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Ten years of Michelle Terry at Shakespeare's Globe

by Editorial

9 minute read

Michelle Terry will be stepping down as Artistic Director of the Globe at the end of 2027. As part of her final summer season, she will be returning to the Globe stage to play one of theatre’s most iconic female roles, Mother Courage, described as ‘a service to the public and to the theatrical canon’ (The Standard) and ‘a brave piece of programming that reaffirms Terry’s inspired leadership as an actor and artistic director’ (Arts Desk). 

Michelle Terry has said:

“Next year it will be ten years since I began this seminal role and 20 years since I first performed on that incredibly special stage.

2027 also marks 30 years since the Globe Theatre opened. So it is only at the beginning of its own “eventful history”, and I can say in no uncertain terms that it has been the greatest privilege of my life to have been a part of these formative years. These theatres are the most extraordinary theatres in the world. We have the privilege of being able to ask: what can we do here that cannot be done anywhere else.

Throughout its 30-year history, 50% of The Globe’s Artistic Directors have been actor-managers, which I don’t think is accidental or incidental. The umbilical relationship between actor and audience is at the heart of every performance. There is no membrane, no fourth wall, only pure eye-to-eye connection. The democratic gesture of these theatres is a deliberate act of resistance against division, and it is needed now more than ever.

I inherited a vision that was to make Shakespeare and The Globe available and accessible for all, and I have dedicated my tenure to realising it, both in the work that we make and the ways that we make it. Everything we have done has been created and curated with the art, artists & audience in mind.

We have needed to find the balance between our clear charitable purpose and very real commercial imperatives. We have held onto the £5 ticket not just so everyone can afford to go to the theatre but because it is everyone’s right to go to the theatre.  We have put these plays and the spaces to work and addressed some of the most urgent issues facing people and the planet.

Every single day I have had the privilege to witness first-hand the benefits of theatre and Shakespeare on the young and the young at heart, to experience the socially cohesive power of arts engagement and the long-term impact this can have on the individual and the collective.

And every day I have had the privilege to work with artists practicing at the top of their game across all areas of theatre-craft. It is the alchemy of these people, the material of these plays, the deep understanding of our spaces and the unique presence of the audience that will always produce new interpretations and fresh perspectives.

I applied for this job because of my love of Shakespeare’s plays and these spaces. It is because of the people who I have had the honour to work with that I leave more astonished by Shakespeare’s plays, more excited about the potential of these playhouses, and more convinced than ever that Theatre is the most necessary of AI-proof art forms.

The ache I feel at saying goodbye is only equal to the love and pride I feel for having been here. I look forward immensely to the next year and to championing Shakespeare and The Globe forever.”

2027 is a year of anniversaries for us. It marks 10 years of Michelle Terry as our Artistic Director, 20 years of her acting on our stages, and 30 years since the Globe Theatre opened. 

Michelle’s tenure has been defined by inclusion and representation, driven by our vision to make Shakespeare and the Globe available and accessible to all. Everything has been curated and created with the art, the artists and the audience in mind, in the hope of widening who theatre, Shakespeare and the Globe are for. 

Across her tenure so far, we have hired over 2,000 actors. Despite the Covid closures, our 77 productions will have been seen by over 2.3 million people and rising, with audiences visiting from over 190 countries. In recent years, 91% of our audiences have given us 4 or 5 stars, and purchases of access tickets have more than doubled in the last five years. 

New writing has remained at the heart of our work, with Michelle commissioning 25 new plays, 63% written by women and 26% by global majority writers. It began with Emilia, conceived and commissioned by Michelle and written by Morgan Lloyd Malcolm. It transferred from our stage to the West End’s Vaudeville Theatre in 2019, where The Independent called it “a landmark moment in the history of Shakespeare’s Globe.” It won three Olivier Awards in 2020, including Best Entertainment or Comedy Play, and hosted the West End’s first baby-friendly performance (Let Them Roar). Every performance at the Globe Theatre remains baby friendly. Emilia was followed by groundbreaking productions including After Edward, I, Joan, Metamorphoses, Hakawatis, Princess Essex and Deep Azure, and by the inaugural Climate Playwriting Prize in 2026. 

