It is with profound sadness that the Society notes the death of Barry Sheppard, a dear colleague and a stalwart support, a person of wise, calm, and incisive insights, and a figure of continuity through all the changes of recent years.

Barry Sheppard was a graduate of Bristol University’s Drama Department. His career has been in theatre management and production, notably at the University Theatre Manchester (where he worked alongside what is now the Royal Exchange Theatre Company and founded Contact Theatre) and at the Oxford Playhouse. During this time he held honorary posts as an advisor with the Arts Council, the Southern Arts Association, South West Arts and Cornwall County Council, and various committee posts with the Theatrical Management Association (now UK Theatre), including that of Chairman of its Resident Managers Committee. He later worked with WSG Productions as Administrative Producer of Whirligig Theatre, their touring children’s theatre arm. He was for fifteen years (1998-2013) Treasurer and Membership Secretary of the Society for Theatre Research, was Acting Chair 2016/17 and then one of its Vice-Presidents.

A fuller obituary will appear here in due course.