Jude Kelly
Director
Like Jimmy McGovern, Jude Kelly was born in Liverpool. As a child, she organized plays for her family and friends in her back garden and was, she says, “…interested in how many stories there are, and who is not in the stories, and why.”
She has been a folk singer and an actress, but it is her versatility as both a producer and director which has brought her wide acclaim.
Following five years as Artisitc Director of Battersea Arts Centre in the 1980s, a venue renowned for its innovative and daring programme, Kelly joined the Royal Shakespeare Company and went on to be the first artistic director of West Yorkshire Playhouse.
Currently, she is the artistic director of the South Bank Centre and is the chair of the arts, education and culture committee for the 2012 Olympics.
Amongst her many admirers, Sir Ian McKellen, Patrick Stewart and Prunella Scales have all praised Kelly as a formidable force in theatre, a force which was acknowledged with an OBE award in 1997.