In Memoriam: Michael Hackett
LAMDA's Professor of Shakespeare & Early Modern Drama, Rodney Cottier, remembers a highly influential graduate, a distinguished practitioner, and a much-loved teacher.
Michael studied at LAMDA from 1976-1977 on a specially designed programme and was subsequently asked by LAMDA’s then Principal, Michael Barry, to co-design and institute a music-drama programme. I had the pleasure of working with him at LAMDA both as a director and teacher of classical play texts and music theatre.
His gift and versatility covered the widest range of styles of anyone I have encountered from Cornish theatre at the Piran Round, to Sophocles, Shakespeare, Ana Caro, Goldoni, Feydeau, Miller, Gombrowicz… the list goes on…
Michael’s travels were as international as was his encyclopaedic knowledge. He directed Greek chorus workshops for the National Theatre Institute at the Eugene O’Neill Theatre Center for fifteen years, also directing at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden; the Royal Theatre at the Hague; the Centrum Sztuki Studio and Dramatyczny Theatre in Warsaw; the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl; Musica Angelica; LA Theatre Works; the Geffen Playhouse; and the Los Angeles Opera.
He directed Sophocles’ Philoktetes for the Getty Villa and was awarded the Witkacy Prize by the Polish Centre of the International Theatre Institute for “outstanding achievements in promoting Polish theatre in the world.”
At UCLA, Michael forged a special relationship with LAMDA which continues still. Not only have many UCLA undergraduates subsequently taken their master’s degrees at LAMDA, but we are privileged to hold annual auditions there. I am regularly invited to lecture on Shakespeare to both graduates and under-graduates and also observe their work.
Michael was one of our first board members when LAMDA created The American Board of Trustees [now American Friends of LAMDA], and it was to him, along with Kristin Linklater and James Bundy, that Principal Peter James sought advice when re-structuring the One Year postgraduate Classical Acting Programme at LAMDA many years ago. Out of that came the introduction of The Spanish Golden Age and The Comedies of The French Court, and the removal of the Russian element, since he felt that was already well catered for.
As Chair of Theatre at the UCLA School of Theatre, Film, and Television - they wouldn’t let him retire - Michael collaborated with Barbara Fuchs, UCLA Professor of Spanish and Portuguese, to create Diversifying the Classics, a project aiming to expand the study of the “classics” of theatre from English originating works – specifically Shakespeare – to plays of other origins and languages.
I was invited to a presentation of Ana Caro’s The Courage to Right a Woman’s Wrongs, translated by Barbara and her team, and directed by Michael. Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre in London invited them in 2022 to share their work as part of their decolonisation initiative. Whilst in London, the team worked with LAMDA's MA Classical Acting students, with their Programme leader, Oliver Birch, subsequently directing Ana Caro’s play as part of our Spanish Golden Age Season.
We had previously persuaded Michael to return to his alma mater in 2012 to direct our BA students in Sophocles’ Philoktetes Fragments. Of course, the students adored him.
Such was his passion and artistic integrity. A truly great man who had time for everyone. He inspired thousands of young artists in ways that they never expected. I have more than an inkling of the sphere of Michael’s spirit which lives on in the lives of all those who were fortunate to learn from him.
To steal from a bishop in Tudor times, ‘he lit a candle which can never be put out.’
Photo by Rich Schmitt, Staff Photographer at UCLA.
