Emma Rice won’t leave her post as artistic director of Shakespeare’s Globe until 2018, but she has already lined up her next gig. Per The Stage, Rice has announced her plans to establish Wise Children, a new theater company located in the South West of England.
Wise Children will “work with venues through a series of residencies to create ‘innovative ensemble theater’ that will then be toured nationally and abroad,” the source details. Funding from Arts Council England will help finance the new company’s 2018–2022 lineup.
“Anyone starting up a new theater company in the current climate struggles against the odds to get started, and the Arts Council have given us a much-needed chance to begin our journey,” Rice said as she thanked the organization.
Rice also expressed her commitment to promoting inclusivity in the theater via Emma Rice’s School for Wise Children, a training and apprenticeship program. Rice will work closely with her students at the School, which will be designed “around intensive modules.”
The focus on increasing diversity within the theater world could not come at a better time. A recent study from U.S. labor union Actors’ Equity found that most acting and stage management jobs in theater are still going to white men. People of color, especially, are severely underrepresented as performers and stage managers. Rice’s plan to address this problem at Wise Children is not only encouraging, it is essential.
“I look forward to growing Wise Children to become the inclusive, passionate, and imaginative company I know it will be,” Rice announced. “We will nurture and support diverse new voices and talent, bringing them together with the most brilliant and creative established artists and practitioners in the industry.”
Rice began her tenure at the Globe in April 2016. News of her planned exit broke in October 2016. Reportedly, Rice decided to leave after she and the Globe’s board clashed over the presence of technology in her plays. Many Globe execs feel strongly that — in order to preserve the authenticity of the original Globe — artificial lights and other effects should be avoided as much as possible.
This April, Rice wrote an open letter that suggested her issues with the Board ran much deeper than artistic differences over technology. “I chose to leave because, as important and beloved as the Globe is to me, the Board did not love and respect me back,” she explained. “It did not understand what I saw, what I felt, and what I created with my actors, creative teams, and the audience.” She added, “Never think that my decision to step down in 2018 was simply about lights and sound. It was about personal trust and artistic freedom.”