Michelle introduced the wider Western canon to the Globe: Ibsen’s Ghosts, Miller’s The Crucible, Brecht’s Mother Courage, Chekhov’s Three Sisters, and our upcoming The Seagull. 

A key focus has been opening up the worlds and works of Shakespeare to the young and the young at heart. The Snow Globe, The Fir Tree, Hansel & Gretel and Pinocchio have made us a fixture of the festive calendar. We’ve also built hugely successful partnerships with creative artists beyond the Globe. Our current sold-out show, MakeBeth, was created by award-winning playwright Hannah Khalil and brought to life entirely through the recycled cardboard magic of designer Sam Wilde. Our youngest audiences have enjoyed the Globe through the BBC’s CBeebies Twelfth Night and the BAFTA-winning CBeebies As You Like It (2025’s TV BAFTA for Children’s Scripted). 

Michelle has created innovative and extraordinary events and unique productions. She has expanded our visiting artists and events programme, with over 63,000 people attending talks, music and comedy gigs and one-off shows. She has built key co-productions, partnerships and relationships, and continued the reach of our work beyond Bankside, on tour and on screen. With artist development in mind, every production receives professional support for the unamplified voice and a practical approach to Shakespeare’s language, and she created resident writers and resident directors’ programmes to nurture a bespoke understanding of making work for these spaces. 

Michelle has programmed the most famous of Shakespeare’s plays while enlivening our two theatres with lesser-known jewels. Hundreds of thousands of £5 tickets have been bought by our audiences. This unique price has made the Globe accessible to all since 1997, and we’ve championed it for 30 years.

WHAT OTHERS HAVE SAID

Stella Kanu, Chief Executive Officer, Shakespeare’s Globe, said: “Michelle Terry was one of the principal reasons I wanted to join the Globe, and working alongside her has deepened my admiration for her artistic courage, her rigorous thinking and her commitment to inclusion. Her extraordinary understanding of Shakespeare and humanity gives other artists the confidence and freedom to explore and opens the plays to audiences familiar and new. I congratulate her on all she has achieved and I am proud to work alongside her and look forward to everything we will continue to build together before she moves on at the end of 2027.” 

Dame Jayne-Anne Gadhia, Chair of the Board, said: “Michelle is a magnetic performer and an exceptional artistic leader whose vision, courage and commitment have helped transform the Globe. It has been a privilege and a pleasure to work alongside her, and on behalf of trustees past and present, I want to express our profound admiration and gratitude for all she has given to this remarkable organisation. She will be greatly missed, and we look forward to celebrating her continuing contribution and ensuring her legacy flourishes.”

Sean Holmes, Associate Artistic Director of Shakespeare’s Globe, said: “It has been an absolute pleasure and privilege to work with Michelle. She’s led with kindness, empathy, and bravery and leaves a body of work and a family of artists that deeply embody all these traits. Fabulous Artistic Director. Fabulous Actor. Fabulous Human.”  

Robert Hastie, Deputy Artistic Director at the National Theatre, said: “Michelle has led the Globe from the stage, brilliantly. Her leadership – like her acting – is marked with passion and compassion. She has a fierce belief in the potential and dignity of human beings, and finds in Shakespeare endless evidence to support that conviction. Working in that building, as I’ve had the privilege to do, you can feel the strength of her commitment to the idea that there might be a better way to do things.”

Ola Ince, Associate Director of the Almeida Theatre, said: “Michelle Terry is warmth, elegance, intelligence and integrity. She has heart, talent and imagination in abundance. She tirelessly champions art and artists because she BELIEVES in art and its transformative power. Michelle has ALWAYS given me space to interrogate, play and dismantle; without her I wouldn’t be the director I am today. I will forever be grateful for her leadership and warrior spirit.”

George Fouracres, actor: “Michelle Terry has led Shakespeare’s Globe not only as an artistic director but somehow as a friend to each individual one of us. She grew compassion and intellectual endeavour here like Elizabethan gardeners grew periwinkle and marjoram, so now the whole place is green and blossoming with them. She is kindness on stilts and her legacy will grow as long as our hearts live at the Globe.” 

