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).
2027 marks 10 years of Michelle Terry’s tenure as Artistic Director, 20 years of her acting on the Globe stages, and 30 years since the Globe Theatre was opened.
Her tenure has been defined by inclusion and representation, driven by The Globe’s vision to make Shakespeare and The Globe available and accessible for all. Everything has been curated and created with the art, artists and audience in mind, in the hope of expanding who Theatre, Shakespeare and The Globe are for.
Across her tenure, over 2,000 actors will have been hired to work with the Globe. Despite a break in covid closures, the 77 productions across her tenure will have been seen by over 2.3 million people and rising, with audiences visiting from over 190 countries. Over the past few years, 91% of audiences have given 4 or 5-star reviews and the purchases of access tickets have more than doubled in the last five years.
New writing has remained at the heart of the Globe, with Michelle commissioning 25 new plays, 63% of these written by women and 26% by global majority writers. It began with Emilia, conceived and commissioned by Michelle Terry, written by Morgan Lloyd Malcolm, it transferred from Shakespeare’s Globe to the West End’s Vaudeville Theatre in 2019.
Dubbed ‘This is a landmark moment in the history of Shakespeare’s Globe.’ (The Independent), it received 3 Olivier Awards in 2020 (including Best Entertainment or Comedy Play) and hosted West End history’s first baby-friendly performance (Let Them Roar). The Globe Theatre remains baby friendly for all performances. This was followed by groundbreaking productions like After Edward, I, Joan, Metamorphoses, Hakawatis, Princess Essex, and Deep Azure, and the inaugural Climate Playwrighting Prize in 2026.
Michelle introduced the wider western canon into the Globe spaces, with Ibsen’s Ghosts, Miller’s The Crucible, Brecht’s Mother Courage, Chekhov’s Three Sisters, and the upcoming production of The Seagull.
A key focus across her tenure has been increasing access into the worlds and works of Shakespeare for the young and young at heart. The Globe Theatre is now a fixture in the festive calendar with The Snow Globe, The Fir Tree, Hansel & Gretel, and Pinocchio, and she has also introduced hugely successful partnerships with creative artists beyond the Globe. From the current sold-out MakeBeth (created by award-winning playwright Hannah Khalil and brought to life entirely with the recycled cardboard magic of designer Sam Wilde), to very young children enjoying the Globe space with the BBC’s CBeebies Twelfth Night, and BAFTA award-winning CBeebies As You Like It (2025’s TV BAFTA for Children’s Scripted).
She has created innovative and extraordinary events and unique productions. She has expanded the visiting artists and events programme with over 63,000 people attending talks, music and comedy gigs, one-off shows. She has created key co-productions, partnerships and relationships and continued to expand the reach of The Globe’s work beyond Bankside, both on tour and on screen. With artist development in mind, she has ensured the professional development and support of the unamplified voice, for all productions, a practical approach to Shakespeare’s language is provided for all productions, and she has created both resident writers and resident directors’ programmes to ensure the bespoke understanding of creating work for these spaces is nurtured.
Michelle has programmed the most famous of Shakespeare’s plays, whilst enlivening the two theatre spaces with lesser-known jewels. Hundreds of thousands of £5 tickets have been bought by audiences, with this unique ticket price making the Globe accessible to all since 1997, championed by the organisation for 30 years.
Michelle Terry Statement:
“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.”
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.”
The limited run of Mother Courage and Her Children, translated by Anna Jordan, plays in the Globe Theatre from 10 June – 17 July. Michelle’s magnetic performance as a mother confronting the incalculable costs of war in the 2026 summer season was ‘a masterclass’ (London Theatre Reviews), ‘astonishingly good’ (Time Out) and ‘deeply moving’ (Morning Star). In a production described as ‘a service to the public and to the theatrical canon’ (The Standard), Brecht’s epic masterpiece is a visceral and tender story of hope and resilience, survival and love.
Globe Associate Artist Elle While (Richard III, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Globe) directs Anna Jordan’s ‘astute adaptation’ (Telegraph), with music by Globe Head of Music James Maloney and design by takis. Their production gracefully weaves comedy amongst the tragedy, where songs are at once cathartic and cabaret, and ‘a whispering note of pain from Terry is a disarming gut punch that feels powerfully necessary’ (Time Out). Reviving this searing production gives new audiences a chance to experience ‘a brave piece of programming that reaffirms Terry’s inspired leadership as an actor and artistic director’ (Arts Desk).
Director Elle While says: “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.”
★★★★ The Guardian
★★★★ The Telegraph
★★★★ London Theatre
★★★★ London Box Office
★★★★★ Theatre Weekly
★★★★★ Morning Star
★★★★★ West End Best Friend
★★★★ Time Out
★★★★ The Standard
★★★★ London Box Office
★★★★ London Theatre 1
★★★★ The Live Review
★★★★ Read About Stuff
★★★★★ Theatre & Tonic
★★★★★ The Recs
★★★★ The Stage
★★★★ WhatsOnStage
★★★★ Jackstage
★★★★ Plays International
★★★★ The Upcoming
★★★★ London Theatre Reviews
★★★★ Reviews Hub
‘The show belongs to Terry’
The Standard
‘A Mad Max cabaret’
Arts Desk
‘A gripping triumph’
Telegraph
‘Urgent, affecting and fierce’
The Upcoming
‘Her rare ability to slip into any part and seem born to play it is a superpower’
The Stage
‘Terry is astonishingly good as Mother Courage’
Time Out
The creative team also includes Samuel Tracy as Assistant Director, Maighread McGinley as Assistant Designer, Karen Hopkinson as Costume Supervisor, Rachel Bown-Williams as Fight & Intimacy Director, Lucy Cullingford as Movement Director and Choreographer, and Voice & Text by Nia Lynn.
Public Booking opens at 10am GMT on Friday 30 October. Pre-sale tickets available to Members now.
