Norman Marshall (16 November 1901 – 7 November 1980) was an English theatrical director, producer and manager who began his theatrical career while still an undergraduate student at

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. After leaving university he worked with various small touring companies and in 1926 he joined the

Cambridge Festival Theatre The Theatre Royal was built in the Barnwell suburb of Cambridge, England, in 1816. It closed later that century but reopened as the Cambridge Festival Theatre from 1926 until 1935. The building, in which part of the interior of the theatre surv ...

, first as a press agent, then as a stage manager, and in 1932 he became their resident director. In 1934, he bought the lease on the small London club theatre, the

Gate Theatre Studio Gate Theatre Studio, often referred to as simply the Gate Theatre, is a former independent theatre on Villiers Street in London. History Founded in October 1925 by Peter Godfrey and his wife Molly Veness, the theatre was originally on the top ...

, where in the next six years he produced popular intimate revues and many successful plays, some of which later transferred to the West-end stage. In his 1947 book ''The Other Theatre'' he documented the histories of a number of small, committed, independent theatre companies including his own, the

Oxford Playhouse Oxford Playhouse is a theatre designed by Edward Maufe and F.G.M. Chancellor. It is situated in Beaumont Street, Oxford, opposite the Ashmolean Museum. History The Playhouse was founded as ''The Red Barn'' at 12 Woodstock Road, North Oxfo ...

, the

Arts Theatre The Arts Theatre is a theatre in Great Newport Street, in Westminster, Central London. History It opened on 20 April 1927 as a members-only club for the performance of unlicensed plays, thus avoiding theatre censorship by the Lord Chamber ...

Club and the Cambridge Festival Theatre. These theatres were able to avoid the

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’s censorship by operating as theatre clubs, where membership was obligatory, and took risks by producing new and experimental plays, or plays by writers thought to be commercially unviable on the West-end stage, The Gate Theatre Studio was destroyed during the

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and after the war Marshall set up a production company and produced several plays in the West-end. In his book ''The Producer and the Play'' he described the history of theatrical production together with his own experiences.

Sources

* Norman Marshall, The Other Theatre, John Lehmann, London, 1947. * Norman Marshall, The Producer and the Play, Macdonald, London, 1957. * Colin Chambers (Ed.), Contiuum Companion to Twentieth Century Theatre, Contiuum, London, 2002. {{DEFAULTSORT:Marshall, Norman 1901 births 1980 deaths English theatre directors