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E. Martin Browne
Elliott Martin Browne CBE (29 January 1900 – 27 April 1980) was a British theatre director, known for his production of twentieth century verse plays. He collaborated for many years with T. S. Eliot and was first producer of many of his plays including ''Murder in the Cathedral''. Early life Elliott Martin Browne was born in Zeals, Wiltshire, on 29 January 1900, the third son of Colonel Percival John Browne. He was educated at Eton College, and Christ Church, Oxford, where he studied modern history and theology. Between 1923 and 1930 he worked at a variety of jobs related to drama, in Kent, Doncaster, London and in the United States as assistant professor of drama at the Carnegie Institute of Technology, Pittsburgh. In 1924 he married the actress Henzie Raeburn, who subsequently appeared in many of his productions. They had two sons. First work with Eliot In 1930 he returned to England and was appointed by George Bell, Bishop of Chichester, to be director of religious drama ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Murder In The Cathedral
''Murder in the Cathedral'' is a verse drama by T. S. Eliot, first performed in 1935, that portrays the assassination of Archbishop Thomas Becket in Canterbury Cathedral during the reign of Henry II in 1170. Eliot drew heavily on the writing of Edward Grim, a clerk who was an eyewitness to the event. Some material that the producer asked Eliot to remove or replace during the writing was transformed into the poem " Burnt Norton". Plot The action occurs between 2 and 29 December 1170, chronicling the days leading up to the martyrdom of Thomas Becket following his absence of seven years in France. Becket's internal struggle is a central focus of the play. The book is divided into two parts. Part one takes place in the Archbishop Thomas Becket's hall on 2 December 1170. The play begins with a Chorus singing, foreshadowing the coming violence. The Chorus is a key part of the drama, with its voice changing and developing during the play, offering comments about the action and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chapter House
A chapter house or chapterhouse is a building or room that is part of a cathedral, monastery or collegiate church in which meetings are held. When attached to a cathedral, the cathedral chapter meets there. In monasteries, the whole community often met there daily for readings and to hear the abbot or senior monks talk. When attached to a collegiate church, the dean, prebendaries and canons of the college meet there. The rooms may also be used for other meetings of various sorts; in medieval times monarchs on tour in their territory would often take them over for their meetings and audiences. Synods, ecclesiastical courts and similar meetings often took place in chapter houses. Design When part of a monastery, the chapter house is generally located on the eastern wing of the cloister, which is next to the church. Since many cathedrals in England were originally monastic foundations, this is a common arrangement there also. Elsewhere it may be a separate building. The chap ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
St Mary's Abbey, York
The Abbey of St Mary is a ruined Benedictine abbey in York, England and a scheduled monument. History Once one of the most prosperous abbeys in Northern England,Dean, G. 2008. ''Medieval York''. Stroud: History Press. p. 86 its remains lie in what are now the York Museum Gardens, on a steeply-sloping site to the west of York Minster. The original church on the site was founded in 1055 and dedicated to Saint Olaf. After the Norman Conquest the church came into the possession of the Anglo-Breton magnate Alan Rufus who granted the lands to Abbot Stephen and a group of monks from Whitby. The abbey church was refounded in 1088 when the King, William Rufus, visited York in January or February of that year and gave the monks additional lands. The following year he laid the foundation stone of the new Norman church and the site was rededicated to the Virgin Mary. The foundation ceremony was attended by bishop Odo of Bayeux and Archbishop Thomas of Bayeux. The monks moved to York f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
York Mystery Plays
