Orange Tree Theatre
The Orange Tree Theatre is a 180-seat theatre at 1 Clarence Street, Richmond in south-west London, which was built specifically as a theatre in the round. It is housed within a disused 1867 primary school, built in Victorian Gothic style. The theatre was founded in 1971 by its first artistic director, Sam Walters, and his actress wife Auriol Smith in a small room above the Orange Tree pub opposite the present building, which opened in 1991. Walters, the UK's longest-serving theatre director, retired from the Orange Tree Theatre in June 2014 and was succeeded as artistic director by Paul Miller, previously associate director at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield. Tom Littler, previously artistic director at the Jermyn Street Theatre, took over from Miller in December 2022. The Orange Tree Theatre specialises in staging new plays and rediscovering classics. It has an education and participation programme that reaches over 10,000 people every year. Since 2014 the theatre h ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Sam Walters (director)
Sam Walters MBE (born 11 October 1939) is a British theatre director who retired in 2014 as artistic director of the Orange Tree Theatre in Richmond, London. He has also directed in the West End and at Ipswich, Canterbury and Greenwich, as well as at LAMDA, RADA and Webber Douglas. After 42 years Walters, the United Kingdom's longest-serving artistic director, and his wife and associate director, Auriol Smith, stepped down from their posts at the Orange Tree Theatre in June 2014. Career Early years Sam Walters was educated at Felsted School and while there, in 1957, he won the Public Schools Debating Association public speaking competition. He also captained the Essex Young Amateurs cricket team. He then took a degree at Merton College, Oxford (1959–62), where he was president of the Experimental Theatre Club. He trained as an actor at LAMDA (1962–64) turning to directing with the formation of the Worcester Repertory Company in 1967. The Orange Tree Theatre He was inv ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Auriol Smith
Auriol Smith (born 1936) is an English actress and theatre director. She was a founder member and associate director of the Orange Tree Theatre in Richmond, London. She co-founded the theatre in 1971 with her husband Sam Walters, who became the United Kingdom's longest-serving artistic director. Walters and Smith stepped down from their posts at the Orange Tree Theatre in June 2014. Early years Whilst taking a degree in drama at Bristol University she became President of the Green Room Society at the newly founded university Drama Department. This was followed by a year in America as a Fulbright Scholar, before making her professional debut at the Hampstead Theatre Club in January 1960 in Harold Pinter's first play ''The Room'' (which she had originally played in a converted squash-court for the Bristol Drama Department in May 1957). Orange Tree Theatre After extensive experience in repertory theatres and a year in Jamaica setting up a drama school and theatre, she and her ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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London Borough Of Richmond Upon Thames
The London Borough of Richmond upon Thames () in south-west Greater London, London, England, forms part of Outer London and is the only London boroughs, London borough on both sides of the River Thames. It was created in 1965 when three smaller council areas amalgamated under the London Government Act 1963. It is governed by Richmond upon Thames London Borough Council. The population is 198,019 and the major communities are Barnes, London, Barnes, East Sheen, Mortlake, Kew, Richmond, London, Richmond, Twickenham, Teddington and Hampton, London, Hampton. The borough is home to Richmond Park, the largest park in London, along with the National Physical Laboratory (United Kingdom), National Physical Laboratory and The National Archives (United Kingdom), The National Archives. Kew Gardens, Hampton Court Palace, Twickenham Stadium and the WWT London Wetlands Centre are within its boundaries and draw domestic and international tourism. In 2023, the borough was ranked first in Rightmo ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Richmond Station (London)
