It is not known definitively when Shakespeare began writing, but contemporary allusions and records of performances show that several of his plays were on the London stage by 1592. By then, he was sufficiently known in London to be attacked in print by the playwright Robert Greene in his "Groats-Worth of Wit": ... there is an upstart Crow, beautified with our feathers, that with his "Tiger's heart wrapped in a Player's hide", supposes he is as well able to bombast out a blank verse as the best of you: and being an absolute "Johannes factotum", is in his own conceit the only Shake-scene in a country.
London and theatrical career
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare | London and theatrical career
In 1587,  "Chronicles of England, Scotland, and Ireland". Sorry. I cannot find the answer based on the context. "Groats-Worth of Wit" "Richard III" and the three parts of "Henry VI"
how old was william shakespeare when he wrote hamlet
user
Between 1589 and 1613 at the age of 49.
assistant
who is he?
user
He was an English playwright, poet, and actor.
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name a few of his poems?
user
"Venus and Adonis", "The Rape of Lucrece", "Metamorphoses", "A Lover's Complaint".
assistant
what is the third poem about?
user
It is the history of the world from its creation to the deification of Julius Caesar within a loose mythico-historical framework.
assistant
what are its themes?
user
Mutability, love, violence, artistry, and power are just some of the unifying themes.
assistant
what is metamorphosis in it?
user
It is the transformation is a unifying theme amongst the episodes.
assistant
describe the writing style of the author of the poem?
user
It is conventional style extended, sometimes elaborate metaphors and conceits, and the language is often rhetorical in written.
assistant
did he influence how plays are classified?
user
It is classified as comedies, histories, and tragedies.
assistant
what was his sexual orientation?
user
Has evidence of heterosexual liaisons, expression of intense friendship rather than romantic love.
assistant
where was he from?
user
Snitterfield.
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with what did he start his theatrical career?
user
It is not known definitively when Shakespeare began writing, but contemporary allusions and records of performances show that several of his plays were on the London stage by 1592. By then, he was sufficiently known in London to be attacked in print by the playwright Robert Greene in his "Groats-Worth of Wit": ... there is an upstart Crow, beautified with our feathers, that with his "Tiger's heart wrapped in a Player's hide", supposes he is as well able to bombast out a blank verse as the best of you: and being an absolute "Johannes factotum", is in his own conceit the only Shake-scene in a country.
William Shakespeare | London and theatrical career
Though Shakespeare is known today primarily as a playwright and poet, his main occupation was as a player and sharer in an acting troupe. How or when Shakespeare got into acting is unknown. The profession was unregulated by a guild that could have established restrictions on new entrants to the profession—actors were literally "masterless men"—and several avenues existed to break into the field in the Elizabethan era. Certainly Shakespeare had many opportunities to see professional playing companies in his youth. Before being allowed to perform for the general public, touring playing companies were required to present their play before the town council to be licensed.
Life of William Shakespeare | London and theatrical career
Players first acted in Stratford in 1568, the year that John Shakespeare was bailiff. Before Shakespeare turned 20, the Stratford town council had paid for at least 18 performances by at least 12 playing companies. In one playing season alone, that of 1586–87, five different acting troupes visited Stratford. By 1592 Shakespeare was a player/playwright in London, and he had enough of a reputation for Robert Greene to denounce him in the posthumous "Greenes, Groats-worth of Witte, bought with a million of Repentance" as "an upstart crow, beautified with our feathers, that with his "Tygers hart wrapt in a Players hyde", supposes he is as well able to bombast out a blanke verse as the best of you: and being an absolute Johannes factotum, is in his owne conceit the onely Shake-scene in a countrey." (The italicized line parodies the phrase, "Oh, tiger's heart wrapped in a woman's hide" from Shakespeare's "Henry VI, part 3".)
Life of William Shakespeare | London and theatrical career
By the end of 1936 he had left his sales job in Beaconsfield to pursue a full-time acting career. He moved into a small flat at Marble Arch and became one of the many jobbing actors eager to make a name for themselves on the London stage.
Michael Hordern | Theatrical beginnings
William Dunlap, in his "History of the American Theatre" (1832) wrote of Twaits: 'Mr. Twaits was born on the 25th of April 1781. His father died when he was very young, and he obtained admittance behind the scenes at Drury-lane, through the influence of a playmate, the son of Phillemore (John Phillemore), one of the performers. Having determined to be an actor, he stuck to the point, as (George) Colman (the younger) says, "like a rusty weather-cock", and we suppose , like most of our heroes, ran away. He commenced acting at a place called Waltham Abbey… [he was] Short and thin, yet appearing broad; muscular yet meagre; a large head, with stiff, stubborn, carroty hair; long, colourless face, prominent hooked nose, projecting large hazel eyes, thin lips, and large mouth, which could be twisted into a variety of expression, and which, combining with his other features, eminently served the purposes of the comic muse - such was [his] physiognomy...' Dunlap does not mention whether Twaits had any experience of acting in London, but "The London Stage" mentions two performances, separated by a year, held at Wheatley's Riding School in Greenwich.
William Twaits (actor) | Early career
William Knell (died 1587) was an Elizabethan era actor who played lead roles for the Queen's Men in the 1580s. It has been speculated that his sudden death in a brawl with another actor, while on tour in Thame near Oxford, gave William Shakespeare an opening to become a professional actor.
William Knell (actor) | Introduction
Shakespeare was born and raised in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire. At the age of 18, he married Anne Hathaway, with whom he had three children: Susanna and twins Hamnet and Judith. Sometime between 1585 and 1592, he began a successful career in London as an actor, writer, and part-owner of a playing company called the Lord Chamberlain's Men, later known as the King's Men. At age 49 (around 1613), he appears to have retired to Stratford, where he died three years later. Few records of Shakespeare's private life survive; this has stimulated considerable speculation about such matters as his physical appearance, his sexuality, his religious beliefs, and whether the works attributed to him were written by others.
