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4 unusual facts about National Theatre


Dugald Bruce Lockhart

Dugald Bruce Lockhart trained for a career in acting at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, then worked with the Royal Shakespeare Company and the National Theatre among others.

Kalina Jędrusik

From 1955 she performed at Warsaw theatres: National Theatre (1955-1957), Współczesny Theatre (1957-1963), Comedy Theatre (1964-1967), Studencki Teatr Satyryków (1969-1972), Variety Theatre (1972-1985), Polish Theatre (1985-1991).

National Theatre, Melbourne

The current artistic director (ballet) of the National Theatre is Beverly Jane Fry and of drama is Ken Boucher.

Rose Bruford College

Also in 2013, the drama school's profile was raised by several graduates who shot to fame in the United States including Lake Bell and Sam Palladio as well as by Evening Standard Awards for both Richard Eyre as Best Director for his production of Ghosts at the Almeida Theatre and Rosalie Craig for Best Musical Performance for The Light Princess at the National Theatre.


Benet Hytner

Hytner is father of Nicholas Hytner, the Director of the National Theatre in London, Jenny Hytner-Marriott, Director of The Paw Seasons, Richard Hytner and James Hytner.

Bruce Purchase

Born in Thames, New Zealand, he won a scholarship to study acting in England, training at RADA, and went on to become a founding actor-member of Laurence Olivier's National Theatre.

Christine McKenna

Upon graduating, she appeared in productions for the National Theatre and in the West End of London, including Stephen Sondheim´s A Little Night Music with Jean Simmons and Hermione Gingold, A Midsummer Night's Dream, and Great Expectations, and played "Polly" in The Boy Friend with Glynis Johns, "Sally Bowles" in Cabaret, and "Moll" in Moll Flanders.

Clare Clifford

She attended Selwyn Independent School for Girls in Matson, Gloucester, then studied at the Central School of Speech and Drama and appeared on stage at the Oxford Playhouse and the National Theatre.

Conor McPherson

In September 2006, to great critical acclaim, McPherson made his National Theatre debut as both author and director with The Seafarer at the Cottesloe auditorium, starring Karl Johnson and Jim Norton, with Ron Cook as their poker-playing, Mephistophelean guest.

Damien Molony

After the filming of series 4 of Being Human, Molony starred as Motl and Nate in director Nicholas Hytner’s Travelling Light at the National Theatre.

Deborah Norton

She has taken part in productions of Six Degrees of Separation, Thérèse Raquin, The School for Scandal, Hotel Paradiso, and others in locations as diverse as the Royal Court, Bristol Old Vic, the Nottingham Playhouse, the National Theatre and others.

East Ridge, Accra

Originally planned as an extension to the historic Victoriaborg district, East Ridge is being transformed into a commercial and leisure district of Accra with the siting of the National Theatre and Efua Sutherland Children's park in the district.

Eidsvolls plass

Eidsvolls plass ('Eidsvoll Square') is a square and park in Oslo, Norway, located west of the Parliament of Norway Building, south of Karl Johans gate and east of Studenterlunden and the National Theatre.

Hilton McRae

He performed the role of Mr Stopnick in the UK premiere of Caroline, or Change at the National Theatre, which won the Best Musical Award from the London newspaper the Evening Standard.

Jan Dekert

--probably National Theatre, Warsaw but can't find a source clearly stating that--> in Warsaw.

Jan Englert

Since 2003 he has served as Artistic Director of the National Theatre in Warsaw.

Jan Kanty Pawluśkiewicz

He also arranged and composed for stage productions at the Stary Teatr and Theater Scena STU in Kraków, the National Theatre and the Teatr Powszechny in Warsaw.

Janet Andrewartha

She is a graduate of the National Theatre Drama School, where she met future Neighbours and Prisoner colleague Jackie Woodburne.

John Heilpern

He has also worked as Peter Hall’s assistant director on Tamburlaine at the National Theatre of Great Britain in 1976, and when he went to live in New York in 1980, he subsequently worked on Broadway as a librettist for Michael Bennett (of A Chorus Line).

Lark Rise to Candleford

The television scriptwriter and playwright Keith Dewhurst adapted Thompson's trilogy into two plays, Lark Rise and Candleford, which were performed in the Cottesloe auditorium of London's National Theatre in 1978–9.

Lucy Speed

By the age of eight she was acting on stage at London's National Theatre in Neap Tide, a controversial play about lesbianism and women's oppression.