The York Mystery Plays, more properly the York Corpus Christi Plays, are a Middle English cycle of 48 mystery plays or pageants covering sacred history from the creation to the Last Judgment. They were traditionally presented on the feast day of Corpus Christi (a movable feast on the Thursday after Trinity Sunday, between 23 May and 24 June) and were performed in the city of York, from the mid-fourteenth century until their suppression in 1569. The plays are one of four virtually complete surviving English mystery play cycles, along with the Chester Mystery Plays, the Towneley/Wakefield plays and the N-Town plays. Two long, composite, and late mystery pageants have survived from the Coventry cycle and there are records and fragments from other similar productions that took place elsewhere. A manuscript of the plays, probably dating from between 1463 and 1477, is still intact and stored at the British Library. Plays There is no record of the first performance of the myster ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
All-England Theatre Festival
The All-England Theatre Festival ("AETF") organises the only countrywide eliminating contest for one-act plays in performance throughout England. It provides an opportunity for Amateurs to compete against like-minded groups and to benefit from the adjudication they receive to improve the quality of their performance. The AETF also maintains contact with other leading bodies involved in Amateur Dramatics throughout the United Kingdom by means of its membership of the Central Council for Amateur Theatre, The Drama Festivals Consortium and the British Finals Standing Committee. The festival is also involved with the Geoffrey Whitworth Trophy Competition, in conjunction with the other 'Hosts' of the British Festival, to judge original unpublished scripts that are first produced within the relevant festivals. History British Drama League The history of the All-England Theatre Festival dates back to 1919, when the British Drama League was formed. The public inauguration of the league ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Anne Ridler
Anne Barbara Ridler OBE (née Bradby) (30 July 1912 – 15 October 2001) was a British poet and Faber and Faber editor, selecting the Faber ''A Little Book of Modern Verse'' with T. S. Eliot (1941). Her ''Collected Poems'' ( Carcanet Press) were published in 1994. She turned to libretto work and verse plays; it was later in life that she earned official recognition, receiving an OBE in 2001. Early life Ridler was the daughter of Henry Bradby, housemaster at Rugby School in Rugby, Warwickshire, England, where she was born. Her mother, Violet Bradby, born Milford, wrote popular children's stories and was the sister of Humphrey S. Milford, Publisher to the University of Oxford. One of her great-grandfathers was Charles Richard Sumner, Bishop of Winchester, a brother of John Bird Sumner, Archbishop of Canterbury. Her uncle, G. F. Bradby, was the author of ''The Lanchester Tradition'' (1919), while her aunt Barbara Bradby was the joint author of ''The Village Labourer'' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Norman Nicholson
Norman Cornthwaite Nicholson (8 January 1914 – 30 May 1987) was an English poet associated with the Cumbrian town of Millom. His poetry is noted for local concerns, straightforward language, and elements of common speech. Although known chiefly for poetry, Nicholson wrote much in other forms: novels, plays, essays, topography and criticism. Life Nicholson lived in 14 St George's Terrace, a Victorian terraced house and shop in the small industrial town of Millom on the edge of the Lake District, the son of Joseph Nicholson, a gentleman's outfitter, and his wife Edith Cornthwaite (died 1919). Nicholson was educated at Holborn Hill School and Millom Secondary School, but his education was interrupted at the age of 16, when he needed treatment for pulmonary tuberculosis. He then spent two years at a sanatorium in Linford, Hampshire. Nicholson was influenced by the social and religious community around the local Wesleyan Methodist chapel in Millom, to which belonged Rosetta Sobe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ronald Duncan
Ronald Frederick Henry Duncan (6 August 1914 – 3 June 1982) was an English writer, poet and playwright of German descent, now best known for his poem ''The Horse'' and for preparing the libretto for Benjamin Britten's opera ''The Rape of Lucretia'', first performed in 1946. Early life Duncan was born Ronald Frederick Henry Dunkelsbühler, in Salisbury, Southern Rhodesia (now Harare, Zimbabwe), in 1914. Duncan's mother, Ethel Cannon, moved the family to London after the outbreak of World War One, though his father, Reginald Dunkelsbühler, remained behind and owing to his German origins was interned as an alien and died of influenza contracted whilst giving medical aid during an epidemic in 1918 before he could rejoin the family. Duncan attended Downing College, Cambridge in 1933, reading English under F. R. Leavis. He became a pacifist during the 1930s, publishing ''The Complete Pacifist'' in 1936. This was later re-issued in 1937 carrying endorsements from Canon Dick Shep ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Christopher Fry
