|
Thomas Baptiste
Thomas Baptiste (17 March 1929 – 6 December 2018) was a Guyanese-born British actor and opera singer. Biography Baptiste was born in British Guiana (now Guyana) as the son of a wealthy landowner. He moved to Britain in the late 1940s. His one contact was the Labour MP Tom Driberg, who helped him gain factory employment, and Baptiste enrolled at Morley College in Lambeth to study music followed by scholarships to the National School of Opera and Royal Academy of Music. Baptiste joined Joan Littlewood's Theatre Workshop early in its existence. Baptiste appeared in a production of Noël Coward's ''Nude with Violin'' for two years from 1956 with John Gielgud, Patience Collier and Kathleen Harrison, first in Dublin and then the West End. In 1960, he played Riley in the first professional production of Harold Pinter's ''The Room'' and in a production directed by Pinter himself who had wanted to cast Baptiste in the role. It became an episode of ITV's ''Television Playhouse'' broa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Guyanese People
The people of Guyana, or Guyanese, come from a wide array of backgrounds and cultures including aboriginal natives, also known as Amerindians, and those who are descended from the slaves and contract workers who worked in the sugar industry of the Caribbean for various European interests, mostly of Indian origins. Demographics as of 2012 are East Indian 39.8%, Afro-Guyanese 30.1%, mixed race (mostly Dougla) 19.9%, Amerindian 10.5%, other 1.5% (including Chinese and Europeans, such as the Portuguese). Located on the northern coast of South America, Guyana is part of the main land Caribbean which is part of the historical British West Indies. It is culturally similar to Suriname and nearby island nations of the Caribbean such as Trinidad and Tobago, and is a culturally Caribbean country even though it is not an island nation located in the Caribbean Sea. The national anthem of Guyana, Dear Land of Guyana, of Rivers and Plains, refers to Guyana as the "Land of six peoples" wh ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fable (TV Play)
''Fable'' is a British television play, shown on 27 January 1965 as an episode of ''The Wednesday Play'' series on BBC 1. Written by John Hopkins, the play is set in a parallel totalitarian Britain where those in authority are black people, and white people are their social underdogs - a reversal of the situation in contemporary apartheid South Africa. It was directed by Christopher Morahan and produced by James MacTaggart. Cast *Eileen Atkins - Joan *Ronald Lacey - Len *Thomas Baptiste - Mark * Barbara Assoon - Francesca *Carmen Munroe - Lala *Keith Barron - Narrator *Rudolph Walker - Policeman *Leo Carera - Editor *Bari Johnson - Deputy Editor *Dan Jackson - Overseer *Sally Lahee - Lilian *George Roderick - Laughton * Trevor D. Rhone - Assistant Editor *John Rapley - Michael *André Dakar - Head Of State *Frank Singuineau - Minister *Charles Hyatt - Newsreader *Thor Pierres - Secretary *Kenneth Gardnier - Interrogator Commentary Hopkins had anti-racist intentions in writing ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Are You Now Or Have You Ever Been? (play)
"Are You Now or Have You Ever Been" is episode 2 of season 2 in the television show ''Angel''. Written by Tim Minear and directed by David Semel, it was originally broadcast on October 3, 2000, on the WB network. In the episode, Angel (David Boreanaz) recalls a traumatic experience during the 1950s at the Hyperion Hotel. The episode is a fan favorite and was also a personal favorite of actor David Boreanaz. Writer Tim Minear said it was personally enjoyable for him to write the episode, even though he normally preferred writing longer story arcs that gradually unfolded over the course of an entire season. Plot Angel asks Wesley and Cordelia to look into the mysterious history of the abandoned Hyperion Hotel. A photograph of the hotel blends into an action shot of the hotel exterior during the 1950s, as the manager sends the bellhop upstairs to give the guest in 217 his weekly bill. The bellhop nervously makes his delivery, then runs downstairs, as Angel- the feared occupant of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Equity (trade Union)
Equity, formerly officially titled the British Actors' Equity Association, is the trade union for the performing arts and entertainment industries. Formed by a group of West End performers in 1930, the union grew to include performers and stage management nationwide, as well as gaining recognition in audio, film, and television. Equity incorporated the Variety Artistes' Federation in 1967, and now represents most professionals whose work is presented on stage or screen. As of 2021, it had just over 46,000 members, including actors, singers, dancers, variety artistes and other performers, models, theatre directors, choreographers, designers, and stage management. Equity requires its members to have unique professional names to avoid confusion with other artists and entertainers. History Equity was created in 1930 by a group of West End performers, including Godfrey Tearle, May Whitty and Ben Webster. They were advised by Robert Young, the "Actors' MP". Like many other Brit ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Birmingham Repertory Theatre
Birmingham Repertory Theatre, commonly called Birmingham Rep or just The Rep, is a producing theatre based on Centenary Square in Birmingham, England. Founded by Barry Jackson, it is the longest-established of Britain's building-based theatre companies and one of its most consistently innovative. Today The Rep produces a wide range of drama in its three auditoria – ''The House'' with 825 seats, ''The Studio'' with 300 seats and ''The Door'' with 140 seats – much of which goes on to tour nationally and internationally. The company retains its commitment to new writing and in the five years to 2013 commissioned and produced 130 new plays. The company's former home, now known as "Old Rep", is still in use as a theatre. History Foundation and early years The origins of The Rep lie with the 'Pilgrim Players', an initially amateur theatre company founded by Barry Jackson in 1907 to reclaim and stage English poetic drama, performing a repertoire that ranged from the 16th cen ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Paul Robeson
Paul Leroy Robeson ( ; April 9, 1898 – January 23, 1976) was an American bass-baritone concert artist, stage and film actor, professional football player, and activist who became famous both for his cultural accomplishments and for his political stances. In 1915, Robeson won an academic scholarship to Rutgers College. While at Rutgers, he was twice named a consensus All-American in football and was the class valedictorian. He received his LL.B. from Columbia Law School while playing in the National Football League (NFL). After graduation, he became a figure in the Harlem Renaissance with performances in ''The Emperor Jones'' and '' All God's Chillun Got Wings''. Robeson performed in Britain in a touring melodrama, ''Voodoo'', in 1922, and in ''Emperor Jones'' in 1925. In 1928, he scored a major success in the London premiere of ''Show Boat''. Living in London for several years with his wife Eslanda, Robeson continued to establish himself as a concert artist and starred ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf?
''Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?'' is a play by Edward Albee first staged in October 1962. It examines the complexities of the marriage of a middle-aged couple, Martha and George. Late one evening, after a university faculty party, they receive an unwitting younger couple, Nick and Honey, as guests, and draw them into their bitter and frustrated relationship. The play is in three acts, normally taking a little less than three hours to perform, with two 10-minute intermissions. The title is a pun on the song "Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?" from Walt Disney's ''Three Little Pigs'' (1933), substituting the name of the celebrated English author Virginia Woolf. Martha and George repeatedly sing this version of the song throughout the play. ''Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?'' won both the 1963 Tony Award for Best Play and the 1962–63 New York Drama Critics' Circle Award for Best Play. It is frequently revived on the modern stage. The film adaptation was released in 1966, writte ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pygmalion (play)
''Pygmalion'' is a play by Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw, named after the Greek mythological figure. It premiered at the Hofburg Theatre in Vienna on 16 October 1913 and was first presented in German on stage to the public in 1913. Its English-language premiere took place at Her Majesty's Theatre in the West End in April 1914 and starred Herbert Beerbohm Tree as phonetics professor Henry Higgins and Mrs Patrick Campbell as Cockney flower girl Eliza Doolittle. In ancient Greek mythology, Pygmalion fell in love with one of his sculptures, which then came to life. The general idea of that myth was a popular subject for Victorian era British playwrights, including one of Shaw's influences, W. S. Gilbert, who wrote a successful play based on the story called '' Pygmalion and Galatea'' that was first presented in 1871. Shaw would also have been familiar with the musical ''Adonis'' and the burlesque version, ''Galatea, or Pygmalion Reversed''. Shaw's play has been adapted nu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wiping
Lost television broadcasts are mostly those early television programs which cannot be accounted for in studio archives (or in personal archives) usually because of deliberate destruction or neglect. Common reasons for loss A significant proportion of early television programming was never recorded in the first place. Early broadcasting in all genres was live and sometimes performed repeatedly. Due to there being no means to record the broadcast or, later, because the content itself was thought to have little monetary or historical value it was not deemed necessary to save it. In the United Kingdom, early programming was lost due to contractual demands by the actors' union to limit the rescreening of performances. Apart from Phonovision experiments by John Logie Baird, and some 280 rolls of 35mm film containing some of Paul Nipkow television station broadcasts, no recordings of transmissions from 1939 or earlier are known to exist. In 1947, Kinescopes (preserving the image on ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Play For Today
''Play for Today'' is a British television anthology drama series, produced by the BBC and transmitted on BBC1 from 1970 to 1984. During the run, more than three hundred programmes, featuring original television plays, and adaptations of stage plays and novels, were transmitted. The individual episodes were (with a few exceptions noted below) between fifty and a hundred minutes in duration. A handful of these plays, including '' Rumpole of the Bailey'', subsequently became television series in their own right. History The strand was a successor to ''The Wednesday Play'', the 1960s anthology series, the title being changed when the day of transmission moved to Thursday to make way for a sport programme. Some works, screened in anthology series' on BBC2, like Willy Russell's ''Our Day Out'' (1977), were repeated on BBC1 in the series. The producers of ''The Wednesday Play'', Graeme MacDonald and Irene Shubik, transferred to the new series. Shubik continued with the series until ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alun Owen
Alun Davies Owen (24 November 1925 – 6 December 1994) was a Welsh playwright, screenwriter and actor, predominantly in television. However, he is best remembered by a wider audience for writing the screenplay of The Beatles' debut feature film '' A Hard Day's Night'' (1964), which earned him a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. Career Owen was born in Menai Bridge and his family moved to Liverpool when he was 8. His father, Sidney Owen, was a Welshman from Dolgellau, North Wales, and his mother, Ruth, was from Holyhead, but of Irish descent. Alun Owen attended St Michael in the Hamlet Anglican Primary School and Oulton High School. For two years during the Second World War, he worked in a coal mine as a "Bevin Boy", before moving into repertory theatre as an assistant stage manager. From there he moved into acting, first with the Birmingham Repertory Company and then various other companies, appearing in small roles in films and to a greater deg ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Barbara Assoon
Barbara Assoon (1929 – 14 April 2020) was a Trinidad and Tobago actress, journalist, and broadcaster. Biography Barbara Assoon was born in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago. The daughter of a French-Chinese acrobat, she began her acting career in the mid-1940s. In 1948, she had a role in a production of Peter Ustinov's play ''The Indifferent Shepherd'', acting in the first of many productions with Errol John. In the following year, Assoon received a scholarship to study acting in England, choosing the Bristol Old Vic school, and appearing as Tituba in the first performance of Arthur Miller's ''The Crucible'' there on 9 November 1954. Assoon spent the next 19 years in Britain and appeared in many radio, television and stage productions. She performed in many radio soap operas as well as live TV dramas during the 1950s. In 1957, Assoon made her Trinidadian radio debut in ''The Edwards Family'', a soap opera. In 1958, she played Rosa in Errol John's play ''Moon on a Rainbow Shawl' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
