Nicholas Hytner, recipient of the 2010 Distinguished Artist Award and Keynote Speaker at the New York 2010 ISPA Congress, FAST FORWARD: Imagining the Future.  View other ISPA Award winners.

Nominating Statement | “Nicholas Hytner combines superb aesthetic judgment bordering on prescience with a relentless belief in the power of theatre.  His visionary leadership of the Royal National Theatre in London has inspired his staff and established the RNT as a genuine national treasure.”

Mr. Hytner is celebrated for his directorial accomplishments in theatre, opera, and film, and also for the outstanding success the National Theatre has enjoyed since his appointment in 2003. Mr. Hytner will lay the foundation for three days of intellectual discussion and interaction in realizing the intersection of the future of the arts with coming changes in the broader society.

Nicholas Hytner has been Director of the National Theatre in London since 2003, where he has directed Phèdre, England People Very Nice, Major Barbara, Much Ado About Nothing, Rafta Rafta, The Man of Mode, The Alchemist, The Rose Tattoo, Southwark Fair, Henry IV Parts 1 & 2, Stuff Happens, The History Boys, His Dark Materials, Henry V, Mother Clap’s Molly House, The Winter’s Tale, The Cripple of Inishmaan, The Recruiting Officer, Carousel, The Madness of George III, The Wind in the Willows, and Ghetto. Other work in London includes Miss Saigon, The Importance of Being Earnest, Cressida, The Lady in the Van, and Orpheus Descending; in New York Carousel, Twelfth Night, and Sweet Smell of Success.

He was educated at Cambridge University and started his career at the Northcott Theatre, Exeter, the Leeds Playhouse, and the Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester. He has also directed for the RSC, in the West End and on Broadway. His work in opera includes productions for The Royal Opera House, Kent Opera, ENO, Glyndebourne, Paris Opera, the Théâtre du Châtelet, Paris, Geneva Opera, and the Bavarian State Opera, Munich.His films include: The Madness of King George, The Crucible, The Object of My Affection and The History Boys.