Norman Marshall was an English theatrical director, producer and manager who began his theatrical career while still an undergraduate student at Oxford. After leaving university he worked with various small touring companies and in 1926 he joined Terence Gray at the Cambridge Festival Theatre, first as a press agent, then as a stage manager, and in 1932 he became their resident director. In 1934, he bought the lease on the small London club theatre, the Gate Theatre Studio, where in the next six years he produced popular intimate revues and many successful plays, some of which later transferred to the West-end stage.