News

New Interviewee web pages have recently gone up for: Michael Almaz (Artaud Company, Cafe Theatre) Ros Asquith (Inter-Action, City Limits) ED Berman  (Inter-Action) Sarah Evans (Theatrescope) Julie Holledge (Broadside Mobile Workers’ Theatre, Women’s Theatre Group, Mrs Worthington’s Daughters) Annabel Leventon (La MaMa, Freehold) Libby Mason (Red Ladder, Theatre Centre) Mary Moore (designer – Women’s Theatre Group, Mrs Worthington’s Daughters, Low Moan Spectacular) Beth Porter (Wherehouse La MaMa) Coming soon: Gavin Richards (Ken Campbell Roadshow, Belt and Braces) Jan Dungey (Cunning Stunts) Patrick Barlow (Inter-Action, National Theatre of Brent) Jane Boston, Tasha Fairbanks, Deb Trethewey, Jude Winter (Siren Theatre Company)

Unfinished Histories in conjunction with University of Sheffield received funding from Palatine to begin to create a learning resource on alternative theatre: online index, with selected full text versions, of articles, books, chapters, reviews etc on the alternative theatre movement in the 1960s to 80s. This project is currently in progress. For more information or if you would like to contribute go to: Palatine project.

Victor Spinetti sadly died on the 18th June, 2012. Obituary: www.guardian.co.uk/film/2012/jun/19/victor-spinetti Victor took part with Sheila Allen in the animated discussion following our 40th anniversary event to celebrate Jane Arden’s 1969 play Vagina Rex and the Gas Oven, in which he played the Man. We are very pleased that the event was recorded by the British Library Sound Archives. Victor had been a key member of Joan Littlewood’s Theatre Workshop and was a highly versatile actor whose roles included parts in most of the Beatles films alongside quantities of stage roles. A writer, director and anecdotalist, working with Ken Tynan and African-American […]

Peter Shorey died on December 7th, 2011. Peter was very active in alternative theatre in the 1970s and early 1980s working with Cleveland Theatre Company, Avon Touring and Gay Sweatshop amongst others. He had an extensive and varied acting career working in Rep up and down the country, and more recently, seasons with the RSC, and Shakespeare’s Globe in London and on tour in the States. Peter was much loved for his appearances as Pantomime Dame, writing scripts for the pantos he appeared in at Colchester and Northampton.

Sheila Allen died on 11th October, 2011. Sheila was one of our first interviewees and we greatly treasure the memories she shared with us of her life and career, in particular those relating to her work on Jane Arden’s groundbreaking play Vagina Rex and the Gas Oven, first produced in 1969 at the Drury Lane Arts Lab alongside Victor Spinetti, directed by Jack Bond. In 2009 Unfinished Histories arranged a reading of the play, directed by Jessica Higgs, which was attended by Sheila, Victor and Jack. The second half of the event was a live interview with them chaired by Susan Croft. A recording […]

Heathcote was an enormously important individual through both her practice  and her writings on the development of drama-in-education and improvisation and on the growth of the Theatre-in-Education movement in the 1960s and 70s in Britain. An inspirational teacher both of teachers and of students her work in the classroom developed concepts such a the ‘Mantle of the Expert’ where children, asked to take on the role of expert in classroom improvisations, stepped into the role, demonstrating new capacities for decision-making and responsibility. Through her writing –Drama as Context (1980),Collected Writings 1984 and that of others  with her (Gavin Bolton) and  about her, and her practice, […]