# Unfinished Histories

> Recording the history of Alternative Theatre


## Posts

- [FYFFI 2 AUTUMN 2025 - EXHIBITION, SYMPOSIUM, PLAYREADINGS](https://unfinishedhistories.com/fyffi-2-autumn-2025-exhibition-symposium-playreadings/):     We are excited to announce year two of our FYFFI (Fifty Years of The Fight For Inclusion) Programme, which celebrates the 50th anniversary of Britain’s First Gay Theater Festival. LGBTQ+ performance and theatre. Our exhibition at London Performance Studios will run 6th November to 14th December. Expect a celebration of LBGTQ+ theatre and performance including a symposium on 7th and 8th November, staged playreadings and more. We’ll update this page with further event dates as they are confirmed.    
- [LGBTQI+ Playreading Marathon 1](https://unfinishedhistories.com/lgbtqi-playreading-marathon-1/): On the 19th July we held our first LGBTQI+ Playreading Marathon at London Performance Studios. It was a great event, with an intergenerational group of people taking turns to read, listen and discuss plays by the Brixton Faeries, Noel Greig & Don Milligan, Martin Patrick, Roger Baker and Drew Griffiths.
- [LGBTQ+ Playreading Marathons](https://unfinishedhistories.com/category-forthcomingevents/):  
- [Queer Plays Then and Now](https://unfinishedhistories.com/queer-plays-then-and-now/): Queer Plays Then and Now: 1967-2017 SUNDAY JANUARY 15th 2017 In celebration of the 50th anniversary of the partial decriminalisation of homosexuality Arcola’s Queer Collective are presenting an evening of readings of LGBT plays from the Unfinished Histories archive. Proceeds will go to Unfinished Histories and their work. Venue: Arcola Theatre Date: Sunday, January 15th 2017 Time: 3pm FOR MORE DETAILS AND BOOKING CLICK HERE
- [Unfinished Histories Archive Benefit](https://unfinishedhistories.com/unfinished-histories-archive-benefit/): A Benefit to Re-Home the Unfinished Histories Archive When: June 19th, 7pm Where: Pinter Studio, Queen Mary University, Mile End Road, E1 4NS (map) Siren Claire Dowie Rose Collis The evening’s performers: Siren lesbian feminist band, cabaret performer Rose Collis and MC Claire Dowie all grew up from the ferment of the alternative theatre scene in the 1970s and 80s.  The history of that movement will be celebrated in an evening of fun, entertainment and provocative song.  The event is to raise funds for the move of the Unfinished Histories Archive which documents the history of the alternative theatre movement [...]
- [Albert Hunt obituary](https://unfinishedhistories.com/albert-hunt-obituary/): 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, [...]
- [Theatre for Radical Change](https://unfinishedhistories.com/theatre-for-radical-change/): Our exhibition Theatre for Radical Change: in the 1970s and 80s was on display at the Arcola Theatre during 2016 until November.   On view were a range of posters from theatre companies whose work challenged the status quo of their time. Companies featured include: Belt and Braces, Theatre of Black Women, Recreation Ground, Welfare State International, Foco Novo, Black Theatre Co-op and Cunning Stunts. For a list and information on the posters on display see here. Theatre for Radical Change followed our very successful Homosexual Acts exhibition at the Arcola focusing on lesbian and gay theatre in the 1970s and [...]
- [Homosexual Acts](https://unfinishedhistories.com/homosexual-acts/): A selection of posters from lesbian and gay theatre in the 1970s and 80s was on display at the Arcola cafe/foyer from February – September 2015. It was launched on the evening of the company’s Homosexual Acts Benefit.
- [Re-Staging Revolutions](https://unfinishedhistories.com/exhibitions/): Re-Staging Revolutions was on show from November 2013 to May 2014 at the following venues – Ovalhouse Cafe: November – December 2013 Kentish Town Community Centre: January 2014 Camden Local Studies and Archive Centre: February – May 2014 Current viewing A number of posters are currently on show in the Ovalhouse Cafe. Please contact us for questions relating to Re-Staging Revolutions, its content and if you are interested in showing the exhibition at your venue. To order a copy of the exhibition booklet click here. See Ovalhouse Season and Camden Exhibition for details of exhibition events held at these venues during the exhibition’s residencies. [...]
- [Alan Wakeman obituary](https://unfinishedhistories.com/alan-wakeman-obituary/): 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 [...]
- [Interviewing work and training](https://unfinishedhistories.com/interviewing-work-and-training/): 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.
- [Roland Rees obiturary](https://unfinishedhistories.com/roland-rees-obituary/): 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.
- [Indiegogo Crowdfunding Campaign](https://unfinishedhistories.com/indiegogo-crowdfunding-campaign/): 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
- [Homosexual Acts Benefit Gala](https://unfinishedhistories.com/homosexual-acts-benefit-gala/): Images from our Benefit Gala ‘Homosexual Acts’ at the Arcola Theatre, February 15, 2015 Photos: Tony Coult Also see here for articles about the event: in Counterpunch by Michael Dickinson and in The Guardian by Simon Callow For video footage see here
- [Stuart Bennett](https://unfinishedhistories.com/stuart-bennett/): 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 [...]