William Shakespeare | Introduction
Biographers attempting to account for this period have reported many apocryphal stories. Nicholas Rowe, Shakespeare's first biographer, recounted a Stratford legend that Shakespeare fled the town for London to escape prosecution for deer poaching in the estate of local squire Thomas Lucy. Shakespeare is also supposed to have taken his revenge on Lucy by writing a scurrilous ballad about him. Another 18th-century story has Shakespeare starting his theatrical career minding the horses of theatre patrons in London. John Aubrey reported that Shakespeare had been a country schoolmaster. Some 20th-century scholars suggested that Shakespeare may have been employed as a schoolmaster by Alexander Hoghton of Lancashire, a Catholic landowner who named a certain "William Shakeshafte" in his will.
William Shakespeare | Early life
O'Hare began his career in 1964 by designing the sets and costumes for the Victoria Hall theatre in Leatherhead, Surrey. He went on to design the costumes and sets for many theatrical productions especially in Dublin, Ireland.
James Haldane O'Hare | Theatrical career
On leaving the Army Pennington briefly worked as a clerk in the Post Office before embarking on a career on the stage, becoming a dramatic actor. His first appearance was at the New Royalty Theatre in London in 1861 before appearing in "Othello" (1862), "The Lady of Lyons" and "The Doge of Venice", and "Macbeth" in 1867. His theatrical ventures were not always successful as was the case with his management of the Greenwich Theatre in 1862. In 1869 he appeared in "The Hunchback" at Sadlers Wells Theatre in London. In 1870 he was the lessee and manager of Sadlers Wells where on 15 January 1870 under his management Alice Marriott appeared as Julia, in "The Hunchback", performing in "The Lady of Lyons" and "Fazio" there in the same week.
William Henry Pennington | Theatrical career
He was born in London the son of William Macready the elder, and the actress Christina Ann Birch. Educated at Rugby School where he became headboy, and where now the theatre is named after him, it was his initial intention to go to University of Oxford, but in 1809 financial problems experienced by his father, the lessee of several provincial theatres, called him to share the responsibilities of theatrical management. On 7 June 1810 he made a successful first appearance as Romeo at Birmingham. Other Shakespearian parts followed, but a serious rupture between father and son resulted in the young man's departure for Bath in 1814.
William Macready | Life
He originally hoped to become an actor, but he reflected later: "I was fortunate to discover at a theatre school that I was so bad an actor [... that] I was reduced to an artist, and I made my peace with it.". Between 1975 and 1991, he was acting and directing in Johannesburg's Junction Avenue Theatre Company. In the 1980s, he worked on television films and series as art director.
William Kentridge | Early life and career
His first effort was to establish a monthly magazine. The attempt was a failure, but it brought him theatrical acquaintances, and under their influence he presently drifted toward the stage. The first step in his theatrical career, as usual, was to join an amateur dramatic society, and it is said that about this time he gave a performance of "Hamlet" somewhere on the Strand. In 1825 he was associated with a provincial company acting at Norwich, and elsewhere in England, and he played low comedy. His aspirations at the start were for the tragic, and it is known that late in life he still at times entertained the fancy that nature had intended him to be a tragedian.
William Evans Burton | Early life
He also leased the Comedy Theatre in London, where he produced the hit musicals "Monsieur Beaucaire" and "Morocco Bound", both in 1902.
William Greet | Career
In the 16th century William Shakespeare and his contemporaries lived in London at a time of hostility to the development of the theatre. By the end of the Tudor period in 1603, London was still very compact. There was an assassination attempt on James I in Westminster, in the Gunpowder Plot on 5 November 1605.
London | Early modern
After enduring many hardships he was engaged by Hughes, manager of the Weymouth theatre, and thence returned to Exeter, where he played Macbeth and Romeo; he then (September 1791) joined Mrs. Baker's company in Kent. Here he changed his line of acting, and took the characters of La Gloire, Jemmy Jumps, Billy Bristle, Sir David Dunder, and Peeping Tom, in all of which he was well received by a Canterbury audience. He made his first appearance in London at Drury Lane under Wroughton's management as Sheva in Cumberland's comedy of "the Jew", on 11 Oct. 1796, and was received with much applause.
William Dowton | Career
McKinnel's first stage appearance was in Clacton-on-Sea, Essex in 1894 and he soon based himself in London to further his career. He became known over the course of his career for playing many Shakespearian roles, and his stage work took him the U.S., Australia and South Africa. He was known for writing several easily stageable one-act plays, the most successful of which was "The Bishop's Candlesticks" (1901). McKinnel's film career began in 1899 in "King John", the earliest known example of Shakespeare on film. The work consisted of four brief scenes from the play, and a two-minute fragment survives at the EYE Film Institute in Amsterdam.
Norman McKinnel | Career
Born in London to two accountants, he spent a gap year at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, and was involved in the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Cutmore-Scott was educated at Harvard University, where he studied English literature, languages, and theater. Cutmore-Scott started his acting career at the age of 20.
Jack Cutmore-Scott | Early life
He took such delight in Shakespeare that in 1785 he resolved to become an actor. He joined Mr. Welsh's company of travelling comedians at Buxton. His first appearance was as Allan-a-Dale in M'Nally's' Robin Hood.' For four years he played under the name of Bentley, but from 1789 in his own name. He took the parts of Achmet, Douglas, and even Romeo. Asperne, of the "European Magazine", wrote of him at that period: 'I knew John Kemble in 1779, and he was not then half so promising a performer as William Blanchard appeared to me in 1790. Blanchard had more fire, more nature, and more knowledge of the stage.'
William Blanchard (comedian) | Early theatrical career
He worked at the National Theatre where he was in charge of the production of concert party.
William Addo | Career
Tradition claims that Tarlton started his career in London as either an apprentice, a swineherd in Ealing, or a water-carrier; it is not impossible that he was all three. By 1583, when he is mentioned as one of the original members of the Queen's Men, he was already an experienced actor. He was an early yet extraordinary influence on Elizabethan clowns. His epitaph says: "he of clowns to learn still sought/ But now they learn of him they taught". Tarlton was the first to study natural fools and simpletons to add knowledge to his characters. His manner of performance combined the styles of the medieval Vice, the professional minstrel, and the amateur Lord of Misrule.