Paul Ready, actor and husband to Michelle Terry, said: “I watched with awe as Michelle bloomed into the role of Artistic Director. Bringing with her a rare integrity and humanity. Always letting the work do the talking. It has been extraordinary to share her journey, and it was never less than inspiring to act in plays with her. But perhaps the most precious thing to see, was how, as a mother, she nurtured our then ten-month-old child. Helping her grow up surrounded by these incredible plays and extraordinary artists. And instilling in her, always, the feeling that the whole globe is her playground.” 

Elle While, Director of Mother Courage, said: “Hope, joy and love were not the resounding emotions I expected to feel when directing a production of Mother Courage and Her Children. But that is what I felt thrumming through the Globe last summer with this production. That and a redoubled belief in the power of humanity coming together and theatres potential to move, motivate and inspire. To return to the production a year on is a total thrill- I am so excited that more people will get to be part of the mayhem and spend a night in the astonishing company of the insanely talented team helmed by the virtuosic Michelle Terry. Directing Michelle in her last performance on the Globe stage as the Artistic Director of this iconic cultural beacon is the honour of a lifetime.  Michelle has had an impact on the theatre ecology that has spread, excellence, rigour, kindness and inclusivity and I hope sincerely that these ripples will be felt for years to come.”

TERRY ON STAGE

Michelle has led us from the stage. While Artistic Director, she has played Adam and William in As You Like It, Biondello in The Taming of the Shrew, Cordelia and the Fool in King Lear, Hamlet, Hotspur in Henry IV Part 1, Lady Macbeth, Mother Courage, Olga in Three Sisters, Olivia in the Twelfth Night Cue Script, Puck in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Richard III, Titania in the Midsummer Cue Script, and Viola in Twelfth Night. She also directed The Fir Tree in the Globe Theatre and has done extensive script dramaturgy throughout her tenure. 

OUR ARTISTS

We’ve been joined across both stages by a remarkable group of artists, including Aaron Pierre, Adam Gillen, Adjoa Andoh, Alfie Enoch, André Holland, Annette Badland, Arthur Hughes, Barrie Rutter, Bea Segura, Charity Wakefield, David Caves, Dona Kroll, Ekow Quartey, Eliza Carthy, Francesca Mills, George Fouracres, Greg Hicks, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Hattie Morahan, Helen Schlesinger, Jeanette Winterson, Jocelyn Jee Esien, Joseph Marcell, Kathryn Hunter, Katy Stephens, Ken Nwosu, Lynette Linton, Mark Rylance, Martina Laird, Mackenzie Crook, Oliver Chris, Paul Chahidi, Paul Hilton, Paul Ready, Paulette Randall, Pauline McLynn, Pearce Quigley, Peter White, Pippa Nixon, Rebekah Murrell, Rob Hastie, Ronkẹ Adékọluẹ́jọ́, Sam Spiro, Simon Russell-Beale, Steffan Donnelly, Stephen Fry, Stephen Mangan, Stuart Thompson, Tamsin Griffin, Tanya Reynolds, Tara Fitzgerald, Thalissa Teixeira, Tim Crouch, Timberlake Wertenbaker, Winsome Pinnock and Vinette Robinson. 

We also remember some extraordinary actors who are sadly missed: Adrian Schiller, Hattie Ladbury, Marcello Magni and our founder Claire Van Kampen. 

KEY STATISTICS FROM 2018 - PRESENT

  • 77 productions, 3,236 performances and 51 unique show titles 
  • 2.3 million audience members from summer 2018 to date, from 190 countries 
  • Over 63,000 people at talks, music and comedy gigs, and one-off shows 
  • Access ticket purchases more than doubled in five years, and we now host an average of 90 access performances a year (relaxed, captioned, audio-described and signed) 
  • The first major theatre to introduce parent, carer and dependent friendly hours throughout rehearsals and repertory scheduling 
  • Over 850 creative freelancers engaged in any given year, from academics, storytellers and photographers to directors, designers, composers, musicians, prop makers, stage managers, technicians, carpenters, engineers and scenic painters 

All of this has been achieved as an independent charity, without regular government subsidy. 

