Welcome backstage.
This page follows Globe Stage's progress in real time, for the circle that made it possible.
WHERE WE STAND: JULY 2026
The Build
Architecture studio Foster + Partners completed the design phase, working closely with the Globe Stage team on everything from sacred geometry to backstage layouts. Stage One and WonderWorks contributed structural engineering and logistics planning, including a brilliant proprietary construction methodology that allows the structure to be erected in a single week without cranes.
Prototyping ready to begin this September.
The Campaign
The Inaugural Founding Circle stands at $800K in committed gifts, with two more seats currently reserved and moving toward close, bringing us just over $1M against the $3M Activation Fund needed to underwrite prototyping. With the July 31st close approaching, the remaining seats represent the difference between beginning prototyping on schedule this September and delaying it. Longer-horizon conversations, including with Bloomberg Philanthropies, are underway as the campaign's next chapter takes shape.
The Circle
Globe Stage's partnership with UNESCO continues to deepen, alongside a growing set of city and cultural partners exploring what a future Globe Stage presence could look like in their communities, from London to Los Angeles. The Founding Artistic Circle continues to grow, helping shape the voice and soul of Globe Stage from its earliest days. Governance continues to mature alongside it, with Globe Stage's Steering Committee and Operating Board taking clearer shape.
Notes from Backstage
Welcome, Founding Member 006:
Dominic Casserley!
26 June 2026
Dominic Casserley has officially joined the Inaugural Founding Circle as Member 006. A Senior Advisor at Warburg Pincus and Vice Chair of PAC NYC, Dominic has been one of Globe Stage's steadiest sources of counsel for months, on governance, on fundraising strategy, and on the discipline of building something built to last. His decision to become a Founding Member himself means a great deal, a vote of confidence from someone who has seen this project closely, from the inside, before choosing to back it.
Meetings, meetings, and more meetings.
June 2026
Some months are about one big conversation. This one was about a dozen. A partial list of who Globe Stage sat down with in June:
Susan Lacy, the documentary filmmaker behind PBS's American Masters, winner of 27 Emmy Awards. Sonia Friedman CBE, one of the UK's leading theatre producers, with more than 190 productions and 61 Olivier Awards to her name. Celine Rattray, co-founder of Maven Screen Media and an Academy Award-nominated producer. A. Michael Hoffman, Chairman of Hoffman Ventures and a Governor of the Royal Shakespeare Company. And a catch-up on the red carpet in London with Steven Spielberg, a warm reminder of just how far this community now reaches.
An Evening at the Serpentine Summer Party
23 June 2026
Juliet Rylance and Tim Leigh, Creative Director at Stage One (the fabrication team behind the last 17 Serpentine Pavilions), represented Globe Stage at this year's Serpentine Summer Party, co-hosted by Salma Hayek Pinault, Alfonso Cuarón, and Alejandro González Iñárritu, with Mike Bloomberg as Chair and Lady Elena Foster as Vice Chair.
The evening brought together an unusually rich cluster of conversations: Lord Norman Foster, Mike Bloomberg, and Jemma Read, Global Head of Bloomberg Corporate Philanthropy, alongside Justine Simons OBE and Mayor Sadiq Khan, discussing the potential of Globe Stage for London, for C40 Cities, for World Cities Culture Forum, and beyond.
Board Meeting of Globe Stage
12 June 2026
Globe Stage's Board of Directors, Barbara Römer (President), Juliet Rylance (Secretary), and Nina von Moltke (Treasurer), convened for a full Board meeting. Two milestones marked the session: the Board formally approved the operating budget for the Corporation's seedfunding and prototyping phase, and adopted Globe Stage's Investment Policy, drafted pro bono by Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP, governing how the Corporation's funds and future endowment will be stewarded.
Finding A Kindred Spirit in Yo-Yo Ma
11 June 2026
Globe Stage sat down with Jonathan Bays, Executive Director of Sound Postings, the creative initiative behind the work of Yo-Yo Ma, UN Messenger of Peace, including the Bach Project and Our Common Nature. The conversation surfaced overlap after overlap: Silk Road, UNESCO, a shared belief in community as the starting point rather than an afterthought, years of independently asking the same question about how culture shows up in the world. Describing his own team, Jonathan put it simply: "A brain trust on an airplane with a producing skill set and a creative skill set."
Nothing is decided yet, this is a real conversation, not a finished plan. But it's the kind of alignment that doesn't come along often, and everyone in the room seemed to feel it.
One line, reported back to us afterward, we're choosing to believe: that Yo-Yo expressed his wish to steal our mission statement due to its supreme succinctness.
A Warm Reception at Bloomberg Philanthropies
26 May 2026
Globe Stage met with Kate Levin, Arts Lead at Bloomberg Philanthropies and the leading voice on arts and culture across the Bloomberg world, alongside Noelle Thorn Rinner, Chief of Staff for Arts and Culture at Bloomberg Philanthropies. The reaction was immediate and warm. "Bravo," Kate said. "It's an extraordinary vision, and it's an extraordinarily detailed plan… it's really stunning."
There's no financial commitment yet, and we're not expecting a straight line to one. But the conversation opened real doors: Kate called the strategy "rock solid" and offered candid counsel on sharpening Globe Stage's city-by-city narrative, guidance we're already putting into practice.
Alex Poots Joins as Artistic Advisor
22 May 2026
Following an introduction from Dan Doctoroff, Founding Chair of The Shed, Globe Stage began a conversation with Alex Poots, Artistic Director of The Shed, that quickly became something more. After two conversations in as many weeks, Alex agreed to join Globe Stage as an Artistic Advisor, bringing decades of experience building ambitious, genre-defying cultural institutions, including his role shaping the London 2012 Cultural Olympiad.
