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30 unusual facts about Royal Shakespeare Company


Amanda Harris

A longstanding member of the Royal Shakespeare Company, she received an Olivier Award for her role as Emilia in the 2004 RSC production of Othello.

Andrew Samuels

At the age of 22 he declined an offer to become the Assistant Director at the Royal Shakespeare Company and instead went on to develop a drama and youth counselling project in South Wales, working with deprived children.

Biyi Bandele

As a playwright, Bandele has worked with the Royal Court Theatre, the Royal Shakespeare Company, as well as writing radio drama and screenplays for television.

Brett Neveu

His works have been produced at The Royal Court Theatre, The Royal Shakespeare Company, A Red Orchid Theatre, The House Theatre, Goodman Theatre, TimeLine Theatre Company, Writers' Theater and 29th Street Rep, among others.

Buddy Bregman

Bregman then wrote Jump Jim Crow, a musical for the Royal Shakespeare Company, and later went into London-based independent TV and film production, and subsequently produced and directed a feature film starring Olivia Newton-John.

Campbell Morrison

He appeared in the soap operas Eldorado and EastEnders (playing DCI Charlie Mason), and was a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company in the early eighties.

Charles Handy

Their son Scott Handy is an actor who has played with the RSC.

Church of the Holy Trinity, Stratford-upon-Avon

The Royal Shakespeare Company performed Henry VIII in the church in 2006 as part of the Complete Works Festival.

Cicely Berry

Cicely Frances Berry CBE (born May 17, 1926) is the voice director of the Royal Shakespeare Company and is world-renowned in her work as a voice and text coach, having spent many years as an instructor at London's Central School of Speech and Drama.

Colin George

Colin George was also a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company during the years 1994-1999, in plays such as Peer Gynt, Coriolanus, Measure for Measure, The Merchant of Venice and The Tempest and a stage musical adaptation of the French film Les Enfants du Paradis.

Damon Buffini

He is also a main board member of the Royal Shakespeare Company and a trustee of the Royal Anniversary Trust, which administers The Queen's Anniversary Prizes for Higher and Further Education.

Deborah Levy

Her work has been staged by the Royal Shakespeare Company and she is the author of highly praised novels including Beautiful Mutants, Swallowing Geography, and Billy and Girl.

Des Wilson

He also spent two years as director of public affairs for the Royal Shakespeare Company.

Geoffrey Cass

He was Chief Executive of Cambridge University Press from 1972 to 1992, Chairman of the Royal Shakespeare Company from 1985 to 2000 and Deputy President (to HRH The Prince of Wales) from 2000 to 2011.

Sir Geoffrey Arthur Cass (born 11 August 1932) spent twenty years as Chief Executive of Cambridge University Press and has also been Chairman of the Royal Shakespeare Company and President of the Lawn Tennis Association.

International Centre for Theatre Research

Brook had previously been sponsored for limited periods by Jean-Louis Barrault or the RSC (at the Roundhouse).

Jeremy Brooks

Now settled in London, Brooks wrote his fourth novel (Smith, As Hero, 1964) and worked for New Statesman, The Sunday Times and the Royal Shakespeare Company at the Aldwych, becoming Literary Manager there in 1964.

John Davies of Hereford

On Vickers's attribution it was omitted from the 2007 RSC Shakespeare Complete Works, a decision Jackson called a mistake in his RES review of Vickers's book, arguing, among other reservations, that "Evidence that, in poems undoubtedly his, Davies exhibits an intimacy with Shakespeare's works equal to that of the author of 'A Lover's Complaint' is very meagre."

Marion Deuchars

Her distinguishable style has been used on stamps for the Royal Mail to commemorate the Royal Shakespeare Company’s 50th anniversary.

Merlin M4000

Many theatres in the UK used Merlin M4000 computers running the RITA booking software that was written either by or in conjunction with the Royal Shakespeare Company.

Napoleon Symphony

He reworked the material into a stage play called Napoleon Rising for the Royal Shakespeare Company, but it remained unperformed in his lifetime.

Nella Bielski

She has collaborated on a number of plays with one of her regular English translators John Berger, including A Question of Geography, which has been performed by the Royal Shakespeare Company.

No. 1 of the Secret Service

The sequel was not released until 1979 under the title Licensed to Love and Kill with Gareth Hunt replacing Nicky Henson who had signed with the Royal Shakespeare Company.

