where he worked with directors including [[Steven Pimlott]], [[Richard Eyre]] and Sir [[Nicholas Hytner]].<ref name="Kemp-bioElkin"/><ref name="ElkinKemp-bio"/>

In 1996, heKemp joined [[Katie Mitchell]]'s [[Royal Shakespeare Company]] production of ''[[The Mysteries]]'', as [[dramaturge|dramaturg]]. Opening in April 1997, the work played at [[The Other Place (theatre)|The Other Place]] in Stratford-upon-Avon as a play in two parts, The Creation and The Passion.<ref>{{cite web|website=Theatricalia|title=The Mysteries|url=https://theatricalia.com/play/zn/the-mysteries/production/2ze|access-date=8 February 2020}}</ref> It transferred to London in February 1998,<ref>{{cite web|website=Theatricalia|title=The Mysteries: RSC at The Pit, London|url=https://theatricalia.com/play/6aw/the-mysteries/production/dtg|access-date=8 February 2020}}</ref> entirely rewritten as a 5 five-hour play. The London version met with widespread critical disapproval.<ref>{{cite web|website=edwardkemp.co.uk|title=The Mysteries|url=http://www.edwardkemp.co.uk/page10.htm|access-date=6 February 2020}}</ref><ref name="Cavendish"/>

Kemp has collaborated (as a director and a writer) with the actor and writer [[Toby Jones]] on several projects, leading to the formation of the company The Table Show.<ref name="Elkin" /><ref>{{cite web|website=edwardkemp.co.uk|title=The Table Show|url=http://www.edwardkemp.co.uk/page14.htm|access-date=6 February 2020}}</ref><ref name="Elkin" />

Kemp's play ''5/11'' premiered at the [[Chichester Festival Theatre]] in August 2005, featuring [[Alistair McGowan]] as [[James VI and I|King James]], to mark the 400th anniversary of the [[Gunpowder Plot]] in 1605.<ref>{{cite web|website=edwardkemp.co.uk|title=5/11|url=httphttps://www.edwardkemp.co.uk/page2.htmpages/511|access-date=6 February 2020}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|website=Chichester Festival Theatre: Pass It On|title=Production Photograph, 5/11 (2005)|url=https://passiton.cft.org.uk/archive/production-photograph-511-2005/|access-date=8 February 2020}}</ref> Addressing home-grown religious terrorism in the years after the [[September 11 attacks]] and soon after the [[2005 London bombings]],<ref>{{cite news|last=Spencer|first=Charles|date=22 August 2005|work=The Telegraph|title=Explosive epic with echoes for today|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/theatre/3646051/Explosive-epic-with-echoes-for-today.html|access-date=8 February 2020}}</ref> Dominic Cavendish considered the play was considered "blazingly topical" by ''[[Daily Telegraph|Telegraph]]'' reviewer Dominic Cavendish.<ref name="Cavendish">{{cite news|last=Cavendish|first=Dominic|date=27 September 2005|work=The Telegraph|title=Face to faith|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/theatre/3646854/Face-to-faith.html|access-date=6 February 2020}}</ref>

In 2011, to mark the 400th anniversary of the publication of the [[King James Version]] in 1611, Kemp edited twelve12 extracts of approximately 80 minutes' duration – six each from the Old and New Testaments – which were staged at the [[Royal National Theatre|National Theatre]].<ref>{{cite web|website=Official London Theatre|title=King James Bible: The 12 Extracts|url=https://officiallondontheatre.com/show/king-james-bible-the-12-extracts-116489/|access-date=9 February 2020}}</ref>

For Théâtre Sans Frontières, a theatre company whichthat stages accessible adaptations of foreign-language works in the original language, Kemp has dramatised – largely in French – ''[[Candide]]'' (1993),<ref>{{cite web|website=Théâtre Sans Frontières|title=Candide (1993)|url=https://www.tsf.org.uk/productions/candide-1993|access-date=10 February 2020}}</ref> ''[[The Black Tulip|La Tulipe noire]]'' (1995), ''[[The Marriage of Figaro (play)|Le Mariage de Figaro]]'' (1997)<ref>{{cite web|website=Théâtre Sans Frontières|title=Le Mariage de Figaro|url=https://www.tsf.org.uk/productions/marriage-figaro|access-date=10 February 2020}}</ref> and ''[[The Three Musketeers|Les Trois Mousquetaires]]'' (1999),<ref>{{cite web|website=Théâtre Sans Frontières|title=Les Trois Mousquetaires|url=https://www.tsf.org.uk/productions/three-musketeers|access-date=10 February 2020}}</ref> and has written a dramatisation in English and French of ''[[A Tale of Two Cities]]'' (1998).<ref>{{cite web|website=Théâtre Sans Frontières|title=A Tale Of Two Cities|url=https://www.tsf.org.uk/productions/tale-two-cities|access-date=10 February 2020}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|last=Harper|first=Colin|date=29 January 1999|worknewspaper=The Irish Times|title=A Tale Of Two Cities|url=https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/a-tale-of-two-cities-1.1258501|access-date=10 February 2020}}</ref>

Kemp's translation of [[Jean Racine]]'s tragedy ''[[Andromaque|Andromache]]'', which preserves the French form (rhyming couplets of 12-syllable lines), was first staged at RADA in May to June 2015.<ref>{{cite web|website=APGRD, University of Oxford|title=Andromache (2015)|url=http://www.apgrd.ox.ac.uk/productions/production/14217|access-date=10 February 2020}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|last=Billington|first=Michael|author-link=Michael Billington (critic)|date=2 June 2015|work=The Guardian|title=Andromache review – torrid love rectangle gets fine revival|url=https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2015/jun/02/andromache-review-torrid-love-rectangle-gets-live-revival|access-date=10 February 2020}}</ref> It was broadcast as a radio play on [[BBC Radio 3]] in January 2017.<ref>{{cite web|publisher=BBC|title=Drama on 3: Andromache|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08bbghs|access-date=10 February 2020}}</ref>

===Musical Theatretheatre and Operaopera===

In 2019, RADA graduate [[Laurence Fox]] criticised RADA's diversity policy on script submissions. Kemp defended the policy, stating that RADA must reflect a diverse society.<ref>{{cite news|last=Appleyard|first=Bryan|date=1 December 2019|work=The Times|title=Theatre interview: Rada’sRada's director leaps to the academy’sacademy's defence after alumnus Laurence Fox criticised its PC policies|url=https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/theatre-interview-radas-director-leaps-to-the-academys-defence-after-alumnus-laurence-fox-criticised-its-pc-policies-8jvg0w59k|access-date=6 February 2020}}</ref>