Timothy Supple (born 24 September 1962) is a British born, award-winning international theatre director. He is the son of the academic Barry Supple.

Career

Supple has directed and adapted theatre in London and the UK as well as across the world in a wide range of languages - including in Europe, India, North Africa and the near East, Iran, Turkey, China, Japan, South Korea, Australia, Russia and the post Soviet States, and North and South America. In the UK he has worked regularly at the Royal National Theatre and Royal Shakespeare Company and was Artistic Director of the Young Vic from 1993-2000 and founding co-Artistic Director of Dash Arts from 2005-2019, creating theatre with artists internationally. He launched his new company, Supple Productions, in 2020.

UK Theatre work

At the Young Vic he directed ''A Servant to Two Masters'' (RSC co-production: national & international tour & West End), ''

As I Lay Dying ''As I Lay Dying'' is a 1930 Southern Gothic novel by American author William Faulkner. Faulkner's fifth novel, it is consistently ranked among the best novels of 20th-century literature.The New Lifetime Reading Plan: The Classical Guide to Wor ...

'', ''

Twelfth Night ''Twelfth Night'', or ''What You Will'' is a romantic comedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written around 1601–1602 as a Twelfth Night's entertainment for the close of the Christmas season. The play centres on the twins Vi ...

'', ''Blood Wedding'', '' The Jungle Book'', ''Grimm Tales'' (& international tour), ''More Grimm Tales'' (& Broadway), ''The Slab Boys Trilogy'', '' Oedipus''; for the National Theatre: ''

Haroun and the Sea of Stories ''Haroun and the Sea of Stories'' is a 1990 children's novel by Salman Rushdie. It was Rushdie's fifth major publication and followed ''The Satanic Verses''. It is a phantasmagorical story that begins in a city so sad and ruinous that it has fo ...

'', ''The Epic of Gilgamesh'', ''Billy Liar'' (national tour), ''

Accidental Death of an Anarchist ''Accidental Death of an Anarchist'' ( it, Morte accidentale di un anarchico) is a play by Italian playwright Dario Fo that premiered in 1970. Considered a classic of 20th-century theater, it has been performed across the world in more than for ...

'' (national tour), ''Whale'', '' Romeo and Juliet'', ''The Villains Opera''; for the RSC: ''Midnight's Children''(Barbican, national tour & Apollo Theatre, New York), ''Love in a Wood'', ''Tales from Ovid'' (Young Vic), ''

The Comedy of Errors ''The Comedy of Errors'' is one of William Shakespeare's early plays. It is his shortest and one of his most farcical comedies, with a major part of the humour coming from slapstick and mistaken identity, in addition to puns and word play. ...

'' (national/international tour & Young Vic), ''Spring Awakening''; for

Kenneth Branagh Sir Kenneth Charles Branagh (; born 10 December 1960) is a British actor and filmmaker. Branagh trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London and has served as its president since 2015. He has won an Academy Award, four BAFTAs (plus ...

's Renaissance Theatre Company: ''Coriolanus'' (with Branagh, Judi Dench, Richard Briers and Iain Glenn) and ''Traveling Tales''; ''The Cosmonauts Last Message...'' (Donmar Wharehouse); '' Oh, What a Lovely War!'', ''

Guys and Dolls ''Guys and Dolls'' is a musical with music and lyrics by Frank Loesser and book by Jo Swerling and Abe Burrows. It is based on "The Idyll of Miss Sarah Brown" (1933) and "Blood Pressure", which are two short stories by Damon Runyon, and also bo ...

'' (Haymarket Theatre, Leicester); ''Billy Budd'' (Crucible Theatre, Sheffield). As associate director at the Theatre Royal, York, Supple directed work by Kroetz,

Arthur Miller Arthur Asher Miller (October 17, 1915 – February 10, 2005) was an American playwright, essayist and screenwriter in the 20th-century American theater. Among his most popular plays are ''All My Sons'' (1947), '' Death of a Salesman'' (1 ...

Willy Russell William Russell (born 23 August 1946) is an English dramatist, lyricist and composer. His best known works are ''Educating Rita'', ''Shirley Valentine'', '' Blood Brothers'' and ''Our Day Out''. Early life Russell was born in Whiston, Lancash ...

and

Brecht Eugen Berthold Friedrich Brecht (10 February 1898 – 14 August 1956), known professionally as Bertolt Brecht, was a German theatre practitioner, playwright, and poet. Coming of age during the Weimar Republic, he had his first successes as a p ...

. Supple has worked outside the theatre on several occasions: his Opera includes ''Hansel and Gretel'', ''The Magic Flute'' (Opera North); John Browne's ''Babette's Feast'' (Linbury Studio, ROH); '' Il ritorno d'Ulisse in patria (Grange Festival)'' and his film work includes: ''Twelfth Night'' (Projector/Channel 4), ''Rockabye'' (IWC/Channel 4). He is the recipient of a

NESTA Nesta (formerly NESTA, National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts) is an innovation foundation based in the UK. The organisation acts through a combination of programmes, investment, policy and research, and the formation of part ...

