News

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 […]

A new exhibition from Unfinished Histories celebrating the work of alternative theatre companies and venues in Lambeth and Camden Ovalhouse Cafe, 52-54 Kennington, London SE11 5SW Sun 10 November – Sat 21 December, Tuesdays – Saturdays, 3-8pm The exhibition marks Ovalhouse’s 50th anniversary as a venue and the launch of Unfinished Histories’ new company web pages: Company Links supported by the National Lottery through the Heritage Lottery Fund. Re-staging Revolutions covers a period of enormous creativity, experimentation and questioning in theatre, seeing the formation of over 700 companies. This included street theatre, community arts, physical and visual work, political theatre, gay, lesbian, Black, […]

We are deeply sorry to announce that Kate Crutchley died on Sunday, 21st July. Kate was an actress, director and in the 1980s, the very influential Theatre Programmer at Oval House championing women’s work throughout the decade. Always warm and generous she was one of our first project Interviewees in 2007. The following year we paid tribute to her in our Celebrating Oval House event at Oval House. See The Guardian for a longer obituary or our August newsletter which gives details of our planned tribute event on Tuesday 3rd December at Ovalhouse.

Snoo Wilson, playwright and founder member of Portable Theatre (1968), died suddenly last week at the age of 64. Please link here for Dusty Hughes’  Guardian obituary. 

As part of our Heritage Lottery Funded project, Company Links, we currently have volunteers hard at work preparing web pages for the following companies: Theatre Centre Red Ladder Spare Tyre London Bubble Beryl & the Perils Blood Group Broadside The Phantom Captain Gay Sweatshop InterAction (several pages including TOC/The Other Company; Dogg’s Troupe; Ambiance/Almost Free Theatre) Incubus Mouth and Trousers Spin /Stir Sidewalk Wakefield Tricycle Forkbeard Fantasy The Artaud Company Bloolips Salakta Balloon Band Optik Crystal Theatre of the Saint Umoja Recreation Ground Hormone Imbalance Theatro Technis Hesitate and Demonstrate The Wandsworth Warmers Stirabout Scarlet Harlets Character Ladies Harmony Theatre […]

At the end of last year we received an award from the Heritage Lottery Fund to begin developing the Companies list on our web site and mount a related touring exhibition. The project, now well underway, focuses on the London boroughs of Lambeth and Camden, the site of so much innovative theatre work in the 1960s to 1980s, developed through venues like Oval House in Lambeth and the Arts Lab, Drury Lane, Action Space Drill Hall, Open Space and Roundhouse in Camden. The boroughs were also the home of many pioneering arts projects and companies from the Brixton Faeries, Lumiere and […]

Franca Rame, Italian performer, playwright and activist, wife of Dario Fo died of May 29th, 2013. Please see her Guardian obituary for more details.

Theatre Centre – amazingly this key Theatre-in-Education company are celebrating their 60th anniversary. For more details on the year’s activities see here.

Jenny Harris died on 6th November, 2012. Jenny was a co-founder of The Brighton Combination in the late 1960s with Noel Greig and Ruth Marks. When the company moved to London and the Albany, Jenny eventually became the Director of what was known as the Albany Empire. In the early 1990′s she was appointed Producer and Director of Education and Training at the National Theatre. Please see Jenny Harris’ own website for information on her life and work, www.jennyharris.org

Michael Almaz died on Tuesday, 16th October, 2012. Michael was one of our interviewees, Michael Almaz, and was already struggling with his health when we met him in 2010. An influential writer and director he will be best remembered for his work at the London Cafe Theatre, Leicester Square where he presented amongst other pieces, Intimacy based on a story by Satre which became the Fringe’s longest running play, The Artaud Theatre Company and The Rasputin Play produced by the Brighton Combination.

ED Berman, Professor, MBE and founder of the legendary Inter-Action recreated a new Fun Art Bus in 2012, 40 years after the original bus was launched in 1972. It made its first outings to Kentish Town Community Centre and Cody Dock, Canning Town, E16 last year. Click here for further details and plans for 2013. View our recent video, an Omnibus, celebrating the 40th anniversary of the original Fun Art Bus with material drawn from our interviews and existing photos (courtesy of ED Berman and Inter-Action):