1.
Peter Hall (director)
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Sir Peter Reginald Frederick Hall CBE is the pre-eminent British theatre director of his generation. In 1955 he introduced London audiences to the work of Samuel Beckett with the UK premiere of Waiting for Godot, Hall founded the Royal Shakespeare Company and went on to build an international reputation in theatre, opera, film and television. He was Director of the National Theatre and Artistic Director of Glyndebourne Festival Opera and he formed The Peter Hall Company and became founding director of The Rose Theatre, Kingston in 2003. Throughout his career, he has been a champion of public funding for the arts. Peter Reginald Frederick Hall was born in Suffolk at Bury St Edmunds and his father was a stationmaster and the family lived for some time at Great Shelford Station. He won a scholarship to The Perse School in Cambridge, before taking up a further scholarship to read English at St. Catharines College, Cambridge, Hall did his National Service in Germany at The RAF Headquarters for Education in Bückerberg. Whilst studying at Cambridge he produced and acted in a number of plays, directing five in his final year and he served on the University Amateur Dramatic Club committee before graduating in 1953. In the same year, Hall staged his first professional play, The Letter by W. Somerset Maugham,1954 to 1955 saw Hall as the Director of the Oxford Playhouse where he directed several notable young actors including Ronnie Barker and Billie Whitelaw. Eileen Atkins and Maggie Smith were also part of the company as acting Assistants Stage Managers, from 1955-1957 Hall ran The Arts Theatre, London where he directed the English-language premiere of Waiting for Godot. Other notable productions at The Arts included the English language premiere of The Waltz of the Toreadors by Jean Anouilh, the company not only played in Stratford but expanded into the Aldwych Theatre, its first London home. The latter was described as the greatest Shakespearian event in living memory which also laid down the doctrine of Shakespearian relevance to the modern world, Peter Hall left the RSC in 1968 after almost ten years as its Director. Hall was appointed Director of The National Theatre in 1973 and led the organisation for fifteen years until 1988, frustrated by construction delays, Hall decided to move the company into the still-unfinished building and to open it theatre by theatre as each neared completion. Extracts from his production of Tamburlaine the Great with Albert Finney were performed out on the terraces, Hall returned to the NT for the last time in 2011 with a production of Twelfth Night mounted by the company to celebrate his eightieth birthday. His daughter, Rebecca Hall, played Viola, on leaving the NT in 1988, Hall launched his own commercial company with productions in the West End and on Broadway of Orpheus Descending and The Merchant of Venice. The Peter Hall Company went on to more than sixty plays in association with a number of well-known producing partners including Bill Kenwright. Notable productions include Wildes An Ideal Husband, Pam Gemss Piaf, Hamlet, The Master Builder, A Streetcar Named Desire, Julian Barrys Lenny, As You Like It, the fiftieth anniversary production of Waiting for Godot, Cowards Hay Fever and Shaws Pygmalion. Halls final acclaimed productions for his company were Henry IV Parts 1 and 2, in 2003, Peter Hall became the Founding Director of The Rose Theatre - a new venue to be constructed in Kingston upon Thames whose design was inspired by the Elizabethan original. He directed a number of productions there including Chekhovs Uncle Vanya, which opened the building in 2008, Hall is now Director Emeritus of The Rose Kingston
2.
Royal Shakespeare Company
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The Royal Shakespeare Company is a major British theatre company, based in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England. The companys home is in Stratford-upon-Avon, where it has recently redeveloped its Royal Shakespeare, the theatres re-opened in November 2010, having closed in 2007. The new buildings attracted 18,000 visitors within the first week, performances in Stratford-upon-Avon continued throughout the Transformation project at the temporary Courtyard Theatre. The 2011-season began with performances of Macbeth and a re-imagined lost play The History of Cardenio, the fiftieth birthday season also featured The Merchant of Venice with Sir Patrick Stewart and revivals of some of the RSCs greatest plays, including a new staging of Marat/Sade. For the London 2012 Festival as part of the Cultural Olympiad, in 2013 the company began live screenings of its Shakespeare productions – called Live from Stratford-upon-Avon – which are screened around the world. In 2016, the company collaborated with Intel and The Imaginarium Studios to stage The Tempest, John Wards Birmingham-based company, the Warwickshire Company of Comedians, agreed to perform it. A surviving copy of the records that the company performed Othello. The first building erected to commemorate Shakespeare was David Garricks Jubilee Pavilion in 1769, the first permanent commemorative building to Shakespeares works in the town was a theatre built in 1827, in the gardens of New Place, but has long since been demolished. The RSCs history began with the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre, which was the brainchild of a local brewer and he donated a two-acre site by the River Avon and in 1875 launched an international campaign to build a theatre in the town of Shakespeares birth. The theatre, a Victorian-Gothic building seating just over 700 people, opened on 23 April 1879, with a performance of Much Ado About Nothing, a title which gave ammunition to several critics. From 1919, under the direction of William Bridges-Adams and after a slow start, the theatre received a Royal Charter of Incorporation in 1925, which gave it status. On the afternoon of 6 March 1926, when a new season was about to commence rehearsals, fire broke out, and the mass of half-timbering chosen to ornament the interior provided dry tinder. By the following morning the theatre was a blackened shell, the company transferred its Shakespeare festivals to a converted local cinema. Fund-raising began for the rebuilding of the theatre, with generous donations arriving from philanthropists in America, george Bernard Shaw commented that her design was the only one that showed any theatre sense. Her modernist plans for an art deco structure came under fire from many directions, later it came under the direction of Sir Barry Jackson in 1945, Anthony Quayle from 1948 to 1956 and Glen Byam Shaw 1957–1959, with an impressive roll-call of actors. Scotts building, with minor adjustments to the stage, remained in constant use until 2007 when it was closed for a major refit of the interior. Timeline,1932 – new Shakespeare Memorial Theatre opens, abutting the remains of the old,1961 – chartered name of the corporation and the Stratford theatre becomes ‘Royal Shakespeare. ’1974 – The Other Place opened, created from a prefabricated former store/rehearsal room in Stratford. 1986 – the Swan Theatre opened, created from the shell of the 1879 Memorial Theatre,1991 – Purpose-built new Other Place, designed by Michael Reardon, opens
3.
John Whiting
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John Robert Whiting was an English actor, dramatist and critic. Born in Salisbury, he was educated at Taunton School, the particular hellish life which is the English public school as he described it. Trained at RADA, he worked as an actor in repertory. In 1940, he married Jackie, in 1944 he was discharged from the army for undisclosed health reasons. In 1956, he bought and moved his family to a house in the hamlet of Duddleswell, on Ashdown Forest in East Sussex. His works include, No More A-Roving Conditions of Agreement Saints Day A Penny for a Song, a play The Gates of Summer. A play No Why The Devils and he was drama critic for the London Magazine and a very active member of the Arts Council in encouraging new writing for the theatre. John Whiting died from cancer on 16 June 1963 in London at the age of 45. His obituary notice in The Times noted that As a dramatist John Whiting was in reach of the first rank, even if in his completed works he never quite achieved it. Nevertheless in Marching Song in particular he wrote a play which seems likely to last, the British theatre, even in its present flowering, can ill afford to lose the plays he might have written had he lived long enough to achieve his full potential stature. In 1965, the John Whiting Award was established to commemorate the contribution to post-war British theatre. In 2015, the diaries, as well as personal letters, handwritten notes. John Whiting at Find a Grave John Whiting at the Internet Movie Database
4.
Aldous Huxley
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Aldous Leonard Huxley was an English writer, novelist, philosopher, and prominent member of the Huxley family. He graduated from Balliol College at the University of Oxford with an honours in English literature. Early in his career Huxley edited the magazine Oxford Poetry and published short stories, mid career and later, he published travel writing, film stories, and scripts. He spent the part of his life in the U. S. living in Los Angeles from 1937 until his death. In 1962, a year before his death, he was elected Companion of Literature by the Royal Society of Literature, Huxley was a humanist, pacifist, and satirist. He later became interested in subjects such as parapsychology and philosophical mysticism. By the end of his life, Huxley was widely acknowledged as one of the pre-eminent intellectuals of his time and he was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature in seven different years. Huxley was born in Godalming, Surrey, England, in 1894 and he was the third son of the writer and schoolmaster Leonard Huxley, who edited Cornhill Magazine, and his first wife, Julia Arnold, who founded Priors Field School. Julia was the niece of poet and critic Matthew Arnold and the sister of Mrs. Humphrey Ward, Aldous was the grandson of Thomas Henry Huxley, the zoologist, agnostic, and controversialist. His brother Julian Huxley and half-brother Andrew Huxley also became outstanding biologists, Aldous had another brother, Noel Trevelyan Huxley, who committed suicide after a period of clinical depression. As a child, Huxleys nickname was Ogie, short for Ogre and he was described by his brother, Julian, as someone who frequently the strangeness of things. According to his cousin and contemporary, Gervas Huxley, he had an early interest in drawing, Huxleys education began in his fathers well-equipped botanical laboratory, after which he enrolled at Hillside School near Godalming. He was taught there by his own mother for years until she became terminally ill. After Hillside, he went on to Eton College and his mother died in 1908 when he was 14. In 1911 he contracted the eye disease which left practically blind for two to three years and this ended his early dreams of becoming a doctor. In October 1913, Huxley went up to Balliol College, Oxford, in January 1916, he volunteered to join the British Army in the Great War, but was rejected on health grounds, being half-blind in one eye. In 1916 he edited Oxford Poetry and in June of that year graduated BA with First Class honours and his brother Julian wrote, I believe his blindness was a blessing in disguise. For one thing, it put paid to his idea of taking up medicine as a career and his uniqueness lay in his universalism
5.
