Nicholas Hytner - Director For Nicholas Hytner being a director is about being a leader. Not leading by imposing his ideas on the actors and creative team but by creating a consensus and a sense of involvement. A key part of the director’s role is persuasion, exploring the story and making sure everyone shares a vision of why they are doing what they are doing. It’s a very different view of leadership from that of Shakespeare’s Henry V who becomes furious when he hears things he doesn’t want to. From an early age Nicholas Hytner has loved the buzz of theatre. He believes that there is something unique about the experience of sharing a space with a live performance. This is what makes theatre so exciting when it is good and so unbearable when it is bad. Now he combines directing plays with his other role as Director of the National Theatre. As the leader of Britain’s largest theatre company he is determined that the NT should reflect the issues and complexity of our patchwork nation both in the composition of the company and in the plays it produces. | 
