| Peter Hall | |
|---|---|
| Born | Peter Reginald Frederick Hall 22 November 1930 Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk, England |
| Occupation | Director |
| Years active | 1953-present |
| Spouse(s) | 4) Nicola Frei (1990-present) (one child) 3)Maria Ewing (1982-1990) (one daughter Rebecca b.1982) 2) Jacqueline Taylor (1965-1981) (two children, including a son Edward b.1967) 1) Leslie Caron (1956-1965) (one son Christopher b. 1957 and one daughter Jennifer b.1962) |
Sir Peter Reginald Frederick Hall CBE (born 22 November 1930) is an English theatre and film director. Hall founded the Royal Shakespeare Company (1960–68) and directed the National Theatre (1973–88), and has been prominent in defending public subsidy of the arts in Britain.
Contents |
Biography
Early years
Hall was born at Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk, England, to Grace Pamment and Reginald Edward Arthur Hall, a stationmaster.[1][2] Hall attended The Perse School in Cambridge and went on to the Joint Services School for Linguists during his National Service where he learned to speak the Russian language. He produced and acted in several productions while at the University of Cambridge, graduating in 1953 from St Catharine's College. During the same year, he staged his first professional play at the Theatre Royal, Windsor.
Career
From 1954 to 1955 he was at the Oxford Playhouse where he directed several notable young actors such as Ronnie Barker and Roderick Cook. In August 1955, he directed the English-language premiere of Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett at the Arts Theatre, London. From 1956–1959 he ran the Arts Theatre and directed several plays including the English-language premiere of The Waltz of the Toreadors by the French dramatist Jean Anouilh.[3] He was at Shakespeare Memorial Theatre in Stratford-on-Avon for the 1957 to 1959 seasons.[3] There, his productions included: Cymbeline with Peggy Ashcroft; Coriolanus with Laurence Olivier and Edith Evans; and A Midsummer Night's Dream with Charles Laughton.
Hall founded the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1960, at the age of 29. He served as its artistic director from that time until 1968. He was director of the National Theatre from 1973 to 1988 and was also a member of the Arts Council of Great Britain resigning in protest from both roles in protest over cuts in public funding. After leaving the National Theatre he founded his own company directing a series of productions at the Old Vic.
In 1983 he presented a new production of Wagner's Ring Cycle at Bayreuth, with Sir Georg Solti conducting. This production was in honour of the 100th anniversary of Wagner's death.
In 1990, at the Chichester Festival Theatre he directed Born Again, a musical version of Eugene Ionesco's Rhinoceros. Hall wrote the lyrics and co-wrote the libretto with Julian Barry, and British composer Jason Carr in Carr's first professional musical. Many years later one of the show's song's "When I Was Out This Morning" (with lyrics by Hall) was included on Carr's composer compilation album.
He is patron of the theatre company Canon's Mouth, founded in 2003, composed of young actors "intent on discovering a new voice for the great metaphorical dramas of the Renaissance, while receiving guidance from some of the greatest names in classical theatre."[4]
His latest project is as director of the Rose Theatre at Kingston upon Thames which opened in 2008, and which draws design inspiration from the original Rose theatre. In its basic shell prior to fit out, it has seen a sell out run of his production of As You Like It.
Personal life
Hall was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1963 and in 1977 was knighted for his services to the theatre. In 1999, he was presented with a Laurence Olivier Award. He was appointed Chancellor of Kingston University in 2000.
Hall married four times. His first was to French actress Leslie Caron, followed by Jacqueline Taylor, opera soprano Maria Ewing, and present wife Nicola Frei. His diaries were published in 1983. One of his children is the actress Rebecca Hall and another is the director, Edward Hall.
Stage productions
- Twelfth Night (at the Oxford Playhouse) 1954
- Waiting for Godot (Samuel Beckett English-language première) (at the Arts Theatre) August 1955
- The Waltz of the Toreadors (Jean Anouilh English-language première at the Arts Theatre) 1956
- Wars of the Roses, adaptation of the Henry VI and Richard III plays, the Royal Shakespeare Company 1963-1964
- The Homecoming (Harold Pinter Original production by Peter Hall; By arrangement with the Governors of the Royal Shakespeare Company) 5 January 1967 - 14 October 1967
- Old Times (Harold Pinter) 16 November 1971 - 26 February 1972
- Via Galactica (rock musical) 28 November 1972 - 2 December 1972
- Saturday Sunday Monday (Eduardo De Filippo Produced by arrangement with the National Theatre) 21 November 1974 - 30 November 1974
- As You Like It (Produced by arrangement with the National Theatre) 3 December 1974 - 8 December 1974
- The Misanthrope (Molière in a version by Tony Harrison Originally produced by the National Theatre) 12 March 1975 - 31 May 1975
- No Man's Land (Pinter, Originally produced by the National Theatre) 9 November 1976 - 18 December 1976
- Bedroom Farce (Alan Ayckbourn Originally produced by the National Theatre) 29 March 1979 - 24 November 1979
- Betrayal (Pinter) 5 January 1980 - 31 May 1980, the National Theatre
- Amadeus (Peter Shaffer world première at the National Theatre) 17 December 1980 - 16 October 1983
- Wagner's Ring Cycle at Bayreuth 1983
- Jean Seberg (Marvin Hamlisch world première at the National Theatre) 1 December 1983 - 4 April 1984
- The Petition (Brian Clark) 24 April 1986 - 29 June 1986
- Wild Honey (Michael Frayn adaptation of Chekhov) 18 December 1986 - 11 January 1987
- Orpheus Descending (Tennessee Williams) 24 September 1989 - 17 December 1989
- The Merchant of Venice 19 December 1989 - 10 March 1990
- Born Again September 1990 Chichester Festival Theatre
- Four Baboons Adoring the Sun (John Guare) 18 March 1992 - 19 April 1992
- An Ideal Husband (Oscar Wilde) 1 May 1996 - 26 Jan 1997
- Amadeus 15 December 1999 - 14 May 2000
- Amy's View (David Hare) 28 November 2006 - 17 February 2007
- The Vortex (Noël Coward) 13 November 2007 - 1 December 2007 Theatre Royal Windsor.
- An Ideal Husband (Oscar Wilde) 25 August 2008 - 29 November 2008.
- Pygmalion (George Bernard Shaw|Shaw]]) 6 February 2009 - 8 March 2009, Hong Kong Arts Festival
References
- ^ John O'Mahoney (12 February 2005). "Profile of Peter Hall". The Guardian. http://www.guardian.co.uk/stage/2005/feb/12/rsc.theatre. Retrieved 2009-02-16.
- ^ "Peter Hall Biography". filmreference. 2008. http://www.filmreference.com/film/13/Peter-Hall.html. Retrieved 2009-01-22.
- ^ a b Hall, Peter (1993). Making an Exhibition of Myself: The Autobiography of Peter Hall. London: Sinclair-Stevenson. pp. 101, 435ff. ISBN 1840021152.
- ^ "Great Tamburlaine 'Reopens' Rose After 400 Years". Whatsonstage. 11 September 2003. http://www.whatsonstage.com/index.php?pg=207&story=E8821063212217. Retrieved 2009-02-16.
Further reading
- Pearson, Richard (1990). A Band of Arrogant and United Heroes. London: Adelphi Press. ISBN 1856540057.
External links
- Peter Hall at the Internet Broadway Database
- Peter Hall at the Internet Movie Database
- Peter Hall video at the Peoples Archive
- Fathom biography
- Godot almighty by Peter Hall
|
|||||
|
|||||
|
|||||
|
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
|||||
This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)
