Sherrill is a theatre practitioner, educator and researcher committed to performer training that is critically engaged and creates belonging. She holds a PhD from the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, where her doctoral research examined how feminist and political reframings of musical theatre training can help artists resist the form’s conservative tendencies and develop a more liberatory practice. Her research and teaching draw on feminist pedagogies to explore questions of identity, representation, and power in dramatic training.
Before joining Mountview, Sherrill worked as a freelance director on off-West End, fringe, and touring productions, and as a visiting teaching artist at drama schools, universities, and youth theatre programmes. She has created devised and site-specific projects, several funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund, and served as Associate Director at the King’s Head Theatre, where she directed UK premieres of Canadian plays and mentored emerging directors.
She trained at The Boston Conservatory (BFA Musical Theatre, emphasis in directing) and the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama (MA Actor Training and Coaching).
Sherrill is External Examiner at LAMDA, and formerly held the same role at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.
Selected Publications:
‘Reconsidering the Link between Text, Technique and Teaching in Actor Training’, in Critical Acting Pedagogy: Intersectional Approaches (Routledge, 2024)
‘Queering Brechtian Feminism: Breaking Down Gender Binaries in Musical Theatre Pedagogical Performance Practices’, Studies in Musical Theatre 12.3 (2018)
‘Immersive Performance and the Marketplace: The Hit’, in Reframing Immersive Theatre: The Politics and Pragmatics of Participatory Performance (Palgrave Macmillan, 2016)
”There’s Gotta Be Something Better Than This’: Challenging the Role of Big Emotion in the Transition from Speech to Song’, Studies in Musical Theatre 10.1 (2016)