Paul Englishby

Englishby has worked on many productions for the Royal Shakespeare Company, including "Twelfth Night" (starring Richard Wilson), "Hamlet" (starring David Tennant), "Merry Wives" for the Complete Works Festival, "Love's Labour Lost" and "A Midsummer Night's Dream".

Raymond W. Smith

Smith serves on the following civic boards: the Royal Shakespeare Company, Curtis Institute of Music Advisory Board, Central Park Conservancy, George Mason Life Sciences Advisory Board, the Library of Congress, the American Research Center in Egypt - Presidential Appointee, and Servicemembers Legal Defense Network.

Sally Beauman

Her first work of non-fiction was Henry V (Pergamon Press, 1976), a study of the Royal Shakespeare Company's 1975 Centenary production.

Steven Wasson

In 1996, he reconstructed and directed the mime scenes for the Royal Shakespeare Company's production of Les Enfants du Paradis.

The City Waites

As a composer he creates all the group's musical arrangements and has also written scores for the Royal National Theatre, Shakespeare's Globe, the Royal Shakespeare Company and several historical feature films.

Urbain Grandier

Huxley's book was adapted for the stage in 1961 by John Whiting (commissioned by the Royal Shakespeare Company).

Work Is a Four-Letter Word

David Warner had established a reputation for playing off-beat roles, including the title role in Morgan: A Suitable Case For Treatment (1966) and was a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company, of which Peter Hall was artistic director until the year of the film's release.


A New Way to Pay Old Debts

The play remains in the active theatrical repertory; modern stagings are usually amateur or student productions, though the Royal Shakespeare Company performed the play in 1983, directed by Adrian Noble and with Emrys James as Sir Giles.

Alison Newman

Newman has extensive theatre experience, including Loveplay by Moira Buffini; Luminosity by Nick Stafford; Night of the Soul by David Farr and The Big Lie by Anthony Neilson, all for the RSC, as well as The Censor and The Lying Kind, both by Anthony Neilson, for the Royal Court Theatre, London.

Anjul Nigam

In theater, Nigam has appeared alongside fellow-NYU alumni Philip Seymour Hoffman in the controversial production of the Peter Sellars' directed The Merchant of Venice at the Royal Shakespeare Company in London and The Goodman Theatre in Chicago.

Atandwa Kani

He made his international stage debut in The Tempest, a collaboration between the Baxter Theatre Centre and the Royal Shakespeare Company, where he played Ariel alongside his father (Caliban) and Sir Antony Sher (Prospero).

Barbican Centre

The theatre was built as the London home of the Royal Shakespeare Company, which was involved in the design, but decided not to renew its contract in 2002 after claiming a lack of performing space, plus the artistic director, Adrian Noble, wanting to develop the company's touring performances.

Cobbe Portrait

The identification has received support from Shakespeare scholars Stanley Wells, Henry Woudhuysen, Jay L. Halio, Stuart Sillars, and Gregory Doran, Chief Associate Director of the Royal Shakespeare Company, and art historians Alastair Laing, curator of paintings and sculpture at the National Trust, and Paul Joannides, Professor of Art History at Cambridge.

Duncan Preston

A renowned Shakespearean actor, Preston has performed in many productions for the Royal Shakespeare Company, including Trevor Nunn's acclaimed version of Macbeth (stage 1976, television 1978), starring Ian McKellen and Judi Dench, as Angus.

Emily Richard

In June 1981 she reprised her role as Kate Nickleby in The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby for the Royal Shakespeare Company with Alun Armstrong and Ian McNeice added to the cast, Ben Kingsley and Timothy Spall having left the production.

Hugh Goldwin Rivière

Examples of is work are held in a very wide variety of public collections, including the Victoria Art Gallery in Bath, Guildhall Art Gallery and Victoria and Albert Museum in London, the Royal Shakespeare Company, Cheltenham Art Gallery, Gloucestershire County Council, and the Royal Albert Memorial Museum, Exeter.

Jonathan Slinger

In 2011, he appeared again with the Royal Shakespeare Company in the title role of Macbeth, a new production by Michael Boyd which was the first Shakespeare play to appear in the revamped Royal Shakespeare Theatre.

