Michael Frayn next Cameron Mackintosh Visiting Professor
09 Jul 09
Michael Frayn has been named as the next Cameron Mackintosh Visiting Professor of Contemporary Theatre, based at St Catherine’s College. He will succeed the actor and director Kevin Spacey in October this year.
Michael Frayn is probably best known as a playwright, although he started his career as a columnist for the Guardian and The Observer newspapers. After doing his National Service, he studied Philosophy at Cambridge. He has won numerous prizes for his novels, including the Somerset Maugham Award, and the Hawthornden Prize; and, for his latest novel, Spies, he won the 2002 Whitbread Novel Award and the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize. His catalogue of plays includes Donkeys’ Years, Noises Off, Copenhagen and most recently Afterlife for the National Theatre in 2008, as well as a number of translations, mostly from the Russian. He has also published two philosophical studies, Constructions and The Human Touch, and a collection of writing about the theatre, Stage Directions.
Michael Frayn said: ‘I am very honoured by the appointment, and hope I can find something to say about the nature of drama and the practice of theatre that has not already been said by my distinguished predecessors.’
Michael FraynI am very honoured by the appointment, and hope I can find something to say about the nature of drama and the practice of theatre that has not already been said by my distinguished predecessors.
The Chair of Contemporary Theatre, founded at St Catherine's College through a grant from the Mackintosh Foundation, 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 Stephen Sondheim, Alan Ayckbourn, Richard Eyre, Phyllida Lloyd and Patrick Stewart.
The Master of St Catherine's College, Professor Roger Ainsworth, said: ‘I am delighted that Michael has agreed to do this. I think he will bring a breadth of experience to the role that few could match in terms of the diversity and quantity of his output. As a journalist, playwright, novelist and translator he will bring a unique perspective to the Professorship. His wit and intellect infuse all that he does and we are immensely privileged to be welcoming him to St Catherine's in this role.’
Michael Frayn’s inaugural lecture will take place at St Catherine's College on Monday 26 October.