Richard Tarlton | Career
He then acted at Richmond. He devoted himself in London to literary and scientific schemes. He had reappeared at Covent Garden 16 October 1790 as Othello, and played there in the following season. In 1792 he married Miss H. B. Porter, third daughter of Dr. Porter.
James Fennell | Stage career
Born in Yorkshire, Blythe studied drama on scholarship at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art after serving in the Royal Air Force. He began his professional career as a repertory player with the Living Theatre Company, the Nottingham Playhouse and the Royal Shakespeare Company. He made his West End debut in 1965.
Peter Blythe | Early life
Armstrong was born in Edinburgh and studied music at Edinburgh University, but after teaching for some years he chose a theatrical career in preference to a musical one. He made his professional stage debut with Sir Frank Benson's company at the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon in 1908. He made his first London appearance the following year in "Julius Caesar". Subsequently he toured in Germany with Meta Illing's English company, and from 1910 to 1912 he was a member of the Glasgow Repertory Theatre Company. In 1912–13 he toured the US in Arnold Bennett and Edward Knoblock's play "Milestones". In September 1914, he joined the Liverpool Repertory Company.
William Armstrong (theatre director) | Life and career
This was The East End Theatre group based at Chat's Palace Arts Centre in Homerton, E London.
Jonathan Holloway (playwright) | Early career
Born in Hounslow, Middlesex, England in 1914, to William John Hartree (1885–1952) and his wife Alice Hartree (née Crow) (1880–1965) as George Frederick Joffre Hartree, he took his stage name from the theatrical knight, Sir Charles Hawtrey, whose surname was a different spelling of his own, and encouraged the suggestion that he was his son. However, his father was actually a London car mechanic. Following study at the Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts in London, he embarked on a career in the theatre as both actor and director.
Charles Hawtrey (actor, born 1914) | Early life
Cibber began his career as an actor at Drury Lane in 1690, and had little success for several years. "The first Thing that enters into the Head of a young Actor", he wrote in his autobiography half a century later, "is that of being a Hero: In this Ambition I was soon snubb'd by the Insufficiency of my Voice; to which might be added an uninform'd meagre Person ... with a dismal pale Complexion. Under these Disadvantages, I had but a melancholy Prospect of ever playing a Lover with Mrs. Bracegirdle, which I had flatter'd my Hopes that my Youth might one Day have recommended me to." At this time the London stage was in something of a slump after the glories of the early Restoration period.
Colley Cibber | Actor
His first London appearance was in 1818 at Covent Garden as Sir Peter Teazle (in Sheridan's "The School for Scandal"), a part with which his name was always associated: he was an instant popular and critical success. He succeeded also in Colman and Garrick's "The Clandestine Marriage". He played at Covent Garden every winter until 1828, and began in 1824 a series of summer engagements at the Haymarket which also lasted some years. At these two theatres he played an immense variety of comedic characters. After 1821, he separated from his first wife and began living with Harriet Elizabeth Savill, who was at the time married to John Saville Faucit.
William Farren | Life
He returned to London, aged 11. He was evacuated to Luscombe Castle in Devon in the Second World War. His stage career began at the age of 18, when he appeared in "My Sister Eileen" at the Savoy Theatre in 1943. He was called up to join the Parachute Regiment, and was sent to Palestine.
William Franklyn | Early life
Aikman to move with all his family to London, in 1723, thinking this the only theatre in Britain where his talents could be properly displayed. Under the auspices of this nobleman, he formed habits of intimacy with the first artists, particularly with Sir Godfrey Kneller, whose studies and dispositions of mind were very congenial to his own. In this society he soon became known to and patronized by people of the first rank, and was in names or intimacy with many of them; particularly the Earl of Burlington, so well known for his taste in the fine arts, especially architecture.
William Aikman (painter) | Life and career
A. J. Honigmann, who has attempted to push back the beginning of Shakespeare's career four or five years to the mid-1580s, with his "early start" theory. Honigmann argues that Shakespeare began his career with "Titus Andronicus" in 1586 (the conventional school of thought is that Shakespeare began writing plays upon arriving in London "c."1590). Most scholars, however, adhere to a more orthodox chronology, and some, such as Gary Taylor and Sidney Thomas, argue that the early start theory causes more problems than it solves.
Chronology of Shakespeare's plays | Introduction
Born in Canterbury, Kent, England, he served in the Royal Navy for over twenty years, attaining the rank of Commander. During his time in the Navy, he became a champion boxer and rugby player, and when he was discharged he was one of the youngest men ever to obtain the rank of Commander in the Royal Navy. After training at Central School of Speech and Drama, Gwillim began his acting career in earnest in the 1950s, working on both stage and screen. On stage, he appeared both at the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre in Stratford and at the Old Vic. He performed in an extensive amount of theatre, both classics and modern plays, in the West End of London and on Broadway.
Jack Gwillim | Career
In the 18th century, Shakespeare dominated the London stage, while Shakespeare productions turned increasingly into the creation of star turns for star actors. After the Licensing Act of 1737, a quarter of plays performed were by Shakespeare, and on at least two occasions rival London playhouses staged the very same Shakespeare play at the same time ("Romeo and Juliet" in 1755 and "King Lear" the next year) and still commanded audiences. This occasion was a striking example of the growing prominence of Shakespeare stars in the theatrical culture, the big attraction being the competition and rivalry between the male leads at Covent Garden and Drury Lane, Spranger Barry and David Garrick.
Reputation of William Shakespeare | Britain
In 1985 E.A.J Honigmann proposed that Shakespeare acted as a schoolmaster in Lancashire, on the evidence found in the 1581 will of a member of the Houghton family, referring to plays and play-clothes and asking his kinsman Thomas Hesketh to take care of "William Shakeshaft, now dwelling with me". Honigmann proposed that John Cottam, Shakespeare's reputed last schoolmaster, recommended the young man. Another idea is that Shakespeare may have joined Queen Elizabeth's Men in 1587, after the sudden death of actor William Knell in a fight while on a tour which later took in Stratford. Samuel Schoenbaum speculates that, "Maybe Shakespeare took Knell's place and thus found his way to London and stage-land." Shakespeare's father John, as High Bailiff of Stratford, was responsible for the acceptance and welfare of visiting theatrical troupes.
