Katie Mitchell is an English theatre and opera director who studied English Literature at Magdalen. She has directed over 100 productions in her career working with the Royal Shakespeare Company, the National Theatre, and The Royal Court, and has been an Associate Director at all three organisations. In opera she has directed for English National Opera, Glyndebourne Opera, Welsh National Opera, and the Royal Opera House.

Her many awards include two Time Out awards, The Evening Standard best director award, and a Tonic award for her representations of woman and nurture of female talent. She was presented with the Order of the British Empire in 2009 and the British Academy’s President’s Medal in 2017 for her services to theatre.

Katie’s latest project “A Play for the Living in a Time of Extinction,” is touring to 10 countries, yet neither Mitchell, nor any cast or crew, will cross a single border. This is an innovative touring model, the first of its kind, which sees a play tour, while the people do not, part of a ground-breaking international experiment in reimagining theatre in a climate crisis.

Katie is currently Professor of Theatre Directing at Royal Holloway University and a Visiting Lecturer on Theatre Directing at Columbia University. She has taught theatre directing at many of the leading drama schools in the UK and Europe and is a Cultural Fellow at Kings College and the TORCH Visiting Fellow in Theatre at Oxford University.