The Manchester Youth Theatre was a youth theatre which operated in Manchester from 1966 until 2003. It was founded by Geoff Sykes, a lifelong friend of Michael Croft founder of The National Youth Theatre who served as its Artistic Director until his death. Sykes and his wife Hazel ran Manchester Youth Theatre staging plays, musicals and devised shows which featured at the local theatres in Manchester.
Mike Leigh, then a lecturer at the Catholic women teachers training college Sedgley Park , devised and directed two big-cast projects for the Manchester Youth Theatre: Big Basil and Glum Victoria and the Lad with Specs . [1]
Sam Boardman-Jacobs won acclaim [2] for his work on Holocaust and Yiddish drama with the Manchester Youth Theatre. [3]
The notable alumni include Dominic Monaghan; Aiden Shaw; Steven Pinder; Kevin Kennedy; David Threlfall; Lee Oakes; David Bamber; Lesley Sharpl Phil Rose; Gillian Bevan; Alan Williams; Karl Heaver; Shaun Gorringe; Bernard Latham[ citation needed ]
Hattie Jacques was an English comedy actress of stage, radio and screen. She is best known as a regular of the Carry On films, where she typically played strict, no-nonsense characters, but was also a prolific television and radio performer.
Frederick Charles Jones was an English actor who had an extensive career in television, theatre and cinema productions for almost sixty years. In theatre, he was best known for originating the role of Sir in The Dresser; in film, he was best known for his role as the showman Bytes in The Elephant Man (1980); and in television, he was best known for playing Sandy Thomas in the ITV soap opera Emmerdale from 2005 to 2018.
Michael Christopher Sheen is a Welsh actor, television producer and political activist. After training at London's Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA), he worked mainly in theatre throughout the 1990s and made notable stage appearances in Romeo and Juliet (1992), Don't Fool with Love (1993), Peer Gynt (1994), The Seagull (1995), The Homecoming (1997), and Henry V (1997). His performances in Amadeus at the Old Vic and Look Back in Anger at the National Theatre were nominated for Olivier Awards in 1998 and 1999, respectively. In 2003, he was nominated for a third Olivier Award for his performance in Caligula at the Donmar Warehouse.
Mike Leigh is an English film and theatre director, screenwriter and playwright. He studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) and further at the Camberwell School of Art, the Central School of Art and Design and the London School of Film Technique. He began his career as a theatre director and playwright in the mid-1960s, before transitioning to making televised plays and films for BBC Television in the 1970s and '80s. Leigh is known for his lengthy rehearsal and improvisation techniques with actors to build characters and narrative for his films. His purpose is to capture reality and present "emotional, subjective, intuitive, instinctive, vulnerable films." His films and stage plays, according to critic Michael Coveney, "comprise a distinctive, homogenous body of work which stands comparison with anyone's in the British theatre and cinema over the same period."
The Old Vic is a 1,000-seat, not-for-profit producing theatre in Waterloo, London, England. Established in 1818 as the Royal Coburg Theatre, and renamed in 1833 the Royal Victoria Theatre. In 1871 it was rebuilt and reopened as the Royal Victoria Palace. It was taken over by Emma Cons in 1880 and formally named the Royal Victoria Hall, although by that time it was already known as the "Old Vic". In 1898, a niece of Cons, Lilian Baylis, assumed management and began a series of Shakespeare productions in 1914. The building was damaged in 1940 during air raids and it became a Grade II* listed building in 1951 after it reopened.
The Royal Exchange is a grade II listed building in Manchester, England. It is located in the city centre on the land bounded by St Ann's Square, Exchange Street, Market Street, Cross Street and Old Bank Street. The complex includes the Royal Exchange Theatre and the Royal Exchange Shopping Centre.
Roy Dotrice was a British actor famed for his portrayal of the antiquarian John Aubrey in the record-breaking solo play Brief Lives.
Naked is a 1993 British black comedy drama film written and directed by Mike Leigh and starring David Thewlis as Johnny, a loquacious intellectual and conspiracy theorist. The film won several awards, including best director and best actor at Cannes. Naked marked a new career high for Leigh as a director and made the then-unknown Thewlis an internationally recognised star.
Philip Madoc was a Welsh actor. He performed many stage, television, radio and film roles, and was recognised for having a "rich, sonorous voice" and often playing villains and officers. On television, he starred as David Lloyd George in The Life and Times of David Lloyd George (1981) and DCI Noel Bain in the detective series A Mind to Kill (1994–2002). His guest roles included multiple appearances in the cult series The Avengers (1962–68) and Doctor Who (1968–1979), as well as playing the U-boat captain in the Dad's Army episode "The Deadly Attachment" (1973). He was also known to be an accomplished linguist.
Roger Michael Kelly, known by the stage name Sam Kelly, was an English actor who appeared in film, television, radio and theatre. He is best known for his roles as Captain Hans Geering in 'Allo 'Allo!, Warren in Porridge, Sam in On the Up, and Ted Liversidge in Barbara.
Ciarán Hinds is an Irish actor. Born in Belfast, Northern Ireland, Hinds is known for his various roles on the screen and stage, ranging from heroic to villainous characters. He has starred in feature films such as The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover (1989), Persuasion (1995), Oscar and Lucinda (1997), Road to Perdition (2002), The Sum of All Fears (2002), Munich (2005), Amazing Grace (2007), There Will Be Blood (2007), ', Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day (2008), Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2 (2011), Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011), Silence (2016), First Man (2018), and Belfast (2021), the latter for which he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.
Marsha Lisa Thomason Sykes is a British television and film actress who is best known for playing Sara Evers in Disney's The Haunted Mansion, Nessa Holt in the first two seasons of the NBC series Las Vegas, Naomi Dorrit on the ABC series Lost, FBI agent Diana Berrigan on the USA Network series White Collar and DS Jenn Townsend in ITV crime series The Bay.
The Piccadilly Theatre is a West End theatre located at 16 Denman Street, behind Piccadilly Circus and adjacent to the Regent Palace Hotel, in the City of Westminster, England.
Peter Nigel Terry was an English stage, film, and television actor, typically in historical and period roles. He played Prince John in Anthony Harvey's film The Lion in Winter (1968) and King Arthur in John Boorman's Excalibur (1981).
Jonathan Stone-Fewings is an English actor. He studied at Hereford College of Arts and at the Welsh College of Music and Drama, and began his career in 1989. He has been a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) since 1994. He first performed with the National Theatre playing Barrildo in Declan Donnellan's Fuenteovejuna at the Cottesloe Theatre.
Dominic Jephcott is a RADA-trained English actor and writer. He is known for his work in The Beiderbecke Affair, The Beiderbecke Connection, Midsomer Murders, and in Holby City and Casualty, as the adulterous Doctor Alistair Taylor.
Sam Boardman-Jacobs is a Yorkshire-born but Midlands & London raised playwright, director and scenographer who now lives in France & Spain, He has recently become a choreographer as well, since he received a master's degree from Trinity/ Laban. He now commutes between France, Spain and the UK.
Rufus Norris is a British theatre and film director, who is currently the Artistic Director and Joint Chief Executive of the National Theatre.
John Michael Croft, OBE was an English actor, schoolteacher, and writer. Based upon his own experience of supply teaching in tough secondary schools, he wrote the controversial 1954 anti-corporal punishment novel Spare the Rod, which was later released as a film.