Aldwych Farce
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Aldwych Farce
The Aldwych farces were a series of twelve stage farces presented at the Aldwych Theatre, London, nearly continuously from 1923 to 1933. All but three of them were written by Ben Travers. They incorporate and develop British low comedy styles, combined with clever word-play. The plays were presented by the actor-manager Tom Walls and starred Walls and Ralph Lynn, supported by a regular company that included Robertson Hare, Mary Brough, Winifred Shotter, Ethel Coleridge, and Gordon James. The farces were so popular that touring companies were sent to present them in the British provinces. Most of the Aldwych farces were adapted for film in the 1930s, starring the original stage casts as far as possible. The plays were later seen in television versions, and some enjoyed revivals. History Leslie Henson and Tom Walls co-produced the farce '' Tons of Money'' in 1922 at the Shaftesbury Theatre. This was a great popular success, running for nearly two years, and they collaborated a ...
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Royal National Theatre
The Royal National Theatre in London, commonly known as the National Theatre (NT), is one of the United Kingdom's three most prominent publicly funded performing arts venues, alongside the Royal Shakespeare Company and the Royal Opera House. Internationally, it is known as the National Theatre of Great Britain. Founded by Laurence Olivier in 1963, many well-known actors have performed at the National Theatre. Until 1976, the company was based at The Old Vic theatre in Waterloo. The current building is located next to the Thames in the South Bank area of central London. In addition to performances at the National Theatre building, the National Theatre tours productions at theatres across the United Kingdom. The theatre has transferred numerous productions to Broadway and toured some as far as China, Australia and New Zealand. However, touring productions to European cities was suspended in February 2021 over concerns about uncertainty over work permits, additional costs and ...
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Western Morning News
The ''Western Morning News'' is a daily regional newspaper founded in 1860, and covering the West Country including Devon, Cornwall, the Isles of Scilly and parts of Somerset and Dorset in the South West of England. Organisation The ''Western Morning News'' is published by South West Media Group (formerly known as Westcountry Publications), a division of Local World. Its main office is based in Plymouth and it has journalists based in newsdesks in Exeter, Truro, Penzance and Plymouth. It also has a London editor based in Westminster. Bill Martin is editor and Philip Bowern is print editor. History The ''Western Morning News'' was founded on 3 January 1860, by William Saunders and Edward Spender, father of Sir Wilfrid Spender. It has been published continuously since the first edition, including throughout the 1926 General Strike and the Plymouth Blitz. By 1920, the Devon newspaper market was getting cramped, with all papers running into financial difficulties. In the same ye ...
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Western Gazette
The ''Western Gazette'' is a regional newspaper, published every Thursday in Yeovil, Somerset, England. In 2012, Local World acquired owners Northcliffe Media from Daily Mail and General Trust. Trinity Mirror took control of Local World in late 2015 as part of a £220m deal. In June 2016 the newspaper launched ''Somerset Live ''Somerset Live'' is a website covering news, entertainment and sport in Somerset and nearby areas in Dorset and Wiltshire. It is owned by Reach plc (formerly Trinity Mirror), with headquarters in Yeovil. The ''Somerset Live'' website moved on ...'', a digital platform dedicated to providing news coverage, feature/human interest stories, entertainment and live blogs to readers across the South West of England and surrounding areas. The website received an overhaul and a redesign in May 2017 to deliver a more user friendly experience, with improved features and interaction. The newspaper and digital operation is based at the Yeovil Innovation Cen ...
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Yvonne Arnaud
Germaine Yvonne Arnaud (20 December 1890 – 20 September 1958) was a French-born pianist, singer and actress, who was well known for her career in Britain, as well as her native land. After beginning a career as a concert pianist as a child, Arnaud acted in musical comedies. She switched to non-musical comedy and drama around 1920 and was one of the players in the second of the Aldwych farces, ''A Cuckoo in the Nest'', a hit in 1925. She also had dramatic roles and made films in the 1930s and 1940s, and continued to act into the 1950s. She occasionally performed as a pianist later in her career. The Yvonne Arnaud Theatre was named in her memory in Guildford, Surrey. Life and career Arnaud was the daughter of Charles Leon Arnaud and his wife Antoinette (née Montegut). She was brought up in Paris and entered the Paris Conservatoire aged 9, studying piano under Alphonse Duvernoy and other teachers. In 1905, she won the conservatory's Premier Prix for piano. Beginning that year ...
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Ad Libitum
In music and other performing arts, the phrase (; from Latin for 'at one's pleasure' or 'as you desire'), often shortened to "ad lib" (as an adjective or adverb) or "ad-lib" (as a verb or noun), refers to various forms of improvisation. The roughly synonymous phrase ('in accordance with ne'sgood pleasure') is less common but, in its Italian form , entered the musical ''lingua franca'' (see below). The phrase "at liberty" is often associated mnemonically (because of the alliteration of the ''lib-'' syllable), although it is not the translation (there is no cognation between and ). Libido is the etymologically closer cognate known in English. Music As a direction in sheet music, indicates that the performer or conductor has one of a variety of types of discretion with respect to a given passage: *to play the passage in free time rather than in strict or " metronomic" tempo (a practice known as ''rubato'' when not expressly indicated by the composer); *to improvise a melo ...
