My friend and colleague Lynne Gagliano, who has died aged 48 of a brain aneurysm, was the head of Young Court at the Royal Court theatre, London. She was instrumental in devising Open Court 2016, a three-week festival curated by, and dedicated to producing the work of, young people aged between 15 and 24.
Modest and kind, Lynne approached her work with an infectious zeal. As well as running workshops alongside every production, in 2011 she established a series of writers’ groups for eight- to 11-year-olds. Working with a diverse range of pupils from all over London, these writers’ groups were a giddy hub of creativity.
A selection of the plays written by this age group were performed on the Royal Court’s main stage during the 2012 Young Writers festival. Attended by an enthusiastic audience, including many parents and friends, the event was a huge success.
Lynne was born in Boston, Massachusetts, daughter of Janet (nee Wood), a teacher, and Joe, who worked in insurance. Her love of drama began at a young age, due to her family’s involvement in amateur dramatics. She was educated at Westborough high school, then Tufts University, where she studied English and drama. After moving to London, Lynne worked initially as a teacher before taking a directing course at the Central School of Speech and Drama.
As a freelance director in the late 1990s, she juggled various jobs as an assistant to some of Britain’s finest theatre directors with staging her own work on the London fringe. Frequent collaborators included the former Royal Court artistic director Dominic Cooke and the current Tricycle theatre artistic director, Indhu Rubasingham.
In the early 2000s, Lynne joined Richmond theatre as its creative learning manager, before becoming education and access manager at the Gate theatre in Notting Hill. Then, when Cooke became artistic director of the Royal Court in 2007, he recruited his friend as the theatre’s education associate.
Open Court is a vibrant tribute to Lynne’s unwavering belief that the views and ideas of our young artists deserve to be seen and heard on our main stages.
She is survived by her husband, Stuart, whom she met in London in 1988, and married in 1994, and their two children, Thomas and Elizabeth.
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