The Water Dancer merges historical and fantasy fiction in a slavery story that Oprah Winfrey says is one of the best books she has read in her life. Rory Alexander Weise and Bryony Shanahan photographed at the Manchester Royal Exchange by Gary Calton for the Observer. It’s often said that change in British theatre will only come about when you change who’s in charge. And a new trend in 2019 has proved quietly progressive: job shares. The artistic directorship of Manchester Royal Exchange is now split between two rising directing talents: Bryony Shanahan and Roy Alexander Weise. They join other recent appointments – Charlotte Bennett and Katie Posner at Paines Plough Debbie Hannan and Gareth Nicholls at the Traverse – in opening up possibilities for more collaborative arts leadership. “Who we are and what we look like and the point at which we are in our careers is maybe a bit different,” Shanahan says. She met Weise in 2013, when they both had a BBC theatre fellowship in 2016, each won emerging director awards, resulting in shows at the Young Vic – Trade by Debbie Tucker Green for Shanahan and Katori Hall’s The Mountaintop for Weise. Shanahan has since directed Queens of the Coal Age at the Royal Exchange, while Weise has directed Nine Night and Master Harold and the Boys at the National Theatre. “I don’t think theatres should be run by just one person,” says Weise.