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Actor-manager
An actor-manager is a leading actor who sets up their own permanent theatrical company and manages the business, sometimes taking over a theatre to perform select plays in which they usually star. It is a method of theatrical production used consistently since the 16th century, particularly common in 19th-century Britain and the United States. History The first actor-managers, such as Robert Browne, appeared in the late 16th century, to be followed by another Robert Browne (no relation) and George Jolly in the 17th century. In the 18th century, actor-managers such as Colley Cibber and David Garrick gained prominence. The system of actor-management generally produced high standards of performance, as demonstrated by such 19th-century actors as William Macready, Charles Wyndham, Henry Irving, Frank Benson and Herbert Beerbohm Tree, by husband-wife teams such as Squire Bancroft and Effie Bancroft, Frank Wyatt and Violet Melnotte, William Hunter Kendal and Madge Robertson Ken ...
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A Cuckoo In The Nest
''A Cuckoo in the Nest'' is a farce by the English playwright Ben Travers. It was first given at the Aldwych Theatre, London, the second in the series of twelve Aldwych farces presented by the actor-manager Tom Walls at the theatre between 1923 and 1933. Several of the cast formed the regular core cast for the later Aldwych farces. The plot concerns two friends, a man and a woman, who are each married to other people. While travelling together, they are obliged by circumstances to share a hotel bedroom. Everyone else assumes the worst, but the two travellers are able to prove their innocence. The piece opened on 22 July 1925 and ran for 376 performances. Travers made a film adaptation, which Walls directed in 1933, with most of the leading members of the stage cast reprising their roles. Background The actor-manager Tom Walls, initially together with Leslie Henson, produced the series of Aldwych farces, nearly all written by Ben Travers, starring Walls and his co-star Ralph ...
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Lawrence Grossmith
Lawrence Randall Grossmith (29 March 1877 – 21 February 1944) was an English actor, the son of the Gilbert and Sullivan performer George Grossmith and the brother of the actor-manager George Grossmith Jr. After establishing his career in Edwardian musical comedy in London from the first years of the 20th century until the First World War (except for a brief period in the U.S.), Grossmith left England on an extensive tour of the U.S. and Australia, playing in both musicals and non-musical plays. He continued his stage career in England and America from 1924. From 1933 until his death in 1944, he acted in films as well as on stage. Life and career Grossmith was born in London, the son of the actor George Grossmith, famous for his roles in the Savoy Operas, and Emmeline Rosa Noyce (1849–1905). His uncle was the actor Weedon Grossmith. He was educated at St Paul's College, Stony Stratford, London University School and Shrewsbury School.Parker, pp. 396–397 He was intended fo ...
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The Herald (Glasgow)
''The Herald'' is a Scottish broadsheet newspaper founded in 1783. ''The Herald'' is the longest running national newspaper in the world and is the eighth oldest daily paper in the world. The title was simplified from ''The Glasgow Herald'' in 1992. Following the closure of the ''Sunday Herald'', the ''Herald on Sunday'' was launched as a Sunday edition on 9 September 2018. History Founding The newspaper was founded by an Edinburgh-born printer called John Mennons in January 1783 as a weekly publication called the ''Glasgow Advertiser''. Mennons' first edition had a global scoop: news of the treaties of Versailles reached Mennons via the Lord Provost of Glasgow just as he was putting the paper together. War had ended with the American colonies, he revealed. ''The Herald'', therefore, is as old as the United States of America, give or take an hour or two. The story was, however, only carried on the back page. Mennons, using the larger of two fonts available to him, put it in t ...
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Western Daily Press
The ''Western Daily Press'' is a regional newspaper covering parts of South West England, mainly Gloucestershire, Wiltshire and Somerset as well as the metropolitan areas of Bath and North East Somerset and the Bristol area. It is published Monday to Saturday in Bristol, UK. The majority of its readers are in rural areas, small towns and villages throughout the region and the paper's coverage of rural, agricultural and countryside issues is particularly strong. It also has a good record in picking up quirky and bizarre stories which would otherwise not be publicised. Politically it tends to be conservative although its coverage of the UK ban on fox hunting was neutral, recognising that even in rural areas people are very divided on the issue. Founding It was founded by Scottish businessman Peter Stewart Macliver and Newcastle journalist Walter Reid and first published on 1 June 1858. Macliver went on to found the '' Bristol Observer''. Twentieth century The ''Western Daily'' ...
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Charles Hawtrey (19th Century Actor)
Sir Charles Henry Hawtrey (21 September 1858 – 30 July 1923) was an English actor, director, producer and Actor-manager, manager. He pursued a successful career as an actor-manager, specialising in debonair, often disreputable, parts in popular comedies. He occasionally played in Richard Brinsley Sheridan, Sheridan and other classics, but was generally associated with new works by writers including Oscar Wilde and Somerset Maugham. Born to a long-established county family, Hawtrey was one of three of his parents' five sons to pursue a theatrical career. Before going on the stage he had considered joining the army, but failed to apply himself to the necessary studies to qualify for a commission. Once established as an actor he quickly took on the additional role of a manager, boosted by an early success with his own adaptation of a German farce presented in London as ''The Private Secretary'', which made his fortune. A lifelong gambler, both with theatrical productions and ...
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