The Devils of Loudun
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The Devils of Loudun is a 1952 non-fiction novel by Aldous Huxley. It centers on Roman Catholic priest Urbain Grandier and a convent of Ursuline nuns. The events led to several public exorcisms as well as executions by burning, the story was adapted into a stage play in 1960, which was then adapted into the controversial 1971 Ken Russell film The Devils, which starred Vanessa Redgrave and Oliver Reed. There is also an opera based on the book, Die Teufel von Loudun, by Krzysztof Penderecki, the book, though lesser known than Huxleys other novels, is widely considered one of his best works. Urbain Grandier was a priest burned at the stake at Loudun and he was accused of seducing an entire convent of Ursuline nuns and of being in league with the devil. Grandier was probably sexually promiscuous and too insolent to his peers and he had antagonised the Mother Superior, Sister Jeanne of the Angels, when he rejected her offer to become the spiritual advisor to the convent. He faced a tribunal and was acquitted. It was only after he had spoken against Cardinal Richelieu that a new trial was ordered by the Cardinal. He was tortured, found guilty and executed by being burnt alive, Huxley touches on aspects of the multiple personality controversy in cases of apparent demonic possession within this book. Playwright John Whiting adapted Huxleys book as the play The Devils, Ken Russell directed a feature film adaptation, The Devils, starring Vanessa Redgrave and Oliver Reed. Krzysztof Penderecki wrote an opera, The Devils of Loudun, in 1969, the Loudun possessions — historical events the book was written on Mother Joan of the Angels — Polish feature film The Devils — film based on the book The Devils of Loudun at Faded Page
6.
Aldwych Theatre
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The Aldwych Theatre is a West End theatre, located in Aldwych in the City of Westminster. It was listed Grade II on 20 July 1971 and its seating capacity is 1,200 on three levels. The theatre was constructed in the newly built Aldwych as a pair with the Waldorf Theatre, both buildings were designed in the Edwardian Baroque style by W. G. R. Sprague. The Aldwych Theatre was funded by Seymour Hicks in association with the American impresario Charles Frohman, the theatre opened on 23 December 1905 with a production of Blue Bell, a new version of Hickss popular pantomime Bluebell in Fairyland. In 1906, Hickss The Beauty of Bath, followed in 1907 by The Gay Gordons, in February 1913 the theatre was used by Serge Diaghilev and Vaslav Nijinsky for the first rehearsals of Le Sacre du Printemps before its première in Paris during May. In 1920, Basil Rathbone played Major Wharton in The Unknown, from 1923 to 1933, the theatre was the home of the series of twelve farces, known as the Aldwych farces, most of which were written by Ben Travers. Members of the company for these farces included Ralph Lynn, Tom Walls, Ethel Coleridge, Gordon James, Mary Brough, Winifred Shotter. In 1933, Richard Tauber presented and starred in a new version of Das Dreimäderlhaus at the Aldwych under the title Lilac Time, from the mid-1930s until about 1960, the theatre was owned by the Abrahams family. In 1949 Laurence Olivier directed the first London production of Tennessee Williamss A Streetcar Named Desire at the Aldwych Theatre, starring as Blanche DuBois was Oliviers wife Vivien Leigh, who later won an Academy Award for the role in the 1951 film of Williamss play. In the event the company stayed for over 20 years, finally moving to the Barbican Arts Centre in 1982, the theatre was sold to the Nederlander Organization immediately afterwards. For his involvement with these Aldwych seasons, run without Arts Council or other official support, in 1990–91, Joan Collins starred in a revival of Private Lives at the Aldwych. The theatre is referred to in Julio Cortázars short story Instructions for John Howell in the anthology All Fires the Fire, since 2000, the theatre has hosted a mixture of plays, comedies and musical theatre productions. Andrew Lloyd Webbers musical Whistle Down the Wind played until 2001, from 2006 to 2011, it was the home to the British musical version of Dirty Dancing
7.
Dorothy Tutin
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Dame Dorothy Tutin, DBE was an English actress of stage, film and television. For her work in the theatre, she won two Olivier Awards and two Evening Standard Awards for Best Actress and she was made a CBE in 1967 and a Dame in 2000. Tutin began her career in 1949 and won the 1960 Best Actress Evening Standard Award for Twelfth Night. Having made her Broadway debut in the 1963 production of The Hollow Crown, in the 1970s, she won a second Best Actress Evening Standard Award and twice won the Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Revival, for A Month in the Country and The Double Dealer. Her films included The Importance of Being Earnest, The Beggars Opera, A Tale of Two Cities, Savage Messiah, an obituary in The Daily Telegraph described her as one of the most enchanting, accomplished and intelligent leading ladies on the post-war British stage. Dorothy Tutin was born in London on 8 April 1930, the daughter of John Tutin and his wife Adie Evelyn and her year of birth was sometimes given as 1931, said to disguise the circumstances of her birth, but certainly not by herself. She was educated at St Catherines School, Bramley, Surrey and studied for the stage at PARADA, Tutin was also a talented pianist, but chose acting rather than music as her vocation. She married the actor Derek Waring, and they had two children, Nicholas and Amanda, both of whom became actors. Dorothy Tutin and Derek Waring remained married until her death in 2001 at the age of 71 from leukaemia, Tutin was created a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1967, and raised to Dame Commander in 2000. Dorothy Tutin made her first stage appearance at the Boltons on 6 September 1949, playing Princess Margaret of England in William Douglas-Homes play The Thistle and the Rose. She joined the Bristol Old Vic Company in January 1950, appearing as Phebe in As You Like It, Anni in Denis Cannans Captain Carvallo and Belinda in John Vanbrughs The Provokd Wife. Then with the company she appeared as, Viola in Twelfth Night, Aldwych Theatre, December 1960 Sister Jeanne in The Devils, Aldwych. She won the role of Cecily in Anthony Asquiths film version of Oscar Wildes The Importance of Being Earnest, around the same time, she played Polly Peachum to Laurence Oliviers Macheath in Peter Brooks film version of The Beggars Opera. Her next major role was as Lucie in the film A Tale of Two Cities. She also played Margot Asquith, the wife of Prime Minister H. H. Asquith and she appeared in the Ken Russell film Savage Messiah. She also performed as the teacher Sarah Burton in the TV series South Riding and she starred as Mrs. Alving in Yorkshire Television production of Ibsens Ghosts with Richard Pasco, Ronald Fraser, Brian Deacon, and Julia Foster. In the early 1980s Tutin also appeared in the made-for-television film Murder with Mirrors along with Helen Hayes, another of her notable roles was as Goneril in an Emmy-winning television production of Shakespeares King Lear, opposite Laurence Olivier as King Lear and Robert Lang as the Duke of Albany. She guest starred in an episode of the 1980s TV-series Robin of Sherwood, whos Who in the Theatre 17th edition, Gale
8.
