No. 459 - December 2007 President: Vice President: Dr Wendy Toye CBE, Hon.D.Litt. Mr Nickolas Grace FCSSD, CLIPA Visit to The Mansion House MERRY We have arranged a visit to the impressive Mansion House on Thursday, 27th March 2008 CHRISTMAS at 2.00pm. Tickets cost £5.00. Please send your application to myself together with an SAE. We are asked to arrive at the Mansion House at no We would like to wish all of our Members a later than 1.45pm. The entrance is in the side wonderful Christmas and a Happy New Year. street on the right-hand side of the building. Whatever you do over the festive season, we Please note that no photography is allowed. wish you happiness and joy for this special time of year. Please reply to: T.J. Rooke, 314B Park Road, London N8 8LA, 0208 552 0492. And lots of mince pies, obviously! Tim Rooke Lilian Baylis Evening Annual Visit to the On Monday 17th December at 7.30pm, to mark Theatre Royal, Bath the 70th anniversary of Lilian Baylis’s death in 1937, there will be a Lilian Baylis evening at I have arranged our usual visit to the Theatre the upstairs Clore Studio, at the Royal Opera Royal, Bath early next year, to see the House, Covent Garden. It will be presented by pantomime with our old friend Chris Harris Sarah Lenton and Liz Schafer. The heading the cast. This will take place on presentation will include archival recordings Tuesday, 8th January 2008 at the 2.00pm and PowerPoint. Tickets are £14 (£6 students matinee. Several members of our Committee, and ROH Access List). who come regularly, along with myself, have already booked, and last year some of our Liz Schafer members asked me for tickets and joined us, making quite a large party, and I hope that may Twelfth Night Party happen again this time. After his role as a loveable Buttons in Our traditional Twelfth Night Party will take Cinderella last year, Chris is back to playing his th place on Saturday, 5 January 2008 at the Old famous Dame character – this time as Widow Vic, between 5.00 and 7.00pm. Tickets are £6 Twankey in Aladdin, one of the most popular for Members and £7.50 for Non-members. pantomime stories. Joining him is Clive Mantle, Please write to Ruth Jeayes, 185 Honor Oak as the evil magician Abanazar. Some of you Road, London SE23 3RP for tickets, or call may recall Clive as one of the doctors in 0208 699 2379. Casualty and in many other TV shows. With there being no pantomime in Bristol this year, Ruth Jeayes as the Bristol Old Vic is closed, tickets are in big demand, so please let me know as soon as Founded in 1923 by The Vic-Wells Association LILIAN BAYLIS CH., M.A. (Oxon) Hon., LL.D. (Birm) Hon. The OLD VIC, Waterloo Road, London SE1 8NB SADLER’S WELLS, Rosebery Avenue, London EC1R 4TN Incorporating The Old Vic Association, The Old Vic Circle, (also at the PEACOCK THEATRE, Portugal Street, The Old Vic Club, Sadler’s Wells Society, Sadler’s Wells Kingsway, London WC2A 2HT) possible if you would like to join us. Seat students. I have interviewed several students prices range from £7.50 to £15 per person, who were taught by Laban, and none of them depending on where the seats are. know how Esme Church came across Laban. Any information would be gratefully received. Please send a cheque made out to Mary-Jane Burcher (I pay for the tickets myself when Dick McCaw booking them over the phone) and mark them [email protected] ‘not over £15’ and I will fill in the necessary 7a Vartry Road amount, but if more than one of you are London N15 6PR coming, please remember it is up to £15 per person. Please send the cheque with an SAE to Andrew Leigh me at Flat 6, Oak House, Carlton Drive, Putney, London SW15 2BZ, telephone 0208 789 9227. I’ve been contacted by Leslie Leigh, a relative of Andrew Leigh (1887-1957), who would like There is a half hourly train service to Bath Spa to find out more about what Andrew Leigh was from Paddington, leaving at 9.45am (arriving like as a person. I was wondering if any Vic- 11.10am), 10.15am (arriving 11.45am), or Wells Association members have any 10.45am (arriving 12.10pm) but I strongly memories of Andrew Leigh they would be advise you to check train times before booking willing to share? Leigh was the son of a as times are can change throughout the year. Brighton physician, and he worked from an Fares differ, but a reasonable Apex return early age for the Benson Company, and he ticket is available. toured England, South Africa, the US and There are also several excellent restaurants