The Donmar has announced it will promote the work of graduates of their Resident Assistant Director scheme with a yearly season at the Trafalgar Studios. Three productions will be staged at the venue annually for the next three years.  

The three directors to taking part in the first season, which will take place from 30 Sep to 18 Dec, will be Roisin McBrinn, Charlotte Westenra and Chris Rolls (who I suspect may be the same Chris Rolls that I knew at university). McBrinn will direct 'Novecento', which is about jazz musician Alessandro Baricco, Westenra will direct new play 'Lower ninth', which is set against the backdrop of New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina, and Rolls takes on Jean Cocteau's 'Les Parents Terribles'.

Donmar artistic director Michael Grandage says: "It has always been a great privilege to support young directors through the Donmar's RAD scheme and this residency at the Trafalgar will now give everyone an opportunity to watch the next generation of theatre directors at work. I have every confidence that over the next three years we will see some serious and important talent emerging that will help us focus on the theatre practitioners of the future".

Melvyn Bragg has received a special award at the last ever South Bank Show Awards (unless they decide at some point in the future to bring back 'The South Bank Show', and the awards). The Outstanding Achievement Award - in recognition of the broadcaster's 32 years of work on the cancelled show - was presented by Richard Attenborough, and tributes from the likes of Victoria Wood, Beryl Bainbridge and Prince Charles were screened.  

In his tribute, Prince Charles criticised ITV's decision to axe 'The South Bank Show'. He said in the pre-recorded message: "A long time ago it rightly became an important contribution to the vibrancy of the country’s culture... Now oblivion is not the place for the arts and I cannot say I am encouraged as mainstream television abandons such a unique and special commitment. Civilisation needs all the help it can get, more so today than ever before, but now it loses one of its greatest champions. It is a sad loss".

Bragg, who says he's "baffled" by the decision to end the arts programme said after the ceremony: "I managed to fight back the tears... but it was a close run thing at the very end after David Attenborough said the things he said. It was a great afternoon, and I hadn't expected that kind of warmth and that kind of praise. I come from a background where you don't get praise, but it was amazing, it really was".

Other winners included Florence and The Machine, who took the pop gong, The Donmar's production of 'A Streetcar Named Desire', which took the theatre award, and 'The Thick Of It', which triumphed in the comedy category.

The Critics' Circle Theatre Awards have taken place at London's Prince Of Wales theatre, and The Royal Court has taken four out of the nine gongs awarded. Jez Butterworth's 'Jerusalem' got Best New Play, Mark Rylance got Best Actor for his performance in the play, the Most Promising Playwright honour went to Alia Bano for 'Shades', and Rupert Goold won the directing gong for 'Enron'.

The Donmar Warehouse also had multiple wins, taking three awards: Rachel Weisz was named Best Actress for her role in 'A Streetcar Named Desire', Christopher Oram took the Best Designer award for his work on 'Red', and Jude Law received the The John and Wendy Trewin Award for Best Shakespearean Performance for his turn as Hamlet in the Donmar's production staged at the Wyndham's Theatre.

The Lyric Hammersmith triumphed in remaining two categories, with The Peter Hepple Award for Best Musical going to 'Spring Awakening' and The Jack Tinker Award for Most Promising Newcomer (other than a playwright) being awarded to actor Tom Sturridge for 'Punk Rock'.

Benedict Nightingale has announced that he's leaving his role as chief theatre critic for The Times this summer. The writer, who joined the paper in 1990, will be replaced by Libby Purves. He's not gone altogether, however, as he'll continue as a contributor.

Times editor James Harding says this: "Benedict has been the leading theatre critic of his generation and has written for The Times for 20 years, setting the standard by which the great performances and productions are judged. People onstage, backstage and in the audience have come to trust his every observation and judgement delivered with style, humour and passion. Benedict has ensured that Times readers have the best writing on what has been a golden age for British theatre and he will remain a contributor to the paper".

Nightingale, explained that he had mixed feelings about his departure, and insisted that he will continue to write. He added: "I wrote my first review in 1957 - a production by the Hawkenbury Players that led to a complaint to the editor of the Kent and Sussex Courier and Tunbridge Wells Advertiser - and will find the habit of going regularly to the theatre and writing about it hard to give up. However, I did tell the Times at the beginning of 2008 that I wished to stop chief-criticking at the end of 2009, and it will be terrific not to have to rush out of the theatre to do quick-fire reviews for the next morning's paper, sometimes so rapidly that I end up doing them in the half-light in my car".

Edward Hall is to be Hampstead Theatre's next artistic director, taking over from Anthony Clark at the end of the month. And for those of you who are now wondering, yes, he is the son of Peter Hall, formerly of the National Theatre and RSC, though you should all probably forget that now, and try and judge him on his own merits. He has worked with all-male Shakespeare company Propeller, and is an artistic associate of the National Theatre, the Old Vic in London and the Watermill Theatre, Newbury.

