# Muriel Romanes

Muriel Rose Romanes MBE (born 18 March 1946) is a Scottish former theatre, television and film actress and award-winning stage director. She is best known as a cast regular in the Scottish Television drama Take the High Road; and as the artistic director of the Stellar Quines Theatre Company in Edinburgh.

## Career

Born in Cambridge, Romanes began her acting career as a student at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama. Having worked in Scottish theatre for many years, she played the part of schoolteacher Miss Welch in Gregory's Girl (1981). In 1980, she joined the cast of Take the High Road and, until 1989, played the part of Alice Taylor (née McEwan), one of the programme's longest-running characters. Other television credits include An Englishman, an Irishman and a Scotsman (BBC), Schools (BBC) and Wallace Warbler (STV).
After leaving Take the High Road, Romanes returned to theatre where she had many successes. She became an associate director at the Royal Lyceum Theatre in Edinburgh where she directed several acclaimed productions, including The Deep Blue Sea, A Listening Heaven, Lavender Blue, A Streetcar Named Desire, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, and Anna Karenina. In 1993, she was a founder member of the Stellar Quines Theatre Company in Edinburgh and, in 1996, became its first artistic director. Romanes held this post until she retired in 2015. Romanes was a frequent visiting lecturer and director at the Drama School of Edinburgh’s Queen Margaret University where she directed a number of productions.

## Theatre

| Year | Title | Role | Company | Theatre | Director | Notes |
| 1989 & 1990 | The Guid Sisters | Pierette Guerin | The Tron Theatre Company | Tron Theatre, Glasgow | Michael Boyd | play by Michel Tremblay, translated into Scots by Bill Findlay and Martin Bowman |
| 1989 | Woman in Mind | Susan | Lyceum Theatre Company | Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh | Hugh Hogart | play by Alan Ayckbourn |
| 1991 | The Bruce | Isabel, Countess of Buchan | Brunton Theatre Company | Brunton Theatre, Musselburgh | Charles Nowosielski | Edinburgh International Festival production of the play by Robert S. Silver |
| 1992 | The Jesuit | Lady Spottiswoode | Fifth Estate | Netherbow Theatre, Edinburgh | Allan Sharpe | play by Donald Campbell |
Other theatre work includes touring with Jimmy Logan in For Love or Money: An Ideal Husband (Perth Rep), Schellenbreck (Netherbow), Deacon Brodie, Othersise Engaged, Dr. Angelus, The Tempest, Blythe Spirit, A View from the Bridge and The Marriage of Figaro (Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh), We, Charles II and The Archive of Countess D. (Fifth Estate). In 1992, she assisted Allan Sharpe with his production of Trevor Royle's Buchan of Tweedsmuir and directed Lambrusco Nights for Fifth Estate.

## Honours

On 12 June 2016, following her retirement, the Critics' Awards for Theatre in Scotland (CATS) presented Romanes with the prestigious "CATS Whiskers" award for outstanding achievement "in supporting and strengthening women’s role in Scottish theatre", most notably as the first artistic director of Stellar Quines. She was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2016 Birthday Honours for services to drama.