The Orange Tree Theatre has announced that its Executive Director, Hanna Streeter, is to take up a post as Executive Director and Joint CEO of the Theatre Royal Stratford East. She will be stepping down from her position at OTT at the end of June 2025.

Stratford East, as it is known locally, is a renowned 450 seat Victorian Theatre, the home of the Theatre Workshop, which was set up by Joan Littlewood in 1945. For 25 years she was its Artistic Director and it has been the starting point for many well known actors.

So for Hanna, a long time Sheen resident and former pupil at East Sheen Primary School, this appointment is an exciting move to lead a large organisation with a great history. It recognises what she has achieved at OTT, especially in conjunction with Artistic Director Tom Littler, over the last six years. She will be joining Lisa Spirling who has recently been appointed as Artistic Director at Stratford East.

OTT will soon begin the search for a new Executive Director and Joint CEO to take on this pivotal role. This is an exciting opportunity to join the Theatre at a time of strong financial health, a sell-out programme, and significant fundraising momentum for its capital development project.

Hanna says: “The Orange Tree is the most special of theatres and I’m unbelievably proud of everything we’ve collectively achieved since I joined in 2019. To have become the OT’s Executive Director 30 years after sitting in the auditorium to watch Primary Shakespeare has been a dream come true. I am, of course, sad to be leaving, though as we look to the future with such momentum behind the capital project, I know that the OT under Tom’s leadership will continue to thrive.”

Tom says: “Hanna has been an outstanding Executive Director of the Orange Tree for the past six years. She has navigated the theatre fearlessly and skilfully. I have hugely enjoyed working with her since my appointment in the spring of 2022, and I know that over the next six months she will go out on a high – not least in gearing up for our transformational capital project in 2026. She will be enormously missed, but now is a great moment for her to pass the baton. She leaves the Orange Tree enormously enhanced and enriched, and the team at Theatre Royal Stratford East are very lucky to get to work with her.”

The many OT patrons, members and theatre-goers can endorse that and wish Hanna well at Stratford.