Richard Johnson (actor)
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Richard Keith Johnson was a British actor, writer and producer, who starred in several British films of the 1960s and also had TV roles and a distinguished stage career. Johnson was born in Upminster, Essex, the son of Frances Louisa Olive, Johnson went to Felsted School, then trained at RADA and made his first professional appearances on stage in Manchester with John Gielguds company in a production of Hamlet in 1944. He served in the Royal Navy from 1945 to 1948, and made his debut in 1959. He was subsequently contracted by MGM to appear in one film per year over six years and his biggest successes as a film actor came with The Haunting also featuring Claire Bloom and Julie Harris, Khartoum with Charlton Heston and Laurence Olivier, and the spy film Danger Route. Johnson was director Terence Youngs preferred choice for the role of James Bond in the first film in the series, a few years later, Bulldog Drummond was reimagined as a 007-type hero in Deadlier Than the Male and its sequel Some Girls Do. He also appeared in several Italian films, including Lucio Fulcis cult classic, Zombi 2, at the same time, he was a stage actor, appearing in the title role in Tony Richardsons production of Pericles, Prince of Tyre in 1958. His stage career was extensive and distinguished and his early work in the London theatre attracted the attention of the director of the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre. He appeared in many important productions at that theatre in the late 1950s and early 1960s, making notable successes as Romeo, Orlando in As You Like It, Pericles and Mark Antony in Julius Caesar. In 1958 he appeared in Peter Halls first production at the theatre, Cymbeline, and he continued to act with the RSC from time to time, including as Antony in Antony and Cleopatra, which he played on two occasions. He played the role in ITVs production in 1974 and he continued to appear on film and television in the first decade of the 21st century. His films during this period included Lara Croft, Tomb Raider and he also appeared in several TV films, in 2005 he appeared as Stanley Baldwin in Wallis & Edward, in 2007 as Earl Mountbatten in Whatever Love Means, and in 2009 in Lewis. He contributed to British episodic TV, including Spooks, Waking the Dead, twice in Midsomer Murders, from 2007, he led the cast of the BBCs radio comedy series Bleak Expectations which ran until 2012. Throughout his career Johnson continued to teach young actors and students and he toured American universities and taught summer schools at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. He was appointed to the Council of RADA in 2000, and served as a Council Member of the British Academy of Film, Johnson wrote the original story for the 1975 thriller, Hennessy. Johnson founded the British production company United British Artists in 1981, and served as the companys CEO until 1990, during his tenure at UBA he produced the films Turtle Diary, and The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne. In London, he produced Pinters Old Times, a revival of Serjeant Musgraves Dance, and for theatre and television, Johnson wrote travel articles regularly for the London mass-circulation newspaper The Mail on Sunday. He kept a blog and teaching website called The Shakespeare Masterclass, by his first marriage, to Sheila Sweet, Johnson had two children, tabletop games designer Jervis Johnson and actress Sorel Johnson. His second wife was American actress Kim Novak, with whom he appeared in the film The Amorous Adventures of Moll Flanders and he also had another daughter, Jennifer Johnson, by his third wife, Marie-Louise Norlund, and a fourth child, Nicholas Johnson, by Françoise Pascal
9.
Existentialism
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While the predominant value of existentialist thought is commonly acknowledged to be freedom, its primary virtue is authenticity. Many existentialists have also regarded traditional systematic or academic philosophies, in style and content, as too abstract and remote from concrete human experience. Søren Kierkegaard is generally considered to have been the first existentialist philosopher and he proposed that each individual—not society or religion—is solely responsible for giving meaning to life and living it passionately and sincerely, or authentically. Existentialism became popular in the years following World War II, and strongly influenced many disciplines besides philosophy, including theology, drama, art, literature, and psychology. The term is seen as a historical convenience as it was first applied to many philosophers in hindsight. In fact, while existentialism is generally considered to have originated with Kierkegaard, Sartre posits the idea that what all existentialists have in common is the fundamental doctrine that existence precedes essence, as scholar Frederick Copleston explains. Sartre himself, in a lecture delivered in 1945, described existentialism as the attempt to draw all the consequences from a position of consistent atheism and this assertion comes from two sources. The Norwegian philosopher Erik Lundestad refers to the Danish philosopher Fredrik Christian Sibbern, Sibbern is supposed to have had two conversations in 1841, the first with Welhaven and the second with Kierkegaard. This was then brought to Kierkegaard by Sibbern, the second claim comes from the Norwegian historian Rune Slagstad, who claims to prove that Kierkegaard himself said the term existential was borrowed from the poet. He strongly believes that it was Kierkegaard himself who said that Hegelians do not study philosophy existentially, on the other hand, the Norwegian historian Anne-Lise Seip is critical of Slagstad, and believes the statement in fact stems from the Norwegian literary historian Cathrinus Bang. The actual life of the individuals is what constitutes what could be called their true essence instead of there being an arbitrarily attributed essence others use to define them, thus, human beings, through their own consciousness, create their own values and determine a meaning to their life. However, an existentialist philosopher would say such a wish constitutes an inauthentic existence - what Sartre would call bad faith, instead, the phrase should be taken to say that people are defined only insofar as they act and that they are responsible for their actions. For example, someone who acts cruelly towards other people is, by that act, furthermore, by this action of cruelty, such persons are themselves responsible for their new identity. This is as opposed to their genes, or human nature, as Sartre writes in his work Existentialism is a Humanism. Man first of all exists, encounters himself, surges up in the world—and defines himself afterwards. Of course, the positive, therapeutic aspect of this is also implied, A person can choose to act in a different way. Here it is clear that since humans can choose to be either cruel or good, they are, in fact. Sartres definition of existentialism was based on Heideggers magnum opus Being and this way of living, Heidegger called average everydayness
10.
Diana Rigg
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Dame Enid Diana Elizabeth Rigg, DBE is an English actress. She is known for playing Emma Peel in the 1960s TV series The Avengers, and Olenna Tyrell in Game of Thrones. She has also had a career in theatre, including playing the title role in Medea. She was made a CBE in 1988 and a Dame in 1994, Rigg made her professional stage debut in 1957 in The Caucasian Chalk Circle, and joined the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1959. She made her Broadway debut in the 1971 production of Abelard & Heloise and she won the BAFTA TV Award for Best Actress for the 1989 BBC miniseries Mother Love, and an Emmy Award for her role as Mrs. Danvers in the 1997 adaptation of Rebecca. Her other television credits include You, Me and the Apocalypse, Rigg was born in Doncaster, then in the West Riding of Yorkshire, now in South Yorkshire to Louis Rigg and Beryl Hilda, her father was a railway engineer who had been born in Yorkshire. Between the ages of two months and eight years Rigg lived in Bikaner, India, where her father was employed as a railway executive, hindi was her second language in those young years. She was then sent to a school, the Moravian School in Fulneck. She disliked her boarding school, where she felt like an out of water. She trained as an actress at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art from 1955–57, riggs career in film, television and the theatre has been wide-ranging, including roles in the Royal Shakespeare Company between 1959 and 1964. Her professional debut was in the RADA production of The Caucasian Chalk Circle at the York Festival in 1957 and she received her second nomination in 1975, for The Misanthrope. In 1982, she appeared in a musical called Colette, based on the life of the French writer and created by Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidt, in 1987 she took a leading role in the West End production of Stephen Sondheims musical Follies. In 2004, she appeared as Violet Venable in Sheffield Theatres production of Tennessee Williamss play Suddenly Last Summer, in 2006, she appeared at the Wyndhams Theatre in Londons West End in a drama entitled Honour which had a limited but successful run. In 2007, she appeared as Huma Rojo in the Old Vics production of All About My Mother, adapted by Samuel Adamson and she appeared in 2008 in The Cherry Orchard at the Chichester Festival Theatre, returning there in 2009 to star in Noël Cowards Hay Fever. In 2011 she played Mrs Higgins in Pygmalion at the Garrick Theatre, opposite Rupert Everett and Kara Tointon, Rigg auditioned for the role of Emma Peel on a whim, without ever having seen the programme. Although she was successful in the series, she disliked the lack of privacy that it brought. She also did not like the way that she was treated by the Associated British Corporation, after a dozen episodes she discovered that she was being paid less than a cameraman. For her second season she held out for a pay rise from £150 a week to £450, patrick Macnee, her co-star in the series, noted that Rigg had later told him that she considered Macnee and her driver to be her only friends on the set
11.
Max Adrian
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Max Adrian was a Northern Irish stage, film, and television actor and singer. He was a member of both the Royal Shakespeare Company and the National Theatre. Adrian was born in Enniskillen, County Fermanagh, Ireland, the son of Edward Norman Cavendish Bor and he was educated at the Portora Royal School, Enniskillen, whose past pupils also included Oscar Wilde and Samuel Beckett. Adrian began his career as a boy at a silent moving-picture house. He made his debut in the chorus of Katja the Dancer in 1925. He then toured with Lady Be Good and The Blue Train and he made his West End debut in The Squall at the Globe Theatre in December 1927. After working with Tod Slaughters company at Peterborough, he joined the weekly rep in Northampton, where he took some forty roles a year. Adrian joined the Old Vic company in 1939, playing the Dauphin in Shaws Saint Joan, a beautifully malicious study in slyness, effeminacy, meanness, and a curious lost, inverted dignity. He continued classical work with John Gielguds company at the Haymarket Theatre, where he appeared as Puck in A Midsummer Nights Dream, Osric in Hamlet, away from the classics, he played the Scarecrow in The Wizard of Oz at the Phoenix Theatre in 1943. Fellow performers in the revues included Joyce Grenfell, Rose Hill, contributors included Michael Flanders, Donald Swann and Alan Melville, and the producer was Laurier Lister, who became Adrians lifelong partner. Adrians musical numbers included Prehistoric Complaint, Excelsior, Guide to Britten, In the DOyly Cart, when revue became less popular in the mid-1950s, Adrian went to America in 1956 to appear as Dr. Pangloss and Martin in Leonard Bernsteins operetta Candide on Broadway. The original production was a failure, but the original cast recording has rarely been out of the catalogues in the subsequent half century and he returned to London in 1959 to appear in Noël Cowards play Look After Lulu. in which he also later played on Broadway. In 1960, Adrian joined Peter Halls newly formed Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford-upon-Avon, together with actors as Peggy Ashcroft, Peter OToole. He then played the Inquisitor in Saint Joan, Serebryakov in Uncle Vanya, Balance in The Recruiting Officer and Brovik in The Master Builder. In the late 1960s, Adrian toured as George Bernard Shaw in the one-man show An Evening with GBS, which played in London, on Broadway, the Times said that the show presented a deeply understanding portrait. Impish, malicious, playful, outrageous, affectionate, angry and his later one-man show about Gilbert and Sullivan was a lesser, but real, success. Adrians first film was in 1934 and he appeared in several British films in the 1940s, before playing the Dauphin in the Laurence Olivier production of Henry V. He also appeared in Dr. Terrors House of Horrors as the vampire Dr Blake, The Deadly Affair and he was also featured in Russells acclaimed award-winning 1968 Omnibus TV film Song of Summer, as the blind and paralysed composer Frederick Delius
12.