Marion Bailey

Bailey has worked extensively in British theatre, including Chichester, Bristol Old Vic, the West Yorkshire Playhouse, London's West End, the Royal Court, the National Theatre, the Old Vic, the Arts Theatre, Hampstead, the Tricycle Theatre and the company Shared Experience with whom she received a TMA nomination as Best Supporting Performance for her role in Kindertransport (2007).

Mark Lawson

He has written several radio plays for the network, including St Graham and St Evelyn (2003) on the friendship between the Catholic novelists Graham Greene and Evelyn Waugh and The Third Soldier Holds His Thighs (2005) on Mary Whitehouse's unsuccessful litigation against the National Theatre production of Howard Brenton's play The Romans in Britain.

Maurice Flanagan

Kenneth Tynan, one of the competition judges, invited Flanagan to write for the National Theatre, where Tynan was literary advisor.

Myanmar National Symphony Orchestra

After a period of intensive training, the orchestra finally held its first public concert at the National Theatre in Yangon on 1 April 2007, playing the music of Haydn.

Nicholas Bailey

Bailey has also performed in the theatre, with roles including Robert Mugabe's security officer Gabriel in Breakfast with Mugabe, and The Duke of Burgundy in Richard Eyre's production of King Lear at the National Theatre, London.

Paul Jesson

He has played leading roles at the National Theatre and the RSC and won the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role 1986 for his role in The Normal Heart at The Royal Court.

Sarah Daniels

Her plays have appeared at other venues including the National Theatre, the Battersea Arts Centre, the Crucible, Sheffield and Chicken Shed.

Scenes from an Execution

While a fringe production was staged in 2007 at the Hackney Empire, the play was later revived in 2012 by the National Theatre on its Lyttelton stage.

Ștefan Bănică, Jr.

In 2005, Bănică also played the role of Billy Flynn in the Romanian stage version of the Chicago musical (based on the play by Maurine Dallas Watkins) at the National Theatre in Bucharest.

Sverre Rødahl

From 1988 to 1990 he was artistic director of the National Theatre, together with Ellen Horn and Ole-Jørgen Nilsen.

Tampere Opera

The first visit abroad of Tampere Opera was in 2005, when they visited the National Theatre in Prague.

The Advertisement

The Advertisement was given its world premiere at the Theatre Royal in Brighton, Great Britain, in a production by the National Theatre, and subsequently transferred to London's Old Vic Theatre, in 1968.

The Shape of the Table

It was first staged at the National Theatre, London, UK on 8 November 1990 - the first anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall - in a production directed by Jenny Killick.

Troy Glasgow

In 2008 Troy originated the role of Tobias Rich in the world premiere of Harper Regan at the National Theatre by British playwright Simon Stephens alongside Lesley Sharp as Harper Regan.

Trumpets and Drums

The production strongly influenced the English director William Gaskill's reinterpretation of Farquhar's original play for the National Theatre.


see also

Adam Godley

Adam Godley performs the lead role in a new National Theatre adaptation by Dennis Kelly of Georg Kaiser's 1912 German Expressionist drama, From Morning to Midnight, at the Lyttelton Theatre from November 2013 to January 2014.

Andrés de Segurola

In 1916 he presented a four-week opera season at the Grand National Theatre in Havana, where his company included Geraldine Farrar and Pasquale Amato.

Andy de la Tour

He has appeared in many films including Plenty, Notting Hill, the Roman Polanski version of Oliver Twist and "44" Chest". His work in television series included The Young Ones, Bottom, Kavanagh QC and The Brief. On stage he has appeared at the National Theatre in Harold Pinter's "No Man's Land" and Alan Bennett's "People"

Anne Marie Ottersen

She has been working at Nationaltheatret (the National Theatre) since 1970, and acted in roles such as "Polly Peachum" in Bertolt Brecht's The Threepenny Opera, and "Martha" in Edward Albees Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?.

Anneke von der Lippe

She graduated from the Norwegian National Academy of Theatre in 1988, and has since acted both at Det Norske Teatret (the Norwegian Theater) and at Nationaltheatret (the National Theatre), in roles such as "Nora" in Henrik Ibsen's A Doll's House, "Masja" in Anton Chekhov's Three Sisters, and "Gwendolen Fairfax" in Oscar Wildes The Importance of Being Earnest.

Anthony Chisholm

He also performed Jitney at London's Prestigious National Theatre on the South Bank winning the Olivier Award for Best New Play.