Christopher Fry (18 December 1907 – 30 June 2005) was an English poet and playwright. He is best known for his verse dramas, especially ''The Lady's Not for Burning'', which made him a major force in theatre in the 1940s and 1950s. Biography Early life Fry was born as Arthur Hammond Harris in Bristol, the son of Charles John Harris, a master builder who retired early to work full-time as a licensed Lay Reader in the Church of England, and his wife Emma Marguerite Fry Hammond Harris. While still young, he took his mother's maiden name because, on very tenuous grounds, he believed her to be related to the 19th-century Quaker prison reformer Elizabeth Fry. He adopted Elizabeth Fry's faith, and became a Quaker. After attending Bedford Modern School, where he wrote amateur plays, he became a schoolteacher, working at the Bedford Froebel Kindergarten and Hazelwood School in Limpsfield, Surrey. In the 1920s, he met the writer Robert Gittings, who became a lifelong friend. Caree ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mercury Theatre, Notting Hill Gate
The Mercury Theatre was a small theatre on Ladbroke Road, Notting Hill Gate, London, notable for the productions of poetic dramas between 1933 and 1956, and as the home of the Ballet Rambert until 1987. History (founding) The Mercury Theatre was opened in 1933 by Ashley Dukes for the production of new drama and to serve as a centre for the Ballet Rambert, run by his wife Marie Rambert. The building, at 2, Ladbroke Road, London W11, had been built in 1851 as a Sunday school for the adjacent Congregational Chapel, but was extensively altered to serve as a theatre. It was a well-equipped but small venue, seating about 150. Productions The style was set by the first production, ''Jupiter Translated'', an adaptation of Molière's ''Amphitryon'' by Walter James Turner with a ballet by Rupert Doone as entr'acte. Vladimir Rosing's ''British Opera Group'' was in residence for several weeks in June 1935. The theatre's reputation was further established in 1935 by the first London p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
James Bridie
James Bridie (3 January 1888 in Glasgow – 29 January 1951 in Edinburgh) was the pseudonym of a Scottish playwright, screenwriter and physician whose real name was Osborne Henry Mavor.Daniel Leary (1982) ''Dictionary of Literary Biography: Modern British Dramatists 1900-1945'', Stanley Weintraub Ed., Gale, Detroit Ronald Mavor (1988) ''Dr. Mavor and Mr. Bridie: Memories of James Bridie'', Canongate and The National Library of Scotland He took his pen-name from his paternal grandfather's first name and his grandmother's maiden name. Life He was the son of Henry Alexander Mavor (1858–1915), an electrical engineer and industrialist, and his wife Janet Osborne. He went to school at Glasgow Academy and then studied medicine at the University of Glasgow graduating in 1913, later becoming a general practitioner, then consultant physician and professor after serving as a military physician during World War I, seeing service in France and Mesopotamia. He came to prominence with h ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Family Reunion
''The Family Reunion'' is a play by T. S. Eliot. Written mostly in blank verse (though not iambic pentameter), it incorporates elements from Greek drama and mid-twentieth-century detective plays to portray the hero's journey from guilt to redemption. The play was unsuccessful when first presented in 1939, and was later regarded as unsatisfactory by its author, but has been successfully revived since the 1940s. Some critics have thought aspects of the tormented hero reflect Eliot's difficulties with his estrangement from his first wife. Productions Première The play was first performed on 21 March 1939 at the Westminster Theatre, London, with Michael Redgrave as Harry, Helen Haye as Lady Monchensey and Catherine Lacey as Agatha.''The Times'', 22 March 1939, p. 12 It ran until 22 April 1939. Revivals Other productions of the play have included: *Mercury Theatre, London (November 1946) with Alan Wheatley, Catherine Lacey and Henrietta Watson * Phoenix Theatre, London (June 195 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