Life of William Shakespeare | Later speculation
He gained a MPhil degree from King's College, Cambridge, in 1991.
Tom Shakespeare | Early life
He was the son of Richard Shakespeare of the Warwickshire village of Snitterfield, a farmer. John Shakespeare moved to Stratford-upon-Avon in 1551, where he became a successful businessman involved in several related occupations. At this time, Stratford had a population of 1500 people and only 200 houses. From 1556 to 1592, several official records identify him as a glovemaker, which was probably his primary trade, as tradition remembers him as following that trade even into his old age, but the records of his real estate purchases and legal expenses indicate an income much higher than that of a small-town tradesman.
John Shakespeare | Career and municipal responsibilities
He persuaded the director of the local college at Stratford-upon-Avon to let him study for a BTEC in performing arts while doing an assortment of jobs such as fitness instructor and dishwasher. He also did some acting for the Box Clever Theatre Company and in his own production of "Solo Hamlet". He won a scholarship to study at the Bristol Old Vic's theatre school.
Joseph Mawle | Early life
The Shakespearean actors one saw were terrible hams like Frank Benson." Olivier's concern with speaking naturally and avoiding what he called "singing" Shakespeare's verse was the cause of much frustration in his early career, as critics regularly decried his delivery. In 1926, on Thorndike's recommendation, Olivier joined the Birmingham Repertory Company. His biographer Michael Billington describes the Birmingham company as "Olivier's university", where in his second year he was given the chance to play a wide range of important roles, including Tony Lumpkin in "She Stoops to Conquer", the title role in "Uncle Vanya", and Parolles in "All's Well That Ends Well".
Laurence Olivier | Early acting career (1924–1929)
He started his career as an apprentice draper in Newport, Wales and but he was drawn to an acting career. He began giving readings from Shakespeare at a chapel in Cardiff. In 1890 a chance meeting with a touring group on a train led to him standing in for a sick actor and his first professional engagement. He opened on 28 August 1890 in "The Grip Of Iron" at the Theatre Royal, Bristol. He toured "the provinces" and eventually made his London debut at the Shakespeare Theatre, Clapham on 19 July 1897. He later changed his name to "Lyn" to make it more acceptable to English audiences who found "Llewellyn" difficult to pronounce.
Lyn Harding | Acting career
Though he was active primarily in Bengali theatre, he started his career in English theatre. As a teenager in the 1940s, he developed his passion and craft in English theatre, which resulted in the establishment of "The Shakespeareans" in 1947. Its first performance was a powerful production of Shakespeare's Richard III, with Dutt playing the king. This so impressed Geoffrey Kendal and Laura Kendal (parents of the actress Jennifer Kendal), who led the itinerant "Shakespeareana Theatre Company", that they immediately hired him, and he did two year-long tours with them across India and Pakistan, enacting Shakespeare's plays, first 1947–49 and later 1953–54; and was acclaimed for his passionate portrayal of Othello.
Utpal Dutt | Career
He repeated this role at the Surrey upon his return to England, also playing at the Standard and other theatres thereafter. Creswick was a founder member and governor of the Shakespeare Memorial Association in Stratford-upon-Avon, where he acted in the festival of 1883, playing Falstaff, Lear and Shylock. For his farewell benefit he appeared at Drury Lane on 29 October 1885, in a scene from "King Lear", as part of a miscellaneous entertainment in which others appearing included Henry Irving, Wilson Barrett, George Grossmith, Lionel Brough, William Farren Jr., John Martin Harvey and George Alexander.
William Creswick | Later years
William Cartwright the younger was about eighty years old when he died; he was therefore born around 1606 or 1607. Nothing is known of his early life; it is reasonable to assume that he began his stage career under his father's tutelage. He was included with his father on a 1635 list of actors; apparently they both belonged to the King's Revels Men at that time. James Wright's "Historia Histrionica" (1699) maintains that the younger Cartwright was associated with the Salisbury Court Theatre — which may refer to his time with his father's troupe, or may indicate that he was with Queen Henrietta's Men in the 1637–42 period.
William Cartwright (actor) | Early career
In 1559 he became an affeeror, an officer responsible for assessing fines for offences carrying penalties not explicitly defined by existing statutes. This role led to his becoming a burgess, then a chamberlain. He would have been known as a 'Goodman', a title that recognised his growing social status within Stratford. By 1564, Shakespeare was an alderman, a member of the Common Hall of Stratford, and it was in this year that William was born.
John Shakespeare | Career and municipal responsibilities
That summer he joined a Shakespearean theatre company which toured stately homes throughout the United Kingdom. His first performance was Orlando in "As You Like It", followed by "Love's Labour's Lost", in which he co-starred with Osmond Daltry. Hordern admired Daltry's acting ability and later admitted to him being a constant influence on his Shakespearean career. In addition to his Shakespearean commitments, Hordern joined the St Pancras People's Theatre, a London-based company partly funded by the theatrical manager Lilian Baylis. Hordern enjoyed his time there, despite the tiresome commute between Sussex and London, and stayed with the company for five years.
Michael Hordern | Theatrical beginnings
Bannister was born in Gloucestershire. When he was seven his father moved to Deptford. He was possessed of 'a manly form, an ardent mind, and an uncommon flow of wit.' He a company of players who visited his neighbourhood, and aspired to their profession. At 18 he made amateur appearances in "Romeo and Juliet" and "Richard III" in Deptford. Drury Lane turned him down, but after successful work in Norwich, Ipswich and other eastern towns, Samuel Foote gave him his first London appearance in 1762 at the Haymarket Theatre, as Will Tirehack in "The Orators", opposite John Palmer as Harry Scamper, who also made his debut on that occasion.
Charles Bannister | Origins and debut
Maybe Shakespeare took Knell's place and thus found his way to London and stage-land." Shakespeare's father, John Shakespeare, as High Bailiff of Stratford, was responsible for the acceptance and welfare of visiting theatrical troupes. However there is no direct evidence of Shakespeare's membership of the Queen's Men, so it remains speculation.