Richmond, also known as Richmond (London), is an interchange station in Richmond, Greater London on the Waterloo to Reading and North London lines. It is a western terminus of both the District line of the London Underground and the Mildmay line of the London Overground. South Western Railway services on the Waterloo to Reading Line are routed through Richmond, which is between and St Margarets stations, down the line from . Architecture The station building, designed by James Robb Scott in Portland stone and dating from 1937, is in Art Deco style and its facade includes a square clock. The area in front of the station main entrance was pedestrianised in 2013 and includes a war memorial to soldier Bernard Freyberg, who was born in Richmond. History The Richmond and West End Railway (R&WER) opened the first station at Richmond on 27 July 1846, as the terminus of its line from . This station was on a site to the south of the present through platforms, which later became a ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Sheila Sim
Sheila Beryl Grant Sim, Baroness Attenborough (5 June 1922 – 19 January 2016) was an English film and theatre actress. She was also the wife of the actor, director and peer Richard Attenborough. Career Sheila Beryl Grant Sim was born in Liverpool, Lancashire, only daughter of banker Stuart Grant Sim (1893–1975) and his wife Ida Isabel Carter, who were married in April 1920. Brought up at "Carnlea" overlooking Calderstones Park in Liverpool and later, 18 The Ridge at Purley in Surrey, Sim was privately educated before training at RADA. Sim was mainly active as an actress in the 1940s and 1950s. She appeared in the Powell and Pressburger film, '' A Canterbury Tale'' (1944); she acted alongside her husband in the Boulting brothers' '' The Guinea Pig'' (1948); and starred opposite Anthony Steel in '' West of Zanzibar'' (1954). In theatre, she co-starred with her husband, Richard Attenborough, in the first cast of '' The Mousetrap'' by Agatha Christie, from its London prem ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Richard Attenborough
Richard Samuel Attenborough, Baron Attenborough (; 29 August 192324 August 2014) was an English actor, film director, and Film producer, producer. Attenborough was the president of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) and the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA), as well as life president of the Premier League club Chelsea F.C., Chelsea. He joined the Royal Air Force during World War II and served in the Royal Air Force Film Production Unit, film unit, going on several Strategic bombing, bombing raids over continental Europe and filming the conflict from the Tail gunner, rear gunner's position. He was the older brother of broadcaster and nature presenter Sir David Attenborough and motor executive John Attenborough. He was married to actress Sheila Sim from 1945 until his death. As an actor, Attenborough is best remembered for his film roles in ''Brighton Rock (1948 film), Brighton Rock'' (1948), ''I'm All Right Jack'' (1959), ''The Great Escape (film), The Gr ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Alan Ayckbourn
Sir Alan Ayckbourn (born 12 April 1939) is a prolific British playwright and director. As of 2025, he has written and produced 90 full-length plays in Scarborough and London and was, between 1972 and 2009, the artistic director of the Stephen Joseph Theatre in Scarborough, where all but four of his plays have received their first performance. More than 40 have subsequently been produced in the West End, at the Royal National Theatre or by the Royal Shakespeare Company since his first hit '' Relatively Speaking'' opened at the Duke of York's Theatre in 1967. Major successes include '' Absurd Person Singular'' (1972), '' The Norman Conquests'' trilogy (1973), '' Absent Friends'' (1974), ''Bedroom Farce'' (1975), ''Just Between Ourselves'' (1976), '' A Chorus of Disapproval'' (1984), '' Woman in Mind'' (1985), '' A Small Family Business'' (1987), '' Man of the Moment'' (1988), ''House'' & ''Garden'' (1999) and '' Private Fears in Public Places'' (2004). His plays have won numer ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Scarborough, North Yorkshire
Scarborough () is a seaside town and civil parish in North Yorkshire District, the district and North Yorkshire, county of North Yorkshire, England. With a population of 61,749, Scarborough is the largest town on the Yorkshire Coast and the North Yorkshire#Settlements, fourth-largest settlement in the county. It is located on the North Sea coastline. Historic counties of England, Historically in the North Riding of Yorkshire, the town lies between 10 and 230 feet (3–70 m) above sea level, from the harbour rising steeply north and west towards limestone cliffs. The older part of the town lies around the harbour and is protected by a rocky headland which extends into the North Sea. The town has fishing and service industries, including a growing digital and creative economy, as well as being a tourist destination. Residents of the town are known as Scarborians. Etymology Scarborough was founded by Danes in the 10th century, when Thorgil (also known as Skarthi, meaning 'hare ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Stephen Joseph Theatre
