a stroke in 1951. Webster was part of a small but influential group of lesbian producers, directors, and actors in theater (a group that included Eva Le Gallienne and Cheryl Crawford). When Evans joined the army, Webster continued to have success directing classical plays on Broadway, notably The Cherry Orchard (1944), starring Le Gallienne, and her greatest triumph Othello (1943), starring Paul Robeson in the title role and Jose Ferrer as Iago, which ran for 296 performances, by far the longest run of a Shakespearean production on Broadway, a record that has not been remotely approached since. Webster played Emilia in the production's initial year (she was replaced by Edith King in 1944). In 1945, she staged the longest-running performance of Shakespeare's The Tempest to play Broadway, with Arnold Moss as Prospero, Canada Lee as Caliban, and ballerina Vera Zorina as Ariel. This production was only the second U.S. staging of a Shakespeare play to feature an African-American actor in a prominent role among an otherwise all-white cast. The production played for 100 performances, then took a short break and returned to Broadway for 24 more performances. In 1946, Webster and Le Gallienne co-founded the American Repertory Theater with producer Cheryl Crawford, with Webster's staging of Shakespeare's Henry VIII as its premiere production, starring Le Gallienne as Katherine, Walter Hampden as Cardinal Wolsey and Victor Jory in the title role. The theater operated until 1948, staging such plays as John Gabriel Borkman, Ghosts, and a legendary production of Alice in Wonderland in which Webster played the Cheshire Cat and the Red Queen. In 1948, her affair with Le Gallienne ended and she went on tour with her company, the Margaret Webster Shakespeare Company. The tour lasted until 1951, but Webster left in 1950 to become the first woman to direct a production at the Metropolitan Opera. Her debut production of Don Carlo served as opening night of the 1950–51 season and began the tenure of Rudolf Bing as general manager. Her subsequent productions were Aida (1951) and Simon Boccanegra (1959). Around 1953, she met the British author Pamela Frankau with whom she fell in love, and by 1957, they were living together at 55 Christchurch Hill in Hampstead, London. In 1964, she directed Leo Genn in 12 Angry Men in London. She also directed Macbeth at the New York City Opera. Frankau and Webster frequently moved between London and Webster's