50 Women theatre managers and producers

Sophie Charlotte Ackermann was a German actress from Berlin.

Friederike von Alvensleben (1749-1799), was a German actor and theater director. She was the managing director of a notable theater company, which was famous in Northern Germany during the second half of the 18th-century. She was first married to Karl Theophil Döbbelin and then to Johann Friedrich von Alvensleben (1736-1819).

Marie Effie Wilton, Lady Bancroft (1839–1921) was an English actress and theatre manager. She appeared onstage as Marie Wilton until after her marriage in December 1867 to Squire Bancroft, when she adopted his last name. Bancroft and her husband were important in the development of Victorian era theatre through their presentation of innovative plays at the London theatres that they managed, first the Prince of Wales's Theatre and later the Haymarket Theatre.

Lilian Mary Baylis CH was an English theatrical producer and manager. She managed the Old Vic and Sadler's Wells theatres in London and ran an opera company, which became the English National Opera (ENO); a theatre company, which evolved into the English National Theatre; and a ballet company, which eventually became The Royal Ballet.

Zulma Madeleine Boufflar, known as Zulma Bouffar,, was a French actress and soprano singer, associated with the opéra-bouffe of Paris in the second half of the 19th century who enjoyed a successful career around Europe.

Janey Sevilla Campbell, née Callander, was a British theatre producer and society hostess.

Maud Farrington OBE was a British theatre manager, who was the first woman to join the board of the Liverpool Playhouse in 1945.

Dame Bridget D'Oyly Carte DBE was the granddaughter of the impresario Richard D'Oyly Carte and the only daughter of Rupert D'Oyly Carte. She was head of the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company from 1948 until 1982.

Ivah Mae Wills Coburn was an American actress and Broadway producer.

Emma Cons was a British social reformer, strongly committed to women's suffrage. She also campaigned for educational opportunities for the working class, including cheap tickets to Shakespearean drama at the Old Vic Theatre, which she opened in 1880, later managed by her niece Lilian Baylis.

Edith "Edy" Ailsa Geraldine Craig was a prolific theatre director, producer, costume designer and early pioneer of the women's suffrage movement in England. She was the daughter of actress Ellen Terry and the progressive English architect-designer Edward William Godwin, and the sister of theatre practitioner Edward Gordon Craig.

Siobhán Daly is a British producer and artistic director.

Hedvig Charlotta Djurström was a Swedish stage actress. She was the managing director of the Djurström theater company in 1841-1846. She was one of the leading actresses of the countryside theater in Sweden and Finland during the first half of the 19th-century and referred to as the "Joan of Arc of the Countryside" after her most famous role.

Selina Simmons Belasco Dolaro was an English singer, actress, theatre manager and writer of the late Victorian era. During her career in operetta and other forms of musical theatre, she managed several of her own opera companies and directed the Royalty Theatre in London. She is best remembered as a producer of the original production of Trial by Jury by Gilbert and Sullivan. Dolaro sang the title role in the opera Carmen in the first English language version of that opera with the Carl Rosa Opera Company. She also wrote plays and novels.

Antoinette Thérèse Elfforss was a Swedish stage actress and theatre director. She was the managing director of the travelling Elfforss Theater Company between 1869 and 1888.

Patricia Louise Fagan is a producer and director specializing in creative development of artists, productions and arts organizations. She is the founder of Louise Fagan Productions, located in Canada and the United States.

Annie Fargé was a French actress named "most promising new star in a situation comedy" in 1961 when she played the title role in CBS's Angel. Especially in Europe, she was often credited as "Annie Fargue".

Mary Forbes was a British-American film actress, based in the United States in her latter years, where she died. She appeared in more than 130 films between 1919 and 1958.

Louise Elisabeth Granberg, was a Swedish playwright, translator and theatre director.

Elena Anatolievna Gremina was a Russian writer and playwright who was one of the founders of the documentary theatre Teatr.doc. The fact-based approach to creating theatre that Gremina fostered made Teatr.doc a prominent place in the Moscow theatre scene and the New Drama movement in Russian theatre.

Henrietta Hodson was an English actress and theatre manager best known for her portrayal of comedy roles in the Victorian era. She had a long affair with the journalist-turned-politician Henry Labouchère, later marrying him.

Thelma Holt is a British theatre producer and former actress.

Annie Elizabeth Fredericka Horniman CH was an English theatre patron and manager. She established the Abbey Theatre in Dublin and founded the first regional repertory theatre company in Britain at the Gaiety Theatre in Manchester. She encouraged the work of new writers and playwrights, including W. B. Yeats, George Bernard Shaw and members of what became known as the Manchester School of dramatists.

Mary Anne Keeley, née Goward was an English actress and actor-manager.

Jennifer Kapoor was an English actress and the founder of the Prithvi Theatre. She was nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role for the film 36 Chowringhee Lane (1981). Her other film appearances included Bombay Talkie (1970), Junoon (1978), Heat and Dust (1983), and Ghare Baire (1984).

Effie Hinckley Ober Kline was an American opera manager and booking agent. She founded the Boston Ideal Opera Company in 1879.

