Alan Durband - Texts, Plays and Theatre

Texts, Plays and Theatre

Durband's experience in the classroom led him to write a series of textbooks entitled 'English Workshop' which had commenced at his desk in Room 32, (published in 1959) and proved popular in classrooms throughout the country. He also wrote a series of student guides, 'Shakespeare Made Easy' - each volume a complete play, the original on one side and the same verse in modern English on the other. These were published from 1986 on. Judi Dench as a young drama student was a keen reader of these texts and Durband was particularly delighted that the headmistress of the school at which his daughter was teaching later banned his Shakespeare Made Easy version of Romeo and Juliet because the girls could understand the text of the play. (Personal Communication, J. Eedle).

Alongside his career and his writing, he was an avid promoter of the development and production of new drama & plays in collections entitled: 'New Directions in English', 1961; 'Contemporary English', 1962; 'Playbill', 1969 on; 'Prompt', 1973 on; and 'Wordplays' containing writers such as Alan Ayckbourn, Tom Stoppard, Willy Russell, Brian Jacques, Alan Bleasdale, George Friel & John Mortimer, etc.

Durband was also a motivating force behind the creation and renovation of The Everyman Theatre on Hope Street, Liverpool which opened in 1964 and earlier he had attempted with Sam Wannamaker *< ref> to revive 'The New Shakespeare' as a supper club until its mysterious destructive fire in 1959.

He served for nearly 30 years as vice-chair, chair and vice-president of the Theatre Board raising thousands of pounds by means of innovative seven year tax-free covenants for the conversion of the building. It was a popular theatre specialising in local Liverpool settings & political subjects which gave opportunities to new playwrights - most famous of whom is probably Willy Russell (to whom Durband lent his Welsh cottage to write 'Educating Rita') and to actors such as: Bill Nighy, Pete Postlethwaite, Jonathan Pryce & Julie Walters who joined the Theatre company around 1975.

To mark this era, Willy Russell unveiled a plaque in memory of Alan Durband at the theatre in 1998 in the company of actor Pete Postlethwaite who acknowledged a great personal debt to his time spent on the stage at The Everyman.