The Olivier Awards will rename its Best Director category the “Sir Peter Hall Award for Best Director,” after the late founder of the Royal Shakespeare Company and National Theatre director. The announcement from the Society of London Theatre follows Hall’s omission from the In Memoriam segment at the 2018 Olivier Awards ceremony April 8.
Hall died September 11, 2017, at the age of 86 following complications due to pneumonia.
“Sir Peter… was a giant of British Theatre and is sorely missed in the industry,” the Society of London Theatre said in a statement. “SOLT is also reviewing the process by which people are included in the In Memoriam segment for future ceremonies.”
Hall founded the Royal Shakespeare Company at 29 in 1960, leading the company until 1968. Upon succeeding Laurence Olivier as director of the National Theatre in 1973, he spearheaded the company’s move from its original home at the Old Vic to its current South Bank complex. He won Tony Awards for directing The Homecoming and Amadeus; in 1999, the Oliviers awarded him with the Society Special Award.
