Our friend Kate Crutchley, who has died of cancer aged 69, was an actor, director and under-acknowledged pioneer in lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) and women's theatre.
She was born in Wolverhampton. Her father, Bernard, worked for the railway and her mother, Mary, for the manufacturers Courtaulds. Kate went to school in Wolverhampton and trained at the Birmingham School of Speech and Drama (now Birmingham School of Acting). In 1980 she appeared in Tony Garnett's directorial debut, the semi-improvised film Prostitute. Her television work included roles in Angels (1976), Give Us This Day (1982), The Bill (1994 and 1998), Backup (1995 and 1997), Supply and Demand (1997), Doctors (2000 and 2005) and Midsomer Murders (2008).
From 1975 to 1978 Kate was involved with, and directed for, the Gay Sweatshop theatre company, and she also established the separate Gay Sweatshop Women's Company. In 1977 she was a co-organiser of the Women's festival at the Drill Hall in London, and in the same year she formed the Women's Project Company with Nancy Diuguid, to encourage and support female writers. One of their productions was Michelene Wandor's Aid Thy Neighbour (1978), which was among the first plays to deal with artificial insemination and lesbian motherhood. For some time, Kate was the artistic director of the Writers' Theatre Company at Birmingham Arts Lab.
In 1980 she went to the Oval House in Kennington, south London, as a freelance director. In the following year she took over as programme director there, overseeing a wide range of work, both producing inhouse and welcoming touring companies with groundbreaking women's, lesbian and gay, and experimental work. One of her first commissions was to ask Joyce Halliday to adapt Isabel Miller's cult lesbian novel Patience and Sarah for the stage.
In 1986 Kate formed her own theatre company, Character Ladies, which performed at the Oval House. Their first play was Supporting Roles by Sandra Freeman, staged that year, followed by many other successful seasons, as well as festivals and comedy events.
Kate left the Oval House in 1991 and will be remembered for regularly promoting work by female, LGBT, black and Asian writers, performers and companies, at a time when this work was considered well outside the mainstream.
An avid gardener and allotmenteer, she was an equally ardent Wolverhampton Wanderers supporter.
Kate is survived by Claire, her partner of many years, and Claire's son, Josh, whom they lovingly brought up together.