Louise Petherbridge

Louise Durant Petherbridge (née Harris, born 1931), is a New Zealand actor, director, deviser, producer and lecturer. Early life Born in Dunedin, New Zealand, Petherbridge attended St Hilda's Collegiate and the University of Otago, graduating in 1953 with a BA in English. She was an active member of the Otago University Drama Society (OUDS), and also appeared in plays for the Dunedin Repertory Society, including Aldous Huxley's The Gioconda Smile (1949). In 1953, Petherbridge won a New Zealand Government Drama Bursary, which allowed her to study for two years at the Northern Theatre School in Bradford, under Esmé Church. A fellow student was Edward Petherbridge, and the two married in 1957. Career Petherbridge acted in weekly and fortnightly rep with companies including Lincoln Theatre Rep and Ipswich Rep (under director Peter Coe), playing Alison in the first out-of-London production of John Osborne's Look Back in Anger in August 1957. She also played the title role in The Diary of Anne Frank at Ipswich Rep early in 1958, again directed by Coe, amongst other plays.