Royal Shakespeare Company
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Image:Stratford RST.jpg The Royal Shakespeare Company is a British theatre company. It is located primarily at Stratford-upon-Avon, with bases also in London, and Newcastle and is one of the two most prominent publically-subsidised funded theatre companies in the United Kingdom, alongside London's Royal National Theatre.
In Stratford, the RSC runs three theatres: the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, a large proscenium arch theatre; the Swan Theatre, an indoor version of an Elizabethan theatre; and The Other Place, a small black box theatre.
The company's history dates back to 1879 when the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre in Stratford on Avon staged its first production, which was Much Ado About Nothing. The company attached to this theatre was called the Shakespeare Memorial Company and, under the direction of William Bridges-Adams, it became one of the most prestigious in Britain. In 1925 it received a royal charter.
In 1960 Peter Hall formed the modern Royal Shakespeare Company, renaming the Memorial Theatre to the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in 1961. The repertoire widened to take in modern work and classics other than Shakespeare.
After a 2005-06 winter season with no Shakespeare (with productions/adaptations of The Canterbury Tales, Great Expectations, Women Beware Women and The Crucible), and as their main theatres in Stratford begin building work, in April 2006 the RSC are beginning the Complete Works Festival, a year long project to stage the Complete Works of William Shakespeare. (project link)
The company is the sole British member theatre of the Union of the Theatres of Europe.
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[edit] Key productions
- King Lear directed by Peter Brook with Paul Scofield as Lear (1962)
- The Wars of the Roses, adaptation of the Henry VI plays, directed by Sir Peter Hall 1963-64)
- Marat-Sade by Peter Weiss directed by Peter Brook (1964)
- The Homecoming by Harold Pinter directed by Peter Hall (1965)
- Hamlet directed by Peter Hall with David Warner in the title-role (1966)
- A Midsummer Night's Dream, directed by Peter Brook (1970)
- Old Times by Harold Pinter directed by Peter Hall (1971)
- Julius Caesar directed by Trevor Nunn (1973)
- Antony and Cleopatra directed by Trevor Nunn starring Janet Suzman (1973)
- Richard II, directed by John Barton, starring Ian Richardson and Richard Pasco, alternating the roles of Richard and Bolingbroke (1973-74)
- Hamlet, starring Sir Ben Kingsley, directed by Buzz Goodbody (1976)
- Macbeth, directed by Trevor Nunn starring Dame Judi Dench and Sir Ian McKellen (1977)
- The Greeks directed and adapted from Aeschylus, Euripides and Sophocles by John Barton (1980)
- The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby adapted for the stage by David Edgar directed by Trevor Nunn and John Caird (1980)
- Much Ado About Nothing directed by Terry Hands starring Derek Jacobi and Sinead Cusack
- Richard III, directed by Bill Alexander starring Sir Antony Sher (1984)
- Les Misérables by Claude-Michel Schoenberg and Alain Boublil directed by Trevor Nunn (1985)
- Les Liaisons Dangereuses by Christopher Hampton starring Alan Rickman, Lindsay Duncan, and Juliet Stevenson directed by Howard Davies (1985)
- Titus Andronicus directed by Deborah Warner starring Brian Cox (1988)
- Othello directed by Trevor Nunn with Willard White as Othello and Ian McKellen as Iago (1989)
- Hamlet directed by Adrian Noble starring Kenneth Branagh (1992)
- Coriolanus directed by David Thacker starring Toby Stephens (1994)
- This England: The Histories (2000), a season of all Shakespeare's sequential history plays
- Hamlet directed by Michael Boyd starring Toby Stephens (2004)
- The Crucible by Arthur Miller directed by Dominic Cooke (2006)
[edit] Artistic directors
- Peter Hall (1960-1968)
- Trevor Nunn (1968-1978)
- Trevor Nunn and Terry Hands (1978-1986)
- Terry Hands (1986-1991)
- Adrian Noble (1991-2003)
- Michael Boyd (2003- )
[edit] Notable actors past and present
The following notable actors have appeared in RSC productions and at Stratford.
- Joss Ackland
- Roger Allam
- Miles Anderson
- Francesca Annis
- Richard Armitage
- Alun Armstrong
- Peggy Ashcroft
- Eileen Atkins
- Simon Russell Beale
- Paul Bettany
- Brian Blessed
- Samantha Bond
- Kenneth Branagh
- Brenda Bruce
- Richard Burton
- Cheryl Campbell
- Niamh Cusack
- Sinead Cusack
- Tim Curry
- Timothy Dalton
- Charles Dance
- Judi Dench
- Roy Dotrice
- Lindsay Duncan
- Mia Farrow
- Ralph Fiennes
- Joseph Fiennes
- Susan Fleetwood
- Oliver Ford Davies
- Philip Franks
- John Gielgud
- Iain Glen
- Julian Glover
- Derek Godfrey
- Patrick Godfrey
- Michael Goodliffe
- Henry Goodman
- Richard Griffiths
- Mike Gwilym
- Nigel Hawthorne
- Ciarán Hinds
- Dustin Hoffman
- Ian Holm
- Michael Hordern
- Alan Howard
- Geoffrey Hutchings
- Jeremy Irons
- Glenda Jackson
- Derek Jacobi
- Emrys James
- Alex Jennings
- Griffith Jones
- Alexis Kanner
- Charles Kay
- Ben Kingsley
- Alex Kingston
- Jane Lapotaire
- Vivien Leigh
- Barbara Leigh-Hunt
- Anton Lesser
- Cherie Lunghi
- Patti LuPone
- Alec McCowen
- Ian McDiarmid
- Ian McKellen
- Art Malik
- Brewster Mason
- Daniel Massey
- Joe Melia
- Helen Mirren
- John Nettles
- Laurence Olivier
- Peter O'Toole
- David Oyelowo
- Richard Pasco
- Trevor Peacock
- Bob Peck
- Michael Pennington
- Edward Petherbridge
- Sian Phillips
- Ronald Pickup
- Eric Porter
- Mike Pratt
- Hugh Quarshie
- Diana Quick
- Michael Redgrave
- Roger Rees
- Ian Richardson
- Ralph Richardson
- Alan Rickman
- Diana Rigg
- Norman Rodway
- Clifford Rose
- Mark Rylance
- Fiona Shaw
- Sebastian Shaw
- Antony Sher
- John Shrapnel
- Donald Sinden
- Timothy Spall
- Elizabeth Spriggs
- Robert Stephens
- Toby Stephens
- Juliet Stevenson
- Patrick Stewart
- Imogen Stubbs
- David Suchet
- Janet Suzman
- Tilda Swinton
- David Tennant
- Ellen Terry
- David Threlfall
- Frances de la Tour
- H Beerbohm Tree
- Margaret Tyzack
- David Waller
- Harriet Walter
- David Warner
- Zoë Wanamaker
- Dennis Waterman
- Ruby Wax
- Samuel West
- Michael Williams
- John Wood
- John Woodvine
- Irene Worth
- Mary Ure
[edit] External links
- The Switzer's Guide to Hamlet An Extra's eye view of the RSC's 2004 Hamlet production starring Toby Stephens in the title role
- A Dictionary of the RSC by Simon Trowbridge
- Some views of the Old and New Theatres in Stratford in Old Postcardsde:Royal Shakespeare Company
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