Marianka Swain

Marianka Swain is a London-based arts journalist. She is the UK Editor-in-Chief of BroadwayWorld, and also regularly contributes to the Telegraph, The i Paper, Dancing Times magazine, the Ham & High and Islington Gazette, theartsdesk, and TodayTix.

Marianka has always been passionate about theatre. Growing up, she was a member of the Gate and Soho Theatres’ young writers’ groups, as well as doing numerous plays at school. She read English at the University of Oxford and completed the Creative Writing MA at the University of East Anglia.

Her work ranges from interviews with leading industry figures to reviews, news, opinion and advice. She is keen to encourage new audiences to engage with the performing arts, and to showcase positive movements for change – such as Tonic Theatre’s mission to achieve greater gender equality. She also writes a popular Strictly Come Dancing blog for Dancing Times, and dance technique column for the Telegraph.

Marianka’s favourite recent shows include the enthralling musicals Hamilton, Come From Away and Fun Home; three fiendishly clever plays: Annie Baker’s The Antipodes, Laura Wade’s The Watsons and Lucy Prebble’s A Very Expensive Poison; and some transformative revivals: Marianne Elliott’s gender-swapped Company, Dominic Cooke’s Follies at the National, Matthew Warchus’s Present Laughter at the Old Vic, and Maria Aberg’s Little Shop of Horrors at Regent’s Park Open Air.

You can find more of her work at www.mkmswain.com