Articles by UFHweb

Another recent death, though following some years of ill health, was that of Albert Hunt who we interviewed in 2009. Though struggling with failing memory and prompted by his wife the stalwart Dorothy he gave a fascinating account of his work with Bradford Art College Theatre Group and beyond. See  our Interviewee page for more and the Guardian Obituary. Members of the SCUDD (Standing Conference of University Drama Depts) mailbase shared their responses: ‘I am sure that many colleagues will be saddened by the news that Albert Hunt has died recently. He was widely admired for his radical theatre making, writing, […]

We were, despite his age and the diabetes he had coped with for many years, shocked as well as saddened to hear of the death of Alan Wakeman on 9th August 2015.  He was such a  tireless campaigner who was still battling to save his local GP surgery as he had continued to do as part of Save Soho and Save Piccadilly campaigns over the years and in the Gay Liberation Front. It was during the Save Piccadilly campaigns in the early 70s, fighting to prevent swathes of demolition, that he met ED Berman, which led to his involvement with Roger […]

Would you like to join us as a volunteer interviewer? In 2016 we are setting up a programme to train a dedicated team of interviewers to assist us in our core work of recording and sharing the experience and memories of alternative theatre practitioners. For more information see Jobs.

It is with great sadness we have to announce that Roland Rees, director and co-founder of Foco Novo, died Wednesday, September 2nd 2015. Roland was one of our early interviewees. He also helped us create a web page for Foco Novo by writing its content for us – the first of our company web pages. Please see Michael Coveney’s Guardian obituary for more details of Roland’s pioneering life and work: http://www.theguardian.com/stage/2015/sep/08/roland-rees Roland is being cremated at Honour Oak Crematorium on Tuesday, 15th September at 3pm.

We are pleased to announce the launch of our Indiegogo Crowdfunding Campaign to raise £5,000 to sponsor 5 new Unfinished Histories filmed interviews and to train a dedicated team of interviewers to help us undertake more interviews and the tasks involved in preparing them for public viewing – editing, topics lists creation, copying and packaging for depositing with the British Library Sound Archive, V&A Theatre Collections and Sheffield University. Click HERE to link to our Indiegogo page Photo: Roger Perry

We were much saddened to hear of the death of Stuart Bennett, last week. He was one of the key movers and shakers in the Theatre-in-Education movement, with a career spanning Belgrade TIE, Cockpit TIE and others. He founded the ground-breaking B.A. Community Theatre Arts course at Rose Bruford College, the first to create a training programme oriented towards the needs of the alternative theatre movement. He later became Head of Education at the V&A Theatre Museum and worked to try to save it from closure in 2007.He was also very active in SCYPT and more recently in London Drama and in […]

We are very sorry to tell that Chris Bowler died on 18th May, 2014. One of the founders of Monstrous Regiment women’s theatre company she had earlier been active in many of the small-scale experimental companies that were part of the creative ferment around Oval House in the late 60s and early 70s. She toured with Welfare State and performed with Rational Theatre among other companies. In 1990 she became director of Hoxton Hall in East London, helping secure the building’s future. For Hilary Westlake’s obituary in The Guardian see here. Chris Bowler with Mary McCusker and Gilliam Hanna in Teen […]

American Charles Marowitz, co-founder of the Open Space in Tottenham Court Road with Thelma Holt in 1968, died on May 2nd, 2014. For more information on his life and achievements read the Telegraph obituary and Guardian obituary.

The exhibition book  Re-Staging Revolutions: Alternative Theatre in Lambeth and Camden 1968-88 is now available. Produced in full colour it features a wealth of photos and flyers from work of the period, including all those companies featured in the exhibition, and more, along with the exhibition text by Susan Croft with contributions from project volunteers, a foreword by Tony Robinson, a short essay by Danny Braverman a bibliography and further information on the history of Ovalhouse, the career of Kate Crutchley and the work of Unfinished Histories.  While its focus is on companies who had a connection with Lambeth and Camden […]