BAM Affiliation Declan Donnellan is a director, and co-founder and co-Artistic Director of Cheek by Jowl, the British theater company he co-founded in 1981 with Nick Ormerod. Cheek by Jowl first appeared at BAM during the fall 1994 Next Wave Festival with a production of As You Like It, which Donnellan directed.

According to the program notes that year, “The aims of the company were to re-examine the great classics of world theatre and to investigate them in a fresh and unsentimental way. More importantly, all pre-conceived director and design fantasies were to be eschewed in order to place a new focus on the actor… Sets and costumes were to be simple and designed to free the actor. All interpretation would evolve organically throughout the rehearsals. Centre-stage was to pass from the director and designer to the actor and the text. Furthermore, rehearsals would continue throughout the entire run with the whole performance period seen as work in progress.”

This 2016 production of The Winter’s Tale marks Donnellan’s tenth visit to BAM as a director, and the eighth visit of Cheek by Jowl, which has returned with a range of classics. This will be the sixth from Shakespeare’s canon.

WORKS DIRECTED AT BAM
The Winter’s Tale Cheek by Jowl Fall 2016
’Tis Pity She’s a Whore Cheek by Jowl Spring 2012
Macbeth Cheek by Jowl Spring 2011
Cymbeline Cheek by Jowl Spring 2007
Twelfth Night Chekhov International Theatre Festival Fall 2006
Othello Cheek by Jowl Fall 2004
Le Cid Festival d’Avignon Spring 1999
Much Ado About Nothing Cheek by Jowl Spring 1998
The Duchess of Malfi Cheek by Jowl Fall 1995
As You Like It Cheek by Jowl Fall 1994