A SELECTION OF TOP QUOTES

  • Macbeth (2018): “A show so beautifully thought through that nearly every line feels new.” (The Telegraph) / “The most potent theatrical moment of the year.” (Metro) / “Startlingly good.” (The Times) / “The best pairing of the diabolical duo I’ve ever seen.” (Daily Mail) 
  • Henry Trilogy (2019): “Terry is terrific, fizzing with fury.” (The Observer) / “The entire ensemble are a joy to watch.” (WhatsOnStage) / “Joyous, revealing and meaningful, celebrating the versatility of theatre.” (Financial Times) 
  • Richard II (2019): “A reminder that Shakespeare is available to everyone.” (The Guardian) 
  • Merchant of Venice (2021): “Heart-wrenching” (The Guardian) and “tremendously sensitive” (The Stage) 
  • King Lear (2022): “The final Lear-Cordelia scene was almost unbearably affecting.” (The Guardian) / “A wonderfully sardonic Fool.” (Time Out) 
  • Richard III (2024): “Hugely compelling picture of corrupted male power.” (The Guardian) 
  • Antony & Cleopatra (2024): “A landmark for a major theatre.” (Time Out) 
  • Othello (2024): “Intimate, powerful production.” (The Standard) 
  • Princess Essex (2024): “The whole stage shrieks with life.” (Time Out) 
  • Three Sisters (2025): “It ought to be the yardstick with which to measure past and future iterations of the play.” (The Telegraph) 
  • Troilus & Cressida (2025): “Bawdy, ballsy interpretation… arrestingly captures the play’s spirit.” (The Times) 
  • The Crucible (2025): “The Globe’s democratic quality — the open forum, the shared light — offers director Ola Ince a great opportunity to bring it close to home.” (Financial Times) 
  • Deep Azure (2026): “A reminder that his death robbed us not only of a magnificent actor, but a remarkable writer as well.” (WhatsOnStage) 
  • A Midsummer Night’s Dream (2026): “Lim and her cast made it come alive for me again.” (The Standard) 
  • Love’s Labour’s Lost (2026): “Brimming with imagination and really evoking the soul of flamenco through Shakespeare.” (WhatsOnStage) 
  • Much Ado About Nothing (2026): “When the Globe is in its element, there’s no more magical spot.” (The Telegraph) 

INNOVATIVE PROGRAMMING

Innovation across the Globe spaces has been a key part of Michelle’s tenure, including:

  • ‘Cue Scripts’ – these ‘one night only’ performances brought together a host of brave actors who had never rehearsed the play but knew their cue and their own lines. Meeting at 9am on the morning of an evening performance, these productions have thrilled audiences as the company recreate the way of staging Shakespeare borrowed from 400 years ago.
  • ‘Audience Choice’ – an interactive theatrical format where the assembled audience votes live on the night to decide which play or role the ensemble would perform…also meaning the actors held three full Shakespeare plays in their mind ready to leap into whichever the audience shouted for the most. This was toured from the Globe stage to six countries and 20 cities.
  • One show across both theatres – A Winter’s Tale directed by Sean Holmes journeyed the audience between the aristocratic luxury of Sicilia in the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse to the pastoral playground of Bohemia in the Globe Theatre in a ‘theatrical experience not to be missed’ (Broadway World).
  • An epic bilingual production – Antony & Cleopatra used Spoken English and British Sign Language, thrilling audiences, and winning the UK Theatre Award for Excellence in Inclusivity
  • Bilingual Welsh and English production of Romeo a Juliet from Theatr Cymru in co-production with the Globe ran across Wales and finished with its London debut in the Playhouse.
  • First ever company of women of colour in a Shakespeare play on a major UK stage – Richard II starring and directed by Adjoa Andoh and co-directed by Lynette Linton.
  • Site-specific, immersive, verbatim theatre Ralegh: The Treason Trial was written and edited by actor Oliver Chris; recreating Sir Walter Ralegh’s infamous 1603 show trial. The production played at the Great Hall of Winchester Castle, where Sir Walter Ralegh was tried for treason.
  • Burnt at the Stake, or The Whole of the Truth was a one-night-only special event of uncensored, anonymous storytelling. A kernel of an idea written by Timberlake Wertenbaker is now being staged in the Playhouse – The Animals Come to the Table
  • A festive theatrical film during covid of Christmas at the (Snow) Globe: the live production by Sandi Toksvig and Jenifer Toksvig. Cast included: Olivia Coleman and Bonnie Langford.Over Christmas 2020 we reached 4,000 households in 43 countries. The film was shared for free with residents from 182 Care Homes and patients from 23 Children’s Hospitals.
  • Love in Isolation: a covid-closure partnership with the Guardian, featuring Stephen Fry, Gugu Mbatha-Raw and Michelle Terry it received over 120,000 views.
  • 8 Globe Player filmed productions were released for free on YouTube during the Globe theatre closure, gaining an incredible 2.7million views amassed from the UK to the USA, India to Australia. Over lockdown closures, 400 online events were released for teachers, schools and families reaching six different continents and 31 different countries. The Playhouse was transformed into a recording studio with two full festivals released digitally packed with new writing and talks.
  • ‘Such Stuff’ an original podcast from the Globe which ran for 8 seasons.
  • New ways of talking about the work, including working on and off screen with Rob Beckett and Romesh Ranganathan in their ‘Rob & Romesh Vs.’ Award-winning Series, as the comedians discovered how to prepare for performing Shakespeare at the Globe.
  • First-ever Climate Playwrighting Prize. Judges are Michelle Terry, Nancy Medina (Artistic Director Bristol Old Vic), Lucy Stone (Founder and Executive Climate Spring), Sir Lenny Henry (Actor, writer and philanthropist), Professor Pablo Mukherjee (Professor of Anglophone World-Literature), Lucy Kirkwood (Playwright) and The Walk Productions’ Artistic Director, the award-winning playwright and director Amir Nizar Zuabi.