The Stephen Joseph Theatre is a theatre in the round in Scarborough, North Yorkshire, England that was founded by Stephen Joseph and was the first theatre in the round in Britain. In 1955, Joseph established a tiny theatre in the round on the first floor of the Public Library. The theatre flourished and in 1976 moved to a supposedly temporary home on the ground floor of the former Scarborough Boys' High School. However, a permanent home proved difficult to find and it was not until late 1988 and the closure of the local Odeon cinema by Rank Leisure that the theatre's long-standing Artistic Director, Alan Ayckbourn, found a suitable venue. Ayckbourn launched a £4 million appeal to transform the old cinema with a view to opening it up in 1995. The new theatre, known simply as the Stephen Joseph Theatre, opened in 1996 and comprises two auditoria: ''The Round'', a 404-seat theatre in the round, and ''The McCarthy'', a 165-seat end-on stage/cinema. The building also contai ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Stratford-upon-Avon
Stratford-upon-Avon ( ), commonly known as Stratford, is a market town and civil parish in the Stratford-on-Avon (district), Stratford-on-Avon district, in the county of Warwickshire, in the West Midlands (region), West Midlands region of England. It is situated on the River Avon, Warwickshire, River Avon, north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and south-west of Warwick. The town is the southernmost point of the Arden, Warwickshire, Arden area at the northern extremity of the The Cotswolds, Cotswolds. At the 2021 United Kingdom census, 2021 British census Stratford had a population of 30,495. Stratford was inhabited originally by Celtic Britons, Britons before Anglo-Saxons and remained a village before the lord of the manor, John of Coutances, set out plans to develop it into a town in 1196. In that same year, Stratford was granted a charter from King Richard I to hold a weekly Marketplace, market in the town, giving it its status as a market town. As a result, Strat ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Iain Mackintosh
Iain Mackintosh (born 1937) is a British practitioner of theatre combining four interwoven careers as theatre producer, theatre space designer, curator of theatre painting and architecture exhibitions, and author and lecturer on both modern and eighteenth century theatre. He has campaigned for the retention and restoration of historic theatres as working homes for live performance. From 1975 he curated or contributed to several exhibitions of theatre paintings and architecture. Early life Iain Mackintosh was born in Bristol, England, in 1937, and brought up in Bristol, Cornwall and Edinburgh, Scotland. Two years National Service in Hong Kong as a subaltern in the Royal Artillery, was followed by three years at Worcester College, Oxford where he took the Worcester College Buskins to the Kenton Theatre, Henley on Thames during the regatta with a review entitled "''One Over The Eight''". He graduated in 1960 and immediately became resident stage manager (technical director) at the Ox ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Nikolaus Pevsner
Sir Nikolaus Bernhard Leon Pevsner (30 January 1902 – 18 August 1983) was a German-British art historian and architectural historian best known for his monumental 46-volume series of county-by-county guides, ''The Buildings of England'' (1951–74). Life Nikolaus Pevsner was born in Leipzig, Kingdom of Saxony, Saxony, the son of Anna and her husband Hugo Pevsner, a Russian-Jewish fur merchant. He attended St. Thomas School, Leipzig, and went on to study at several universities, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, Munich, Humboldt University of Berlin, Berlin, and Goethe University Frankfurt, Frankfurt am Main, before being awarded a doctorate by Leipzig University, Leipzig in 1924 for a thesis on the Architecture of Leipzig#Leipzig bourgeois town houses and oriel windows of the Baroque era, Baroque architecture of Leipzig. In 1923, he married Carola ("Lola") Kurlbaum, the daughter of distinguished Leipzig lawyer Alfred Kurlbaum. He worked as an assistant keeper at the Ge ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |