Rebecca Atkinson-Lord is a British theater and film director and writer. She grew up in

Wolverhampton Wolverhampton ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands (county), West Midlands of England. Located around 12 miles (20 km) north of Birmingham, it forms the northwestern part of the West Midlands conurbation, with the towns of ...

and was a scholarship pupil at St Dominic's High School for Girls in

Brewood Brewood is an ancient market town in the civil parish of Brewood and Coven, in the South Staffordshire district, in the county of Staffordshire, England. Brewood lies near the River Penk, north of Wolverhampton and south of Stafford. Brewoo ...

, Staffordshire. She read

ancient history Ancient history is a time period from the History of writing, beginning of writing and recorded human history through late antiquity. The span of recorded history is roughly 5,000 years, beginning with the development of Sumerian language, ...

at the

University of Bristol The University of Bristol is a public university, public research university in Bristol, England. It received its royal charter in 1909, although it can trace its roots to a Merchant Venturers' school founded in 1595 and University College, Br ...

. before training as a theater director at

RADA The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, also known by its abbreviation RADA (), is a drama school in London, England, which provides vocational conservatoire training for theatre, film, television, and radio. It is based in Bloomsbury, Central Lond ...

. In 2008 she founded Arch 468, a theatre production and development hub in Brixton. In 2010 she was appointed co Director of Theatre at

Ovalhouse Ovalhouse, formerly called Oval House Theatre, was an Off-West End theatre in the London Borough of Lambeth, located at 52–54 Kennington Oval, London, SE11 5SW. It closed in 2020, and moved to Brixton, becoming the Brixton House theatre (locate ...

in London In 2012 she was nominated for the Off-West End Award for Best Director for her production of ''Cuddles'' by Joseph Wilde at Ovalhouse. The production subsequently toured the UK before transferring to 59E59 Theatres in

Manhattan Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...

in 2015 where it was awarded a

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

Critic's Pick and named as one of the best theater shows of 2015 by the New York Times. In May 2016 Nicole Kidman and her production company Blossom Films announced that she had optioned the rights to "Cuddles" and that Wilde would be adapting the play for screen. Since February 2015, she has been a regular contributor to ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'' newspaper's online theatre blog and has written extensively on theatre and arts politics issues for both ''The Guardian'' and ''

The Stage ''The Stage'' is a British weekly newspaper and website covering the entertainment industry and particularly theatre. Founded in 1880, ''The Stage'' contains news, reviews, opinion, features, and recruitment advertising, mainly directed at thos ...

'' newspapers. In November 2015 Atkinson-Lord and her co-director Rachel Briscoe announced that they were stepping down from Ovalhouse to concentrate on individual projects. In September 2017, Atkinson-Lord's first film, "Domesticity", written by Chisa Hutchinson, won the award for Best Micro Drama at London's Discover.film Festival. In May 2021 Atkinson-Lord was appointed Artistic Director and Chief Executive of An Tobar & Mull Theatre on the

Isle of Mull The Isle of Mull or simply Mull ( ) is the second-largest island of the Inner Hebrides (after Skye) and lies off the west coast of Scotland in the Council areas of Scotland, council area of Argyll and Bute. Covering , Mull is the fourth-lar ...

in the Scottish Hebridies.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Atkinson-Lord, Rebecca Year of birth missing (living people) Living people British theatre directors British women theatre directors People educated at St Dominic's Grammar School