DIVERSIFYING AUDIENCES, ARTISTS, AND REACH

Since 2019, over 63,000 people have attended our talks, gigs and one-off shows. 

Music. Live music is performed at every show in our theatres. Michelle has also programmed live music events with James Bay, Arlo Parks, Damon Albarn, Johnny Flynn & Robert Macfarlane, John Williams, Hip Hop Shakespeare, The Fourth Choir, Show of Hands, The Sixteen, Shabaka Hutchings, Inua Ellams, Clara Sanabras, Xuefei Yang and Bourgeois & Maurice. 

Comedy. Comedy has felt at home with us, with the Comedy Store Players, Daniel Kitson, Tim Key, Phil Wang, Vittorio Angelone, Ania Magliano, Luke Kempner, Pierre Novellie, Chloe Petts and Ahir Shah. 

Special events. Across Michelle’s tenure we’ve hosted an incredible array of special events: 

  • Open Iftar: the Ramadan Tent Project joined us twice for their free event, as part of the Ramadan Festival in 2023 and 2025. 
  • Sonny’s Blues: BAFTA- and Olivier-nominated actor Omari Douglas performed a rehearsed reading of James Baldwin’s 1957 short story in 2025. 
  • Sonnet Sunday (2018): all 154 of Shakespeare’s sonnets, performed by professionals and amateurs, including our most local communities (The Dragon Café, Band of Mothers, Borough Market Choir) alongside our staff and stewards. 
  • Peace One Day (2021): performances on our stage for its 20th anniversary from Sting, Mark Rylance as the BFG, Jude Law, André Holland, Joely Richardson, Sinéad Cusack, Emeli Sandé, Jack Savoretti, Basement Jaxx, Will Young and the Citizens of the World Choir. 
  • Moving Stories (2018): sketches, short plays and songs about the experiences of refugees, in support of UNHCR, performed by Omar Baroud, Mackenzie Crook, Simon Russell-Beale, Caroline Sheen and others. The new work was written and donated by Stephanie Dale, Toby Davies, Staten Cousins-Roe, David Edgar, Michael Morpurgo, Phil Porter, Alexander Rudd, Jenifer Toksvig and other leading artists. 
  • Dark Night of the Soul (2018): five short contemporary plays, subtitled A Feminine Response to the Faustian Myth, exploring “What would you sell your soul for?” alongside Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus. Chekhov Short Stories (2025) was paired with Three Sisters in the same spirit. 
  • Notes to the Forgotten She-Wolves (2020): new writing honouring history’s forgotten women. During Covid closures we released three filmed monologues from Nicôle Lecky, Winsome Pinnock and Amanda Wilkin. 
  • Deep Night, Dark Night (2019): haunting new stories from Jeanette Winterson, Morgan Lloyd Malcolm, Sami Ibrahim and Diana Evans. 
  • Deen & Dunya: regular nights of live Muslim poetry and performance, founded, curated and hosted by actor and poet Azan Ahmed. 
  • Climate: a gathering in support of COP30, the UN climate change conference led by Brazil, in 2025. In 2026, a series of events and a site-wide Open Day for London Climate Action Week, with community-led sustainability hubs, off-grid theatrical performances and climate-focused talks. 
  • Mawa (2023): the UK’s first all-Black, all-female Shakespeare company held a Monologue Slam Night in the Playhouse, with classic pieces from Black and Black Mixed Race female artists. Mawa was founded by Maisey Bawden, Gabrielle Brooks, Danielle Kassaraté and Jade Samuels. 
  • The Globe Talks: essential conversations about our work in relation to the world we live in. Guests have included Christopher Bailey, formerly Arts and Health lead at the World Health Organization, and Professor Daisy Fancourt, who joined Michelle in the Playhouse to discuss her book Art Cure: The Science of How the Arts Transform Our Health. Her work is informing the UK Government on new ways to calculate the impact of art on public health. 
  • Refugee Day: marked with the Citizens of the World Choir; Nanjing (2018), written and performed by Associate Artist Jude Christian and directed by Elayce Ismail; and the making of The Stranger’s Case film with the International Rescue Committee. 
  • Letters to the Earth (2021): two filmed letters (Titania and “O Ruined Piece of Nature”) showing Shakespeare’s 400-year-old letter to the planet. 
  • Shakespeare at the UN: Michelle represents us each year for UN English Language Day, streamed on the UN’s YouTube channel. 
  • Little Amal: the 3.5m Syrian refugee puppet visited us with Good Chance, stunning hundreds on Bankside on her 8,000km journey across Europe. 

