Cheryl Martin joins Red Ladder Theatre Company as new Artistic Director

Director and writer Cheryl Martin joins radical theatre company Red Ladder as their new Artistic Director from January 2024 replacing Rod Dixon who stood down after 17 years leading the company.

Alongside her work writing and directing award-winning theatre productions, Cheryl has also fulfilled a variety of roles including supporting writers and practitioners at Contact Theatre, Traverse Theatre Edinburgh, and Oldham Coliseum.  She has also worked with Community Arts Northwest on a series of community plays devised with, and starring, mostly women refugees and asylum seekers.

In 2015 she co-founded LGBTQ+ Global-Majority performance arts company Black Gold Arts creating a week-long celebration in choreography, writing, directing and cabaret, which was part of the Eurovision cultural festival.  Black Gold Arts recently won the Best Event category at the Manchester Culture Awards for its free outdoor arts festival at The Whitworth in 2022.

Cheryl is also an Edinburgh Fringe Total Theatre assessor and judge, and was also Co-Artistic Director of Manchester’s grassroots Global-Majority-led publisher and writer development company Commonword. She is Co-Director of Manchester Pride’s Candlelight Vigil.

“For me this is the dream job. To be able to work with a company with so much history and reach into so many communities,” says Cheryl Martin. “Red Ladder is always shape-shifting, evolving, and changing its approach.  A place where all the plays are new ways to connect with a working-class audience, where those connections are cherished, and where every show, the staff and the board, are dedicated to finding and amplifying the voices and stories of people who are so often unsupported. 

“I feel incredibly lucky. I get to develop artists, to look for new audiences and the people and shows that will appeal to them, and I get to direct every now and then. I get to work with a team who are passionate about what they believe in and deliver a massive amount of compelling work.”