The British Embassy has announced today that Michael Colgan has been awarded an Honorary OBE by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II for services to cultural relations between the UK and Ireland. British honours are awarded on merit for exceptional achievement or service. The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire honours civilian and service personnel for public service or other distinctions. Awards to citizens of countries of which The Queen is not Head of State are honorary awards. 

 

Commenting on the award, British Ambassador Julian King said:

 

“Michael Colgan has made an exceptional contribution to cultural relations in the field of the arts between the UK and Ireland.  As Director of the Gate Theatre for 27 years, he has built up an extraordinary relationship with leading playwrights, producers and directors not only in Ireland but also in the United Kingdom. His relationship with Harold Pinter was especially important. In 1994, the Gate produced the first Pinter Festival and over the next decade, produced three more festivals in Ireland as well as the United States.  

 

In 2006, Michael Colgan and the Gate were in charge of the Samuel Beckett Centenary Celebrations which they celebrated simultaneously in Dublin and at the Barbican in London. 

 

He has given many leading British actors the opportunity to experience the joy of performing in front of a warm and sophisticated Irish audience.

 

He has brought many Gate productions to the United Kingdom being a regular visitor at the Edinburgh Festival, the Barbican Arts Centre and the West End of London.  

 

Ambassador King concluded “It is right and fitting to honour the major contribution he has made in raising the British profile in the cultural life of Ireland.  I am delighted that this has been marked with an honorary OBE“.

 

Michael Colgan commented:

 

“I am truly surprised and genuinely grateful to receive this award. For 27 years I’ve had the most wonderful time working with the best of talent in Irish and British theatre. Bringing Gate productions to the UK and British talent to the Gate has been so rewarding in itself that it seems almost unfair to be honoured for doing so. Because I’ve been so long at this fine institution, there can be no question but that this award should be shared by all who have worked with me at the Gate. I know that one person who would have been particularly pleased is my dear friend, the late, great Harold Pinter. I look forward to many years bringing together the extraordinary talent that exists in both countries. “

 

 

In his 27 years as director of the Gate Theatre, Michael Colgan has produced many award-winning plays and festivals including four Pinter Festivals and six Beckett Festivals.  Many of these productions have been seen throughout the world from Beijing to New York, Sydney to Toronto and London to Melbourne.

 

He is also a Film and Television Producer and was co-founder of Little Bird Productions. In 1986, he produced Troubles, a major two part drama for London Weekend Television and in1993 he produced the new writing series Two Lives for RTÉ.

 

In 2000, with his company Blue Angel he produced the Beckett on Film series in which all nineteen stage plays by Samuel Beckett were filmed by leading directors and in 2007, for Channel 4, he produced the film version of Celebration, the last play by Harold Pinter.

 

Last year he presented a season of works by Brian Friel to mark the playwright’s 80th birthday. The plays opened at the Sydney Festival and later toured to the Edinburgh International Festival before returning to Dublin.

 

For the Gate Theatre, he has directed Brian Friel’s Faith Healer starring Owen Roe as well as a stage adaptation of Beckett’s novella First Love starring Ralph Fiennes at the Sydney Festival 2007 and at Lincoln Center, New York in 2008. This year he will direct Michael Gambon in Beckett’s masterpiece Krapp’s Last Tape, first at the Gate and then on tour.

 

In 2002, the Beckett on Film series received the South Bank Award and the prestigious Peabody award in the United States. In 2006, Michael was awarded the Irish Theatre Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Arts, and in 2007, he received the degree of Doctor in Laws from Trinity College Dublin. He was also honoured with the title Chevalier dans l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Government in 2007.