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Deborah is a Hampshire-based theatre director and dramaturg and co-founder of The Lady Gardeners Theatre Company. She is also a former associate director and co-director with Two Sheds Theatre and is currently writing her first full-length play and producing The Lady Gardeners' 2025 Tour.
Although Deborah has been directing for eleven years, her latest work, In The Lady Garden written by Babs Horton, is The Lady Gardeners' debut play. It was selected as one of the seven 2024 Edinburgh National Partnership shows, supported by the Pleasance in association with the Theatre Royal Plymouth. The show has previously had two successful sell-out runs at Theatre Royal Plymouth in 2022 and 2024 and another sell-out run at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2024, where it was shortlisted for the Popcorn Writing Award, and received a Brighton Fringe Excellence Award Nomination. Read more
Background
Deborah has been working in the theatre industry for over twenty-one years. For nearly ten years prior to her taking up directing, she worked under the Artistic Directorship of Patrick Sanford at Southampton's producing theatre (formerly called The Nuffield, now renamed the MAST) as head of fundraising and development. Although, she has always been very interested in reading plays and going to the theatre, it was while she was working at the Nuffield that her real passion for theatre grew, and in 2013 she left her post to take up a place on the short directing course at London's Royal Central School for Speech and Drama.
Before working in theatre, Deborah's earlier career spanned the NHS (where she had trained as a nurse), the charity sector (working for the British Red Cross and a children's leukaemia research charity), social services, further education, and the local City Council where, among many other business and marketing duties, she project-managed a major public art commission. She then entered the political arena, working as a campaign organiser for her local parliamentary candidate, who went on to win his seat at the 2024 General Election.
Deborah co-directed her first professional play, Muswell Hill, in 2014, which went on to receive rave reviews and a four-week transfer to London's Park Theatre. Her other directing and co-directing credits include: A Streetcar Named Desire, The Seagull, African Gothic, Black Mass and My Children! My Africa! which transferred to the West End's Trafalgar Studios, and was listed as one of the 2015 Stage Review's Top 5 Fringe Shows. Her work has regularly garnered five and four-star national reviews and has been listed in The Guardian and The Stage 'Top Ticket Picks'. Read the reviews here. Deborah also received a Best Director nomination for A Streetcar Named Desire.
In 2008, Deborah co-foundered 10x10, a national playwriting festival, which she produced for ten years. It was one of the first of its kind when she and her playwright husband first launched it. In 2019, she ventured into the world of opera when she co-directed La Bohème.
Since taking up directing, Deborah has attended many workshops and masterclasses with notable directors including: Katie Mitchell; Rebecca Frecknall; Lynsey Turner; Sally Cookson; James McDonald; Lisa Spirling; Jeremy Herrin; Melly Still; Claire Lizzimore; Marianne Elliott; Rikki Beadle-Blair; Teunkie Van Der Sluijs; Jonathan Boyle; Max Webster; Gbolahan Obisesan; and with writer, James Graham; new writing company, Papatango; and with the theatre company, Frantic Assembly.
Deborah is a member of the Young Vic Creators Programme and the JMK Trust (Salisbury Group) and has previously been a trustee for Forest Forge Theatre Company, Platform 4 Theatre and Two Sheds Theatre. She was also Chairman of the Chesil Theatre between 2007 and 2010 and headed up the marketing and PR for a further four years, overseeing many changes.
Additional skills and experience
In addition to her business degree and nursing qualification, Deborah has over 25 years' management experience as a collaborative, flexible, strategic arts and business professional. She is skilled in project managing, writing bids, marketing, brand development, communications, PR, copywriting, producing print material, stakeholder management, governance, event management, finance including capital project management and credit control. She also has over 15 years of arts and charity fundraising experience.
Please get in touch with Deborah if you would like a copy of her CV (directing and/or business). She would love to hear from you.
Please get in touch with Deborah if you would like a copy of her CV (directing and/or business). She would love to hear from you.