Robert David MacDonald
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Robert David MacDonald
Robert David MacDonald (27 August 1929 – 19 May 2004), known as David, was a Scottish playwright, translator and theatre director. Early life Robert David MacDonald was born in Elgin, in Morayshire, Scotland on 27 August 1929, the son of a doctor and a tobacco company executive. He attended Wellington School, then read modern history at Magdalen College at Oxford University, and later trained as a conductor at the Royal College of Music and the Munich Conservatory. Career as a director MacDonald spent some years as a translator for UNESCO, where he met German director Erwin Piscator in 1957, leading to his involvement in theatre as a director. His collaboration with Piscator also led to his first significant success, when he translated Piscator's version of ''War and Peace'' in 1962. This was televised by Granada Television as well as being performed on Broadway for two years. He became assistant director at Glyndebourne and the Royal Opera at Royal Opera House, Covent Ga ...
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Playwright
A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes plays. Etymology The word "play" is from Middle English pleye, from Old English plæġ, pleġa, plæġa ("play, exercise; sport, game; drama, applause"). The word "wright" is an archaic English term for a craftsman or builder (as in a wheelwright or cartwright). The words combine to indicate a person who has "wrought" words, themes, and other elements into a dramatic form—a play. (The homophone with "write" is coincidental.) The first recorded use of the term "playwright" is from 1605, 73 years before the first written record of the term "dramatist". It appears to have been first used in a pejorative sense by Ben Jonson to suggest a mere tradesman fashioning works for the theatre. Jonson uses the word in his Epigram 49, which is thought to refer to John Marston: :''Epigram XLIX — On Playwright'' :PLAYWRIGHT me reads, and still my verses damns, :He says I want the tongue of epigrams ; :I have no salt, no bawdry he doth mea ...
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Royal Opera, London
The Royal Opera is a British opera company based in central London, resident at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden. Along with the English National Opera, it is one of the two principal opera companies in London. Founded in 1946 as the Covent Garden Opera Company, the company had that title until 1968. It brought a long annual season and consistent management to a house that had previously hosted short seasons under a series of impresarios. Since its inception, it has shared the Royal Opera House with the dance company now known as The Royal Ballet. When the company was formed, its policy was to perform all works in English, but since the late 1950s most operas have been performed in their original language. From the outset, performers have comprised a mixture of British and Commonwealth singers and international guest stars, but fostering the careers of singers from within the company was a consistent policy of the early years. Among the many guest performers have been Ma ...
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Lermontov
Mikhail Yuryevich Lermontov (; russian: Михаи́л Ю́рьевич Ле́рмонтов, p=mʲɪxɐˈil ˈjurʲjɪvʲɪtɕ ˈlʲɛrməntəf; – ) was a Russian Romantic writer, poet and painter, sometimes called "the poet of the Caucasus", the most important Russian poet after Alexander Pushkin's death in 1837 and the greatest figure in Russian Romanticism. His influence on later Russian literature is still felt in modern times, not only through his poetry, but also through his prose, which founded the tradition of the Russian psychological novel. Biography Mikhail Yuryevich Lermontov was born in Moscow into the respectable noble family of Lermontov, and he grew up in the village of Tarkhany (now Lermontovo in Penza Oblast). His paternal family descended from the Scottish family of Learmonth, and can be traced to Yuri (George) Learmonth, a Scottish officer in the Polish–Lithuanian service who settled in Russia in the middle of the 17th century. He had been captur ...
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Goethe
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (28 August 1749 – 22 March 1832) was a German poet, playwright, novelist, scientist, statesman, theatre director, and critic. His works include plays, poetry, literature, and aesthetic criticism, as well as treatises on botany, anatomy, and colour. He is widely regarded as the greatest and most influential writer in the German language, his work having a profound and wide-ranging influence on Western literary, political, and philosophical thought from the late 18th century to the present day.. Goethe took up residence in Weimar in November 1775 following the success of his first novel, ''The Sorrows of Young Werther'' (1774). He was ennobled by the Duke of Saxe-Weimar, Karl August, in 1782. Goethe was an early participant in the ''Sturm und Drang'' literary movement. During his first ten years in Weimar, Goethe became a member of the Duke's privy council (1776–1785), sat on the war and highway commissions, oversaw the reopening of silver mines ...
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Opera
Opera is a form of theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a librettist and incorporates a number of the performing arts, such as acting, scenery, costume, and sometimes dance or ballet. The performance is typically given in an opera house, accompanied by an orchestra or smaller musical ensemble, which since the early 19th century has been led by a conductor. Although musical theatre is closely related to opera, the two are considered to be distinct from one another. Opera is a key part of the Western classical music tradition. Originally understood as an entirely sung piece, in contrast to a play with songs, opera has come to include numerous genres, including some that include spoken dialogue such as '' Singspiel'' and '' Opéra comique''. In traditional number opera, singers employ two styles of ...
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Gary Oldman
Gary Leonard Oldman (born 21 March 1958) is an English actor and filmmaker. Known for his versatility and intense acting style, he has received various accolades, including an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, and three British Academy Film Awards. His films have grossed over $11 billion worldwide, making him one of the highest-grossing actors of all time. Oldman began acting in theatre in 1979 and made his film debut in '' Remembrance'' (1982). He continued to follow a stage career in London's Royal Court and was a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company, with credits including ''Cabaret'', ''Romeo and Juliet'', ''Entertaining Mr Sloane'', '' Saved'', '' The Country Wife'' and ''Hamlet''. He rose to prominence in British film with his portrayals of Sid Vicious in ''Sid and Nancy'' (1986), Joe Orton in ''Prick Up Your Ears'' (1987) and Rosencrantz in ''Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead'' (1990), while also attracting attention as the leader of a gang of football hoolig ...
