Isabel Dixon is a playwright from the South West, now based in London. Her plays include Heroes (VAULT Festival, London, 2020); The Plough (SLAM); Frankenstein (Old Red Lion and The Space); The Spectacular Starlit Circus (Watermill Theatre's Federation Project); and Troll (The Space).

She also works as a dramaturg, facilitator and script reader, and co-founded female-led theatre company Burn Bright Theatre in 2015.

Luke Dixon is a director, teacher and academic. He is internationally known for his largely site-specific Shakespeare productions, often with his own company, Theatre Nomad, which he founded in 1993. As a teacher he has run workshops and training programmes in Asia, Africa, America and throughout Europe and the UK. 

Edgar Lawrence Doctorow (1931–2015) was an American novelist, editor, and professor, best known internationally for his works of historical fiction. He has been described as one of the most important American novelists of the 20th century.

Elyse Dodgson (1945-2018) was a longstanding member of the Royal Court Theatre's artistic team - first as Director of the Young People’s Theatre and then as International Director, heading the Court’s International Department. She was the first director of the Royal Court International Residency, which she started in 1989, and produced the Royal Court Young Writers’ Festival (1986-91) and more than 30 full productions of new international plays. She coordinated long-term play development projects in many parts of the world including Brazil, Chile, China, Cuba, Georgia, India, Lebanon, Mexico, Nigeria, Palestine, Russia, Syria, Ukraine, Uganda and South Africa. She was the recipient of the 2004 Young Vic Award and in 2010 received an MBE for services to international theatre and young writers overseas.

Sebastian Doggart is an English and American television producer, director, writer, journalist, translator, cinematographer and human rights activist.

Declan Donnellan is an internationally acclaimed theatre director, co-founder and joint Artistic Director of Cheek by Jowl, and author of The Actor and the Target (Nick Hern Books, 2002) and The Actor and the Space (Nick Hern Books, 2024).

Born of Irish parents, Donnellan grew up in London, and formed Cheek by Jowl with his partner Nick Ormerod in 1981. A focus on the actor's art has always been central to the company's work. Cheek by Jowl now performs in several languages with companies of actors in Spain, Italy, France, Russia, Romania and Bulgaria.

Donnellan's work has been seen across the Globe including his iconic As You Like It, Ubu Roi and Boris Godunov.

As Associate Director of the National Theatre, his productions included Fuenteovejuna, Sweeney Todd and the British premiere of both parts of Angels in America.

He has staged work for the Royal Shakespeare Company, the Bouffes Du Nord and the Avignon Festival.

Opera includes Falstaff at the Salzburg Festival and ballet, Romeo and Juliet and Hamlet for the Bolshoi. With Nick Ormerod he co-directed the feature film of Bel Ami.

His first book, The Actor and the Target, was first published in Russia in 2002 – before being published in Britain and the United States, and translated into fourteen foreign languages. The Actor and the Space followed in 2024.

He has been invited to teach and give workshops in many countries, and has received awards in Moscow, Paris, London and New York. He is a Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, and in 2016 for his work on the art of acting was given the Golden Lion of Venice.

(Author photo by Cristi Floriganță)

Gregory Doran is a leading theatre director, described by the Sunday Times as 'one of the great Shakespeareans of his generation'. He was Artistic Director of the Royal Shakespeare Company for ten years, from 2012 until 2022.

Doran directed his first RSC production in 1992, and went on to direct most of the Shakespearean canon. Notable RSC productions include Macbeth starring Antony Sher, Hamlet starring David Tennant and Patrick Stewart, and Julius Caesar with an all black British cast.

Publications include The Shakespeare Almanac, Shakespeare’s Lost Play: In Search of Cardenio and Woza Shakespeare!

In 2002 he won the Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement of the Year and in June 2012 he was awarded the Sam Wanamaker Award by the Globe Theatre, in recognition of his work in increasing the understanding and enjoyment of Shakespeare.

He stepped down from his position as Artistic Director of the RSC in April 2022, remaining with the company as Artistic Director Emeritus until December 2023. He was knighted for his services to theatre in 2024.

Ariel Dorfman, born in Argentina in 1942, is a Chilean citizen who was forced into exile after the 1973 coup that overthrew Salvador Allende and established General Pinochet as dictator. His numerous books have been translated into over twenty languages.

Marcelo Dos Santos is an award-winning playwright and scriptwriter.

His plays include: Backstairs Billy (West End, 2023); Feeling Afraid As If Something Terrible Is Going To Happen (Summerhall, Edinburgh, 2022 and Bush Theatre, London, 2023); New Labour (RADA, 2014, directed by Richard Wilson); Lionboy adapted from the novels by Zizou Corder (Complicite, 2013 and 2014); Lovers Walk (Southwark Playhouse); and Cheer Up, This is Only the Beginning (Liverpool Playhouse).

He was named Most Promising Playwright at the 2024 Critics' Circle Theatre Awards for Backstairs Billy.