Indhu Rubasingham named as first woman to lead Britain’s National Theatre

LONDON — Britain’s National Theatre announced Wednesday that Indhu Rubasingham will be the next artistic director of the United Kingdom’s pre-eminent public stage company. Rubasingham, who currently runs the small but influential Kiln Theatre in north London, will be the first woman and first person of color to lead the National, whose six previous artistic directors include Laurence Olivier, Peter Hall and Nicholas Hytner. Her directing work there includes a stage adaptation of Zadie Smith’s novel “White Teeth,” Smith’s Chaucer-inspired play “The Wife of Willesden” and “Red Velvet,” a drama about 19th-century Black actor Ira Aldridge that later ran London’s West End and in New York. The National Theatre produces work on three stages at its home on London’s South Bank and broadcasts performances across the U.K. and around the world through the NT Live and National Theatre at Home programs.