Theatre / Bristol old vic
Bristol Old Vic chief executive announces her departure
On the eve of the completion of its front of house refurbishment and in the wake of its 250th anniversary celebrations, Bristol Old Vic’s chief executive is taking up a new role in Canada.
Emma Stenning is heading across the Atlantic to become executive director at Toronto’s Soulpepper theatre company.
Alongside artistic director Tom Morris, Emma Stenning has led Bristol Old Vic since 2009 when the pair arrived together from Battersea Arts Centre to take on the embattled organisation at a critical moment in its life.
Over the nine years of her tenure, the Old Vic has risen to a position of national and international significance, taking its place once again alongside the leading theatres in the country and re-establishing its international reputation.
Alongside this, Stenning has also managed the multi-million-pound redevelopment of the theatre. The refurbishment of the historic 252-year-old auditorium and its backstage spaces was completed in 2012; while the foyer, public spaces, Coopers’ Hall and new studio theatre is set to open on September 24.
Since 2009, Emma and artistic director Tom Morris have steered Bristol Old Vic through a crucial period of its history
Stenning said: “It is an enormous honour to be invited to take up this role and I am thrilled that Bristol Old Vic’s growing national and international reputation has made it possible for me to take this exciting opportunity.
“It is a wrench to leave both the theatre and the city of Bristol, as I have fallen in love with both over the past nine years. A part of me will always live here. But at the same time, the reopening of the renewed theatre is the perfect moment to embrace a new challenge.”
Morris added: “This is an amazing opportunity for the brilliant Emma Stenning whose talents, quite rightly, have been recognised internationally.
“Hers has been the steady hand on the tiller of the business through all our creative successes of the last nine years: hers have been the skills which have delivered the radical refurbishment of the building on time and on budget, reopening this September: and hers have been the brilliant collaborative skills which have developed a new consensus within Bristol’s creative sector about what we can offer the city and how we can all contribute to radical change in the city we love.”
Stenning standing within the Old Vic’s new foyer due to open in September
Photo by @JonCraig_Photos
Bristol Old Vic chair, Dame Liz Forgan, said: “I am sad but not at all surprised that Emma has been recognised from across the world. She has been an outstanding CEO and a delightful colleague. Bristol, the theatre and all my colleagues on the board owe her a huge debt and we wish her all good things for the future.
“Her partnership with Tom Morris has been an exceptional one and I look forward to working with Tom to shape the artistic programme for 2019 and the leadership structure which will take Bristol Old Vic forward into a new era.”
Photos by Geraint Lewis
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