Lynette Linton
(Picture: Matt Writtle)It is, you discover quite quickly, almost impossible to get Lynette Linton to blow her own trumpet. The artistic director of the Bush Theatre, who was appointed in 2019 at the age of 28 (the youngest ever), who in the next year will direct three shows including one at the National Theatre, and see the broadcast of her first full-length TV film, is almost pathologically collaborative. In a text after our interview she ends “I hope I shouted out my team enough!”
She did. Linton, who since her arrival has had to grow up fast as a leader to steer her organisation through the pandemic, is a new breed of artistic director. Every time she gives a speech, she makes sure to be flanked by her executive director Lauren Clancy and her associate artistic director Daniel Bailey. When talking about the Bush’s Emerging Writers group, which supports six new writers across a nine month attachment, she makes a point of mentioning her literary manager Deirdre O’Halloran (and her team - “I can’t leave anyone out”). “Dee literally sits with writers, and they go through [a script] page by page.” She can’t stop herself.
