Frances Shrand — in memory

From Cynthia Broner — 3/23/2009

Former ’GBHer Frances Shrand, of Brighton, died Sun, 3/15.

Her career included time as an actress, an elocution teacher, and a children’s etiquette instructor, but Frances may be best remembered at WGBH for her work on The Spider’s Web, the WGBH radio production for which she won two Armstrong Awards.The Spider’s Web, which debuted on 89.7 in 1970, was one of WGBH’s earliest productions aimed at promoting literacy.

Frances’s reading lives on at the Forum Network; listen here.

From the Allston-Brighton Tab — 3/17/2009

Her acting career started when she won a performance award as a 13-year-old in Cape Town, South Africa. Graduating from the University of Cape Town, she was heralded as a rising star, and her career included working with stage actors including Susan Sontag, Robert Brustein, Peter Sellars and Toby Armour.

She was best known as Frances Shrand of The Spider’s Web the WGBH radio show for which she won two Armstrong Awards. Whether riding bareback on a bull in a WGBH television show about strong and remarkable American women or her performances of a Pinter character, she portrayed dozens of the greatest literary characters in theater.

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