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Granville-Barker
Harley Granville-Barker (25 November 1877 – 31 August 1946) was an English actor, director, playwright, manager, critic, and theorist. After early success as an actor in the plays of George Bernard Shaw, he increasingly turned to directing and was a major figure in British theatre in the Edwardian and inter-war periods. As a writer his plays, which tackled difficult and controversial subject matter, met with a mixed reception during his lifetime but have continued to receive attention. Biography Early life and acting career Harley Granville-Barker was born in London, England on 25 November 1877. He left school at 14 and began a career in acting. As his career blossomed, he seemed to excel in roles that were a culmination of intelligence and romantic dreaminess. This landed him many roles such as; Tanner in ''Man and Superman'', Cusins in ''Major Barbara'', Marchbanks in ''Candida'', and Dubedat in '' The Doctor's Dilemma''. To be more specific the Dubedat and Cusins characte ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lillah McCarthy
Lillah, Lady Keeble OBE (born Lila Emma McCarthy; 22 September 1875 – 15 April 1960) was an English people, English actress and Actor-manager, theatrical manager. Biography Lila Emma McCarty was born in Cheltenham on 22 September 1875, the seventh of eight children of Jonadab McCarthy and Emma (''née'' Price) who survived infancy (a ninth child born the year before Lila had died aged four months). Jonadab McCarthy (1841–1913) was a furniture and antique dealer, buyer and seller of property, amateur astronomer (Royal Astronomical Society#Fellows, FRAS) and lover of poetry. Like several of her siblings, Lila was born at 384 (now 152) High Street, Cheltenham, which doubled as the family home and her father's retail outlet. The building no longer exists, but the current property on the site has a blue plaque to her memory. After unhappy episodes at school, Lila was taught at home by her father. Her lifelong love of the theatre was triggered in 1891 by seeing Lillie Langtry pla ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Major Barbara
''Major Barbara'' is a three-act English play by George Bernard Shaw, written and premiered in 1905 and first published in 1907. The story concerns an idealistic young woman, Barbara Undershaft, who is engaged in helping the poor as a Major in the Salvation Army in London. For many years, Barbara and her siblings have been estranged from their father, Andrew Undershaft, who now reappears as a rich and successful munitions maker. The father gives money to the Salvation Army, which offends Barbara because she considers it "tainted" wealth. The father argues that poverty is a worse problem than munitions and claims that he is doing more to help society by giving his workers jobs and a steady income than she is doing by giving people free meals in a soup kitchen. The play script displays typical Shavian techniques in the omission of apostrophes from contractions and other punctuation, the inclusion of a didactic introductory essay explaining the play's themes, and the phonetic ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Royal Court Theatre
The Royal Court Theatre, at different times known as the Court Theatre, the New Chelsea Theatre, and the Belgravia Theatre, is a West End theatre#London's non-commercial theatres, non-commercial theatre in Sloane Square, London, England, opened in 1870; the current building was completed in 1888. The capacity of the theatre has varied between 728 seats and today's 380 seats (with a smaller upstairs theatre opened in 1969). In 1956 it was acquired by and remains the home of the English Stage Company, which focuses on contemporary theatre and won the Europe Theatre Prize, Europe Prize Theatrical Realities in 1999. History The first theatre The first theatre on Lower George Street, off Sloane Square, was the converted Nonconformist Ranelagh Chapel, opened as a theatre in 1870 under the name The New Chelsea Theatre. Marie Litton became its manager in 1871, hiring Walter Emden to remodel the interior, and it was renamed the Court Theatre. Several of W. S. Gilbert's early plays ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Voysey Inheritance