Marie Litton was the stage name of Mary Jessie Lowe, an English actress and theatre manager. After beginning a stage career in 1868, Litton became an actor-manager in 1871, producing plays for four years at the Court Theatre, including several by W. S. Gilbert. She also appeared in, and sometimes managed, other West End theatres. In the late 1870s, Litton managed the theatre at the Royal Aquarium, where she had some of her biggest acting successes, including as Lady Teazle in The School for Scandal (1877), Lydia Languish in The Rivals (1878), Miss Hardcastle in She Stoops to Conquer and Rosalind in As You Like It.

Bonita Lythgoe is a British former dancer who, since the 1990s and 2000s, has been the producer and director of various theatre productions, including pantomimes.

Mary Charlotte Moore, Lady Wyndham, was an English actress and theatrical manager. She was known for her appearances in comedies alongside the actor-manager Charles Wyndham between 1885 and his retirement in 1913. Over these three decades they acted mainly in contemporary plays, many written for them by authors including Henry Arthur Jones and Hubert Henry Davies, but also appeared in classic comedies together. She continued to act on stage until 1919. She was married to the playwright James Albery from 1879 to 1889, and after his death her relationship with Wyndham eventually became romantic. After the death of Wyndham's estranged wife in 1916, he and Moore married.

Sarah Winifred Benedict Mayer (16 October 1896 – 19 March 1957) was an English actress and judoka. She was the first non-Japanese woman to obtain a blackbelt in judo.

Julia Kathleen Nancy McKenzie, is an English actress, singer, presenter, and theatre director. She has premièred leading roles written by both Alan Ayckbourn and Stephen Sondheim. On television, she is known for her BAFTA Award nominated role as Hester Fields in the sitcom Fresh Fields (1984–1986) and its sequel French Fields (1989–1991), and as Miss Marple in Agatha Christie's Marple (2009–2013).

Marguerite Brunet, known by her stage name of Mademoiselle Montansier, was a French actress and theatre director.

Olga Isabella Nethersole, CBE, RRC was an English actress, theatre producer, and wartime nurse and health educator.

Friederike Caroline Neuber, née Friederike Caroline Weissenborn, also known as Friedericke Karoline Neuber, Frederika Neuber, Karoline Neuber, Carolina Neuber, Frau Neuber, and Die Neuberin, was a German actress and theatre director. She is considered one of the most famous actresses and actor-managers in the history of the German theatre, "influential in the development of modern German theatre." Neuber also worked to improve the social and artistic status of German actors and actresses, emphasizing naturalistic technique. During a time when theatrical managers in Germany were predominantly men, Caroline Neuber stands out in history as a remarkably ambitious woman who, during her 25-year career, was able to alter theatrical history, elevating the status of German theatre alongside of Germany's most important male theatrical leaders at the time, such as "her actor-manager husband Johann, the popular stage fool Johann Müller, the major actor of the next generation Johann Schönemann, the multi-talented newcomer Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, and principally, their de facto Dramaturg, Johann Gottsched."

María Padín was a Uruguayan film, radio, and theater actress and producer who had a successful career in Argentina.

Elvira Popescu was a Romanian-French stage and film actress and theatre director. During the 1930s and 1940s, she starred in a number of French comedy films.

Emma Romer, afterwards Emma Almond (1814–1868) was a leading British soprano of the 19th century, and for three years a theatre manager and producer.

Susan Douglas Rubeš C.M. was an Austrian-born Canadian actress and producer. She was sometimes credited as Susan Douglas or Susan Rubes.

Evangeline Estelle Gazina, better known under her stage name, Kate Santley, was a German-born actress, singer and comedian. After spending her childhood in the US, she came to England in 1861, where she had a successful career, later also becoming a theatre manager.

Shelley M. Shier is a Canadian-American entrepreneur, art consultant, curator, music and theatrical producer.

Emily Soldene was an English singer, actress, director, theatre manager, novelist and journalist of the late Victorian era and the Edwardian period. She was one of the most famous singers of comic opera in the late nineteenth century, as well as an important director of theatre companies and later a celebrated gossip columnist.

Dame Rosemary Anne Squire, DBE is a British commercial theatre owner and entrepreneur. She was founder, co-owner and joint chief executive of the Ambassador Theatre Group (ATG) Ltd. Squire and her husband/business partner, Howard Panter, are the second largest shareholder of ATG.

Emma Stenning is a British arts professional, currently based in Toronto, where she has been the Executive Director of Soulpepper Theatre, since November 2018.

Sarah Thorne was a British actress and actress-manager of the 19th century who managed the Theatre Royal at Margate for many years. She ran a school for acting there which is widely regarded as Britain's first formal drama school. The Sarah Thorne Theatre Club in Broadstairs is named in her memory.

Lucia Elizabeth Vestris was an English actress and a contralto opera singer, appearing in works by, among others, Mozart and Rossini. While popular in her time, she was more notable as a theatre producer and manager. After accumulating a fortune from her performances, she leased the Olympic Theatre in London and produced a series of burlesques and extravaganzas, especially popular works by James Planché, for which the house became famous. She also produced his work at other theatres she managed.

Signora Violante (1682–1741) was a rope-dancer, acrobat, commedia dell'arte actor and theatre company manager.

Mary Amelia Warner, née Huddart (1804–1854) was an English actress and theatre manager.

Harriet Waylett (1798–1851) was an English actress and theatre manager.

Adeline Werligh was a Danish-Norwegian stage actor and theatre manager.

Mrs. John Wood, born Matilda Charlotte Vining, was an English actress and theatre manager.