Michael Boyd. Copyright RSC

Michael Boyd became Artistic Director of the Royal Shakespeare Company in March 2003, succeeding Adrian Noble.

He trained as a director at the Malaya Bronnaya Theatre, Moscow. He was Director at the Belgrade Theatre from 1979-82 and Associate Director at the Sheffield Crucible 1982-1984. Form 1986 to 1996 he was Artistic Director of the Tron Theatre, Glasgow, where he directed a landmark production of Macbeth (starring Iain Glen), an award winning adaptation of Janice Galloway's The Trick is to Keep Breathing (Glasgow, Edinburgh Festival; World Stage Festival, Montreal and Toronto), the introduction of Quebec playwright Michel Tremblay to Scotland (The Guid Sisters), and a string of popular and unique Glaswegian Christmas shows.

Robert Bowman as Ithocles, before Tony Britton as Crotolon, Olivia Williams as Calantha, The Broken Heart, Swan 1994

Clare Holman as Isabella, Measure for Measure, RST 1998

Tom Beard as Edward, Fiona Bell as Queen Margaret, David Oyelowo as Henry VI in Henry VI Part 3, Swan 2000

Daniel Ryan as Bottom, Josette Simon as Titania, A Midsummer Night's Dream, RST 1999

Michael Boyd has been an Associate Director with the RSC since 1996 and in 2002 won the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Director for his productions of Henry VI, Parts I, II and III and Richard III . The cycle, This England –The Histories , also won the South Bank Show Theatre Award in the same year

For all these productions he has worked with Tom Piper as designer (see also Tom Piper Theatre Profile).

William Houston as Troilus, Jayne Ashbrourne as Cressida, Troilus and Cressida, Tour 1998-9

Tristran Sturrock as the hanged Horatio, The Spanish Tragedy, Swan 1997

His other work includes Othello (Lyric, Hammersmith) (nominated Best Director, Plays and Players); The Alchemist (Cambridge Theatre Company); Miss Julie (Haymarket Theatre, West End 1999); Commedia (Lyric Hammersmith, Nominated Best Play, Evening Standard 1983); Hard to Get (Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh); Hedda Gabler (Leicester Haymarket); The Alchemist (Cambridge Theatre Company) .

Dr Susan Brock, Shakespeare Centre Library & Archive