''The Voysey Inheritance'' is a play in five acts by the English dramatist Harley Granville-Barker. Written in 1903–1905, it was originally staged at the Royal Court Theatre in 1905 featuring Mabel Hackney, and revived at the same venue in 1965, the Royal Exchange, Manchester in 1989 and at the National Theatre in 1989, and in 2006. In 2006, American playwright David Mamet wrote what a critic for ''The New York Times'' called a "canny new adaptation" of the play for New York's Atlantic Theatre Company. Described by Samuel French Samuel French (1821–1898) was an American entrepreneur who, together with British actor, playwright and theatrical manager Thomas Hailes Lacy, pioneered in the field of theatrical publishing and the licensing A license (American Englis ... as "a witty, impeccably crafted portrait of a family in the midst of a surprisingly modern moral dilemma", its subject is financial fraud, on which Ian Clarke wrote, "in ''The Voysey Inheritance'', the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
George Bernard Shaw
George Bernard Shaw (26 July 1856 – 2 November 1950), known at his insistence as Bernard Shaw, was an Irish playwright, critic, polemicist and political activist. His influence on Western theatre, culture and politics extended from the 1880s to his death and beyond. He wrote more than sixty plays, including major works such as ''Man and Superman'' (1902), ''Pygmalion (play), Pygmalion'' (1913) and ''Saint Joan (play), Saint Joan'' (1923). With a range incorporating both contemporary satire and historical allegory, Shaw became the leading dramatist of his generation, and in 1925 was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. Born in Dublin, in 1876 Shaw moved to London, where he struggled to establish himself as a writer and novelist, and embarked on a rigorous process of self-education. By the mid-1880s he had become a respected theatre and music critic. Following a political awakening, he joined the Gradualism (politics), gradualist Fabian Society and became its most prominent ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gregorio Martínez Sierra
Gregorio Martínez Sierra (6 May 1881 – 1 October 1947) was a Spanish writer, poet, dramatist, and theatre director, a key figure in the revival of the Spanish theatrical avant-garde in the early twentieth century. Biography Firstborn son of Eduardo Martínez Cuesta and Emilia Sierra Muñoz, he had 5 sisters and 2 brothers. In 1900, he married the writer María de la O Lejárraga García. The deft handling of female characters in Martínez Sierra's works has been attributed to the collaboration of his wife. Since the publication of her memoir ''Gregorio y yo'' ('Gregorio and I', 1953), her authorship of many of his plays has been increasingly recognised by scholars. Work as a poet and playwright Martínez Sierra's literary career began at the age of 17 with the publication of ''El poema del trabajo'' ('The Poem of Work', 1898), a volume of poetry in the modernist style. His subsequent books of poetry included ''Diálogos fantásticos'' ('Fantastic Dialogues', 1899), ''Flor ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mint Theater Company
Mint Theater Company was founded in 1992 in New York City. Their mission is to find, produce, and advocate for "worthwhile plays from the past that have been lost or forgotten". They have been instrumental in restoring the theatrical legacy of several playwrights notably; Teresa Deevy, Rachel Crothers, and Miles Malleson. As well as producing less produced or forgotten works by noted playwrights such as A. A. Milne, Lillian Hellman, and J. M. Barrie. They have also produced frequently ignored theatrical works by noted authors such as Ernest Hemingway, D. H. Lawrence, and Leo Tolstoy. ''New York Times'' critic Ben Brantley credited Mint Theater Company as a "resurrectionist extraordinaire of forgotten plays". pointing to the company as a torchbearer "devoted to overlooked plays of other times." History The Mint Theater Company was founded in 1992 by Kelly Morgan. The mission was further solidified when Jonathan Bank took over as artistic director in 1995, deciding to focus on lost, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
A Midsummer Night's Dream
''A Midsummer Night's Dream'' is a Comedy (drama), comedy play written by William Shakespeare in about 1595 or 1596. The play is set in Athens, and consists of several subplots that revolve around the marriage of Theseus and Hippolyta. One subplot involves a conflict among four Athenian lovers. Another follows a group of six amateur actors rehearsing the play which they are to perform before the wedding. Both groups find themselves in a forest inhabited by fairies who manipulate the humans and are engaged in their own domestic intrigue. ''A Midsummer Night's Dream'' is one of Shakespeare's most popular and widely performed plays. Characters The Athenians: * Theseus – Duke of Athens * Hippolyta – Queen of the Amazons and Theseus' fianceé * Hermia – in love with Lysander * Helena (A Midsummer Night's Dream), Helena – in love with Demetrius * Lysander (A Midsummer Night's Dream), Lysander – in love with Hermia * Demetrius (A Midsummer Night's Dream), Demetrius – s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dennis Kennedy (author)