William Knell (actor) | Aftermath
The publication brought Tennyson to the notice of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, among others. In 1848 Wilson wrote and published a pamphlet entitled "A House for Shakespeare" in which he proposed the creation of a national theatre company. This inspired the foundation of the Royal National Theatre. His proposal was supported by Henry Irving, Charles Dickens and Matthew Arnold among others.
Effingham Wilson | Career
Priestley's "Cornelius". This marked his professional stage debut, although he had no lines and did little more than stand on stage behind other actors. Afterward, he was granted the scholarship and given odd jobs around the theatre, such as selling refreshments and working as an assistant stage manager. One of his earliest professional stage performances was in 1935 as Captain Randall in Ian Hay's "The Middle Watch" at the Connaught Theatre in Worthing. By the end of the summer of 1936, Cushing accepted a job with the repertory theatre company Southampton Rep, working as assistant stage manager and performing in bit roles at the Grand Theatre in the Hampshire city.
Peter Cushing | Early career
Huntley was born in Barnsley, Yorkshire. He lost his father while young. After some practice in London as an amateur, he began his professional career at Brecknock about 1806. A bad start was made, and he appeared with no more success at the Lyceum. At the Richmond Theatre, he remained for some time, studying and rising in his profession. After performing at Stamford and Nottingham, he played Othello to the Iago of Carey, otherwise Kean, at the Birmingham Theatre. Under Ryley at Bolton he was seen by Elliston, who engaged him for Manchester, and brought him subsequently to the Olympic and to the Surrey, where in the summer of 1809 he appeared as Lockit in the 'Beggar's Opera' to Elliston's Macheath.
Francis Huntley | Life
In 1793 he accepted an offer from Wignell, manager of the Philadelphia Theatre, and started for America. Between 1797 and 1806 he acted at many theatres in New York, Boston, and elsewhere without establishing a position. He gave readings and recitations at College Hall, Philadelphia, and for a time kept an academy at Charlestown, Massachusetts. In 1814 he established salt-works near New London, Connecticut, and sometimes, in intervals of other occupations, resorted to manual labour. He also tried to establish in Philadelphia a school similar to Eton or Westminster. William Dunlap in his "History of the American Theatres", pp. 231–3, and elsewhere, says he was a remarkably handsome man, over six feet in height, with light complexion and hair, and light grey eyes.
James Fennell | In America
Richardson began his career as an actor. He joined Mrs. Penley's travelling theatre company in 1782, but on seeing the small profits to be made with her, he left acting and moved to London, becoming a broker. He eventually saved enough money to open his own troupe. Richardson first opened his theatrical production at Bartholomew Fair in 1798 using scenery from Drury Lane. The performances took place in a narrow booth (100 feet by 30 feet), colourful and brightly lit. The show toured, in the London area, to such fairs as Southwark, Brook Green and Greenwich. Over time, Richardson's booth expanded, and he ran several performances simultaneously, and he could stage over a dozen burlesques and melodramas each day.
Richardson's Theatre | History
He has a long connection with the Theatre Royal, Stratford, E15, where with Jeff Teare and Patrick Prior he pioneered a series of political dramas, developing and performing leading roles in satirical attacks on Margaret Thatchers government. The same team produced pantomimes for many years during the 1980s and 90's which set a standard in British Theatre for integrity and quality.
Bill Thomas (actor) | Career
Craven was born in London in 1818, son of Robert Thornton, a schoolmaster in Holborn. Starting life as a publisher's clerk in Paternoster Row, he subsequently acted as amanuensis to Edward Bulwer-Lytton, and began writing for "Bentley's Miscellany". Ambitious to become a dramatist, he took to the stage, making his first appearance at York in 1840 and his London debut soon after at Fanny Kelly's Theatre in Soho. In 1841 he was acting on the Sunderland circuit, and in 1842 his first play, "Bertram the Avenger", was produced at North Shields. Craven produced his second play, "Miserrimus", at Portsmouth late in 1843.
Henry Thornton Craven | Early life and career
William Shakespeare (1564–1616) was an English poet, playwright and actor. William Shakespeare may also refer to:
William Shakespeare (disambiguation) | Introduction
Here he began his career as a writer, winning the Newdigate Prize for his poem "Ravenna". His studies were cut short during his second year at Oxford when his father died leaving large debts.
Irish theatre | 19th century
William Shakespeare (16 June 1849 – 1 November 1931) was an English tenor, pedagogue, and composer. William Shakespeare was born in Croydon England on 16 June 1849. He studied in London, at the Royal Academy of Music with William Sterndale Bennett. Winning the Mendelssohn Scholarship in 1871, he travelled to Leipzig to study with composer, pianist, conductor, and pedagogue Carl Reinecke, but soon left Leipzig for Milan, to study under the guidance of the singing teacher Francesco Lamperti. He appeared in England once again as a tenor in 1875. In 1878, he was appointed as a professor of singing at the Royal Academy of Music.
William Shakespeare (tenor) | Introduction
In consequence of gambling debts he mortgaged to his father the money to which he was entitled, and when no further allowance could be obtained went to Edinburgh, June 1787, with a view to adopting the stage as a profession. Jackson, manager of the Theatre Royal, Edinburgh, engaged him as an amateur. His first appearance, under the name of Cambray, from the resemblance of his own name to Fénelon, was as Othello. He played six times in Edinburgh with some success, and accepted an engagement for the following season. Returning to London, he appeared at Covent Garden Theatre 12 October 1787 as Othello, and acted in other plays.
James Fennell | Stage career
Set-design and props became more elaborate and variable. Perhaps most noticeably, boy players were replaced by actresses. The audiences of comparatively expensive indoor theaters were richer, better educated, and more homogeneous than the diverse, often unruly crowds at the Globe. Davenant's company began at the Salisbury Court Theatre, then moved to the theater at Lincoln's Inn Fields, and finally settled in the Dorset Garden Theatre. Killigrew began at Gibbon's Tennis Court before settling into Christopher Wren's new theatre in Drury Lane. Patrons of both companies expected fare quite different from what had pleased Elizabethans. For tragedy, their tastes ran to heroic drama; for comedy, to the comedy of manners.