Ashley Cavender-Jones

Ashley also acted in Wondrous Oblivion as blond boy, as well as a 6-month spell at London's National Theatre in "The Coast of Utopia"

Beata Sabina Straas

Straas is possibly the grandmother of the famous actress and opera singer Inga Åberg, who became a star at the second national theatre when it opened in 1788, and of the actor Gustav Åbergsson.

When the first national theatre was founded in the old premises at Bollhuset, Stockholm in 1737, where only foreign theatre troupes had previously performed, they were only male actors in the original native troupe, and so the theatre advertised for women to play the female parts before the theatre's formal premiere.

Bernard O'Shea

He also worked in the National Theatre of Ireland, the Abbey Theatre.

Big George

Webley also composed numerous other themes for the National Theatre, Arts Theatre, ballet, and radio including Ian McMillan’s East Coast Girls, Emma Clarke's Share and Share Alike, and Neil Mossey’s Stockport So Good They Named It Once.

Binodini Dasi

Born to prostitution, she started her career as a courtesan and at twelve she played her first serious drama role in Calcutta's National Theatre in 1874, under the mentorship of its founder, Girish Chandra Ghosh.

Břetislav Bakala

From 1920 to 1925 and from 1929 to 1931 he worked as a conductor of the National Theatre in Brno, making his conducting debut in Orfeo ed Euridice.

Culture of Burkina Faso

Theatre of Burkina Faso combines traditional Burkinabé performance with the colonial influences and post-colonial efforts to educate rural people to produce a distinctive national theatre.

Denis Quilley

In the 1970s he appeared with the Royal National Theatre in Macbeth, Hamlet, The Tempest and Long Day's Journey into Night, alongside Laurence Olivier in the last.

Emil Pollert

The National Theatre features a bust of Pollert, created by sculptor Charles Dvorak.

Fiona Shaw

In 2012, Shaw appeared in the National Theatre revival of Scenes from an Execution by Howard Barker.

Gábor Faludi

In 1916, many performances were made at Tisza Kálmán Square, the National Opera, at the Urania premises, in the neighbourhood of the National Theatre, and folk stories were performed on Rákóczi Road.

Halldór Laxness

In 2005 the Icelandic National Theatre premiered a play by Ólafur Haukur Símonarson, called Halldór í Hollywood (Halldór in Hollywood) about the years that Laxness spent in the United States.

Henry Siddons

He adapted a work by Johann Jakob Engel, Ideen zu Einer Mimik from 1785; Engel was then director of the National Theatre in Berlin.

January LaVoy

She received her Master in Fine Arts degree from the National Theatre Conservatory at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts in Denver, Colorado.

Jaroslav Marvan

He was a member of Vlasta Burian's theatre 1926 – 1943, then of the Vinohradské Divadlo (1943-1950) and then of the Městská Divadla Pražská (1950-1954), from where he became a member of the Národní Divadlo (national theatre), where he served for until two years before his death, in 1972.

John Hoye

OTC also won two major awards for new works - The LWT Plays on Stage Award in 1988 for The Harlot’s curse written by Rodney Archer and Powell Jones; and the Guinness/Royal National Theatre Festival Award for Roberto Calvi is Alive and Well written by Roy Smiles.

John Makinson

In addition to being Chairman of Penguin Random House and the National Theatre, Makinson is a director of the International Rescue Committee, a humanitarian organisation.

Jurriaan Andriessen

In 1954 the Haagse Comedie (now the Nationaal Toneel, or "National Theatre") appointed him resident composer, where he wrote scores for Eugene O'Neill's Mourning Becomes Electra and Tom Stoppard's Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead, among numerous others.

Konrad Ernst Ackermann

In 1767 the troupe was sold to a consortium of private owners, called the Hamburg National Theatre or the Hamburgische Entreprise, also known as Lessing's Dramaturgie, with Abel Seyler as its main backer.

La Silla Awards

The first premiation were held on 17 November 2013 at the National Theatre (Teatro Nacional) in Santo Domingo as part of the VII Festival de Cine Global (Global Cinema Festival) of Funglode.

Lauren Kennedy

She originated the role of Cathy in Jason Robert Brown's The Last Five Years in its Chicago premiere, but opted to do South Pacific at the National Theatre in London instead of following the show Off-Broadway (she was replaced by Sherie Rene Scott).

Laurence Belcher

Making his play debut in Alan Bennet's The Habit of Art at the National Theatre alongside Richard Griffiths and Alex Jennings in 2010, the end of which was overlapped by rehearsals for Simon Gray's The Late Middle Classes at the Donmar Warehouse, directed by David Leveaux, and starring Helen McCrory and Robert Glenister.