The Devils (film)
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The Devils is a 1971 British historical drama horror film directed by Ken Russell and starring Oliver Reed and Vanessa Redgrave. Russells screenplay is based partly on the 1952 book The Devils of Loudun by Aldous Huxley, the film is a dramatised historical account of the rise and fall of Urbain Grandier, a 17th-century Roman Catholic priest executed for witchcraft following the supposed possessions in Loudun, France. Reed plays Grandier in the film and Vanessa Redgrave plays a hunchbacked sexually repressed nun who finds herself responsible for the accusations. It was banned in countries, and eventually heavily edited for release in others. The film has never received a release in its original, uncut form in various countries, note, This plot is for the unedited version of the film. Some scenes described below are omitted from other versions, in 17th Century France, Cardinal Richelieu is influencing Louis XIII in an attempt to gain further power. He convinces Louis that the fortifications of cities throughout France should be demolished to prevent Protestants from uprising, Louis agrees, but forbids Richelieu from carrying out demolitions in the town of Loudun, having made a promise to its Governor not to damage the town. Meanwhile, in Loudun, the Governor has died, leaving control of the city to Urbain Grandier, Sister Jeanne asks for Grandier to become the convents new confessor. Grandier secretly marries another woman, Madeleine De Brou, but news of this reaches Sister Jeanne, baron Jean de Laubardemont arrives with orders to demolish the city, overriding Grandiers orders to stop. Grandier summons the towns soldiers and forces Laubardemont to back down pending the arrival of an order for the demolition from King Louis, Grandier departs Loudun to visit the King. In the meantime, Sister Jeanne is informed by Father Mignon that he is to be their new confessor and she informs him of Grandiers marriage and affairs, and also inadvertently accuses Grandier of witchcraft and of possessing her, information that Mignon relays to Laubardemont. In the process, the information is pared down to just the claim that Grandier has bewitched the convent and has dealt with the Devil, with Grandier away from Loudon, Laubardemont and Mignon decide to find evidence against him. Sister Jeanne claims that Grandier has bewitched her, and the nuns do the same. A public exorcism erupts in the town, in which the nuns remove their clothes, duke Henri de Condé arrives, claiming to be carrying a holy relic which can exorcise the devils possessing the nuns. Father Barre then proceeds to use the relic in exorcising the nuns, in the midst of the chaos, Grandier and Madeleine return and are immediately arrested. After being given a show trial, Grandier is shaven and tortured – although at his execution. The judges, clearly under orders from Laubardemont, sentence Grandier to death by burning at the stake, Laubardemont has also obtained permission to destroy the citys fortifications. Despite pressure on Grandier to confess to the charges, he refuses
13.
Arena Stage
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Arena Stage is a not-for-profit regional theater based in Southwest, Washington, D. C. It was a pioneer in 1950 of the Regional Theater Movement, the Artistic Director is Molly Smith and the Executive Director is Edgar Dobie. It is the largest company in the dedicated to American plays. It commissions and develops new plays through the American Voices New Play Institute, established in 1950, the company now serves an annual audience of more than 300,000. Its productions have received local and national awards, including the Tony Award for best regional theater. The theatre company was founded in Washington, DC in 1950 and its first home was the Hippodrome Theatre, a former movie house. In 1956, the moved into the gymnasium of the old Heurich Brewery in Foggy Bottom. The brewery was demolished in 1961 to make way for the Theodore Roosevelt Bridge, in 1960, the company moved into its current building complex, which was built for them. The theater companys home is near the Washington, D. C. waterfront on the Potomac River, one of the founders, Zelda Fichandler, was its artistic director from its founding through the 1990/91 season. Wager succeeded her for the 1991/92 through 1997/98 seasons, the current artistic director, Molly Smith, assumed those duties beginning with the 1998/99 season. Arena Stage was one of the first not-for-profit theaters in the United States and was a pioneer of the Regional Theater Movement, in 1973, it was the first regional theater invited by the U. S. State Department to tour behind the Iron Curtain. In 1976, Arena Stage became the theater outside New York to receive a special Tony Award for theatrical excellence. A major renovation of the facility was undertaken from 2008 through 2010, the architect was Bing Thom Architects of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada who contracted Fast + Epp consulting engineers to design the main columns for the building. The Fichandler Stage and Kreeger Theater were largely untouched, but the theaters connecting structures were demolished, the two stages are now surrounded by a glass curtain wall and incorporated into a larger building. A third, new theater was added in the renovation, called The Kogod Cradle, for new. The new building includes a central lobby and the Catwalk Cafe. The entire $135 million complex has been renamed Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater in honor of supporters Gilbert and Jaylee Mead. Arena Stage re-opened for the season in October 2010, the capacity of its three theatres follows, The Fichandler Stage, a theater in the round, seating 680, the Kreeger Theater, a modified thrust stage theater, seating 514
14.
Broadway theatre
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Along with Londons West End theatres, Broadway theatres are widely considered to represent the highest level of commercial theatre in the English-speaking world. The Theater District is a popular tourist attraction in New York City, the great majority of Broadway shows are musicals. They presented Shakespeare plays and ballad operas such as The Beggars Opera, in 1752, William Hallam sent a company of twelve actors from Britain to the colonies with his brother Lewis as their manager. They established a theatre in Williamsburg, Virginia and opened with The Merchant of Venice, the company moved to New York in the summer of 1753, performing ballad operas and ballad-farces like Damon and Phillida. The Revolutionary War suspended theatre in New York, but thereafter theatre resumed in 1798, the Bowery Theatre opened in 1826, followed by others. Blackface minstrel shows, a distinctly American form of entertainment, became popular in the 1830s, by the 1840s, P. T. Barnum was operating an entertainment complex in lower Manhattan. In 1829, at Broadway and Prince Street, Niblos Garden opened, the 3, 000-seat theatre presented all sorts of musical and non-musical entertainments. In 1844, Palmos Opera House opened and presented opera for four seasons before bankruptcy led to its rebranding as a venue for plays under the name Burtons Theatre. The Astor Opera House opened in 1847, booth played the role for a famous 100 consecutive performances at the Winter Garden Theatre in 1865, and would later revive the role at his own Booths Theatre. Other renowned Shakespeareans who appeared in New York in this era were Henry Irving, Tommaso Salvini, Fanny Davenport, lydia Thompson came to America in 1868 heading a small theatrical troupe, adapting popular English burlesques for middle-class New York audiences. Thompsons troupe called the British Blondes, was the most popular entertainment in New York during the 1868–1869 theatrical season, the six-month tour ran for almost six extremely profitable years. Theatre in New York moved from downtown gradually to midtown beginning around 1850, in 1870, the heart of Broadway was in Union Square, and by the end of the century, many theatres were near Madison Square. Broadways first long-run musical was a 50-performance hit called The Elves in 1857, New York runs continued to lag far behind those in London, but Laura Keenes musical burletta The Seven Sisters shattered previous New York records with a run of 253 performances. It was at a performance by Keenes troupe of Our American Cousin in Washington, the production was a staggering five-and-a-half hours long, but despite its length, it ran for a record-breaking 474 performances. The same year, The Black Domino/Between You, Me and the Post was the first show to call itself a musical comedy, Tony Pastor opened the first vaudeville theatre one block east of Union Square in 1881, where Lillian Russell performed. Comedians Edward Harrigan and Tony Hart produced and starred in musicals on Broadway between 1878 and 1890, with book and lyrics by Harrigan and music by his father-in-law David Braham. They starred high quality singers, instead of the women of repute who had starred in earlier musical forms. Plays could run longer and still draw in the audiences, leading to better profits, as in England, during the latter half of the century, the theatre began to be cleaned up, with less prostitution hindering the attendance of the theatre by women
15.