Partnerships. Partnerships are one of the ways we’ve expanded our reach across an amazing worldwide network of groups with shared values and shared endeavours. Major partners have included Bristol Old Vic, Cardboard Adventures, Compass Collective, Clean Break, Climate Spring, Fern Culture, Fuse Theatre (A Night in Sign and Lighting the Fuse), Headlong, Hear the Picture, High Tide, Intermission Youth Theatre, Leeds Playhouse, Letters to the Earth, London Bubble, London Climate Action Week, Oxford Playhouse, Royal & Derngate, Shakespeare North, Sky Arts, Soldiers’ Arts Academy, Tamasha, Theatr Cymru, Touretteshero and VocalEyes. 

On screen. We film our productions so that people who can’t reach Bankside can still see them: Hamlet (2018), The Winter’s Tale (live, 2018), Two Noble Kinsmen (2018), The Merry Wives of Windsor (2019), A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Metamorphoses, Romeo and Juliet and Twelfth Night (all 2021), The Merchant of Venice (2022), Othello, Richard III and Antony & Cleopatra (2024), Troilus & Cressida and Cymbeline (2025), and Love’s Labour’s Lost and As You Like It (2026). 

AWARDS

  • Emilia: three Olivier Awards in 2020 for its West End transfer: Best Entertainment or Comedy Play, Best Costume Design and Best Sound Design. 
  • Antony & Cleopatra (2024): the UK Theatre Award for Excellence in Inclusivity. Nadia Nadarajah also won the Outstanding Stage Performance Asian Media Award for Cleopatra, having won Best Supporting Actress at the 2018 BroadwayWorld UK Awards as Celia in As You Like It. 
  • I, Joan: Isobel Thom won the 2023 Stage Debut Award for Best Performer in a Play for the title role. 
  • Princess Essex (2025): numerous nominations and two wins at the Black British Theatre Awards, for Ingrid Mackinnon (Best Choreographer or Movement Director) and Anne Odeke (Best Playwright). 
  • CBeebies As You Like It (2025): our collaboration with CBeebies won the BAFTA for Children’s Scripted. 
  • Stage Managers’ Theatre of the Year 2026: shortlisted. 
  • Time Out: named us London Theatre of the Year in its 2021 Best of the City Awards, and we received several acting nominations in the UK West End BroadwayWorld Awards. 
  • Michelle: listed in the Stage 100 in 2019, 2020, 2024, 2025 and 2026. 

Michelle Terry will reprise her role in Mother Courage and Her Children, returning to the Globe Theatre from 10 June – 17 July 2027.

FINIS.