Sarah Frankcom to step down as artistic director of Manchester's Royal Exchange Theatre

Sarah Frankcom is to step down as artistic director of the Royal Exchange Theatre, it has been announced.

Frankcom, who joined the venue in 1998 and became joint artistic director in 2008 before becoming sole artistic director in 2014, will leave the Manchester venue to become director of LAMDA drama school.

The director, who will oversee the venue's revival of West Side Story in April, has helmed many of the venue's flagship productions over the last few years including the WhatsOnStage Award-nominated Death of a Salesman and Our Town, for which she won the Best Director Award at the UK Theatre Awards.

She will take up her role as LAMDA director in November 2019. Speaking about the move, Frankcom said: "There are very few jobs I would feel excited about leaving the Exchange for, but my background in teaching and enduring appetite for finding new and innovative ways of developing the widest variety of theatre talent, made the offer to lead LAMDA, and reimagine what drama training might be in the future, too enticing a challenge to pass up."