Anne Bancroft
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Anna Maria Louisa Italiano, known professionally as Anne Bancroft, was an American actress associated with the method acting school, having studied under Lee Strasberg. Respected for her acting prowess and versatility, Bancroft was acknowledged for her work in film, theatre and she won one Academy Award, three BAFTA Awards, two Golden Globes, two Tony Awards and two Emmy Awards, and several other awards and nominations. She won both an Oscar for her work in the film, and a Tony for the role in the play. On Broadway in 1965, she played a medieval nun obsessed with a priest in John Whitings play The Devils and she was perhaps best known as the seductress, Mrs. Robinson, in The Graduate, a role that she later stated had come to overshadow her other work. Bancroft received several other Oscar nominations and continued in lead roles until the late 1980s, in 1987, she starred with Anthony Hopkins in 84 Charing Cross Road. In the 1990s she returned to supporting roles in films, and she received Emmy and Screen Actors Guild Award nominations, for The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone, as well as an Emmy nomination for 2001s Haven. Bancroft was born Anna Maria Louisa Italiano in the Bronx, New York, Bancrofts parents were both children of Italian immigrants. In an interview, she stated her family was originally from Muro Lucano and she was raised in the Belmont neighborhood of the Bronx, later moving to 1580 Zerega Ave. and graduated from Christopher Columbus High School in 1948. She later attended HB Studio, the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, the Actors Studio, after appearing in a number of live television dramas under the name Anne Marno, she was told to change her surname for her film debut in Dont Bother to Knock. In 1958, Bancroft made her Broadway debut as lovelorn, Bronx-accented Gittel Mosca opposite Henry Fonda in William Gibsons two-character play Two for the Seesaw, for Gittel, she won the Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Play. She took the role to Hollywood, and won the Academy Award for Best Actress. She had returned to Broadway to star in Mother Courage and Her Children, so Joan Crawford accepted Bancrofts Oscar on her behalf, Bancroft is one of the few actors to have won an Academy Award and a Tony Award for the same role. Bancroft co-starred as a medieval nun obsessed with a priest in the 1965 Broadway production of John Whitings play The Devils, produced by Alexander H. Cohen and directed by Michael Cacoyannis, it ran for 63 performances. Bancroft received a second Academy Award nomination in 1965 for her performance in The Pumpkin Eater and her best-known role during this period was Mrs. Robinson in The Graduate, for which she received a third Academy Award nomination. In the film, she played a married woman who seduces a family friend. In the movie, Hoffmans character later dates and falls in love with her daughter, Bancroft was ambivalent about her appearance in The Graduate, she stated in several interviews that the role overshadowed all of her other work. Despite her character becoming an archetype of the older woman role, a CBS television special, Annie, the Women in the Life of a Man, won Bancroft an Emmy Award for her singing and acting. Bancroft is one of few entertainers to win an Oscar, an Emmy
16.
Jason Robards
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Jason Nelson Robards, Jr. was an American stage, film, and television actor. He was a winner of the Tony Award, two Academy Awards and an Emmy Award and he was also a United States Navy combat veteran of World War II. He became famous playing works of American playwright Eugene ONeill and regularly performed in ONeills works throughout his career, Robards was cast both in common-man roles and as well-known historical figures. Robards was born in Chicago, the son of Hope Maxine Robards and Jason Robards, Sr. an actor who appeared on the stage. Robards was of German, English, Welsh, Irish, the family moved to New York City when Jason Jr. was still a toddler, and then moved to Los Angeles when he was six years old. Later interviews with Robards suggested that the trauma of his parents divorce, as a youth, Robards also witnessed first-hand the decline of his fathers acting career. The teenage Robards excelled in athletics, running a 4, 18-mile during his year at Hollywood High School in Los Angeles. Although his prowess in sports attracted interest from several universities, Robards decided to enlist in the United States Navy upon his graduation in 1940. Following the completion of training and radio school, Robards was assigned to a heavy cruiser. On December 7,1941, the Northampton was at sea in the Pacific Ocean about 100 miles off Hawaii, contrary to some stories, he did not see the devastation of the Japanese attack on Hawaii until the Northampton returned to Pearl Harbor two days later. The Northampton was later directed into the Guadalcanal campaign in World War IIs Pacific theater, during the Battle of Tassafaronga in the waters north of Guadalcanal on the night of November 30,1942, the Northampton was sunk by hits from two Japanese torpedoes. Robards found himself treading water until near daybreak, when he was rescued by an American destroyer, for her service in the war, the Northampton was awarded six battle stars. Two years later, in November 1944, Robards was radioman on the USS Nashville, on December 13, she was struck by a kamikaze aircraft off Negros Island in the Philippines. The aircraft hit one of the port five-inch gun mounts, while its two bombs set the midsection ablaze, with this damage and 223 casualties, the Nashville was forced to return to Pearl Harbor and then to the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard in Bremerton, Washington, for repairs. Robards served honorably during the war, but was not a recipient of the U. S. Navy Cross for bravery, contrary to what has been reported in numerous sources, the inaccurate story derives from a 1979 column by Hy Gardner. On the Nashville, Robards first found a copy of Eugene ONeills play Strange Interlude in the ships library, also while in the Navy, he first started thinking seriously about becoming an actor. He had emceed for a Navy band in Pearl Harbor, got a few laughs and his father suggested he enroll in the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York City. Robards was awarded the Good Conduct Medal of the Navy, the Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal, Robards got into acting after the war and his career began slowly
17.
Michael Cacoyannis
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Michael Cacoyannis was a Greek Cypriot filmmaker, best known for his 1964 film Zorba the Greek. He directed the 1983 Broadway revival of the based on the film. Much of his work was rooted in classical texts, especially those of the Greek tragedian Euripides and he was nominated for an Academy Award five times, a record for any Cypriot film artist. He received Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Film nominations for Zorba the Greek, Cacoyannis was born in 1921 in Limassol, Cyprus. His father, Sir Panayotis Loizou Cacoyannis, had been knighted in 1936 by the United Kingdom government for services in Cyprus. In 1939, he was sent by his father to London to become a lawyer and he graduated from law school and joined the BBC World Service, soon taking charge of its new Cyprus Service. His deputy was Beba Clerides, sister of the RAF fighter pilot and future President of Cyprus, after having trouble finding a directing job in the British film industry, Cacoyannis moved to Greece, and in 1953 he made his first film, Windfall in Athens. He was offered the chance to direct Elizabeth Taylor and Marlon Brando in the film Reflections in a Golden Eye, between 1959 and 1967, he was in a relationship with Yael Dayan, a progressive Israeli politician and author. Cacoyannis translated some of Shakespeares plays Antony and Cleopatra, Coriolanus and Hamlet into Greek, Michael Cacoyannis died on 25 July 2011 in Athens, aged 90. From Stella to Iphigenia, The Woman-Centered Films of Michael Cacoyannis, Films and Filming, July 1960, p.5. Mihalis Kakogiannis at the Internet Movie Database Obituary of Michael Cacoyannis, The Daily Telegraph,25 July, 2011]
18.
Mark Taper Forum
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The Mark Taper Forum is a 739-seat thrust stage at the Los Angeles Music Center designed by Welton Becket and Associates on the Bunker Hill section of Downtown Los Angeles. Named for real estate developer Mark Taper, the Forum, the neighboring Ahmanson Theatre, the Mark Taper Forum opened in 1967 as part of the Los Angeles Music Center, the West Coast equivalent of Lincoln Center, designed by Los Angeles architect Welton Becket. The smallest of the three venues, the Taper is flanked by the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion and the Ahmanson Theatre on the Music Center Plaza, Becket designed the center in the style of New Formalism, which emphasized geometric shapes. The perfectly circular Taper is considered one of his best works, the lobby has a curving, abalone wall by Tony Duquette. Charles Moore described Beckets design for the Music Center as Late Imperial Depression-Style cake, Becket designed the building not knowing who would use it. Various proposals included chamber music concerts, or even grand jury meetings, ultimately Dorothy Chandler, the Los Angeles cultural leader, convinced Center Theater Group artistic director Gordon Davidson to use the Taper. For 38 years, Davidson was the director of Center Theater Group. The Taper became known for its thrust stage, jutting into a classical, semicircular amphitheater, the building bears an architectural resemblance to Carousel Theatre at Disneyland, also designed by Welton Becket and Associates in 1967. It is similar in concept and size to the Dallas Theatre Center, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. On October 8,1993, a memorial was held in the actor Richard Jordans honor and it was the same day his final movie Gettysburg was released. A $30-million renovation of the Taper led by the Los Angeles firm Rios Clementi Hale Studios began in July 2007 after the 2006/2007 season, the theater reopened on August 30,2008 for the first preview of John Guares The House of Blue Leaves. The Taper, as designed, was a case study in what happens when a theater is built without a tenant in mind. Fitting the auditorium into the building left a tiny backstage and only a narrow. The renovation updated nearly everything that was not concrete and did not disrupt the circular shape. The theater seats are wider and total capacity was reduced from 745 to 739, the entrance was moved to the plaza level and an elevator added to increase the accessibility of the theater. The original theater also had very few womens restrooms opening with four womens stalls for a 750-seat hall, the renovation increased the number of stalls to 16. Backstage, changes included removing an outdated stage treadmill and old air-conditioning equipment, installing a modern lighting grid, a wardrobe room was constructed in the space previously occupied by the air-conditioning equipment. The auditorium was renamed the Amelia Taper Auditorium after a $2 million gift from the S. Mark Taper Foundation, the Taper has presented innovative plays since its 1967-opening of The Devils from playwright John Whiting about the sexual fantasies of a 17th-century priest and a sexually repressed nun
19.
