Tributes paid to former Exec Director of Stephen Joseph Theatre
Stephen Wood has been called a 'guardian of the company's founding principles'
Last updated 15th Jun 2024
Tributes have been paid to the former executive director of the Stephen Joseph Theatre in Scarborough.
Stephen Wood has been called an 'inspired appointment' and a 'guardian of the company's founding principles'.
He first joined in 1976 as their press officer and retired back in 2015 - and spent a number of years at the theatre following a 14-year spell away in the '80s and '90s.
Back then, it was called the 'Library Theatre' just months before it moved to Westwood, where it adopted the name 'The Stephen Joseph Theatre'.
On their website, Helen Boaden, chair of Scarborough Theatre Trust, said: "Stephen was an irrepressible force of nature who loved cricket, newspapers and the SJT. He championed our theatre through thick and thin and we send our sincere condolences to his family.”
The SJT’s Director Emeritus, Alan Ayckbourn, said: “Stephen had long been associated with the company throughout its various incarnations ever since its Library Theatre days.
Throughout his association with it, initially as press officer and finally as executive director, he played a huge part in its growth and development. He is someone I always considered a guardian of the company’s founding principles, innovation, originality and excitement, pursued through the highest achievable artistic standards.”
The former Artistic Director of the NT, Richard Eyre, said: "John Goodwin then the NT's Head of Press recruited Stephen for his department and I met him for the first time when I directed Guys and Dolls in 1982.
"The start of my time as Director of the NT in 1988 coincided with Stephen's promotion to Head of Press. He was an inspired appointment - invariably tactful, but not a tactician, thoughtful, loved, generous and above all, truthful.
"Stephen's team was always bright, talented and witty. The remarkable publicist Janine Shalom, who died barely two months ago, was one of them. They were liked and trusted by critics and journalists as much as by actors and directors."