Sarah Frankcom (born 1968) is an English theatre director. She was an artistic director of the Royal Exchange theatre in Manchester from 2008 to 2019, [1] when she became director of the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. [2]
Sarah Frankcom was born in Sheffield. She studied at Westfield College which was a constituent college of the University of London and then at Goldsmiths College, London where she obtained her PGCE. [3]
After working as a drama teacher in the East End, she began to work with new writers and drama schools. She spent time at the National Theatre Studio, Oval House and The Red Room and taught at the Poor School. She originally joined the Royal Exchange as literary manager in 2000, before becoming an associate artistic director and then artistic director in 2008. With the departure of Greg Hersov in 2014 she became the sole artistic director. [1]
In October 2018 she won the UK Theatre Award for best director for her production of Our Town . [4]
In August 2021 it was announced that Sarah Frankcom would step down as Director of LAMDA, and that the institution was conducting a search for a successor. [5]
Her credits include: [6]
James Maxwell was an American-British actor, theatre director and writer, particularly associated with the Royal Exchange Theatre in Manchester.
The Royal Exchange is a grade II listed building in Manchester, England. It is located in the city centre on the land bounded by St Ann's Square, Exchange Street, Market Street, Cross Street and Old Bank Street. The complex includes the Royal Exchange Theatre and the Royal Exchange Shopping Centre.
The London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA) is a drama school located in Hammersmith, London. It is the oldest specialist drama school in the British Isles and a founding member of the Federation of Drama Schools. The institution is ranked 1st in the UK in the "Drama and Dance" category by The Guardian University Guide rankings for 2025 with a perfect score of 100. It is also ranked 6th in the world by The Hollywood Reporter's annual list of the 25 top drama schools and is currently rated as the top UK drama school for student satisfaction according to the 2024 National Student Survey.
Miss Julie is a naturalistic play written in 1888 by August Strindberg. It is set on Midsummer's Eve and the following morning, which is Midsummer and the Feast Day of St. John the Baptist. The setting is an estate of a count in Sweden. Miss Julie is drawn to a senior servant, a valet named Jean, who is well-traveled and well-read. The action takes place in the kitchen of Miss Julie's father's manor, where Jean's fiancée, a servant named Christine, cooks and sometimes sleeps while Jean and Miss Julie talk.
Simon Stephens is a British-Irish playwright and Professor of Scriptwriting at Manchester Metropolitan University. Having taught on the Young Writers' Programme at the Royal Court Theatre for many years, he is now an Artistic Associate at the Lyric Hammersmith. He is the inaugural Associate Playwright of Steep Theatre Company, Chicago, where four of his plays, Harper Regan,Motortown, Wastwater, and Birdland had their U.S. premieres. His writing is widely performed throughout Europe and, along with Dennis Kelly and Martin Crimp, he is one of the most performed English-language writers in Germany.
Maxine Peake is an English actress and narrator. She is known for her roles as Twinkle in dinnerladies, a sitcom on BBC One (1998–2000), as Veronica Ball in Shameless, the comedy drama from Channel 4 (2004–2007), Martha Costello in the BBC One legal drama Silk (2011–2014), and Grace Middleton in the BBC One drama series The Village (2013–2014). In 2017, she starred in the Black Mirror episode "Metalhead". She has also played the title role in Hamlet, as well as the notorious serial killer Myra Hindley in See No Evil: The Moors Murders, the critically acclaimed 2006 dramatisation by ITV of the Moors murders.
On the Shore of the Wide World is a play by English playwright Simon Stephens. It opened 18 April 2005, at the Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester, under the direction of Sarah Frankcom. On May 26, the production transferred to the Cottesloe space of the Royal National Theatre in London.
Clare Frances Elizabeth Higgins is an English actress. She is a three-time winner of the Olivier Award for Best Actress; for Sweet Bird of Youth (1995), Vincent in Brixton (2003), and Hecuba (2005). She made her Broadway debut in 2003 in Vincent in Brixton, receiving a Tony Award nomination for Best Actress in a Play.
The Skriker is a 1994 play by Caryl Churchill that tells the story of an ancient fairy who, during the course of the play, transforms into a plethora of objects and people as it pursues Lily and Josie, two teenage mothers whom it befriends, manipulates, seduces and entraps. Whilst speaking English in its human incarnations, the Skriker’s own language consists of broken and fragmented word play. Blending naturalism, horror and magical realism, it is a story of love, loss and revenge. As with Churchill's A Mouthful of Birds (1986), the play explores the themes of post-natal psychosis and possession.
Emma Lowndes is an English actress, known for portraying Bella Gregson in Cranford, Mary Rivers in Jane Eyre and Margie Drewe in Downton Abbey.
Gregory A. "Greg" Hersov is a British theatre director. Hersov was educated at Bryanston School and Mansfield College, Oxford.
Braham Sydney Murray, OBE was an English theatre director. In 1976, he was one of five founding Artistic Directors of the Royal Exchange Theatre in Manchester, and the longest-serving.
Marianne Phoebe Elliott is a British theatre director and producer who works on the West End and Broadway. She has received numerous accolades including two Laurence Olivier Awards and four Tony Awards.
Dilys Hamlett was a British actress.
The Manchester Theatre Awards were established in 2011 to replace the Manchester Evening News Theatre Awards.The MEN awards, created in 1981 by Alan Hulme, the paper's theatre critic, had long been recognised as the most important theatrical prize-giving outside London and were an important part of the Greater Manchester theatrical calendar. When the Manchester Evening News withdrew its support, the critics already involved, led by Alan Hulme and his MEN successor Kevin Bourke, and with the support of the Greater Manchester theatres, set up a new organisation to carry on the awards. The first winners, for 2011, were announced on 14 March 2012.
HOME is an arts centre, cinema and theatre complex in Manchester, England. With five cinemas, two theatres and 500 m2 (5,400 sq ft) of gallery space, it is one of the few arts organisations to commission, produce and present work across film, theatre and visual art.
The Bruntwood Prize for Playwriting is a British competition for playwriting, the largest of its kind in Europe—in 2019 it received 2561 entries. Since its inception in 2005, more than 15,000 scripts have been entered, £304,000 has been awarded to 34 prize-winning writers, and 24 winning productions have been staged in 38 UK-wide venues. In 2015 the prize celebrated its 10th anniversary and is now recognised as a launch-pad for some of the country's most respected and produced playwrights. The Prize is awarded to scripts that are original and unperformed. The award is a joint venture between the property company Bruntwood and the Royal Exchange Theatre in Manchester the Prize is an opportunity for writers of any background and experience to enter unperformed plays to be judged by a panel of industry experts for a chance to win part of a prize fund totalling £40,000.
Kate O'Flynn is a British actress. She is known for her performance in National Theatre's production of Port for which she received a Critics' Circle Theatre Award in 2013, as well as starring roles in plays A Taste of Honey in 2014, and The Glass Menagerie for which she was nominated for a Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actress in 2017.
Liam Gerrard is a British-Irish film, television and theatre actor. He is also an acclaimed voice-over artist and audiobook narrator. He is best known for his BAFTA-nominated work: Walter Tull: Britain's First Black Officer, Peterloo and Coronation Street. To date he has narrated over 200 audiobooks.
The Women's Prize for Playwriting is an award for female and non-binary writers from the UK and Ireland that was launched in 2019-2020.