Invention and Innovation Award for experiments in film. In 2017, Supple created ''Freedom on the Tyne'' in collaboration with artists, organisations and citizens of Newcastle-Gateshead. With text by Roy Williams and Katie Ebner-Landy, the unique event took place on Sunday 29 October on the Tyne Bridge and in venues and streets across the city centre. Celebrating the Fiftieth anniversary of Dr Martin Luther King’s visit to Tyneside to receive an honorary degree from Newcastle University, ''Freedom on the Tyne'' dramatized epic narratives of historic civil rights battles in USA, India, South Africa and UK and was performed by hundreds of local participants. Supple's adaptations for the theatre include: ''

'' (with

Dario Fo Dario Luigi Angelo Fo (; 24 March 1926 – 13 October 2016) was an Italian playwright, actor, theatre director, stage designer, songwriter, political campaigner for the Italian left wing and the recipient of the 1997 Nobel Prize in Literature. ...

& Alan Cumming); '' Billy Budd'' (with David Holman); ''The Epic of Gilgamesh''; ''Grimm Tales'' and ''More Grimm Tales'' (with

Carol Ann Duffy Dame Carol Ann Duffy (born 23 December 1955) is a Scottish poet and playwright. She is a professor of contemporary poetry at Manchester Metropolitan University, and was appointed Poet Laureate in May 2009, resigning in 2019. She was the first ...

); '' The Jungle Book''; ''Haroun and the Sea of Stories'' (with

Salman Rushdie Sir Ahmed Salman Rushdie (; born 19 June 1947) is an Indian-born British-American novelist. His work often combines magic realism with historical fiction and primarily deals with connections, disruptions, and migrations between Eastern and We ...

& David Tushingham); '' Midnight's Children'' (with Rushdie & Simon Reade); ''Tales from Ovid'' (with

Ted Hughes Edward James "Ted" Hughes (17 August 1930 – 28 October 1998) was an English poet, translator, and children's writer. Critics frequently rank him as one of the best poets of his generation and one of the twentieth century's greatest wri ...

& Simon Reade); ''Beasts and Beauties'' (with Duffy & Melly Still); and '' One Thousand and One Nights'' (with Hanan Al Shaykh).

International Theatre work

Includes: ''Beasts and Beauties'', ''Too Clever By Half'' (Norwegian National Theatre, Bergen); ''

Much Ado About Nothing ''Much Ado About Nothing'' is a comedy by William Shakespeare thought to have been written in 1598 and 1599.See textual notes to ''Much Ado About Nothing'' in ''The Norton Shakespeare'' ( W. W. Norton & Company, 1997 ) p. 1387 The play ...

'' (Maxim Gorki Theatre, Berlin); ''The Comedy of Errors (BBT, Istanbul); The Tempest (NCPA, Beijing)'' In 2005, he launched Dash Arts with Josephine Burton to create new performance in collaboration with artists from abroad. His work for Dash Arts includes ''What We Did to Weinstein'' (Menier Chocolate Factory, 2005), '' As You Like It'' (Leicester Curve, 2009) and '' A Midsummer Night's Dream'', commissioned by the British Council and created in India (2006-2008): an international success known widely as ''The Indian Dream'', the production subsequently completed two tours of India, extensive tours of the UK, Australia and North America, two seasons at Stratford-upon-Avon and a season at the Roundhouse in London. The Guardian hailed it as "the most life-enhancing production of Shakespeare's play since Peter Brook's." In 2008 Supple started work on a new theatrical adaptation of ''One Thousand and One Nights'' with the celebrated Lebanese author Hanan al Shaykh. Commissioned by

Luminato Festival Luminato Festival, Toronto's International Festival of Arts and Ideas, is an annual celebration of the arts in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, launched in 2007. In its first decade, Luminato presented over 3,000 performances featuring 11,000 artists fr ...

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the anch ...

, and produced by Dash Arts, the production was developed over two years of research and rehearsal in North Africa and the Middle East. Created with a cast and creative team drawn from the Arabic speaking world and performed in three languages over six hours, One Thousand and One Nights opened in June 2011 in Toronto and had its European premier at Edinburgh International Festival in August where the Independent hailed it as "an instant classic of engaged storytelling… a rediscovered literary masterpiece". Research Projects include: ''Peter Pan'', international project on the classic tale researched with London’s Roundhouse in Argentina, Brazil, Cuba, India and China; ''Shahanmeh,'' the great Iranian epic with text translated by Dick Davis researched at National Theatre London and in Tehran; ''1917,'' the Soviet and post-Soviet experience researched in Russia and across the post-Soviet States; '' King Lear – International Theatre Laboratory'', launched in 2015, a research and production process investigating the world’s great theatre traditions, so far in Japan, South Korea, Mexico and UK; ''The Devils Are Not Sleeping '', exploring the ancient, historical and political story of European union with text by Katie Ebner-Landy and artists across Europe.

Awards and nominations

Awards: Time Out (Grimm Tales), TMA (A Midsummer Night's Dream), Herald Angel - EIF (One Thousand and One Nights), Dora- Toronto (A Midsummer Night's Dream), Yapi Krede Afifi - Istanbul (Comedy of Errors). Nominations: Olivier (Accidental Death of an Anarchist), BAFTA (Twelfth Night), Evening Standard (Grimm Tales, A Midsummer Night's Dream).

External links

Tim Supple biography
accessed 24 August 2015. {{DEFAULTSORT:Supple, Tim English theatre directors English musical theatre directors British opera directors Alumni of Churchill College, Cambridge Place of birth missing (living people) Living people 1962 births