Kenneth Tynan theatre critic until mid-1963 when he joined the National Theatre. In 1963, Laurence Olivier became the British National Theatre Company's first artistic director. Tynan had been highly dismissive of Olivier's achievements as artistic director of the Chichester Festival Theatre, which had opened in 1962, but he recommended himself for the role of literary manager. Olivier was initially outraged by Tynan's presumption but Olivier's wife, Joan Plowright, convinced him that Tynan would be an asset at the National Theatre Company, then based at the Old Vic theatre. When he became the National Theatre's literary manager, Tynan ceased to be the theatre
Tom Morris (director) Tom Morris (director) Tom Morris, OBE (born 22 June 1964 in Stamford, Lincolnshire) is an English theatre director, writer and producer. He was the Artistic Director at BAC (Battersea Arts Centre) from 1995-2004, he has been Associate Director at the National Theatre since 2004 and Artistic Director of Bristol Old Vic since 2009. Morris was born in 1964. He is the younger brother of satirist Chris Morris. He was educated at Stonyhurst College, a Jesuit boys' boarding independent school in Lancashire in north west England, and then read English Literature at Pembroke College at the University of Cambridge from 1983