Webster, Margaret (1905–1972)

US-born English actor and director. After establishing her acting career in London, she turned to directing in the USA from 1936, working on Broadway, and co-founding the influential American Repertory Company with Cheryl Crawford and Eva Le Gallienne in 1946. She toured Shakespeare in the USA, and later became the first woman to direct an opera at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York.

Webster was born in New York, where her actor parents were performing. She was a child actor from 1917, and made her adult debut in the chorus of a classical Greek drama in 1924. Following her return to New York in 1936 she concentrated more on directing, and had a major success directing Paul Robeson in Othello on Broadway (1943).