Dennis Kennedy (born 1 November 1940, Cincinnati, Ohio, United States), is the Samuel Beckett Professor of Drama and Theatre (Emeritus) in Trinity College Dublin. A widely published author of books on theatre, performance, and religion, he is also a playwright, director, and fiction writer. He holds dual citizenship in the USA and Ireland. Career Kennedy studied literature, philosophy, and history at the University of San Francisco and was active in the College Players. After graduating, he trained at the US Naval Officer Candidate School in Newport, Rhode Island, before being assigned as communications officer on the USS Graffias in Japan and the Pacific during the early stages of the American War in Vietnam. His next post was shore duty in Pearl Harbor; he acted professionally in Honolulu during that time. He did graduate work at Oxford and the University of California, Santa Barbara, receiving the PhD in 1972. For a decade he taught literature and theatre at Grand Valley St ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Twelfth Night
''Twelfth Night, or What You Will'' is a romantic comedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written around 1601–1602 as a Twelfth Night entertainment for the close of the Christmas season. The play centres on the twins Viola and Sebastian, who are separated in a shipwreck. Viola (disguised as a page named 'Cesario') falls in love with the Duke Orsino, who in turn is in love with Countess Olivia. Upon meeting Viola, Countess Olivia falls in love with her, thinking she is a man. The play expanded on the musical interludes and riotous disorder expected of the occasion, with plot elements drawn from Barnabe Rich's short story "Of Apollonius and Silla", based on a story by Matteo Bandello. The first documented public performance was on 2 February 1602, at Candlemas, the formal end of Christmastide in the year's calendar. The play was not published until its inclusion in the 1623 First Folio. Characters * Viola – a shipwrecked young woman who disguises hersel ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Man And Superman
''Man and Superman'' is a four-act drama written by George Bernard Shaw in 1903, in response to a call for Shaw to write a play based on the Don Juan theme. ''Man and Superman'' opened at the Royal Court Theatre in London on 21 May 1905 as a four-act play produced by the Stage Society, and then by John Eugene Vedrenne and Harley Granville-Barker on 23 May, without Act III ("Don Juan in Hell"). A part of the third act (Scene 2), was performed when the drama was staged on 4 June 1907 at the Royal Court. The play was not performed in its entirety until 1915, when the Travelling Repertory Company played it at the Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh. Summary Mr. Whitefield has recently died, and his will indicates that his daughter Ann should be left in the care of two men, Roebuck Ramsden and John Tanner. Ramsden, a venerable old man, distrusts John Tanner, an eloquent youth with revolutionary ideas, whom Shaw's stage directions describe as "prodigiously fluent of speech, restless, excita ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Doctor's Dilemma (play)
''The Doctor's Dilemma'' is a play by George Bernard Shaw first staged in 1906. It was published in 1909. It is a problem play about the moral dilemmas created by limited medical resources, and the conflicts between the demands of private medicine as a business and a vocation. Characters Roles and original cast: *Mr. Danby – Lewis Casson *Sir Patrick Cullen – William Farren, Junr. *Louis Dubedat – Harley Granville-Barker *Emmy – Claire Greet *Dr. Blenkinsop – Edmund Gurney *Minnie Tinwell – Mary Hamilton *Cutler Walpole – James Hearn *Sir Ralph Bloomfield Bonington – Eric Lewis *The Newspaper Man – Trevor Lowe *A Waiter – Percy Marmont *Jennifer Dubedat – Lillah McCarthy *Redpenny – Norman Page *Leo Schutzmacher – Michael Sherbrooke *Sir Colenso Ridgeon – Ben Webster THE DOCTOR'S DILEMMA ROYAL COURT THEATRE PROGRAMME "Commencing Monday December 31st, 1906 for Six Weeks Only" The Newspaper Man is played by Mr Jules Shaw, according to this pr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