Shakespeare in performance | Interregnum and Restoration performances
He was born in 1884 in Queen's County in Ireland, but spent most of his career in England. After two years at the "Academy of Dramatic Art", Gawthorne began a career on the London stage, eventually running up over twenty years experience there. His debut was in 1906, a walk-on part at His Majesty's Theatre, London. He was featured in the role of Albany Pope, receiving good notices, in the hit musical "The Boy" in 1917. He also studied singing. He then toured Australia, South Africa and America, making his film debut in Hollywood before returning to Britain, where he worked for a number of film companies but predominately Gainsborough Studios.
Peter Gawthorne | Early life and career
Upon his severing the partnership and starting theatre management on his own account in the provinces, he lost money, ending up in bankruptcy court in 1868. However, he produced many of his plays at these theatres while continuing to write for London theatres. One successful provincial work was "Dearer than Life" (1867), which received many revivals, beginning with a London revival in 1868 starring J. L. Toole and the young Henry Irving. Another, the same year, was "The Lancashire Lass; or, Tempted, Tried and True" (1867), a melodrama, also revived in London in 1868. He even collaborated with W. S.
Henry James Byron | Early career
Rowe was the first biographer to record the tradition, repeated by Johnson, that Shakespeare retired to Stratford "some years before his death". He was still working as an actor in London in 1608; in an answer to the sharers' petition in 1635, Cuthbert Burbage stated that after purchasing the lease of the Blackfriars Theatre in 1608 from Henry Evans, the King's Men "placed men players" there, "which were Heminges, Condell, Shakespeare, etc.". However, it is perhaps relevant that the bubonic plague raged in London throughout 1609. The London public playhouses were repeatedly closed during extended outbreaks of the plague (a total of over 60 months closure between May 1603 and February 1610), which meant there was often no acting work.
William Shakespeare | Later years and death
In London, Marriott had "learned from his father the skills of optician and mathematical instrument maker", and possibly also his engraving skills, but initially became a reporter for "The Times" newspaper. At the same time he was producing Shakespeare plays, and was involved in acting, painting and music.
James Henry Marriott | Career in London
Samuel Haycraft Lane was born in Lympstone, Devon in 1803. In 1821, he decided to escape the life of a fisherman and walk to London. After living hand to mouth and educating himself, with the help of a friend, William Brian, he encountered a troupe of actors who he had previously met on his journey. He helped the leader of the troupe, Jack Adams, to find premises for performance at the Union Tavern in Shoreditch. This hall catered for 500–seated and a similar number standing. Jack Adam's company performed a successful programme of drama, song, dance and acrobatics. Sam married Jack's daughter Mary, in 1835.
Britannia Theatre | Origins
After the baptism of the twins in 1585, save for being party to a lawsuit to recover part of his mother's estate that had been mortgaged and lost by default, Shakespeare leaves no historical traces until Robert Greene jealously alludes to him as part of the London theatrical scene in 1592. This seven-year period, known as the "lost years" to Shakespeare scholars, was filled by early biographers with surmises drawn from local traditions, and by more recent biographers with surmises about the onset of his acting career deduced from textual and bibliographic hints and the surviving records of the various playing troupes of the time.
Life of William Shakespeare | Lost years
Born in the City of London in 1804, W H Payne was apprenticed to Isaac Cowen, a stockbroker; but in his eighteenth year he ran away, and joined a travelling theatrical company in the Warwickshire circuit. He rose to play small parts at the Theatre Royal, Birmingham. Returning to London, he studied under Grimaldi and Bologna at Sadler's Wells Theatre, and then obtained an engagement at an East-end theatre, and in the following year (1825) migrated to the Pavilion Theatre. Here he remained some years, playing small parts, which he raised into importance by the admirable expression of his pantomimic action.
William Payne (pantomimist) | Life and career
He was the son of the actor Thomas Hallam, a member of the Drury Lane killed by fellow actor Charles Macklin after a dispute. In 1731 he married the actress Anne Berriman. He became manager of the New Wells Theatre in Goodman's Fields, London. In his competition with David Garrick, who managed Drury Lane Theatre, he became bankrupt in 1750, and in the same year organized a dramatic company that was sent, under the direction of his brother Lewis, to the North American colonies and the British West Indies. Before the actors sailed, they studied 24 plays, besides farces and medleys, which in suitable weather were rehearsed aboard ship.
William Hallam (theatre manager) | Biography
Principal stage appearances; mostly with the Royal Shakespeare Company: Also appeared in the Royal Shakespeare Company's Theatre-Go-Round Festival, Round House Theatre, London, 1970.
Michael Williams (actor) | Stage
From 1698 Pinkethman also operated as a promoter and impresario of entertainments outside the major theatres. There was scope for these activities when the summer season closed the theatres, and he combined fairground booths, theatre and spectacle for the rest of his life, succeeding financially. On 15 June 1710 Pinkethman opened a theatre in Greenwich, where he played comedy and tragedy. It lasted until September 1711. On 9 September 1717 he acted Old Merriman in a droll called "Twice Married and a Maid still", given at his booth taken with George Pack, at Southwark Fair.
William Pinkethman | Branching out
William Hallam (born in England about 1712; died there about 1758) was an English actor and theatre manager who organized the company that gave the first professionally produced theatrical performances in the New World.
William Hallam (theatre manager) | Introduction
By 1992, he began to doubt if musical theatre was the right career path, so he enrolled at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA) in 1993 to further study acting. "I needed to do something a bit more truthful than musical theatre. For me it was a bit too theatrical and all about standing on stage and showing off. I was looking for something else, so that's why I went back to drama school." After completing LAMDA's three-year programme, he returned to the stage as a supporting player with the Royal Shakespeare Company's productions of "Macbeth" and "The Duchess of Malfi", as well as "Hamlet" and "Four Alice Bakers" with the Birmingham Repertory Theatre while taking a series of small roles in television and films.
