OV Mentoring

A mentorship scheme hosted by The Old Vic for mid-career directors, offering insight and support to demystify the next steps in your career.

Three mid-career directors will be paired with established directors for six mentoring sessions taking place between Sep 2026–Feb 2027. Our mentors are Sally Cookson, Richard Jones and Clint Dyer. Monthly mentoring sessions will be scheduled by the mentor and mentee pair, based on availability.

These monthly sessions will provide an opportunity to reflect on professional practice, build new networks and connections, and identify areas for growth and career progression supported by your mentor. Mentees will receive a fee for each session in recognition of the value of dedicating time to career development.

Mentors and mentees will be invited to attend performances at The Old Vic to provide further opportunities to stimulate creative conversation and enrich the process.

Sally Cookson

Sally Cookson trained at LAMDA and worked as an actor for ten years before embarking on a freelance directing career.

She has worked on productions for theatres including the Old Vic London, the Bristol Old Vic, the National Theatre, the Duke of York’s, the Rose Theatre Kingston and Parco Theatre in Tokyo.

Sally has spent the last year immersed in a semi-devised theatrical extravaganza in response to Charales Dickens’ David Copperfield with a cast of over one hundred Community participants for the Theatre Royal Bath. Other recent work includes Dracula: Mina’s Reckoning for National Theatre of Scotland, Birthmarked for Edinburgh Festival and Wonderboy for Bristol Old Vic.

She received an Olivier Award for A Monster Calls (Old Vic London) winning best family and entertainment in 2019, and three Olivier nominations for Peter Pan (National Theatre/Bristol Old Vic), Hetty Feather (Kenny Wax Productions), Cinderella a Fairytale (The Other Palace). Her productions of Peter Pan and Jane Eyre have been made into NT Live films.

Projects in development include Sexplay by Sophie Swithinbank and The Caucasian Chalk Circle in a new adaptation by Charlie Josephine. 

Richard Jones

Born in London, Richard Jones has directed theatre and opera for the international stage for over 30 years.  

His recent productions include Machinal for the Old Vic and Theatre Royal Bath, Endgame with Daniel Radcliffe and Alan Cumming, Pygmalion with Bertie Carvel and Patsy Ferran both for the Old Vic, and Judgment Day starring Luke Kirby, for Park Avenue Armory New York.  

Other work in theatre includes The Birthday Party (Theatre Royal Bath); The Twilight Zone (Almeida Theatre and West End); Too Clever By Half, The Illusion, A Flea in Her Ear (Old Vic Theatre); The Hairy Ape (Old Vic Theatre and Park Avenue Armory); Six Characters Looking for an Author, Hobson’s Choice, The Good Soul of Szechuan, Annie Get Your Gun, The Government Inspector, Public Enemy – a version of  The Enemy of the People, The Trial, Once in a Lifetime (Young Vic Theatre) Into The Woods (Phoenix Theatre West End); Black Snow (American Repertory Theatre); All’s Well that Ends Well (Public Theater) David Hirson’s La Bête and Wrong Mountain (Eugene O’Neill Theater); Titanic (Lunt Fontaine Theater); Holy Mothers (Ambassadors Theatre / Royal Court London); Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme, Tales from the Vienna Woods (National Theatre London); A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Royal Shakespeare Company, Yale and Salamanca Festival).  He has directed operas for the Royal Opera House, the ENO, Aix en Provence, Paris, Amsterdam, Glyndebourne, La Scala, Tokyo, Frankfurt, Munich, Berlin and the Met in New York.  

He is the winner of ten Olivier awards, most recently for Festen at the Royal Opera House, and two South Bank Show Awards for Katya Kabanova (ROH) and The Rhinegold (ENO).  

He was appointed CBE in the 2015 New Year’s Honours list.

Clint Dyer

Clint Dyer most recently has directed Dale Wasserman’s play One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest at The Old Vic.  Later this year he will direct Tracey Scott Wilson’s play The Story for the Olivier Theatre (Aug-Oct 2026). Previous work at the National Theatre, where Clint also has served as Deputy Artistic Director, includes Othello, Death of England (on which Clint was nominated Best Director, Black British Theatre Awards), Death of England: Delroy (winner, best play at Visionary Awards), Death of England: Closing time. All three Death of England plays were also co-written with Roy Williams and directed by Dyer.

Clint directed Get Up, Stand Up! The Bob Marley Musical, which received four 2022 Olivier Award nominations including Best New Musical and won Best Original Score/New Orchestrations, was nominated for ten WhatsOnStage awards, had two nominations for the Best Musical and Best Actor at the Evening Standard Awards and won for Best Actor in a Musical and Best Musical Director at the Black British Theatre Awards.

Other work includes Kingston 14 (2014) and The Big Life (2005) (also in the West End; Olivier, Evening Standard and WhatsOnStage-nominations; first Black British musical transfer to the West End) at Theatre Royal Stratford East (2004); Sylvia Plath (as writer and director) and The Westbridge at the Royal Court; and The Happy Tragedy Of Being Woke (written by Dyer and co-directed with Simon Mcburney) for Complicité.

We recognise ‘mid-career’ may have a different meaning to each director. We don’t expect a specific number of years’ experience but instead have provided criteria which we believe demonstrates the level of experience we think this opportunity is best suited to. This opportunity is not designed to support emerging or early career directors.

• This programme is aimed at mid-career directors who are working professionally as a director or associate director
• You must have directed a professional production at mid-scale and/or demonstrable experience as an associate director on the mid- to large scale
• You must be 18+
• You must be based in the UK or Ireland