It might not have dominated the headlines quite like Indhu Rubasingham’s appointment at the National Theatre but Cheryl Martin was this month announced as the new artistic director of Red Ladder. Both are women from the global majority taking over high-profile theatre organisations. While Martin won’t run a building, like Rubasingham on London’s South Bank, she will lead a 55-year-old radical company that has deep roots in the city of Leeds. That’s in part due to Red Ladder’s work with community casts, performing in working men’s clubs and community buildings, alongside its national touring work.
“I wanted to apply for the job as soon as I saw it,” says Martin. “You get an idea when something is going to be a perfect fit. A lot of my friends have worked for the company, I know Kully (Thiarai, creative director of Leeds 2023 and former artistic director of Red Ladder) and the more I read about Red Ladder, the more excited about it I became. My first professional job was for an agitprop company called Pit Prop theatre, so Red Ladder shares a lot of my DNA; working class, left-leaning, looking at stories that don’t always get told.”