Richard Armitage (actor) | 1988–2003: Early work
Lucas earned a scholarship to the Northern Theatre School, and trained there. He then became an assistant stage manager at the Chesterfield Civic Theatre in the late 1940s. Lucas had begun his stage career by the summer of 1950 in Chesterfield and was still active in the theatre in late 1990 in "Run for Your Wife".
William Lucas (actor) | Stage
He was born in London, the son of a Strand tradesman named Thomas. The name Moncrieff he assumed for theatrical purposes. Moncrieff's first success was at Astley’s circus with "The Dandy Family" an equestrian drama, and in 1820 "The Lear of Private Life", with Junius Brutus Booth as hero, enjoyed a long run. He supplied Drury Lane with a romantic melodrama called "The Cataract of the Ganges; or, The Rajah’s Daughter" which gave the national theatre an opportunity of displaying upon its stage both real horses and a real waterfall. This work became very popular with performances at provincial theatres throughout England.
William Thomas Moncrieff | Biography
William Haughton (died 1605) was an English playwright in the age of English Renaissance theatre.
William Haughton (playwright) | Introduction
He was born in London, and appeared as a youthful amateur at Drury Lane as James in "The Miller's Maid". He appeared at Nottingham in 1836, and acted in London, on 26 September of that year, in the "Haunted Tower". Afterward, he acted in various English cities, especially in Manchester. His first appearance in America was in August, 1850, as Sir Peter Teazle at the old Broadway Theatre, New York; later he supported many well-known actors in the metropolis and elsewhere, among them Edwin Forrest, Gustavus V. Brooke, Julia Dean, Lola Montez, and Fanny Davenport. After leaving the old Broadway Theatre in 1855, he made a tour through the country.
William Pleater Davidge | Biography
They also took with them costumes and scenery. In June 1754, William Hallam sailed for the North American colonies, landing in Philadelphia. He remained with the comedians about one year, but did not perform. Disposing of his half interest to his brother Lewis, he returned to England in 1755, where he soon afterward died.
William Hallam (theatre manager) | Biography
The next stage of his career began when he was engaged by the Earle Grey Festival Company, a precursor of the Ontario Stratford Festival, for their Summer Shakespeare Festivals in Toronto and Fall Tours. Among other parts he performed the roles of Sebastian in "The Tempest," Hortensio in "The Taming of the Shrew," and Horatio in "Hamlet". In the 1956-57 season he traveled to England, performing solo shows at the Arts Club Theatre in London and receiving encouragement and advice from Dame Flora Robson. On his return to Toronto he pursued voice studies with Clara Salisbury Baker, and later with Gladys Shibley Mitchell, eventually sitting for the Licentiate exam in Speech Arts and Drama with Trinity College, London.
Daniel Hyatt | Acting career
He began a theatrical career, out of a desire to be self-supporting, when the dramatist William Gorman Wills, who had seen him in private theatricals, offered him a role in his play "Mary Queen of Scots". His many performances led him into, among other things, travel to the U.S., and work with Sir Henry Irving. He was hailed as one of the most individual and refined of English actors. He was a personal friend of the Duke of Sutherland and his family and often stayed with them at Trentham Hall; he is known to have recommended to them various writers and musicians in dire need of assistance.
Johnston Forbes-Robertson | Early life
As well as appearing in several films and several television projects, Mynhardt was also known for his work in both South African and British theatre. After the end of school, he started appearing in theatre productions across South Africa. He admitted that he learnt true professionalism in the 1930s, when he was performing in the Old Vic in London and sharing a flat with Alec Guinness.
Siegfried Mynhardt | Career
He also visited the United Kingdom and apparently performed in Liverpool, although documentary evidence of this is limited. His career seems to have entered into a decline by and after 1834, when he was imprisoned for larceny. He is reported to have died around 1849. George Thompson, who has researched the history of the theatre, concluded that Hewlett was a tailor and may have been an emigrant from the West Indies.
James Hewlett | Introduction
He returned to Stratford in 1953.
Robert Shaw (actor) | Early career
Born in London, England, Hemblen grew up in Toronto, where he pursued a classical education before turning to theatre. He received an M.A. in English and was working towards a Ph.D. in Medieval Studies when he was spotted during a rehearsal of a university production by Clifford Williams of the Royal Shakespeare Company. Hemblen was offered a season at Toronto's Royal Alexandra Theatre.
David Hemblen | Early life
Johns was born and grew up in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa. After serving as a deckhand in the South African navy during World War II, he worked for a time in accountancy, but soon became involved in amateur theatre.
Stratford Johns | Early life
Born in Beckenham, Kent, he was educated at Bradfield College in Berkshire, then trained at the Central School of Speech and Drama, followed by a wide repertory theatre experience including Bromley, Bristol Old Vic, Dundee, the Edinburgh Festival and Watford before going to London's West End.
John Bennett (actor) | Early life
Ash's stage credits include the premiere productions of "Presence" at the Royal Court Theatre in 2001 and of "How to Disappear Completely and Never Be Found" at Sheffield Theatres as well as "Of Mice and Men" at the Royal Lyceum Theatre in Edinburgh.
William Ash (actor) | Career
After a period at the Old Rep (also known as the Birmingham Repertory Theatre), he appeared with the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC), of which he was a founding member, from 1960 to 1975.
Ian Richardson | Early life
He began his independent career as a comic actor, at first as an amateur, staging plays at "The George and Dragon", a public house in Gateshead, and in other venues. Even in straight plays, he would add comic business, for instance once making his character refusing to die when the script required it; such antics got a good reaction, and his career as a clown developed from this. About the age of 24, he succeeded his father, as doorkeeper at the Assembly Rooms in Newcastle, where he learned the fashionable dances of the day. But among his friends, he was performing comic dances and hornpipes.
Billy Purvis (1853) | Early stage career
William Milward (1702-1742) was a British stage actor. He began his career with John Rich's company at the Lincoln's Inn Fields Theatre and also appeared at the Haymarket. From 1734 he became part of the company at Drury Lane where he remained for the rest of his career.