Frank Langella
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Frank A. Langella, Jr. is an American stage and film actor. Additionally, Langella has won two Obie Awards and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role in the production of Frost/Nixon. Langella, an Italian American, was born in Bayonne, New Jersey, Langella attended Washington Elementary School and Bayonne High School in Bayonne. He remains a brother of the Alpha Chi Rho fraternity, Langella appeared off-Broadway before he made his first foray on a Broadway stage in New York in Federico García Lorcas Yerma at the Vivian Beaumont Theater, Lincoln Center, on December 8,1966. Despite his initial misgivings about continuing to play the role, he was persuaded to star opposite Laurence Olivier in the subsequent film directed by John Badham. But Langella would continue to film and television with his stage work. He repeated the role on Broadway in 1987 in Charles Marowitzs play Sherlocks Last Case and that same year, Langella would also portray the villain Skeletor in Masters of the Universe, which he has described as one of his favorite roles. In 1988, Langella co-starred in the film And God Created Woman, in 1993, he made a three-episode appearance on Star Trek, Deep Space Nine as the devious Jaro Essa. He also appeared as Al Baker in Dominance, a 2003 episode of Law & Order, on film, he played Clare Quilty in Adrian Lynes adaptation of Lolita and appeared as a villainous pirate in the summer 1995 release Cutthroat Island. His film work includes roles in George Clooneys Good Night. Langella received critical acclaim as well as the Boston Society of Film Critics Award in 2007 for his portrayal of an elderly novelist in Starting Out in the Evening. He was cast as Richard Nixon in Peter Morgans Frost/Nixon, which received enthusiastic reviews during a run at the Donmar Warehouse, jacobs Theater in April 2007, culminating in Langellas third Tony Award. He reprised the role of Nixon in the 2008 Oscar nominated Best Picture film Frost/Nixon and he received Golden Globe, Screen Actors Guild, and BAFTA nominations for Best Actor for his performance. He was also nominated for an Academy Award in the Best Actor category for the role, in 2000, he played the role of Ebenezer Scrooge in a musical version of A Christmas Carol at Madison Square Garden. He starred as Sir Thomas More in the 2008 Broadway revival of A Man for All Seasons, in late 2009, he starred alongside Cameron Diaz and re-united with Superman Returns co-star James Marsden in the Richard Kelly film The Box. Langella starred in the drama thriller Unknown, which was directed by Jaume Collet-Serra, in October and November 2013, Langella played King Lear at the Minerva, Chichester Festival Theatre in Chichester, UK. It travelled to the Harvey Theater at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in New York in 2014, in 2016, he played the title role in Doug Hughes production of the US premiere of Florian Zellers play The Father at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre on Broadway. Langella was married to Ruth Weil from June 14,1977 to their divorce in 1996 and he also then lived with actress/comedian Whoopi Goldberg, whom he had met on the set of Eddie
20.
Melbourne Theatre Company
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The Melbourne Theatre Company is a theatre company based in Melbourne, Victoria. Founded in 1953 as the Union Theatre Repertory Company, it is the oldest professional theatre company in Australia, considered Victorias state theatre company, it formally comes under the auspices of the University of Melbourne. Currently, it offers a Mainstage Season of ten to twelve each year, a season of new and emerging works. It has a current subscriber base of 19,816 people, the Melbourne Theatre Company was founded in 1953 by John Sumner as the Union Theatre Repertory Company, based at the Union Theatre of the University of Melbournes Student Union building. Sumners original idea was to present a season of plays over those months when the Union Theatre was not being used by student drama societies and it was Australias first professional repertory theatre, presenting a new play every two weeks during the season. Later, that became three weekly repertory, the first play, Jean Anouilhs Colombe, opened on 31 August 1953, starring Zoe Caldwell, George Fairfax and Alex Scott. The first Australian play produced by the company, Summer of the Seventeenth Doll by Ray Lawler, Lawler had by that time succeeded Sumner as Director of the company, taking it through the 1955 and 1956 seasons. When Lawler left to perform The Doll in London, he handed the directorship to Wal Cherry, cherrys experimental and daring approach to theatre did much to broaden the tastes of Melbourne theatre-goers, though the company suffered at the box-office. In 1959, John Sumner returned and subsequently steered the company through twenty-eight years of growth, watching it become, by the time he retired in 1987, in February 2011, Brett Sheehy was named as Phillips successor. Due to his position as head of the Melbourne International Arts Festival, Sheehy did not commence at MTC until 2012, robyn Nevin, Pamela Rabe, and Aidan Fennessy managed the 2012 Season. The first twenty years of the Melbourne Theatre Company, the Drama Continues, MTC the first fifty years 1953–2003. Melbourne Theatre Company Media Resources Artistic Leadership Annual Report 2013
21.
Loudun
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Loudun is a commune in the Vienne department in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region in western France. It is located 30 km south of the town of Chinon and 25 km to the east of the town Thouars, the area south of Loudun is the place of origin of a significant portion of the Acadians, one of the early founding people of New France in Canada. An ancient town, Loudun contains numerous old streets, and buildings and it is also the location of a vicus type archaeological site. Loudun was also the site of hysteria concerning the supposed possession of nuns by the Devil in 1634. Aldous Huxleys 1952 non-fiction novel The Devils of Loudun was based on the Loudun possessions, john Whitings 1961 theatre play The Devils, commissioned by Sir Peter Hall for the Royal Shakespeare Company, was based on Aldous Huxleys novel. A Polish film, Mother Joan of the Angels, is based on Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz short story which transposes the story to Poland, krzysztof Pendereckis 1969 opera The Devils of Loudun, which premiered at the Hamburg State Opera, was based on Huxleys novel and Whitings play. Ken Russells 1971 film The Devils was based on Huxleys novel, Loudun is the place of death of, Urbain Grandier, French Catholic priest who was burned at the stake after being convicted of witchcraft. André Andrejew, French-Russian classic film production designer, built decors for movies produced in Germany, France, England, ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, Audun le Tiche, France, Shippagan, Canada, Leuze, Belgique, Burgos, Espagne. Lugus Communes of the Vienne department INSEE http, //www. ville-loudun. Fr
22.
Urbain Grandier
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Urbain Grandier was a French Catholic priest who was burned at the stake after being convicted of witchcraft, following the events of the so-called Loudun Possessions. Most modern commentators have concluded that Grandier was the victim of a politically motivated persecution led by the powerful Cardinal Richelieu, Grandier served as priest in the church of Sainte Croix in Loudun, in the Diocese of Poitiers. Ignoring his vow of celibacy, he is known to have had relationships with a number of women. He also wrote a book attacking the discipline of clerical celibacy, in 1632, a group of nuns from the local Ursuline convent accused him of having bewitched them, sending the demon Asmodai, among others, to commit evil and impudent acts with them. According to Huxley, Sister Jeanne, enraged by his rejection, instead invited Canon Mignon, Jeanne then accused Grandier of using black magic to seduce her. The other nuns gradually began to make similar accusations, Grandier was arrested, interrogated and tried by an ecclesiastical tribunal, which acquitted him. However, Grandier had gained the enmity of the powerful Cardinal Richelieu, Grandier had also written and published scathing criticisms of Richelieu. Richelieu ordered a new trial, conducted by his special envoy Jean de Laubardemont, Grandier was rearrested at Angers and the possibility of appealing to the Parlement of Paris was denied to him. Interrogated for a time, the nuns did not renew their accusations. After torturing Father Grandier, the judges introduced documents purportedly signed by Grandier and it is unknown whether Grandier wrote or signed the pacts under duress, or whether they were entirely forged. Grandier was found guilty and sentenced to death, in addition, Grandier was subjected to a form of the Spanish boot, an iron vise, filled with spikes, that was brought to red heat and then applied to Grandiers calf and ankle to shatter the bones. Despite torture, Grandier never confessed to witchcraft and he was burned alive at the stake. Many theories exist as to the cause of the Loudun possessions, one of the most likely explanations is that the whole affair was a hoax orchestrated by Richelieu. Augustin Calmet among others have compared this case to the possession of Martha Broissier. In his Treatise, it is stated that the causes of the injustice committed at Loudun were a mixture of political ambition, the need for attention, and a basic desire to dispose of political opponents. One of the documents introduced as evidence during Grandiers second trial is a diabolical pact written in Latin, another, which looks illegible, is written backwards, in Latin with scribal abbreviation, and has since been published and translated in a number of books on witchcraft. This document also carries many strange symbols, and was signed by several demons with their seals, and him do we promise the love of women, the flower of virgins, the respect of monarchs, honors, lusts and powers. He will go whoring three days long, the carousal will be dear to him, bound in hell, in the council of demons
23.
