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Information about Old Vic

Old Vic
The exterior of the Old Vic from the corner of Baylis Road and Waterloo Road.
Address
The Cut
City
Lambeth, London
DesignationGrade II* listed
ArchitectRudolph Cabanel of Aachen
Owned byOld Vic Theatre Trust
Capacity1,067
TypeResident company
Opened1818
Rebuilt1871 J T Robinson
1880/1902 Elijah Hoole
1922/1927 by Frank Matcham
1933-8 F Green and Co
1950 Pierre Sonrel
1960 Sean Kenny
1983 Renton, Howard, Wood and Levine.
Previous namesRoyal Coburg Theatre
Royal Victorian Theatre
Royal Victoria Hall and Coffee Tavern
ProductionAll About My Mother
Old Vic
Coordinates:


Enlarge picture
The theatre at night.


The Old Vic is a theatre located just south-east of Waterloo Station in London on the corner of The Cut and Waterloo Road. It became a Grade II* listed building in 1951[1].

It was also the name of a repertory company that was based at the theatre, and provided the basis of the Royal National Theatre company.

History

Origins

The theatre was founded in 1818 by James Jones and James Dunn (formerly managers of the Surrey Theatre in Bermondsey), and Thomas Serres, then Marine painter to the King who managed to secure the formal patronage of Princess Charlotte and her husband Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg naming the theatre the Royal Coburg Theatre. The theatre was a "minor" theatre (as opposed to one of the two patent theatres) and was thus technically forbidden to show serious drama. Nevertheless, when the theatre passed to William Bolwell Davidge in 1824 he succeeded in bringing legendary actor Edmund Kean south of the river to play six Shakespeare plays in six nights. The theatre's role in bringing high art to the masses was confirmed when Kean addressed the audience during his curtain call saying "I have never acted to such a set of ignorant, unmitigated brutes as I see before me." When Davidge left to take over the Surrey theatre in 1833 it was bought by Daniel Egerton and William Abbott who tried to capitalise on the abolition of the legal distinction between patent and minor theatres and also in 1833 the theatre was renamed the Royal Victorian Theatre after the heir to the throne Princess Victoria. In 1880, under the ownership of Emma Cons, it became The Royal Victoria Hall And Coffee Tavern and was run on "strict temperance lines"; by this time it was already known as the "Old Vic"[2]. The penny lectures given in the hall led to the foundation of Morley College[3], an adult education college, that moved to its own premises nearby, in the 1920s.

Old Vic company

With Emma Cons's death in 1912 the theatre passed to her niece Lilian Baylis, who emphasized the Shakespearean repertoire. The Old Vic Company was established in 1929, led by Sir John Gielgud. Between 1925 and 1931, Lilian Baylis championed the re-building of the then-derelict Sadler's Wells Theatre, and established a ballet company under the direction of Ninette de Valois. For a few years the drama and ballet companies rotated between the two theatres, with the ballet becoming permanently based at Sadler's Wells in 1935.

Enlarge picture
Stairwell of the Old Vic.

Wartime exile

The Old Vic was damaged badly during the Blitz, and the war-depleted company spent all its time touring, based in Burnley, Lancashire at the Victoria Theatre during the years 1940 to 1943. In 1944, the company was re-established in London with Sir Ralph Richardson and Lord Laurence Olivier as its stars, performing mainly at the New Theatre until the Old Vic was ready to re-open in 1950. In 1946, an offshoot of the company was established in Bristol as the Bristol Old Vic.

National Theatre company

In 1963, the Old Vic company was dissolved and the new National Theatre Company, under the artistic direction of Lord Olivier, was based at the Old Vic until its own building was opened on the South Bank near Waterloo Bridge in 1976.

In July 1974 the Old Vic presented a rock concert for the first time. National Theatre director Sir Peter Hall arranged for the progressive folk-rock band Gryphon to premiere Midnight Mushrumps, the fantasia inspired by Hall's own 1974 Old Vic production of The Tempest starring Sir John Gielgud for which Gryphon had supplied the music.

Reopening

After the departure of the NT, the Old Vic continued as a home for classic and new drama, and was significantly restored under the ownership of Toronto department-store entrepreneur 'Honest Ed' Mirvish during the 1980s. In 1998, the building was bought by a new charitable trust, The Old Vic Theatre Trust 2000. In 2000, the production company Criterion Productions was renamed Old Vic Productions plc, though relatively few of its productions are at the Old Vic theatre.

Current developments

In 2003, the actor Kevin Spacey was appointed as new artistic director of the Old Vic Theatre Company receiving considerable media attention. Spacey said he wanted to inject new life into the British theatre industry, and bring British and American theatrical talent to the stage. He appears in two shows per season, and performs some directorial duties on other shows.

