Biography | Douglas Rintoul

Douglas Rintoul is a theatre director, writer and dramaturg whose work spans new plays, musicals, classics, opera, pantomime and large-scale community productions. He is Chief Executive and Artistic Director of the New Wolsey Theatre in Ipswich.

Growing up on a council estate in a family that did not go to the theatre has shaped his approach to making it. Encouraged by inspiring drama teachers at state school, he went on to study Drama and Theatre Arts at the University of Birmingham, received a Regional Theatre Young Director Scheme bursary and joined the National Theatre Studio’s Young Directors’ Programme. That experience of discovering theatre through the encouragement of others continues to inform his commitment to opening up opportunities for artists and audiences.

His work combines a strong sense of story with an interest in belonging, identity and people whose experiences are too rarely seen on stage. Collaboration is central to his practice, whether developing a new play, creating work with communities or exploring the possibilities of actor-musician theatre.

Most recently, Douglas directed Vikki Stone’s Caroline: A New Musical, an actor-musician musical about the birth of pirate radio. Produced by the New Wolsey Theatre as the first production of the East Anglian Touring Consortium, which he co-founded, it toured the region in 2026 and received a UK Theatre Award nomination for Excellence in Touring.

Other recent productions include Noises Off, Footloose, Romeo & Juliet, Brief Encounter and Don’t Look Now. His work has been presented across the UK and internationally, from regional producing theatres to the Barbican, Hampstead Theatre, Trafalgar Studios, the Unicorn Theatre and Les Théâtres de la Ville de Luxembourg.

Selected directing credits

Caroline: A New Musical — East Anglian Touring Consortium, led by the New Wolsey Theatre.
As You Like It — Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch and the National Theatre’s Public Acts programme.
Noises Off — New Wolsey Theatre, Theatre by the Lake, Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch and Les Théâtres de la Ville de Luxembourg.
Footloose — New Wolsey Theatre and Pitlochry Festival Theatre.
Romeo & Juliet — New Wolsey Theatre and Theatre Royal Bury St Edmunds.
Brief Encounter — New Wolsey Theatre, Wiltshire Creative and Yvonne Arnaud Theatre.
Dardanus — English Touring Opera.
Abigail’s Party — Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch, Salisbury Playhouse, Derby Theatre and Les Théâtres de la Ville de Luxembourg.
Macbeth — Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch and Derby Theatre.
The Crucible — Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch, Les Théâtres de la Ville de Luxembourg and Selladoor.
Made in Dagenham and Rope — Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch and New Wolsey Theatre.
In Basildon, The Hired Man, The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole – The Musical, Much Ado About Nothing, Love Letters and Misfits — Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch.
Europe — Barbican and Dundee Rep.
DNA and Private Lives — New Wolsey Theatre.
State Red — Hampstead Theatre.
The Summer Book — Unicorn Theatre.
Jonny Woo’s East London Lecture — Shoreditch Town Hall.
The Deep Blue Sea, All My Sons and Of Mice and Men — Watermill Theatre.
Touched — Trafalgar Studios.
Elegy — Transport and Theatre503.
1001 Nights — Transport and Unicorn Theatre.
As You Like It — Transport and Les Théâtres de la Ville de Luxembourg.
Invisible — Transport and New Wolsey Theatre.
Copenhagen, Much Ado About Nothing, The Taming of the Shrew and Fen — Salisbury Playhouse.
King Lear — Creation Theatre.
Closer and Design for Living — Les Théâtres de la Ville de Luxembourg.

Collaboration and associate directing

Douglas was an Associate Director at Complicité, working on A Disappearing Number, Endgame and Measure for Measure, the latter with the National Theatre. His other associate directing credits include Deborah Warner’s Julius Caesar at the Barbican and Fidelio at Glyndebourne, and Rhum & Clay’s Testosterone.

Writing and devising

Douglas founded the touring company Transport, creating work through writing, research and collaboration. His play Elegy received a National Theatre Foundation Playwriting Award and has subsequently been produced in Spain, Mexico and Australia and translated into Spanish. His writing and devising credits also include 1001 Nights, nominated for an Offie for Best Production for Young People; ’Twas the Night Before Christmas for the Unicorn Theatre; The Edge for Transport; and Love Letters for Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch, nominated for an Offie for Best New Musical.

Developing artists and new work

Supporting writers and developing new work are important parts of Douglas’s practice. His dramaturgy includes projects with Soho Theatre, Hampstead Theatre, Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch, the National Theatre Studio, Salisbury Playhouse, Transport and Complicité.

He has worked with writers and theatre-makers including Martha Loader, Tena Štivičić, Vikki Stone, Atiha Sen Gupta, Sadie Hasler, Vickie Donoghue, Kenny Emson, Clem Garritty, Anne Odeke, Rhum & Clay, Jonny Woo, Guleraana Mir and Zoe Lewis.

Teaching

He has directed and taught at LAMDA, Guildhall School of Music & Drama, Mountview, Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama, Royal Central School of Speech & Drama, the University of North London and the University of Hyderabad, as well as through Complicité.

Everything before

His route into the profession included working as an usher at the Royal Court, in the box office at the Royal Albert Hall, in marketing at the National Theatre and in administration at Complicité. He also read scripts for Soho Theatre and assisted directors at London Bubble and the English Shakespeare Company—experiences that gave him a grounding in the many different kinds of work that make theatre possible.