[citation needed][2] Guard joined the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1976, and first attracted attention when she took over the role of Juliet from a sick Francesca Annis.
[citation needed] She played Hermia in John Barton's 1977 production of A Midsummer Night's Dream,[3] Luciana in Trevor Nunn's musical Comedy of Errors[4] and Evie in Factory Birds.
[10] This drama attracted a peak audience of 13 million viewers and raised Guard's public profile considerably, but it effectively marked the end of the first phase of her television career.
She did not return to television until 1986, although she focussed on her stage career in the meantime, playing Antigone at the National Theatre (1983) and Faye in A Chorus of Disapproval in the West End (1986).
[15] Guard now works as a lecturer and drama programme leader at the University of Greenwich,[16] her published research includes "A Defence of the First English Actress",[17] and she appeared on BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour to discuss Shakespeare's women.