Since she took a first degree in drama at Manchester University, then a master's in directing after she realized she wasn't cut out to be an actress, Vicky Featherstone — the first female artistic director of London's hugely prestigious Royal Court Theatre in the heart of upper-crust Chelsea — has seemed to make light of glass ceilings.
As chance would have it, her first job was as an assistant director at the Royal Court in 1990. She then cut her directorial teeth at regional companies until 1997, when she was appointed to be artistic director of London-based Paines Plough, a company with no home theater that specializes in new writers' plays and touring in Britain and abroad. Within two years, she had turned around its ailing finances and seen its audience numbers double.
Following that success, Featherstone's next move, in 2004, was a mighty leap up to become founding director of the non-building-based National Theatre of Scotland, where her job combined the roles of director, chief executive and artistic director.