Lee Yountaek

Recently, Yi has been active as a director at the National Theatre, where he directed a musical version of Shakespeare’s Tempest in 1999.

Marilita Lambropoulou

Marilita trained at the Theatre Studies Department of the University of Patras, as well as at a series of seminars organised by the National Theatre.

Mark Howett

Cloudstreet”, which Howett won the Robert Helpmann Award for Lighting Design 2002, toured to New York at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, National Theatre London and The Kennedy Centre Washington, Zurich, and nationally in Australia.

National Theatre Mostar

The National Theatre Mostar (Bosnian: Narodno Pozorište Mostar) is the largest public theatre in Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina, where some of the most important performances are held, as well as other art events.

Opera houses in the Czech Republic

The most important are the two opera houses in Prague - National Theatre (Prague) and Prague State Opera and the Estates Theatre, which hosts one of the stages of the Prague National Theatre.

Oscar James

In 2004 James played Herbert in Oxford Road: the Story, a radio play in which he worked alongside Doña Croll, an actress he had previously worked with on Elmina's Kitchen at the National Theatre.

Paul Jesson

He played the Earl of Gloucester in the Donmar Theatre production of King Lear with Derek Jacobi, Maurice Montgomery in Nicholas Wright's Travelling Light at the National Theatre and appeared in Caryl Churchill's Love and Information at the Royal Court (2012).

Pavla Vykopalová

For the role of Mařenka in Smetana's The Bartered Bride, directed by Ondřej Havelka at the National Theatre in Brno, Vykopalová received a nomination for the Czech Thalia Price in 2006.

Raymond Llewellyn

Other work includes Mr Pugh in the 1963 BBC Radio version of Under Milk Wood with Richard Burton; 1984-5 in New York/Washington and three weeks in Los Angeles with 'Cyrano' & Much Ado About Nothing starring Derek Jacobi, as well as ten weeks in Los Angeles with the Royal National Theatre Production of Henrik Ibsen's An Enemy of the People starring Ian McKellen.

Rex Cherryman

Cherryman's last stint on Broadway was a starring role in the 1927 dramatic production of The Trial of Mary Dugan opposite actor Robert Cummings at the National Theatre.

Robert Sturua

In August 2011, Georgia's culture minister Nika Rurua dismissed Robert Sturua as head of the Tbilisi national theatre for "xenophobic" comments he made earlier this year, officials reported.

Show of Strength Theatre Company

The European premiere of Australian playwright Nick Enright's Good Works won the Guinness/Royal National Theatre Pub Theatre Award.

Southbank Centre

The architect of the Royal National Theatre (Denys Lasdun) also designed the University of East Anglia in Norwich, which has a similar design, with pedestrians and traffic separated by elevated walkways.

Teatro Nacional de El Salvador

Multiple architectural styles were enriched in the fusion of the construction of the National Theatre including: Versailles Style, Rococo, Romanticism, and Art Nouveau, with regional touches.

The Burnt Theatre

A blend of fact and fiction, based on the actual lives of the actors, the film depicts a troupe of actors and dancers struggling to practise their art in the burned-out shell of Cambodia's former national theatre, the Preah Suramarit National Theatre in Phnom Penh.

The Devil and Kate

Supraphon LPV 337-339: Ludmila Komancová, Rudolf Asmus, Přemysl Kočí, Lubomir Havlák, Marie Steinerova, Rudolf Vonasek, Jaroslava Vymazalova, Jaroslav Horáček, Karel Berman; Prague National Theatre Chorus and Orchestra; Zdeněk Chalabala, conductor.

Tim Supple

Other work in the theatre includes: Beasts and Beauties, Too Clever By Half (Norwegian National Theatre, Bergen); Much Ado About Nothing (Maxim Gorki Theatre, Berlin); The Cosmonauts Last Message...(Donmar Wharehouse); Oh What a Lovely War, Guys and Dolls (Haymarket Theatre, Leicester); Billy Budd (Crucible Theatre, Sheffield).

Vladimír Franz

2002 – scenic music to the play Marketa Lazarová (Vladislav Vančura), directed by J. A. Pitínský, National Theatre, Prague

Warren Carlyle

He started as a dancer, after taking dance lessons, but then was chosen by Susan Stroman to be associate choreographer for the West End Royal National Theatre production of Oklahoma! (1998), and she later chose him to assist her on the Broadway musical The Producers.