Deborah Warner named as Visiting Professor of Contemporary Theatre

Deborah Warner CBE will succeed Sir Tom Stoppard as the 27th Cameron Mackintosh Visiting Professor of Contemporary Theatre at Oxford University. The renowned director of theatre and opera will take up the post in January 2019. The Chair of Contemporary Theatre, founded through a grant from the Mackintosh Foundation at St Catherine's College, aims to promote interest in, and the study and practice of, contemporary theatre. The visiting professorship has previously been held by actors, writers, directors, and producers including Arthur Miller, Alan Ayckbourn, Richard Eyre, Stephen Sondheim, Phyllida Lloyd, Richard Attenborough, Nick Hytner, Ian Mckellen, Claude-Michel Schönberg and Tom Stoppard. Professor Roger Ainsworth, Master of St Catherine's College, said: "We are extremely excited to know that Deborah Warner will be arriving as our new Cameron Mackintosh Visiting Professor of Contemporary Theatre in January. Her breadth of stellar directing will be of immense interest to our community, and a great help to the student population." Cameron Mackintosh said "Having hoped for many years that Deborah Warner would be available to accept the Chair of Contemporary Theatre at St Catherine's, I'm delighted that she is now able to be our 27th Professor. Deborah continues a long line of distinguished directors who have held this post.