John Brougham was born in Dublin on the 9th of May 1814. After his Father passed away he moved in with his Uncle who sent him to Dublin University where he studied the classics and joined an amateur theatrical group. In 1830 at the age of 16 having dropped out of University, finding himself starving in London and being turned down by the Navy he was determined to become a professional actor. Having a contact in the industry, Madame Vestris who ran the Olympic theatre, he found himself working at the Tottenham Theatre. Within a year he had his first play, a burlesque, performed at the Tottenham. He moved onto working with Boucicault on 'London Assurance' and found much success with his low comic roles. In 1842 he moved to the United States where his career went from strength to strength. Brougham wrote over 120 plays in his lifetime and gained the nickname 'The American Aristophanes' for the amount of works he created. He died in 1880 in New York City.
On this day in 1860 the great J.M Barrie was born in Kirriemuir, Scotland. Barrie wrote over 30 stories and poems and also 9 plays, the most famous of which is Peter Pan which is still performed today. The rights to Peter Pan and Wendy were left by JM Barrie to Great Ormond Street so that they could gain money from any production or publication of the work. This is Barrie's lasting legacy, that and his character Peter Pan. Since Pan's debut in 1904 there has been approx 18 film productions based on his story and providing Great Ormond Street with income. Every year in the UK there are numerous amateur productions of Peter Pan and the professional theatre has taken the original play and morphed it into a Pantomime. Its a well loved tale and continues to grow in popularity every year. Barrie was also an activist against the censorship of the theatre by protesting against the Lord Chamberlain in both 1909 and 1911. Barrie was so well loved, as were his stories, that he was invited to meet the then Duke of York and his daughters Elizabeth and Margaret, the Duke of York would go on to become King George the VI and the young Elizabeth would grow up to become our current monarch HRH Queen Elizabeth the II. Barrie died in 1937 aged 77, he is buried in his hometown of Kirriemuir, Scotland.
Born in 1874 Lillian Baylis was a woman who greatly impacted upon modern day theatre. Her management of the 'Old Vic' in the early 20th century was the impetus for the generation of performers who would fight hard to eventually bring us our own National Theatre and her management of Sadlers Wells was the start of both the ENO and the Royal Ballet Company. Baylis came from a performance background, both her parents were musicians in the concert party scene and she was raised to be a musician. In 1912 at the age of 38 Baylis became manager of the 'Old Vic' where the list of actors who worked for her reads as a who's who of the English stage in the 20th century; Olivier, Gielgud, Ashcroft, Richardson, Redgrave and Guinness are just some of the few thespians she inspired and worked with. Baylis passed away in 1937 at the age of 63 and since then her groundwork has continued to grow and bear fruit, the Old Vic is now the premiere theatre in London, bar the National, and the Sadlers Wells continues to innovate and teach us all where dance can and will take us.
No comments:
Post a Comment