Speaking about his new role, Hall said: "Hampstead Theatre is dedicated to encouraging 'the new', a sensibility which I share. I have been freelancing for nearly 20 years. Hampstead gives me a unique opportunity to focus my creative energies in one place. As the first stand-alone new theatre to be built in London since the National opened in 1976, the facilities offer me a chance to explore different stage configurations in a contemporary and well-designed setting. The auditorium offers the chance to explore both the intimate and the epic in an environment where the audience always feels in touch with the performance".

He continued: "I hope to continue and to build on the extraordinary successes that the theatre has enjoyed over the last few years by delivering provocative drama to as wide an audience as possible. The theatre has been producing and co-producing an extraordinary amount of new plays, some have been more box office friendly than others, but all have demonstrated a commitment to new work and experiment which I hope to continue".

RADA are working with Trinity College Dublin to create a new academy for actors, directors and designers. The institution will offer a three year acting degree, a two year diploma in stage management, plus a masters course in fine art. The first intake of students will be in 2011.

The new project is being funded by a trust set up in memory of the late Cathal Ryan, son of Rayanair founder Tony Ryan, who apparently always had ambitions to set up a school of this kind in Ireland. Announcing details of the scheme, his daughter, Danielle, a graduate of RADA, said "The Trust and Trinity share a common passion to create a training academy that will have a world-class reputation in the dramatic arts, one that will enable Irish students to realise their ambitions".

The people behind this year's inaugural London Bridge Festival say that they are launching a new London Fringe Festival for next summer, set to take place in the capital from 6 – 30 Aug, meaning that it will run exactly the same dates as the Edinburgh Fringe. Which is an interesting plan.

The event will aim to follow the same model as Edinburgh's Fringe, but, say the team behind it, it will give artists the chance to put on shows on their doorsteps without the faff of having to leave the centre of the world (London) and pay for travel to and accommodation up in the north. Presumably anyone wishing to participate who doesn't already live in London will still have to pay for travel from wherever they are in the UK, and accommodation once they get here. And according to organisers, performers will be coming from even further afield, as the festival will feature work from across the world, encompassing a wide range of genres, including music, theatre, comedy and poetry.

Festival director Greg Tallent says that the events will be staged at West End venues as well as in streets and squares, and in buildings not normally used as performance spaces. Which all sounds rather amibitious. He told The Stage: "We realised there is a huge demand in London for a festival fringe. There are so many people working and living in London who are performers and they have nothing to go to under one big banner event".

Of course the question on most people's lips on hearing about the all new London Fringe's proposed dates is what does that mean for Edinburgh? The coordinators of Edinburgh's Fringe were deliberately relaxed about the news. Neil Mackinnon from the Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society is quoted as saying: "As the world’s pre-eminent open access arts festival, we in Edinburgh know how attractive an event it can be and we are not surprised that cities across the world are copying our template. Having just celebrated the most successful fringe ever, we have got nothing to fear and we are very relaxed about other cities joining the festivals community".

Let's be honest, a London Fringe could copy the model of the Edinburgh Fringe, but they could never really replicate the conditions, if only because London's too bloody big; one of the reasons why Edinburgh's fringe festival works is the compact nature of the city and the comparative ease with which one can move between venues. The city is also small enough for the Fringe to takeover. Even major festivals just get lost in London. Plus, I don't think London will ever manage to match Scotland's level of piss-poor, continuously damp weather. Which is what keeps people inside, watching shows.

And anyway, I'm not sure London needs a fringe festival, does it? Aren't there myriad fringe venues (large and small) producing and being exciting in the capital all year round? And aren't most genres represented by at least one festival of their own at some point in the year in the capital? Or am I just being a negative Nora? Answers on a postcard.

The London Standard Theatre Awards have taken place in the capital, and the Royal Court has done especially well. The theatre's productions took four awards: 'Jerusalem' by Jez Butterworth was judged Best Play, and Mark Rylance got Best Actor for his role in it, Rupert Goold got Best Director for 'Enron', also staged at the venue, and Alia Bano was named Most Promising Playwright for a piece called 'Shades', which was staged at the Royal Court's Young Writers festival. Henry Hitchings, Evening Standard theatre critic, commented: "The number of awards for productions at the Royal Court is strikingly high, but it’s quite right, as under the artistic direction of Dominic Cooke great things are happening there. This is very much the court’s day".

Other winners included Ian McKellen, who was presented with the Special Award for his contribution to British theatre, and Outstanding Newcomer award recipient Lenny Henry, who has been appearing in a production of Othello, and who joked: "I must be the oldest newcomer there has ever been - which means there is hope for Bruce Forsyth's King Lear". Rachel Weisz took the Best Actress gong, which, as previously reported, has been named after the late Natasha Richardson, who died in a skiing accident this year, and was presented by her mother Vanessa Redgrave.

Mehmet Ergen, artistic director of the Arcola Theatre, and Wayne McGregor, resident choreographer of the Royal Ballet, have been presented with awards from the International Theatre Institute. McGregor received his honour for Excellence in International Dance, in recognition of his aforementioned choreographer role, as well as for his work as artistic director of Random Dance. Ergen, meanwhile, was was honoured with the ITI award for Excellence in International Theatre.