Earle Grey Players

Last updated

The Earle Grey Players were a professional theater company in Canada during the 1940s and 1950s. Founded by Earle Grey and his wife, Mary Godwin, the company specialized in Shakespearean productions, and were responsible for founding the first Shakespeare Festival in Canada in 1949. In addition to holding its annual festival, the Players also toured the country, performing Shakespeare in schools, often providing students with their first exposure to seeing Shakespeare performed live.

Contents

Founding and early history

In England, Earle Grey met and married Mary Godwin, and the two had a son, Anthony. The Greys came to Canada in 1939 as part of a theater troop touring the country. When the troop returned to England, the Greys decided to remain in Toronto. [1] They became part of the small theater community there, and noticed that it lacked any Shakespeare tradition. By the mid-1940s, the Greys noticed Canada's burgeoning appreciation for Shakespeare, and the two formed the Earle Grey Players in 1946, designed to promote Shakespeare all season long for the Canadian public. [2] The following year the company put on a production of Twelfth Night on the north terrace of Trinity College. With the success of that performance, the group began presenting Shakespearean productions at different high schools around the country. [3] The group continued to perform at Trinity College over the next several years, holding performances either outside on the quadrangle, or inside of Strachan Hall. [4]

Earle Grey Shakespeare Festival

The group began the First Canadian Shakespeare Festival, which opened on June 27, 1949, with a performance of As You Like It , at the University of Toronto's Trinity College quadrangle. [3] Two years later, the Grey's planted a mulberry tree, alleged to have been taken from the root of the tree supposedly planted by Shakespeare at his last residence, the New Place. [3] [5] With the formation of the Earle Grey Shakespeare Festival, it supplanted the Shakespeare Society of Toronto as the primary source of Shakespeare in Canada. [6] Its primacy was short-lived, however, with the creation of the Stratford Festival in 1953, which quickly grew to the largest Shakespeare festival in the country. As the Stratford waxed, the Earle Grey Festival waned, and the last festival was held in 1959. [3] [7] A fundamental principle of the Grey festival was to produce historical accurate plays according to the author's intentions, a concept which was a significant addition to the post-war discussion on theater.

As far as possible twentieth-century notions would not be permitted. Stunts, fashionable slants, Freudian implications, and silly-clever ideas which are the bane of the contemporary Shakespeare theatre would be ruled out. Arrogant directors would not provide crutches to help the aged and halting playwright in his shamble to oblivion. The accumulation of varnish and the over-painting of centuries would be stripped off and the picture shown as Shakespeare's brush had left it. Our watchword would be 'Back to Shakespeare'... our resolution would be to try and give our audience what Shakespeare had in mind when he wrote, and not some distortion or misconception based on modern ideas. [7]

Later life and honours

In 1960 the Greys left Canada, returning to England, where they continued acting right up to their deaths: Mary Godwin in 1971 and Earl Grey in 1978. [3]

In 1972, the ACTRA Awards introduced the Earle Grey Award to honour the best performance in a Canadian television film within the annual eligibility period. In 1986, when the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television took over the ACTRA Awards to launch the expanded Gemini Awards, the Earle Grey Award was transitioned into the Academy's lifetime achievement award for television acting. [8] [9]

Notable members

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robertson Davies</span> Canadian novelist

William Robertson Davies was a Canadian novelist, playwright, critic, journalist, and professor. He was one of Canada's best known and most popular authors and one of its most distinguished "men of letters", a term Davies gladly accepted for himself. Davies was the founding Master of Massey College, a graduate residential college associated with the University of Toronto.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stratford, Ontario</span> City in Ontario, Canada

Stratford is a city on the Avon River within Perth County in southwestern Ontario, Canada, with a 2021 population of 33,232 in a land area of 30.02 square kilometres (11.59 sq mi). Stratford is the seat of Perth County, which was settled by English, Irish, Scottish and German immigrants, in almost equal numbers, starting in the 1820s but primarily in the 1830s and 1840s. Most became farmers; even today, the area around Stratford is known for mixed farming, dairying and hog production.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jonathan Frid</span> Canadian actor

Jonathan Frid was a Canadian actor, best known for his role as vampire Barnabas Collins on the gothic television soap opera Dark Shadows. The introduction in 1967 of Frid's reluctant, guilt-ridden vampire caused the floundering daytime drama to soar to 20 million daily viewers. His watershed portrayal has been cited as a key influence on contemporary genre film and television series such as Twilight, True Blood and The Vampire Diaries.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stratford Festival</span> Theatre festival in Stratford, Ontario, Canada

The Stratford Festival is a theatre festival which runs from April to October in the city of Stratford, Ontario, Canada. Founded by local journalist Tom Patterson in 1952, the festival was formerly known as the Stratford Shakespearean Festival, the Shakespeare Festival and the Stratford Shakespeare Festival. The festival was one of the first arts festivals in Canada and continues to be one of its most prominent. It is recognized worldwide for its productions of Shakespearean plays.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Christopher Plummer</span> Canadian actor (1929–2021)

Arthur Christopher Orme Plummer was a Canadian actor. His career spanned seven decades, gaining him recognition for his performances in film, stage, and television. He received multiple accolades, including an Academy Award, two Tony Awards, and two Primetime Emmy Awards, making him the only Canadian recipient of the "Triple Crown of Acting". He also received a BAFTA Award, a Golden Globe Award, and Screen Actors Guild Award as well as a nomination for a Grammy Award.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tyrone Guthrie</span> English actor and director (1900–1971)

Sir William Tyrone Guthrie was an English theatrical director instrumental in the founding of the Stratford Festival of Canada, the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and the Tyrone Guthrie Centre at his family's ancestral home, Annaghmakerrig, near Newbliss in County Monaghan, Ireland. He is famous for his original approach to Shakespearean and modern drama.