References

1. ^ English Heritage listing details 28 Apr 2007
2. ^ 'The Royal Victoria Hall - "The Old Vic"', Survey of London: volume 23: Lambeth: South Bank and Vauxhall (1951), pp. 37-9 accessed: 28 April 2007.
3. ^ An endowment from the estate of Samuel Morley led to the creation of the Morley Memorial College for Working Men and Women on the premises, these were shared and lectures were given back stage, and in the theatre dressing rooms.

External links

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Baylis Road is a thoroughfare in Lambeth, London SE1, England running between Westminster Bridge Road to the south-west and Waterloo Road to the north-east.

The Old Vic Theatre is located at the north-east junction. Waterloo Station is to the north.
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Coordinates:

The Cut is a street in Lambeth and Southwark, London SE1. It runs between Waterloo Road (west) and Blackfriars Road (east).
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London Borough of Lambeth

Shown within Greater London
Geography
Status London borough
Area
— Total Ranked 341st
26.82 km
ONS code 00AY
Admin HQ Brixton
Demographics
Population
— Total ()
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London
Canary Wharf is the centre of London's modern office towers
London shown within England
Coordinates:
Sovereign state United Kingdom
Constituent country England
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'listed building' refers to a building or other structure officially designated as being of special architectural, historical or cultural significance. It is a widely used status, applied to around half a million buildings.
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Frank Matcham (born 22 November 1854, Newton Abbot, Devon - died 17 May 1920, Southend-on-Sea, Essex) was a famous English theatrical architect.

Early career

Frank Matcham's father was a brewery clerk, and he was raised in Torquay, where he attended Babbacombe school.
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geographic coordinate system enables every location on the earth to be specified by the three coordinates of a spherical coordinate system aligned with the spin axis of the Earth.
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Theatre (or theater, see spelling differences) (from French "théâtre", from Greek "theatron", θέατρον, meaning "place of seeing") is the branch of the performing arts defined as simply as what "occurs when one or more
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London Waterloo

Location
Place South Bank
Local authority London Borough of Lambeth
Coordinates
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London
Canary Wharf is the centre of London's modern office towers
London shown within England
Coordinates:
Sovereign state United Kingdom
Constituent country England
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Coordinates:

The Cut is a street in Lambeth and Southwark, London SE1. It runs between Waterloo Road (west) and Blackfriars Road (east).
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Waterloo Road is a road straddling Lambeth and Southwark, London, SE1. It runs between Westminster Bridge Road close to St George's Circus at the south-east end and Waterloo Bridge across the River Thames towards London's West End district at the north-west end.
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'listed building' refers to a building or other structure officially designated as being of special architectural, historical or cultural significance. It is a widely used status, applied to around half a million buildings.
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Repertory or rep, called stock in the U.S., is a term from Western theatre. A repertory theater can be a theater in which a resident company presents works from a specified repertoire, usually in alternation.
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Royal National Theatre

The Royal National Theatre from Waterloo Bridge
Address
South Bank

City
Lambeth, London


Designation Grade II*
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The Surrey Theatre began life in 1782 as the Royal Circus and Equestrian Philharmonic Academy, one of the many circuses that provided contemporary London entertainment of both horsemanship and drama.
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Bermondsey


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Princess Charlotte Augusta of Wales (7 January 1796 – 6 November 1817) was the only child of the ill-fated marriage between George IV (at the time Prince of Wales) and Caroline of Brunswick.
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Leopold I
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Painting by Sir Thomas Lawrence
Reign July 21, 1831- 10 December, 1865
Born 16 November 1790(1790--)
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The patent theatres were the theatres that were licensed to perform "spoken drama" after the English Restoration of Charles II in 1660. Other theatres were prohibited from performing such "serious" drama, but were permitted to show comedy, pantomime or melodrama.
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Edmund Kean (March 17, 1787 – May 15, 1833) was an English actor, regarded in his time as the greatest ever. For many years he lived at Keydell House, Horndean.

Early life


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The Surrey Theatre began life in 1782 as the Royal Circus and Equestrian Philharmonic Academy, one of the many circuses that provided contemporary London entertainment of both horsemanship and drama.
..... Click the link for more information.
18th century - 19th century - 20th century
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Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was the Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837, and the first Empress of India from 1 May 1876, until her death on 22 January 1901.
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Emma Cons (1838 – 24 July 1912) was a British social reformer, socialist, educationalist and theatre manager.

Early life

She trained as an artist and joined the Ladies’ Co-operative Art Guild, London, run by Caroline Hill, mother of the future housing
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worldwide view.


The temperance movement attempted to greatly reduce the amount of alcohol consumed or even prohibit its production and consumption entirely. In predominantly Muslim countries, temperance is part of Islam.
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Morley College is an adult education college in London, England. It was founded in the 1880s and has a student population of more than 15,000 adult students. It offers courses in a wide variety of fields including science, languages, drama, dance, music, computing, exercise and
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Adult education is the practice of teaching and educating adults. This is often done in the workplace or through 'extension' or 'continuing education' courses at secondary schools, or at a college or university.
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