Joanna Foster

Joanna Foster is a British actress active in theatre and television since 1978. On stage she created roles in the world premieres of Andrew Davies's Diary of A Desperate Woman (1979), Anthony Burgess's The Eve of Saint Venus (1979), and Olwen Wymark's Brezhnev's Children (1991), and has performed leading roles with the Royal Shakespeare Company, Royal National Theatre, The Young Vic, Leicester Haymarket Theatre, and The Dukes, Lancaster among other theatre companies. She was the fourth and final actress to portray Susan Barlow in Coronation Street. Career Education and stage work Foster is the daughter of the actor Barry Foster and the sister of the actress Miranda Foster. She was trained at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama. While a student she performed the role of Celia in the Central School's January 1978 production of Christopher Hampton's The Philanthropist. She made her professional stage debut at the Mercury Theatre, Colchester in September 1978 as Valeria in Aphra Behn's 1677 play The Rover. It was the first un-censored staging of the play since the 1750s; restoring much of the original bawdy language. In 1979, Foster starred in the world premiere of Andrew Davies's Diary of A Desperate Woman at the Belgrade Theatre in Coventry, England. That same year she became a resident actress at the New Wolsey Theatre; making her debut with the company in a production of Carlo Goldoni's 1746 play The Servant of Two Masters. Other roles she performed at that theatre included Diana in the world premiere of Anthony Burgess's The Eve of Saint Venus (1979), Gerda in a stage adaptation of Hans Christian Andersen's The Snow Queen (1980), and Hermia in William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream (1980).