Lara Foot (1967/8[?*]-) is a South African director, playwright and theatre manager.

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Biography

Born Lara Foot in Pretoria, she completed a BA (Drama) at University of the Witwatersrand (1989), and a MA in Drama at the University of Cape Town (2007).

She was married to and collaborated with Lionel Newton for a while, working as Lara Foot-Newton, but reverting to her maiden name afterwards.

Her contribution to South African Theatre, Film, Media and Performance

In theatre management

Initially a free-lance director, she joined the Market Theatre as Resident Director (1996-1997), then became Associate Artistic Director (1998-2000). In her time there she founded the Barney Simon Young Directors and Writers Festivals. After spending 2004 in London working with Sir Peter Hall with a Rolex International Theatre Award, she returned to become Resident Director and Dramaturg for the Baxter Theatre (2005-2007). In 2009 she became the Artistic Director for the Baxter Theatre Centre and in January 2010 she was appointed as CEO and Artistic Director.

Directing credits

Over the years she has directed over 50 professional productions both as Lara Foot and Lara Foot-Newton, 38 of which have been new South African plays. Her credits include **, ** Paul Slabolepszy’s The Return of Elvis Du Pisanie (1992), Nicholas Ellenbogen’s Nick goes Native (Amphitheatre, 1992), Athol Fugard’s Hello and Goodbye (Upstairs at the Market, 1994), Sue Pam-Grant and D.J. Grant’s Take the Floor (the Laager, 1994), Ma-Gents (1997), Tshepang (2003-2011), Betrayal (2006), Amadeus (2006), ***, Karoo Moose (2007/8), Scrooge (Baxter Theatre, 2013), Fishers of Hope (Taweret) (2014), The Inconvenience of Wings (2016)Solomon and Marion, Woyzeck,

As playwright

As playwright her works include Tshepang (2003), Hear and Now (with Lionel Newton), The Well Being (with Andrew Buckland and Lionel Newton), Reach, Karoo Moose, Fishers of Hope (Taweret) (2014), The Inconvenience of Wings (2016) all of which have been produced in South Africa and abroad, and most been published, many of them by Oberon Books.

Film work

In later years she also worked in film, writing and co-directing the multiple award-winning short film And There is the Dust (2007?*), being asked to join the Sundance Film Writers’ Lab (2007) and the Sundance Film Directors’ Lab (2008).