Andrew Upton appointed Artistic Director of Sydney Theatre Company

“One of the key things that attracted me to stay was the opportunity tocontinue my working partnership with Patrick McIntyre. Patrick will workin very close collaboration with me as Executive Director of the company. Atthis point in STC’s development, I believe it is important to have a strongpartnership between the artistic and business aims of the Company,”Andrew Upton said. “I relish the opportunities for change and growthahead.”Patrick McIntyre said: “It has been incredibly exciting professionally and agreat privilege to work with the team at STC during a period of change andrenewal. Especially because – like Andrew and Cate – my career in the artsstarted off here. Performing arts organisations are getting more and morecomplex. It’s an exciting challenge and one that relies on a strong alignmentbetween artistic and business leadership. It’s fantastic that Andrew will bestaying on – it very much feels like we have more to do.”Cate Blanchett said: “My first job as an actor was at STC and many of mymost influential experiences have been here. I will always maintain a strongpersonal connection to the Company.“I was very excited for STC when Andrew was appointed for another term.We weighed up all of our personal and professional needs and felt that –with Australia as our home – it was a great way to bring all of our initiativesat the Company to fruition. It is very important for STC to consolidate andbuild at this time,” she said. “I’ve always said he was the brains behind theoperation!”Andrew Upton’s association with Sydney Theatre Company spans thirteenyears and he has been Co Artistic Director since January 2008. As writer,his first adaptation for STC was Edmond Rostand’s Cyrano de Bergeracwhich debuted in 1999 and was reprised at Melbourne Theatre Company in2005. His adaptation of Moliere’s Don Juan was produced by STC in 2001.A third major adaptation, Hedda Gabler, was staged by STC in 2004 andtoured to New York in early 2006. His adaptation of Anton Chekhov’s TheCherry Orchard was presented by STC in 2005. In 2010 his adaptation ofChekhov’s Uncle Vanya was presented at Sydney Theatre. The productiontoured to the United States in 2011 and 2012 to extraordinary acclaim andwas named the best play of the year by Washington Post critic Peter Marks,after what he described as the strongest year of theatre in a decade. In TheNew York Times, Ben Brantley declared that he considered the three hoursof the show “among the happiest of my theatergoing life”.Other works for STC include his play Riflemind, staged as part of the 2007STC main stage season and in London in 2008 for the Ambassador TheatreGroup.He has a long association with the National Theatre of Great Britain. Hisadaptation of Maxim Gorky's Philistines was presented there in 2007, andhis adaptation of Bulgakov’s The White Guard was commissioned andpresented by the National in 2010. Andrew’s own production of The WhiteGuard was presented by STC in 2011, and later in that year his adaptation