William Milward | Introduction
He was born in Hereford, and educated at Hereford grammar school and at Christ's Hospital in London. Sir Robert Ladbrooke, a distille and then president of Christ's Hospital, took him on as apprentice in his counting-house. Powell, however, was interest in amateur theatricals: Ladbrooke suppressed a club in Doctors' Commons of which Powell had become a member. For a while Powell remained in Ladbrooke's office. Charles Holland however, introduced him to David Garrick, who wanted to travel and sought a substitute actor.
William Powell (English actor) | Early life
He was born in London. After receiving his education at Felsted School in Essex, he began his career as a stockbroker's clerk in the City of London, but gave up a life in the Square Mile on deciding that he preferred the stage, upon which he made his début in 1910. He toured England's repertory theatres playing minor parts up to the outbreak of World War I, when he was commissioned into the British Army as a subaltern, and saw active service with the Suffolk Regiment and the Machine Gun Corps. Post-war he returned to acting, and in 1924 went to America to perform on the stage there initially.
Claud Allister | Life and career
His first regular professional appearance was made at the Bowery Theatre, New York, under the management of Hamblin, in 1835, in his own farce, ""The Chameleon"." his success was good and he remained an actor all his days. He was engaged in the National Theatre (Church street, New York), in 1839; he appeared in Philadelphia for the first time on October 9, 1840; and he made a professional visit to England in 1861. At one time he played opposite parts to the elder Booth and to Edwin Forrest. His "Iago" was his best Shakespearean impersonation, although he played "Othello" well, and he was a superb reader of "Hamlet": but he did not make a name as a Shakespearean actor.
George W. Jamieson | Introduction
William Shakespeare was born in Stratford-upon-Avon. His exact date of birth is not known—the baptismal record was dated 26 April 1564—but has been traditionally taken to be 23 April 1564, which is also the Feast Day of Saint George, the patron saint of England. He was the first son and the first surviving child in the family; two earlier children, Joan and Margaret, had died early. A market town then of around 2000 residents about northwest of London, Stratford was a centre for the marketing, distribution, and slaughter of sheep, hide tanning and wool trading, as well as for malting to supply brewers of ale and beer.
Life of William Shakespeare | Family origins
In about 1808 he returned to London for the production of an opera he had written for Drury Lane, but the theatre was burnt down before the work was produced. In 1810 he was appointed organist at Sheffield Cathedral.
Jonathan Blewitt | Early career
He made his acting debut on the stage in 1905. His acting career was interrupted in 1914 by the outbreak of World War I, when he volunteered with the British Army's Royal Army Medical Corps as Private #600, and saw active service. In July/August 1926 he performed in Henrik Ibsen's "Pillars of Society" at the Everyman Theatre in Hampstead, and at the Royalty Theatre in London. In March 1927 he performed with Charles Laughton and Sybil Thorndike in the play "Angela", at the Prince's Theatre in London. He played Polonius in John Gielgud's 1930 production of "Hamlet" at The Old Vic.
Brember Wills | Career
His first London appearance was at the Open Air Theatre, Regent's Park in 1962 as Demetrius in "A Midsummer Night's Dream". Petherbridge began his tenure as part of Laurence Olivier's National Theatre Company in the 1960s, walking on in Olivier's "Othello" and later creating the role of Guildenstern in Tom Stoppard's "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead". He has been a leading actor in the Royal Shakespeare Company and Royal National Theatre; was a founding member of the Actors' Company in 1972; and with Ian McKellen established the McKellen-Petherbridge Group at the RNT in 1985. He has been praised for both tragic and comic parts, interpreting a wide range of roles from Feydeau to Euripides.
Edward Petherbridge | Career
While his first appearance was unsuccessful, it is noted that this production was produced illegally under the Licensing Act of 1737 which forbade the production of plays by theatres not holding letters patent or the production of plays not approved by the Lord Chamberlain. In order to skirt this law, the Haymarket Theatre held musical concerts with plays included "gratis". Following his unsuccessful London appearance, Foote spent the summer season in Dublin at the Theatre Royal, Smock Alley where he found his first success. Returning to England, he joined the company at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane which at that time included such noted actors as Peg Woffington, David Garrick and Spranger Barry.
Samuel Foote | Initial theatrical ventures
In 1821, a comedy that Jerrold had written at the age of 14 was brought out at Sadler's Wells theatre under the title "More Frightened than Hurt". Other plays followed, and in 1825 he was employed for a few pounds weekly to produce dramas and farces to order for George Bolwell Davidge of the Coburg Theatre. In the autumn of 1824, the "little Shakespeare in a camlet cloak", as he was nicknamed, married Mary Swan and continued to work as both dramatist and journalist. For a short while he was part proprietor of a small Sunday newspaper. In 1829, through a quarrel with the exacting Davidge, Jerrold left for Coburg.
Douglas William Jerrold | Career in the theatre
He played some major supporting roles at the Old Vic Theatre in 1930, appearing in "Richard of Bordeaux" with John Gielgud, and finally gained prominence at the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre in 1936 as Hamlet, whereupon he tried to persuade the management to finance him on a tour of the provinces. They declined the invitation, so he withdrew his savings and in 1937 started his own touring company, which he would lead for many years, prompting Hermione Gingold's "bon mot": "Olivier is a tour-de-force, and Wolfit is forced to tour."
Donald Wolfit | Career
Little evidence substantiates such stories other than hearsay collected after his death, and Shakeshafte was a common name in the Lancashire area.
William Shakespeare | Early life
She worked with many companies, including Birmingham and Bristol, before joining the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) in 1962.
Elizabeth Spriggs | Early life and career
His next appearance in London was at the Queen's Theatre, Tottenham Street on 16 February 1835, as Horace Meredith in Douglas William Jerrold's comedy, "Schoolfellows." Returning to touring in York, he played the leading part in "Ion", continuing to tour in the provinces. In April 1839, he appeared at the Lyceum Theatre, London, first in "Silver Crescent". In 1839 Creswick and his wife travelled to the U.S., staying for nearly four years, where Creswick greatly increased his reputation. They began with engagements in New York and then joined the company of the Tremont Theatre in Boston for the season of 1840-41, afterwards touring throughout North America.
William Creswick | Early years