The conversations also opened a compelling possibility: The Shed's outdoor plaza as a potential unveiling site in New York.
The Playhouse Trust Board Convenes
19 May 2026
The Playhouse Trust held its Board kickoff meeting in London, a quiet but important governance milestone as the institutional architecture supporting Globe Stage on both sides of the Atlantic continues to take shape.
Exploring Santa Monica Pier for LA28
12 May 2026
In conversation with Nora Halpern, Executive Director of the LA28 Cultural Olympiad, Globe Stage began exploring Santa Monica Pier as a potential site during the Olympic Games, a striking, iconic possible home for Globe Stage's West Coast debut. Feasibility is still being assessed, with a further check-in planned for September.
Welcoming Founding Members 004: Penny and Thomas Campbell Jackson
24 April 2026
Penny and Thomas Campbell Jackson joined the Inaugural Founding Circle with a $500,000 pledge, becoming Founding Members 004. Their early conviction adds real momentum to a campaign that depends on exactly this kind of belief, before the proof, not after it.
On Shakespeare’s Birthday:
A Day of Global Conversations
23 April 2026
One day, three continents' worth of conversation: a call with C40's Anna Beech on governance and executive engagement, a discussion with Clare Barnfather on the GREAT Britain Campaign at No. 10, and a conversation with Ambassador Laura Davies, British Ambassador to Finland. Globe Stage's civic and diplomatic network keeps widening, one relationship at a time.
Building Toward Bloomberg CityLab
April 2026
Ahead of Bloomberg CityLab, Globe Stage held a series of briefings with urban policy and cultural leaders, including Dr. Jill Sonke (US Cultural Policy Fellow and Co-Director of EpiArts Lab), Prof. Tim Stonor (Founder of Space Syntax and Advisor to the Norman Foster Foundation), Prof. Carlo Ratti (Director of the MIT Senseable City Lab an Founding Partner of Carlo Ratti Associati), and the team at Foster + Partners, laying groundwork for the conversations that would follow.
From Hong Kong to Mumbai, from Abu Dhabi to Copenhagen
April 2026
A note from Barbara
Building Globe Stage has never been a single, linear thing. Alongside it, I keep a parallel life of speaking, advising, and thinking out loud about what arts and culture can do for a city, work I've done for over two decades, from Qatar to Al Ula, Miami to Mumbai, Abu Dhabi to Abidjan. This spring took me further still: presenting to Hong Kong at 2am my time (NYC), then on to in-person conversations in Munich, Copenhagen, and Stockholm within the same ten days, while sneaking in a visit to Elsinore Castle.
It's an unusual way to build an organization, jet-lagged and time-zone-scrambled, but it's also exactly the point. Every one of those conversations, about a cultural district in West Kowloon, a heritage strategy in Abu Dhabi, a placemaking vision for Mumbai, sharpens the same question Globe Stage exists to answer: how do we celebrate a place's authentic cultural expression, and help share it with the rest of the world.
Cultural exchange, not cultural export. That's the whole idea.
A New York Welcome from the British Consulate
23 March 2026
Globe Stage met with Oliver Christian, British Consul General in New York, connecting the project's UK roots with its American home base, and opening a channel between the two governments' cultural interests as Globe Stage's international footprint takes shape.
A Flurry of Meetings Across Whitehall
26 February 2026
A concentrated stretch of meetings in London opened new threads across the UK's cultural and diplomatic institutions: Alex Tucker, Head of Campaigns & Partnerships at GREAT, on the UK's platform for cultural and economic promotion abroad; continued engagement with Susannah Storey, Permanent Secretary at the Department for Culture, Media and Sport; and Ruth Mackenzie, advising on strategy with the National Lottery Heritage Fund. Different rooms, one throughline: Globe Stage as a genuinely national story with global reach.
Deepening a Relationship with UNESCO's UK Commission
24 February 2026
Globe Stage connected with James Ömer Bridge, Secretary-General and Chief Executive of the UK National Commission for UNESCO, first by video and then in person in London. The relationship struck a chord immediately. As James put it:
"All these countries know the UN is at risk. Globe Stage is a way of using it in a new and innovative way, but absolutely in line with what our grandparents always wanted. You're giving them a solution to a problem, as well as promoting universal culture. It's incredibly exciting."
A New Ally in Ports and Shipping
02 February 2026
Globe Stage began a new conversation with Alisa Kreynes, Director of C40 Ports and Shipping, exploring how the project's global logistics and touring model align with C40's work on sustainable urban transport. It's an early, practical thread, but one that speaks directly to how Globe Stage actually moves around the world.
Welcoming our Founding Artistic Circle!
January 2026
Before the Founding Circle existed, the Founding Artistic Circle began taking shape. Sir Mark Rylance, Julianne Moore, David Oyelowo, Steven Soderbergh, Orlando Bloom, and a growing group of directors and artists lent their voice to Globe Stage's earliest days, helping define its artistic soul before a single seat was built.
This page picks up the story from here, tracking what happens next as it happens.
A personal note from our Founder Barbara Römer
and Co-Founder Juliet Rylance
A Final Word.
Thank you for being among the first to believe in Globe Stage — before there was a prototype, before there was proof. That kind of trust is rare, and it's the reason any of this is possible.
What you're building goes beyond a structure. It's a stage that can meet artists and audiences wherever they are, and a community that grows alongside it, one in which you'll always have a place, however closely or lightly you choose to stay involved.
We're grateful you're here for it.
With thanks,
Barbara & Juliet