Cardinal Richelieu
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Cardinal Armand Jean du Plessis, Duke of Richelieu and Fronsac, commonly referred to as Cardinal Richelieu, was a French clergyman, nobleman, and statesman. He was consecrated as a bishop in 1607 and was appointed Foreign Secretary in 1616, Richelieu soon rose in both the Catholic Church and the French government, becoming a cardinal in 1622, and King Louis XIIIs chief minister in 1624. He remained in office until his death in 1642, he was succeeded by Cardinal Mazarin, Cardinal de Richelieu was often known by the title of the kings Chief Minister or First Minister. He sought to consolidate power and crush domestic factions. By restraining the power of the nobility, he transformed France into a strong and his chief foreign policy objective was to check the power of the Austro-Spanish Habsburg dynasty, and to ensure French dominance in the Thirty Years War that engulfed Europe. Although he was a cardinal, he did not hesitate to make alliances with Protestant rulers in attempting to achieve his goals. While a powerful figure, events like the Day of the Dupes show that in fact he very much depended on the kings confidence to keep this power. As alumnus of the University of Paris and headmaster of the Collège de Sorbonne, Richelieu was also famous for his patronage of the arts, most notably, he founded the Académie Française, the learned society responsible for matters pertaining to the French language. Richelieu is also known by the sobriquet lÉminence rouge, from the red shade of a cardinals clerical dress and this in part allowed the colony to eventually develop into the heartland of Francophone culture in North America. He is also a character in The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas. Born in Paris, Armand du Plessis was the fourth of five children, at the age of nine, young Richelieu was sent to the College of Navarre in Paris to study philosophy. Thereafter, he began to train for a military career and his private life seems to have been typical of a young officer of the era, in 1605, aged twenty, he was treated by Théodore de Mayerne for gonorrhea. King Henry III had rewarded Richelieus father for his participation in the Wars of Religion by granting his family the bishopric of Luçon. The family appropriated most of the revenues of the bishopric for private use, they were, however, challenged by clergymen, to protect the important source of revenue, Richelieus mother proposed to make her second son, Alphonse, the bishop of Luçon. Alphonse, who had no desire to become a bishop, became instead a Carthusian monk, thus, it became necessary that the younger Richelieu join the clergy. He had strong interests, and threw himself into studying for his new post. In 1606 King Henry IV nominated Richelieu to become Bishop of Luçon, as Richelieu had not yet reached the canonical minimum age, it was necessary that he journey to Rome for a special dispensation from the Pope. This secured, Richelieu was consecrated bishop in April 1607, soon after he returned to his diocese in 1608, Richelieu was heralded as a reformer
24.
Corner Theatre ETC
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Throughout most of its nineteen-year existence, Corner Theatre ETC remained dedicated to the presentation of original plays, while encouraging a confrontational approach to production. The major thrust of Ms. Stewarts discussion was a challenge, directed at those in attendance, local producer/director Leslie Irons subsequently met with Ms. Stewart and was granted Cafe LaMaMas repertoire of original plays. For the duration of the existence, Corner Theatre saw its mission as threefold,1. The production of original, hitherto unseen plays,2, thus began a relationship between author and theatre that would yield, over the next seven years, a series of increasingly rich evenings of locally produced, locally-written theatre. By the years end, Leslie Irons had moved away from Baltimore, for the role of artistic director, Lewman enlisted an experienced local director, John Bruce Johnson. This controversial and highly confrontational show, which attracted the largest audiences the theatre had yet seen. Later that year, Brooklyns Chelsea Theater Center acquired the rights to Universal Nigger and produced it in their own space for New York audiences, under the direction of Robert Kalfin. In June,1970, Lewman resigned as director and the company moved its operations to 891 North Howard Street, with the premiere of Tegaroon. Bruce Johnson continued as director and a new managing director. The following year, HERE - an adaptation of the original Change, written, in October 1972, Corner Theatre acquired the rights to London playwright Charles Marowitzs An Othello for an American premiere. Makarovich also staged two Gordon Porterfield one-acts, The Catcher Was A Fag and I And Silence Some Strange Race, as well as an original teleplay entitled Tigers, january 1972 saw the directing debut of future Sundance awarding-winning filmmaker Steve Yeager with the premier of Lee Dorseys Pigeons. In April 1973, John Bruce Johnson suffered from an attack and was unable to finish directing Gordon Porterfields latest evening of one-acts. Director/playwright C. Richard Gillespie took over the production, which received excellent reviews, another production, Inconnue, written and directed by Hugh M. The theatres emphasis changed somewhat under Grimms leadership, allowing for an number of established plays to be presented. The physical facility went through a change as well, with improvements in sound. A loose relationship was formed with the department of Towson University. He also appeared as an actor in Gordon Porterfields Wolves, as well as the playwrights final Corner Theatre offering, in 1977, Corner Theatre lost its lease and Foster Grimm ultimately resigned as manager. The theatre then came under the control of local director Barry Feinstein and producer/actor Bruce Godfrey, interestingly, Fells Point Corner Theatre presented Snow, a play by Gordon Porterfield, under the direction of Lance Lewman, in 1999
25.
Greek chorus
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The chorus consisted of between 12 and 50 players, who variously danced, sang or spoke their lines in unison and sometimes wore masks. Historian H. D. F. Kitto argues that the chorus gives us hints about its function in the plays of ancient Greece, The Greek verb choreuo. The word ode means not something recited or declaimed, but a song, the orchestra, in which a chorus had its being, is literally a dancing floor. From this, it can be inferred that the chorus danced, plays of the ancient Greek theatre always included a chorus that offered a variety of background and summary information to help the audience follow the performance. They commented on themes, and, as August Wilhelm Schlegel proposed in the early 19th century to subsequent controversy, demonstrated how the audience might react to the drama. According to Schlegel, the Chorus is the spectator, and conveys to the actual spectator a lyrical and musical expression of his own emotions. In many of these plays, the chorus expressed to the audience what the characters could not say. The chorus often provided other characters with the insight they needed, some historians argue that the chorus was itself considered to be an actor. Scholars have considered Sophocles to be superior to Euripides in his choral writing, of the two, Sophocles also won more dramatic contests. His chorus passages were more relevant to the plot and more integrated in tragedies and they were often the same sex as the main character. In Aeschylus The Eumenides, however, the chorus takes the part of a host of avenging Furies, the lines of choral odes provide evidence that they were sung. Normal syllabic structure has long sounds that are twice the length of short sounds, however, some lyrics in Greek odes have long syllables that are equal to 3,4 and 5 shorter syllables. Spoken words cannot do that, suggesting that this was a danced, the chorus originally consisted of fifty members, but some later playwrights changed the size. Aeschylus likely lowered the number to twelve, and Sophocles raised it again to fifteen, fifteen members were used by Euripides and Sophocles in tragedies. The chorus stood in the orchestra, there were twenty-four members in comedies. The chorus performed using techniques, including singing, dancing, narrating. There is evidence there were strong rhythmic components to their speaking. They often communicated in song form, but sometimes spoke their lines in unison, the chorus had to work in unison to help explain the play as there were only one to three actors on stage who were already playing several parts each
26.
