Anna Mackmin

Anna Mackmin (born 1964) is an award-winning British theatre director. She has been an associate director at the Sheffield Crucible and at the Gate Theatre in London.

Life and career

Mackmin was born in Leeds in 1964. She trained as an actress at the Central School of Speech and Drama. Dissatisfied with her acting career, she became a clothing designer at one point and set up a business with her sister in London's Soho neighbourhood. Mackmin was friends with the actress and writer Charlotte Jones, and it was Jones' first play "Airswimming" which also provided Mackmin with her directorial debut in 1997.

She had only done two plays when Michael Grandage offered her the position of associate director at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield. There she scored notable successes with Arthur Miller's "The Crucible" and Caryl Churchill's "Cloud Nine", the latter earning her the 2004 TMA Award for best director. She has also had a successful stint at the Gate Theatre, where her most recent directorial effort was Ibsen's "Ghosts".

Mackmin has repeatedly worked with Charlotte Jones since their joint debut, directing Jones' plays "In Flame", "The Dark" and "The Lightning Play". She has also collaborated several times with Amelia Bullmore whom she originally directed as an actress in "The Crucible" in 2004. Since then, she has directed Bullmore's play "Mammals" and also her adaptation of "Ghosts".

In 2006, Mackmin staged an acclaimed triple bill at the National Theatre, entitled "Burn/Chatroom/Citizenship". In the spring of 2007, she again won plaudits, this time for her direction of "Dying For It", Moira Buffini's 'free adaptation' of Nikolai Erdman's "The Suicide".

Anna Mackmin's sister Scarlett Mackmin is a choreographer also working in the London theatre.

External links

* [http://www.whatsonstage.com/index.php?pg=207&story=E8821172574416 Interview with Whatsonstage.com]