Out of Joint appoints new artistic director

Kate Wasserberg. Photo: Catherine Ashmore Kate Wasserberg, the award-winning founder and artistic director of The Other Room in Cardiff, is to join Max Stafford-Clark and producer Martin Derbyshire to lead Out of Joint, the theatre company specialising in touring and new writing.

Kate founded The Other Room in 2014. Two years later, the pub theatre won Fringe Theatre of the Year at the 2016 Stage Awards. It has been praised for its courageous programming, which dovetails new work with plays by writers such as Howard Barker, Samuel Beckett and Sarah Kane.

She was director of new plays and then associate director at Clwyd Theatr Cymru, where she directed new plays by Hywel John, James Graham, Matthew Bulgo and Matthew Trevannion as well as Terry Johnson, Arthur Miller and Arnold Wesker among others.

As associate director at the Finborough Theatre in London, she ran its new writing department and founded the Vibrant new writing festival, now in its ninth year. She also premiered plays by writers including James Graham and Nick Gill. She has also directed at West Yorkshire Playhouse, Edinburgh’s Traverse Theatre, Soho Theatre, and for Paines Plough and High Tide.

Kate said: “It is impossible to overestimate the impact of Out of Joint on British theatre. New plays are the wild frontier of our work, where new ideas are articulated and unknown voices are heard, responding to our changing world. I’m thrilled to be joining Max Stafford-Clark at Out of Joint. He has fostered a culture of passionate and political theatre, and he has been an inspiration to me from the start of my career.” Iain Gillie, chair of Out of Joint’s board, commented: “Kate’s impressive achievements in Cardiff at The Other Room reveal her to be both a collaborative leader and a visionary and uncompromising artist. She will expand and enrich the work and reach of our company, and I look forward with great excitement to welcoming her to our team.” Max Stafford-Clark, who founded Out of Joint in 1993 with its then producer Sonia Friedman, added: “It will be a delight to begin to get to know Kate. She has terrific taste, a passion for new writing and real entrepreneurial flare. What’s more, she understands how to direct for very different theatre spaces, which is vital for a touring company.”

In her first year as artistic director with the company, Kate will explore future commissions and directing projects as well as relationships with other organisations, while meeting existing outside commitments.

Martin Derbyshire said: “Kate shares our passion for taking exciting, relevant and challenging shows to a wide audience. As well as being someone who makes things happen she is, crucially, an experienced and acclaimed director. I hope she will enjoy the platform Out of Joint offers her, just as we will enjoy working with her to achieve her ambitions in making bold, world-class theatre.”

Out of Joint’s current production, Consent by Nina Raine, is playing in a co-production at the National Theatre having opened last week to enthusiastic notices.

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