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Georgina Hale
Georgina Hale (born 4 August 1943) is an English film, television and stage actress. She is best known for her roles in the films of director Ken Russell, including '' The Devils'' (1971), '' The Boy Friend'' (1971), and ''Mahler'' (1974), for which she received a BAFTA Film Award. An accomplished stage actress, she received an Olivier Award nomination for her leading performance in ''Steaming'' (1981). She has appeared in a number of television plays, and in 2010, ''The Guardian'' listed her as one of 10 great character actors in British television. She remains active in film, television and theatre. Life and early career Hale was born in Ilford, Essex to publicans Elsie (née Fordham) and George Robert Hole. She later said she had: As a teenager, she worked as an apprentice hairdresser and studied Stanislavski's method approach to acting at a fledgling studio, the Chelsea Actors' Workshop, in London, then she was accepted into the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, where she g ...
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Glenda Jackson
Glenda May Jackson (born 9 May 1936) is an English actress and former Member of Parliament (MP). She has won the Academy Award for Best Actress twice: for her role as Gudrun Brangwen in the romantic drama ''Women in Love'' (1970); and again for her role as Vickie Allessio in the romantic comedy '' A Touch of Class'' (1973). She received praise for her performances as Alex Greville in the drama film ''Sunday Bloody Sunday'' (1971) and Elizabeth I in the BBC television serial '' Elizabeth R'' (1971), winning two Primetime Emmy Awards for the latter. In 2018, she won the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play for her role in a revival of Edward Albee's ''Three Tall Women'', becoming one of the few performers to achieve the Triple Crown of Acting in the US. Jackson took a hiatus from acting to take on a career in politics from 1992 to 2015, and was elected as the Labour Party MP for Hampstead and Highgate in the 1992 general election. She served as a junior transport minister f ...
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West End Theatre
West End theatre is mainstream professional theatre staged in the large theatres in and near the West End of London.Christopher Innes, "West End" in ''The Cambridge Guide to Theatre'' (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998), pp. 1194–1195, Along with New York City's Broadway theatre, West End theatre is usually considered to represent the highest level of commercial theatre in the English-speaking world. Seeing a West End show is a common tourist activity in London. Famous screen actors, British and international alike, frequently appear on the London stage. There are a total of 39 theatres in the West End, with the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, opened in May 1663, the oldest theatre in London. The Savoy Theatre – built as a showcase for the popular series of comic operas of Gilbert and Sullivan – was entirely lit by electricity in 1881. Opening in October 2022, @sohoplace is the first new West End theatre in 50 years. The Society of London Theatre (SOLT) announced ...
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Citizens Theatre
The Citizens Theatre, in what was the Royal Princess's Theatre, is the creation of James Bridie and is based in Glasgow, Scotland as a principal producing theatre. The theatre includes a 500-seat Main Auditorium, and has also included various studio theatres over time. The Citizens' Theatre repertory was founded in 1943 by dramatist and screenwriter James Bridie, author of some 40 plays presented in Britain and overseas, art gallery director Tom Honeyman, cinema impresario George Singleton, known by many as "Mr Cosmo", whose headquarter cinema continues today as the Glasgow Film Theatre, and Paul Vincent Carroll, whose plays were first performed at the Abbey Theatre, Dublin (founder W.B.Yeats) and later on Broadway, winning the New York Drama Critics' Circle award for ''Shadow and Substance'' (1938) and '' The White Steed'' (1939). Under the leadership of James Bridie (Dr O.H. Mavor), the Citizens Company was based at first in the Glasgow Athenaeum. It moved in 1945 to its ...
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Carlisle
Carlisle ( , ; from xcb, Caer Luel) is a city that lies within the Northern England, Northern English county of Cumbria, south of the Anglo-Scottish border, Scottish border at the confluence of the rivers River Eden, Cumbria, Eden, River Caldew, Caldew and River Petteril, Petteril. It is the administrative centre of the City of Carlisle district which, (along with Cumbria County Council) will be replaced by Cumberland (district), Cumberland Council in April 2023. The city became an established settlement during the Roman Empire to serve forts on Hadrian's Wall. During the Middle Ages, the city was an important military stronghold due to its proximity to the Kingdom of Scotland. Carlisle Castle, still relatively intact, was built in 1092 by William II of England, William Rufus, served as a prison for Mary, Queen of Scots in 1568 and now houses the Duke of Lancaster's Regiment and the Border Regiment Museum. In the early 12th century, Henry I of England, Henry I allowed a pri ...
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Her Majesty's Theatre, Carlisle
Carlisle ( , ; from xcb, Caer Luel) is a city that lies within the Northern English county of Cumbria, south of the Scottish border at the confluence of the rivers Eden, Caldew and Petteril. It is the administrative centre of the City of Carlisle district which, (along with Cumbria County Council) will be replaced by Cumberland Council in April 2023. The city became an established settlement during the Roman Empire to serve forts on Hadrian's Wall. During the Middle Ages, the city was an important military stronghold due to its proximity to the Kingdom of Scotland. Carlisle Castle, still relatively intact, was built in 1092 by William Rufus, served as a prison for Mary, Queen of Scots in 1568 and now houses the Duke of Lancaster's Regiment and the Border Regiment Museum. In the early 12th century, Henry I allowed a priory to be built. The priory gained cathedral status with a diocese in 1133, the city status rules at the time meant the settlement became a city. From ...
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