Performance History
The new theatre's artistic direction was shared between Frank Dunlop and actor John Neville with Peter Ustinov as associate.
The first production in the new theatre was Shakespeare's Coriolanus in a production by Tyrone Guthrie. This included a young Ian McKellen as Tullus Aufidius opposite Neville in the title role.
Subsequent artistic directors were Stuart Burge, Richard Eyre, Geoffrey Reeves, Richard Digby Day, Kenneth Alan Taylor, Pip Broughton and Martin Duncan. The Playhouse is currently under the leadership of Stephanie Sirr, Chief Executive and Giles Croft Artistic Director.
The Playhouse has a strong tradition of new works for children, both in the form of original writing and more recently in the form of classic pantomimes conceived by former artistic director Kenneth Alan Taylor. Taylor has directed 25 consecutive pantomimes at the theatre as of 2008.
In common with most producing theatres, Nottingham Playhouse no longer generally has a repertory approach to programming although it continues to create up to 13 new productions per annum. Its recent plays include Old Big 'Ead in the Spirit of the Man, a homage to Nottingham legend Brian Clough, Rat Pack Confidential and Summer and Smoke, which both transferred to the West End and The Burial at Thebes which was part of the Barbican BITE season of autumn 2007 and toured the USA in 2008.
Nottingham Playhouse celebrated its 60th anniversary in 2008 along with Kenneth Alan Taylor's 25th anniversary pantomime where he returned to the stage as Widow Twankey in Aladdin.
Read more about this topic: Nottingham Playhouse
Famous quotes containing the words performance and/or history:
“Just as the performance of the vilest and most wicked deeds requires spirit and talent, so even the greatest demand a certain insensitivity which under other circumstances we would call stupidity.”
—G.C. (Georg Christoph)
“In nature, all is useful, all is beautiful. It is therefore beautiful, because it is alive, moving, reproductive; it is therefore useful, because it is symmetrical and fair. Beauty will not come at the call of a legislature, nor will it repeat in England or America its history in Greece. It will come, as always, unannounced, and spring up between the feet of brave and earnest men.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)