Present
In 2002, the purpose-built theatre at Homewood School, Ashford Road, Tenterden, Kent was named the Sinden Theatre.
On 12 July 2005, he was awarded the Honorary Degree of Doctor of Letters by the University of Leicester and on 20 July 2011, the Honorary Degree of Doctor of Arts by the University of Canterbury.
Sinden is a patron of ME Solutions, a charity dedicated to finding a breakthrough in the treatment of Myalgic Encephalomyelitis through targeted and comprehensive biomedical research, focusing on the physical causes of M.E.
Sinden is Honorary President of the Garden Suburb Theatre, an amateur theatre group based in the Hampstead Garden Suburb where he was resident for many years.
On 9 October 2012, Sir Donald celebrated his 89th birthday and his retirement after 30 years as the longest-standing President of the Royal Theatrical Fund (founded by Charles Dickens in 1839) with a celebration lunch for 350 guests at the Park Lane Hotel, London which was compered by Russ Abbott and the charity auction was conducted by Lord Jeffrey Archer. Leading the tributes was movie legend Jean Kent, 91, who co-starred with Sir Donald in Bernard Delfont’s 1951 stage production of Frou-Frou and letters from HRH Queen Elizabeth 11 and HSH Prince Albert of Monaco were read out, with speeches from Downton Abbey writer Lord Julian Fellowes, Ray Cooney and Gyles Brandreth.
Read more about this topic: Donald Sinden
Famous quotes containing the word present:
“In the moment when you make the least petition to God, though it be but a silent wish that he may approve you, or add one moment to your life,—do you not, in the very act, necessarily exclude all other beings from your thought? In that act, the soul stands alone with God, and Jesus is no more present to your mind than your brother or your child.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“As regards the celebrated “struggle for life,” it seems to me for the present to have been rather asserted than proved. It does occur, but as the exception; the general aspect of life is not hunger and distress, but rather wealth, luxury, even absurd prodigality—where there is a struggle it is a struggle for power.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)
“To complain of the age we live in, to murmur at the present possessors of power, to lament the past, to conceive extravagant hopes of the future, are the common dispositions of the greatest part of mankind.”
—Edmund Burke (1729–1797)