Harry Thomas Patterson, was a Stratford, Ontario born journalist who went on to found the Stratford Festival of Canada, then called the Stratford Shakespearean Festival, the largest theatre festival in Canada.

The ACTRA Awards were first presented in 1972 to celebrate excellence in Canada's television and radio industries. Organized and presented by the Association of Canadian Television and Radio Artists, which represented performers, writers and broadcast journalists, the Nellie statuettes were presented annually until 1986. They were the primary national television award in Canada until 1986, when they were taken over by the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television to create the new Gemini Awards, although ACTRA continued to present Nellies in radio categories.

The Earle Grey Award is the lifetime achievement award for television acting of the Canadian Screen Awards, and its predecessor the Gemini Awards. It can be presented to an individual or collaborative team.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brian Bedford</span> English actor (1935–2016)

Brian Bedford was an English actor. He appeared in film and on stage, and was an actor-director of Shakespeare productions. Bedford was nominated for seven Tony Awards for his theatrical work, winning once.

John Juliani was a Canadian actor, writer, producer, director and educator. His career spanned four decades in a number of different media, including radio and film. In addition to his artistic contributions, Juliani was a strong advocate of Canadian theatre and the arts. He is the father of actor Alessandro Juliani.

Helen Burns was a British actress mostly known for playing comedic roles. Burns is known for her performance in the 1993 production of The Last Yankee at the Duke of York's Theatre, for which she won a Laurence Olivier Award, and for her role in the British television series And That's the News, Goodnight.

Richard Jean Monette CM, DHum, LLD, was a Canadian actor and director, best known for his 14-season tenure as the longest-serving artistic director of the Stratford Festival of Canada from 1994 to 2007.

A Shakespeare festival is a theatre organization that stages the works of William Shakespeare continually.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Daniel Hyatt</span> Canadian actor

Daniel Fowler Hyatt was a Canadian actor whose career spanned more than fifty years. Based in Toronto, he performed across Canada, the United States, and Europe.

Karen Robinson is a British-Canadian film, television, and stage actress. She won the Canadian Screen Award for Best Performance in a Guest Role in a Drama Series at the 7th Canadian Screen Awards in 2019 for her appearance on the television series Mary Kills People. She also won a 2021 Screen Actors Guild Award as part of the Schitt's Creek cast.

"A Shakespearean Baseball Game", subtitled "A Comedy of Errors, Hits and Runs", is a sketch by the Canadian comedy duo Wayne and Shuster. First performed on television in 1958 and slightly revised in 1971 and 1977, the sketch depicts a fictional baseball game with the manager, players, and umpires all speaking in Shakespearean verse. The dialogue parodies lines from the plays Hamlet, Macbeth, Julius Caesar, and Richard III while referencing modern baseball culture. It became Wayne and Shuster's signature sketch, and both its television and radio recordings have been preserved as significant works.

Gord Rand is a Canadian actor and playwright. He is most noted for his recurring role as Det. Marty Duko in the television series Orphan Black, for which he was a Canadian Screen Award nominee for Best Performance in a Guest Role in a Dramatic Series at the 5th Canadian Screen Awards in 2017.

Of the Fields, Lately is a Canadian theatrical play by David French, first staged by Tarragon Theatre in 1973. It is the second in his Mercer Plays series, following Leaving Home (1972) and preceding Salt-Water Moon (1984), 1949 (1988) and Soldier’s Heart (2001).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cara Ricketts</span> Canadian film, stage and television actor

Cara Ricketts is an actress, best known for her roles as Mary Lacroix in Anne with an E and Lilly Rue in the 2019 revival of Street Legal.

References

  1. ↑ Eugene Benson; Leonard W. Conolly, eds. (1989). The Oxford Companion to Canadian Theatre. Oxford Unity Press. pp. 248–49. ISBN   0195406729.
  2. ↑ "Anthony Grey - 3 His parents Mary Godwin and Earle Grey". Theatre Museum Canada. Retrieved February 12, 2016.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 "Earl Grey Players". University of Toronto. Retrieved February 12, 2016.
  4. ↑ Thomas Arthur Reed, ed. (1952). A History of the University of Trinity College, Toronto. University of Toronto Press. p. 173.
  5. ↑ Brydon, Diana; Makaryk, Irene Rima (2002). Shakespeare in Canada: A World Elsewhere. University of Toronto Press. p. 21. ISBN   0802036554.
  6. ↑ Brydon & Makaryk 2002, p. 73.
  7. 1 2 Brydon & Makaryk 2002, p. 118.
  8. ↑ "Earle Grey Award". Historica Canada. Retrieved February 12, 2016.
  9. ↑ Miller, Mary Jane (1996). Rewind and Search. McGill-Queen's Press. p. 518. ISBN   0773565736.
  10. ↑ Hamrick, Craig; Jamison, R. J. (2002). Barnabas & Company: The Cast of the TV Classic Dark Shadows. iUniverse. p. 156. ISBN   1475910347.
  11. ↑ "Greene, Lorne". The Canadian Theatre Encyclopedia. Archived from the original on October 28, 2007. Retrieved February 12, 2016.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.