Rachel Kavanaugh

An award winning and highly experienced director working both in the UK and internationally who is known for her versatility directing both straight plays and musical theatre.  Her most recent new productions include Clueless (Trafalgar Theatre), Here and Now (UK tour) A Knight’s Tale (Manchester Opera House) and The Great British Bake Off Musical (Cheltenham Everyman and Noel Coward Theatre).  Her production of Shadowlands starring Hugh Bonneville and Maggie Siff is currently running in the West End at the Aldwych Theatre.

She has directed many notable productions for major UK companies including the Royal Shakespeare company where her work included The Merry Wives of Windsor which also played at the Old Vic and in the US, and the acclaimed adaptation of A Christmas Carol by David Edgar; Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre, where productions included A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Much Ado about Nothing, Cymbeline and The Sound of Music, and Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (both of which were Olivier nominated for Best Musical Revival); and Chichester Festival Theatre, where she directed Kipps: The New Half a Sixpence musical, Shadowlands, The Winslow Boy, An Ideal Husband and Love Story (Olivier nominated for Best New Musical).

Other notable work includes The Wind in The Willows (Plymouth Theatre Royal, tour and London Palladium), Oklahoma! (BBC Prom, Royal Albert Hall with The John Wilson Orchestra), The Witches of Eastwick (Cameron Mackintosh and Cirkus Theatre, Stockholm), Romeo and Juliet (Washington Shakespeare Theatre), The Rivals (Bristol Old Vic), Hope Place (Liverpool Everyman), Oklahoma! (UK tour) and Guys and Dolls (Sheffield Crucible).

From 2006 to 2011, she served as the Artistic Director of Birmingham Repertory Theatre, becoming the venue’s first female leader. Productions included Arthur and George (co-production with Nottingham Playhouse), Notes to Future Self (and tour), His Dark Materials, Hapgood, The Wizard of Oz, Peter Pan - a Musical Adventure, The Madness of George III (all co-productions with Leeds Playhouse) Uncle Vanya, The Cherry Orchard, Arcadia (co-production with Bristol Old Vic) Racing Demon, Murmuring Judges, The Absence of War, A Doll’s House (and UK tour).