Krzysztof Penderecki
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Krzysztof Eugeniusz Penderecki is a Polish composer and conductor. The Guardian has called him Polands greatest living composer, among his best known works are his Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima, St. Born in Dębica to a lawyer, Penderecki studied music at Jagiellonian University, after graduating from the Academy of Music, Penderecki became a teacher at the academy and he began his career as a composer in 1959 during the Warsaw Autumn festival. His Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima for string orchestra and the choral work St. Luke Passion, have received popular acclaim and his first opera, The Devils of Loudun, was not immediately successful. Beginning in the mid-1970s, Pendereckis composing style changed, with his first violin concerto focusing on the semitone and his choral work Polish Requiem was written in the 1980s, with Penderecki expanding it in 1993 and 2005. Penderecki was born in Dębica, to Tadeusz Penderecki, a lawyer and his grandmother was an Armenian from Isfahan, Iran. Penderecki used to go to Armenian Church in Kraków with her, Penderecki was the youngest of three siblings, his sister, Barbara, was married to a mining engineer, and his older brother, Janusz, was studying law and medicine at the time of his birth. Tadeusz was a violinist and also played piano, in 1939, the Second World War broke out, and Pendereckis family moved out of their apartment as the Ministry of Food was to operate there. After the war, Penderecki began attending school in 1946. He began studying the violin under Stanisław Darłak, Dębicas military bandmaster who organized an orchestra for the music society after the war. Upon graduating from school, Penderecki moved to Kraków in 1951. He studied violin with Stanisław Tawroszewicz and music theory with Franciszek Skołyszewski, in 1954, Penderecki entered the Academy of Music in Kraków and, having finished his studies on violin after his first year, focused entirely on composition. Pendereckis main teacher there was Artur Malawski, a known for his choral works and orchestral works, as well as chamber music. After Malawskis death in 1957, Penderecki took further lessons with Stanisław Wiechowicz, at the time, the 1956 overthrow of Stalinism in Poland lifted strict Communist cultural censorship and opened the door to a wave of creativity. On graduating from the Academy of Music in Kraków in 1958 and his early works show the influence of Anton Webern and Pierre Boulez. In it, he use of extended instrumental techniques. There are many novel textures in the work, which makes use of tone clusters. He originally titled the work 837, but decided to dedicate it to the victims of Hiroshima, the piece was composed for the Donaueschingen Festival of contemporary music of 1962, and its performance was regarded as provocative and controversial
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The Devils of Loudun (opera)
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Die Teufel von Loudun is an opera in three acts written in 1968 and 1969 by Polish composer Krzysztof Penderecki, and then revised in 1972 and 1975. It has a German libretto by the composer, based on John Whitings dramatization of Aldous Huxleys novel of the same name, the work was commissioned by the Hamburg State Opera, which consequently gave the premiere on 20 June 1969. Only 48 hours afterwards, the received its second performance in Stuttgart. The work was revised in 1972 following suggestions by Polish theatre director Kazimierz Dejmek and this added two new scenes, excluded a scene from the operas first act, regrouped other scenes, and modified the first acts instrumentation. Finally, in 1975, Penderecki added two more scenes in the second act, performances of The Devils of Loudun now generally follow this 1975 edition. The Devils of Loudun, the first and most popular of Pendereckis operas, is emblematic of the composers interest in events of traumatic nature. As suggested by its title, the opera draws its story line from the 1632-38 mass demonic possession in the town of Loudun, accordingly, the opera thematic construct should be regarded as allegorical rather than merely historical. Based on the reviews listed in Cindy Bylanders Krzysztof Penderecki, a Bio-Bibliography, the opera received mixed reviews in European countries and the US. Even in the city, there were different reactions to the work. The world premiere, which was given at the Hamburg State Opera on 20 June 1969, however, the general consensus among critics was that the work was not a huge success. After seeing a Hamburg production of the opera, another critic even questioned whether Penderecki was truly interested in the piece, positive reviews of the production were mostly on the librettos intriguing nature. The next performance, which was only two days after its Hamburg world premiere, was held in Stuttgart, Germany. Critics agreed almost unanimously that the Stuttgart production of the opera was far superior to the Hamburg production, the Stuttgart audience was pleased by the daring staging and thought it was a thrilling piece of contemporary music. The Stuttgart production of the opera, however, received negative reviews as well. A critic, who said the presentation was marked by sensation and grandiosity, outside of Hamburg and Stuttgart, the opera received positive reviews in other German cities like Berlin, Cologne, Munich, and Mönchengladbach. For example, a revised version of The Devils of Loudun was performed in West Berlin in 1970. A critic, who saw the performance, wrote that the presentation was an unforgettable experience. In 1980, a more than ten years after the world premiere
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Ken Russell
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Henry Kenneth Alfred Ken Russell was an English film director, known for his pioneering work in television and film and for his flamboyant and controversial style. Critics have accused him of being obsessed with sexuality and the Roman Catholic Church and his films in the main were liberal adaptations of existing texts, or biographies, notably of composers of the Romantic era. Russell began directing for the BBC, where he made creative adaptations of composers lives which were unusual for the time and he also directed many feature films independently and for studios. He is best known for his Oscar-winning films Women in Love, The Devils, The Whos Tommy, Russell also directed several films based on the lives of classical music composers, such as Elgar, Delius, Tchaikovsky, Mahler, and Liszt. Later in his life he turned to making experimental films such as Lions Mouth and Revenge of the Elephant Man. Ken Russell died of natural causes on 27 November 2011 at the age of 84, Russell was born in Southampton, England, on 3 July 1927, the elder of two sons of Ethel and Henry Russell, a shoeshop owner. His father was distant and took out his rage on his family, so Russell spent much of his time at the cinema with his mother and he cited Die Nibelungen and The Secret of the Loch as two early influences. He was educated at schools in Walthamstow and at Pangbourne College. He harboured an ambition to be a ballet dancer but instead joined the Royal Air Force. On one occasion he was made to watch in the blazing sun for hours on end while crossing the Pacific. His lunatic captain feared an attack by Japanese midget submarines despite the war having ended and he moved into television work after short careers in dance and photography. His series of documentary Teddy Girl photographs were published in Picture Post magazine in 1955, after 1959, Russells amateur films secured him a job at the BBC. Between 1959 and 1970, Russell directed art documentaries for Monitor and Omnibus. His best known works during this period include, Elgar, The Debussy Film, Isadora Duncan, the Biggest Dancer in the World, Song of Summer and Dance of the Seven Veils, a film about Richard Strauss. He once said that the best film he made was Song of Summer. Elgar was the first time that a televised arts programme broadcast a film about an artistic figure. It was also the first time that re-enactments were used, Russell fought with the BBC over using actors to portray different ages of the same character, instead of the traditional photograph stills and documentary footage. His television films became increasingly flamboyant and outrageous, the Strauss family was so outraged by the film that they withdrew all music rights
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Loudun possessions
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The Loudun possessions was a notorious witchcraft trial in Loudun, France in 1634. A convent of Ursuline nuns said they had visited and possessed by demons. Following an investigation by the Catholic Church, a local priest named Father Urbain Grandier was accused of summoning the evil spirits and he was eventually convicted of the crimes of sorcery and burned at the stake. The pact was signed between Urbain Grandier and the Devil, stolen from the Devils cabinet of pacts by the demon Asmodeus. Grandier was considered to be a very good-looking man, and was wealthy and well-educated. The combination made the priest a target for the attention of girls in Loudun, one of whom was Philippa Trincant and it was believed by the people of Loudun that Grandier was the father of Trincants child. In addition to Trincant, Grandier openly courted Madeleine de Brou, most assumed that Madeleine was Grandiers mistress after he wrote a treatise against the celibacy of priests for her. Grandier was also a very well-connected man, high in political circles, when he was arrested and found guilty of immorality on June 2,1630, it was these connections that restored him to full clerical duties within the same year. Presiding over the case was Chasteigner de La Roche Posay, the Bishop of Poitiers, two stories exist about what happened next. According to the first story, Father Mignon readily persuaded the Mother Superior, Jeanne des Anges and they would claim that Father Grandier had bewitched them, falling into fits and convulsions, often holding their breath and speaking in tongues. The second story claims that Jeanne had illicit dreams about Father Grandier, as an angel, he enticed her to sexual acts, causing her to rave loudly at night. It was then, this version claims, that Mother Superior Jeanne des Anges called for Father Mignon to hear her confession, however it came about, Father Mignon and his aide, Father Pierre Barré, saw in the activity an opportunity to remove Grandier. Fathers Mignon and Barré immediately proceeded to perform exorcisms on the possessed nuns, several of the nuns, including Jeanne des Anges, suffered violent convulsions during the procedure, shrieking and making sexual motions toward the priests. Following the lead of Jeanne des Anges, many of the nuns reported illicit dreams, the accusers would suddenly bark, scream, blaspheme, and contort their bodies. During the exorcisms, Jeanne swore that she and the nuns were possessed by two demons named Asmodeus and Zebulun. These demons were sent to the nuns when Father Grandier tossed a bouquet of roses over the convent walls. Nearby and realizing the danger he was in, Father Grandier pleaded with the bailiff of Loudun to isolate the nuns, the orders were ignored. Desperate, Grandier wrote to the Archbishop of Bordeaux, who sent his doctor to examine the nuns
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International Standard Book Number
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The International Standard Book Number is a unique numeric commercial book identifier. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an e-book, a paperback and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, the method of assigning an ISBN is nation-based and varies from country to country, often depending on how large the publishing industry is within a country. The initial ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 based upon the 9-digit Standard Book Numbering created in 1966, the 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108. Occasionally, a book may appear without a printed ISBN if it is printed privately or the author does not follow the usual ISBN procedure, however, this can be rectified later. Another identifier, the International Standard Serial Number, identifies periodical publications such as magazines, the ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 in the United Kingdom by David Whitaker and in 1968 in the US by Emery Koltay. The 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108, the United Kingdom continued to use the 9-digit SBN code until 1974. The ISO on-line facility only refers back to 1978, an SBN may be converted to an ISBN by prefixing the digit 0. For example, the edition of Mr. J. G. Reeder Returns, published by Hodder in 1965, has SBN340013818 -340 indicating the publisher,01381 their serial number. This can be converted to ISBN 0-340-01381-8, the check digit does not need to be re-calculated, since 1 January 2007, ISBNs have contained 13 digits, a format that is compatible with Bookland European Article Number EAN-13s. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an ebook, a paperback, and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, a 13-digit ISBN can be separated into its parts, and when this is done it is customary to separate the parts with hyphens or spaces. Separating the parts of a 10-digit ISBN is also done with either hyphens or spaces, figuring out how to correctly separate a given ISBN number is complicated, because most of the parts do not use a fixed number of digits. ISBN issuance is country-specific, in that ISBNs are issued by the ISBN registration agency that is responsible for country or territory regardless of the publication language. Some ISBN registration agencies are based in national libraries or within ministries of culture, in other cases, the ISBN registration service is provided by organisations such as bibliographic data providers that are not government funded. In Canada, ISBNs are issued at no cost with the purpose of encouraging Canadian culture. In the United Kingdom, United States, and some countries, where the service is provided by non-government-funded organisations. Australia, ISBNs are issued by the library services agency Thorpe-Bowker