Joy Shelton

Jonathan Tafler has been a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company and the BBC Radio Drama Company and features in the Barbra Streisand film Yentl.

Kate Tempest

She toured Europe, Australia and America with her band 'Sound Of Rum' and worked with organisations such as Yale university, the BBC, Apples and Snakes, The Old Vic and the Royal Shakespeare Company.

Kevin Sacre

Kevin started his career at the Royal Shakespeare Company followed by TV series Night and Day for ITV in which he played Dennis Doyle from 2001–02 with ex-cast member Stuart Manning then on to Hollyoaks.

Lauren Ward

In 2010, Ward originated the role of Miss Honey in the new musical Matilda, based on the book Matilda by Roald Dahl and the movie Matilda in the Royal Shakespeare Company's production at Stratford-upon-Avon.

Little Murders

This failure was followed by a successful London production by the Royal Shakespeare Company, directed by Christopher Morahan at the Aldwych Theatre.

Nahum Tate

In addition to the well-known production by the Royal Shakespeare Company of Nicholas Nickleby in England and New York, directed by Trevor Nunn, in 1981, which included the concluding scene of Tate's version of Romeo and Juliet, with its happy ending, there has been at least one other production of Tate's work in New York.

Nina Sosanya

In 2003 she played Rosalind in As You Like It with the Royal Shakespeare Company at the Swan Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon; in 2008 she returned to the RSC to play Rosaline in Love's Labour's Lost and in 2009 appeared in a radio adaptation of a story from the short-story collection The State of the Art.

Olwen Fouéré

As a free-lance actress, Fouéré's has worked with the Abbey Theatre, the Gate Theatre, the Royal National Theatre and the Royal Shakespeare Company.

Oscar James

Roles for black actors were sparse during James' early career, but he persevered to become the fourth black actor to join the Royal Shakespeare Company and the first black actor to play Macbeth.

Panasonic Globe Theatre

Guest companies and artists have included the British Royal National Theatre, Royal Shakespeare Company, Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, Ingmar Bergman, Peter Brook, Barry Kyle and Robert Lepage, as well as such Kabuki stars as Bando Tamasaburo (Lady Macbeth), and Ichikawa Somegoro (Kabuki Hamlet).

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.

Penny Downie

She is an associate artist of the Royal Shakespeare Company where she has played roles such as Lady Anne in Richard III alongside Antony Sher, and Hermione and Perdita in The Winter's Tale.

In 2008/09 she played opposite David Tennant and Patrick Stewart as Gertrude, in the Royal Shakespeare Company's production of Hamlet which was subsequently adapted for BBC television and aired in late 2009.

Roy Marsden

In the early 1960s, Marsden worked with the Royal Shakespeare Company and began to accumulate an extensive list of theatrical credits that include everything from Anton Chekhov and Henrik Ibsen to contemporary Soviet playwright Alexander Vampilov.

Sasha Behar

Her theatre credits include The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant and The Island Princess, Eastward Ho and The Malcontent, with the Royal Shakespeare Company.

Sophie Winkleman

Winkleman's stage career includes a spell at the Royal Shakespeare Company where she played Veronique in Laurence Boswell's adaptation of Beauty and the Beast and a summer in Bath with the Peter Hall Company playing a variety of roles including Archangela in Gallileo's Daughter, a new play by Timberlake Wertenbaker, Violet in George Bernard Shaw's Man and Superman and Charlotte in Don Juan directed by Thea Sharrock.

The Family Reunion

In New York, the play has been staged at the Cherry Lane Theatre in 1947, the Phoenix Theater in 1958, with Fritz Weaver, Florence Reed and Lillian Gish, and by the visiting Royal Shakespeare Company in 2000 (the Swan Theatre production listed above).

The White Devil

The Royal Shakespeare Company performed The White Devil in 1996 at the Swan Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon (later transferred to London to The Pit at The Barbican), directed by Gale Edwards with Richard McCabe as Flamineo, Philip Quast as Ludovico, Ray Fearon as Brachiano, Jane Gurnett as Vittoria, Stephen Boxer as Francisco and Philip Voss.

Tracy Ifeachor

Tracy then went on to make her theatre debut as 'Minerva' in the Royal Shakespeare Companys production of 'Noughts & Crosses' directed and adapted by Dominic Cooke.