Canada with the Bensons. Later Leigh worked near the theatre for lunch, and also one at the for many years at the Old Vic and Sadler’s theatre itself downstairs. After the Wells, where he directed a large number of performance, we generally meet up with Chris productions, and where he worked alongside for a chat and a cup of tea. I look forward to many of the great stars such as Edith Evans hearing from you. and Sybil Thorndike. He directed three Mary-Jane Burcher productions on Broadway – including Twelfth Night and The Merchant of Venice, and he also directed for the Bristol Old Vic. If anyone does Letters to the Editor have memories they would be willing to share would they please contact me? Many thanks. If you have any comments, suggestions, or interesting stories, or would simply like to see Liz Schafer your name in print, you can write to us and we [email protected] will print what we can in the Broadsheet. For the time being, please email [email protected] if you have Annual Accounts something to say; a postal address will follow. The Annual Accounts of the Vic-Wells Association were presented to and accepted by Call for Information the recent Annual General Meeting. Enclosed Esme Church and Rudolf Laban with this issue of the Broadsheet is a copy of the Income and Expenditure Accounts and I am researching the Drama School that Esme Balance Sheet for the year ended 30th June Church set up in Bradford at the Civic 2007. An examination of the accounts required Theatre. Once she had established the school by the Charities Commission was carried out in 1947 one of the first teachers she invited by our former Treasurer, Stanley R. Underhill was Rudolf Laban, the great pioneer of FCCA. movement and dance. I am keen to find out Neville C Taylor how she knew about his work and why she Hon. Treasurer wanted him in particular to teach her 2 The Vic-Wells Association memory. Our thanks to Mary-Jane Burcher who produced the evening’s entertainment Annual Report 2006/2007 and the many people who contributed to the great success of the celebration. This report covers the period 1st July 2006 to 30th June 2007. I am sure you would wish to Members had the pleasure of going on several join me in sending our best wishes to our visits during the year. These included visits to President, Wendy Toy who has not been very the Boy Friend at the Open Air Theatre, a well this year but keeps a close eye on our musical version of the Three Musketeers at the activities. She is still residing at the theatrical Bristol Old Vic, Cinderella Pantomime at Bath, home, Denville Hall in Middlesex. Our AGM to see our Vice-President Nickolas Grace as was held on November 6th and after the King Rat at the Barbican and the Theatre business we greatly enjoyed a talk from our Museum. As the position of the Hon. Social Vice-President, Nickolas Grace who talked Secretary is vacant we are indebted to Mary- about his theatrical career with many amusing Jane Burcher who organised the visits with the anecdotes. help of some of the Committee Members. Our traditional Twelfth Night Party and Members had the opportunity to attend Shakespeare’s Birthday Party were both held several rehearsals at Sadler’s Wells during the in the very pleasant surroundings of the year and I should like to thank Nadine Owen of second floor bar of the Old Vic. The Twelfth Sadler’s Wells for persuading so many visiting Night cake was cut by Edward Hall who was companies to let us see their rehearsals. These most appropriately directing a production of included Dutch National Ballet, Sylvie Guillem Twelfth Night at the Old Vic. Following the and Akram Khan in Sacred Monsters, cutting there was a book launch of Professor Birmingham Royal Ballet, Rambert Dance Elizabeth Schafer’s fascinating and well Company, American Ballet Theatre, Nederland researched biography of Lilian Baylis. Two of Dance Theatre 2 and several others. her students dressed up as Miss Baylis and quoted excerpts of her sayings both humorous Your Committee met five times during the year and serious. Oliver Ford Davis launched the to run the affairs of the Association and plan biography with a witty speech. It was a very future activities and I am sure you will join me well attended party with over 100 members in thanking them for their support and good and guests present. The guest of honour at work. We were fortunate to appoint two key Shakespeare’s Birthday Party was Robert officers, Neville Taylor as Hon.