 |
Richard Digby Day (born 27 December 1938) [1] is a British stage director and international professor and lecturer. He is well known for his work in the classical theatre, in particular the plays of William Shakespeare and George Bernard Shaw. He is vice president of the Shaw Society, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, and has staged more productions of Shaw's work than any other living director. His productions of Stephen Sondheim musicals have also been notable.
Digby Day was born in Cardiff, [2] the son of Donald Day and Doris Mary (née George). [3] He attended Rhiwbeina Junior School in Cardiff, before relocating with his family to the Midlands in 1952, [4] where his education continued at Solihull School, Warwickshire. He went on to win the Leverhulme Scholarship to study at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, becoming their first student of direction. [3] [4] He graduated in 1963. [5] Prior to attending RADA, he appeared as an actor in the role of Swiss Cheese in the Midlands premiere of Brecht's Mother Courage in Stratford-upon-Avon, 1961. [6] He is a contemporary of British actor Ian McKellen, [7] and the two began their professional careers working on many of the same productions with Digby Day serving as assistant director.
Digby Day has been Artistic Director of five UK theatres: the Bournemouth Theatre Company (from 1966 to 1968); the New Shakespeare Company at the Open Air Theatre in Regent's Park (from 1966 to 1974); [8] the Welsh National Theatre Company (from 1969 to 1971); the York Theatre Royal (from 1971 to 1976); the Nottingham Playhouse (from 1980 to 1984); and the Northcott Theatre, (from 1977 to 1980). [4]
Additionally, his work has been seen in the West End and on tour extensively throughout the UK, Canada, Denmark, and Ireland. Particularly successful were his touring productions of Sondheim's A Little Night Music and Company , Shaw's The Devil's Disciple , Somerset Maugham's Our Betters , and J M Barrie's Peter Pan . He directed Geraldine McEwan at the National Theatre in Two Inches of Ivory, a production about Jane Austen that has been seen all over the world under the auspices of the British Council, the UK's official international organisation for educational opportunities and cultural relations.
Richard Digby Day has taught and lectured in the UK and in North America. From 2003 to 2012 he was Director of the London Dramatic Academy of Fordham University. [3] He had previously served on the faculty at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, as well as the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, the National Theatre School of Canada, and the graduate program of Columbia University where he directed the Shakespeare Project for two years.
From 1998–2002, he was Principal of the London Academy of Theatre, a classical theatre program for American students in the UK. From 1990 to 1998, he was director of the National Theater Institute at the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center in Waterford, CT. During this period, he served on the Regional Committee of the Arts Council of Great Britain, on the National Council for Drama Training, was Chairman of the Drama Panel of the Yorkshire Arts Association, and taught regularly at colleges and universities in the United States. He also served on the board of the Drama League of New York and helped found their Directors Project. In 1997 he was named Adjunct Professor of Theater at Connecticut College where he had worked since 1984.
He is credited with discovering actors Ralph Fiennes and Hugh Grant. [7]
Sir Kenneth Charles Branagh is a British actor and filmmaker. Branagh trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London and has served as its president since 2015. He has won an Academy Award, four BAFTAs, two Emmy Awards, and a Golden Globe Award. He was appointed a Knight Bachelor in the 2012 Birthday Honours and knighted on 9 November 2012. He was made a Freeman of his native city of Belfast in January 2018. In 2020, he was listed at number 20 on The Irish Times list of Ireland's greatest film actors.
The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art is a drama school in London, England, that provides vocational conservatoire training for theatre, film, television, and radio. It is based in the Bloomsbury area of Central London, close to the Senate House complex of the University of London and is a founding member of the Federation of Drama Schools. It is one of the oldest drama schools in the United Kingdom, founded in 1904 by Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree. It moved to buildings on Gower Street in 1905. It was granted a Royal Charter in 1920 and a new theatre was built on Malet Street, behind the Gower Street buildings that was opened by Edward, Prince of Wales, in 1921. It received its first government subsidy in 1924. RADA currently has five theatres and a cinema. The school’s Principal Industry Partner is Warner Bros. Entertainment.
The Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) is a major British theatre company, based in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England. The company employs over 1,000 staff and produces around 20 productions a year. The RSC plays regularly in London, Stratford-upon-Avon, and on tour across the UK and internationally.
Dame Jane Elizabeth Ailwên Phillips, known professionally as Siân Phillips, is a Welsh actress. She has performed the title roles in Ibsen's Hedda Gabler and George Bernard Shaw's Saint Joan.
Sir Peter Reginald Frederick Hall CBE, was an English theatre, opera and film director. His obituary in The Times declared him "the most important figure in British theatre for half a century" and on his death, a Royal National Theatre statement declared that Hall's "influence on the artistic life of Britain in the 20th century was unparalleled". In 2018, the Laurence Olivier Awards, recognizing achievements in London theatre, changed the award for Best Director to the Sir Peter Hall Award for Best Director.
Sir Antony Sher was a British actor, writer and theatre director of South African origin. A two-time Laurence Olivier Award winner and a four-time nominee, he joined the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1982 and toured in many roles, as well as appearing on film and television. In 2001, he starred in his cousin Ronald Harwood's play Mahler's Conversion, and said that the story of a composer sacrificing his faith for his career echoed his own identity struggles.
Brian Bedford was an English actor. He appeared in film and on stage, and was an actor-director of Shakespeare productions. He received seven Tony nominations, second only to Jason Robards, who had eight.
Mervyn Alexander Clifford Blake, was a Canadian stage actor.
Anton Lesser is an English actor. He is well known for his roles as Qyburn in the HBO series Game of Thrones, as Thomas More in Wolf Hall, as Prime Minister Harold Macmillan in The Crown, as Prime Minister Clement Attlee in A United Kingdom and as Chief Superintendent Bright in Endeavour.
Barbara Bryne is a British-American actress of film, theatre and television. Onstage she has appeared in comedy, dramatic and musical production of Broadway and studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts (RADA).
Mary Barbara Jefford, OBE was a British actress, best known for her theatrical performances with the Royal Shakespeare Company, the Old Vic and the National Theatre and her role as Molly Bloom in the 1967 film of James Joyce's Ulysses.
Thelma Holt is a British theatre producer and former actress.
Nicholas Le Prevost is an English actor.
Robert Marsden was an English actor, director, dramatic recitalist and teacher of drama at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, and elsewhere. He was also one of the earliest wartime members of the BBC Radio Drama Repertory Company, formed to meet the circumstances of World War II.
Richard Cottrell is an English theatre director. He has been the Director of the Cambridge Theatre Company and the Bristol Old Vic in England, and of the Nimrod Theatre in Sydney, Australia. He has also directed for the Royal Shakespeare Company, the Chichester Festival, the Stratford Shakespeare Festival in Stratford, Ontario, the National Theatre of Portugal, and other theatre companies around the world.
Jonathan Charles Slinger is an English actor.
Motley Theatre Design Course is a one-year independent theatre design course in London. It was founded at Sadler's Wells Opera in 1966.
Hugh Ross is a Scottish actor, with a wide variety of British TV, film and theatre credits. He is known for his supporting roles in the films Trainspotting and Bronson; and for his performances as Major Mungo Munro in the Sharpe, and as Narcisse in Clive Barker’s Nightbreed.
Richard O'Donoghue (1920-2002) was an actor, theatrical entrepreneur and poet. O'Donoghue was appointed Registrar for the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, a position responsible for the student intake, support, and educational experience in their time at the college.
David March was an English actor who had a prominent career on British radio from 1953 until his death 45 years later. He also appeared on London's West End and other major British theaters during the mid 20th century, but eschewed theatre for radio and television after 1964. In 1985 he received the Radio Academy Award for Best Radio Actor for his performance in a dramatisation of Mr Norris Changes Trains. He also periodically appeared In British television, beginning with several filmed productions of William Shakespeare's plays for television during the 1940s. His television credits include appearances on Doctor Who, The Benny Hill Show, The Morecambe & Wise Show, The Power Game.The First Churchills, The Basil Brush Show and The Onedin Line among others.