- [Alternative theatres in the UK](https://unfinishedhistories.com/alternative-theatres-in-the-uk/): Goldsmiths University in collaboration with Unfinished Histories are presenting a series of evening events during October and November, 2015, that look at different aspects of alternative theatre.                                                 Oct 1st: Sue Parrish: The Glass Ceiling – Women’s Theatre Oct 8th: Mustapha Matura: Black Stages Oct 22nd: Philip Osment and Kate Owen: Gay Sweatshop and beyond Oct 29th: Mark Long & Co: People Show – a Sum of the imagination Nov 12th: Roland Muldoon: CAST – Agitprop v Agitprop Nov 26th: Nabil Shaban – Graeae and beyond [...]
- [Chris Bowler](https://unfinishedhistories.com/chris-bowler/): 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 [...]
- [Charles Marowitz](https://unfinishedhistories.com/charles-marowitz/): 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.
- [Radio Coverage](https://unfinishedhistories.com/radio-coverage/): Find links here to  interviews on 2 shows on Resonance 104.4 FM: Anna Chen’s Madame Miaow’s Culture Lounge  with  Neil Hornick of The Phantom Captain and Susan Croft and back on  25th February Out in South London, presented by Baylen Leonard with Susan Croft, both about aspects of the project and the exhibition Re-Staging Revolutions.
- [Camden Events](https://unfinishedhistories.com/camden-events/): Re-Staging Revolutions opens to the public at Camden Local Studies and Archives Centre on February 10th, 2014. For viewing times and details see Exhibition Launch: Tuesday, February 11th 6.30 for 7.00. Places limited – if you wish to attend please email us Events: Tuesday, April 8th, 6.45 for 7.15 start Alternative Theatre in Camden: a (Virtual) Tour Talk by Dr Susan Croft Click here to book. Tuesday April 22nd 6.45 for 7.15 start Camden Plays: readings from a selection of plays produced by Camden venues and companies, 1968-88. Introduced by Jessica Higgs, plays to include: Poppies by Noel Greig (Gay Sweatshop), Wyre’s Cross by Peta Masters and Geraldine Griffiths [...]
- [Exhibition Book](https://unfinishedhistories.com/neexhibition-book/): 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 [...]
- [Re-Staging Revolutions Kentish Town Community Centre](https://unfinishedhistories.com/re-staging-revolutions-kentish-town-community-centre/): Our Exhibition Re-Staging Revolutions will be on show at Kentish Town Community Centre from January 3th – 10th, 2014. Kentish Town Community Centre 17 Busby Place London NW5 2SP Phone: 020 7482 3212 Exhibition opening times: Launch Saturday 4th January between 12pm – 7pm Sunday 5th January, 10am – 7pm Monday 6th – Thursday 9th, January 2pm – 6pm Friday 10th, 3pm – 7pm Kentish Town Community Centre location map here. 
- [Inter-Action in Retrospect: 4 January 2014](https://unfinishedhistories.com/inter-action-in-retrospect-4-january-2014/): A day-long event exploring the history – through personal accounts – and the influence and impact of Inter-Action, the innovative and influential community arts-based organisation, based in Camden from 1968 until the mid-1980s. See https://unfinishedhistories.com/history/companies/inter-action/ for more information. 11.00 -11.30 Tea and coffee. Welcome by Dr Cathy Crawford, Chair of Kentish Town Community Centre 11.30 – 1.00 Panel 1, looking at the history of Inter-Action, sharing recollections of its work and impact at the time locally 1.00 – 2.00 Lunch – cost £5 2.00 – 3.30 Panel 2, exploring the influence of the Inter-Action experience on subsequent work both through [...]
- [Alternative Pantos](https://unfinishedhistories.com/alternative-pantos/): Our Ovalhouse season was nicely rounded off with an evening dedicated to celebrating the legendary lesbian and feisty feminist pantomimes of the 1980s. It was led by two of our volunteers, Ray Malone (Director) and Lucie Regan (Actor), and performed by a group of young actresses. Rehearsed extracts from Sue Frumin’s Fanny Whittington,  Masters and Griffiths‘ Cinderella Hardup, Nona Shepphard’s Robin Hood and Cheryl Moch’s Cindereall the Real True Story were intercut with words from original cast members and writers – Sue Frumin, Peta Masters, Gillian Hann, Mary McCusker and Adele Salem.  A message from Cheryl Moch (Cinderella the Real True Story) sent from New York [...]
- [Black Theatre event](https://unfinishedhistories.com/black-theatre-event/): December 6th, 2013 Black Theatre in London, 1970s and 80s A sharing of memories, histories and archive materials along with performed extracts Chair: Olusola Oyeleye Speakers: Susan Croft, Director, Unfinished Histories on Images and Archive Materials Mustapha Matura (Black Theatre Co-op) Roland Rees and others (Foco Novo) Gordon Case (Brixton Arts Theatre, Black Theatre Co-op, Temba) Bernardine Evaristo (Theatre of Black Women) Readings: Extracts from Party (Black Pieces) by Mustapha Matura, performed by Bevan Celestine-Vincent as C, Darrel Bailey as Z, Lucie Regan as Carol Extract from Pyeyucca by Bernardine Evaristo (Theatre of Black Women), performed by Carol-Ann Walton Co-ordinator: [...]
- [Theatre Centre readings](https://unfinishedhistories.com/theatre-centre-readings/): December 5th saw a presentation by Theatre Centre of a selection of readings from Theatre Centre plays, 1960s-1980s. Directed by Natalie Wilson, Artistic Director of Theatre Centre, the plays were read by students from Rose Bruford College of Theatre and Performance. The plays: Magical Faces by Brian Way (1969) Susumu’s Story by David Holman (1982) The Zulu Hut Club by Bryony Lavery (1985) Laughter From the Other Side by Noel Greig (1986) A Feeling In My Bones by Lin Coghlan (1988) The Marx Brothers Go East by Sue Frumin (1988)
- [Kate Crutchley Tribute](https://unfinishedhistories.com/kate-crutchley-tribute/): Our second Ovalhouse event was a tribute evening celebrating the life and work of  Kate Crutchley, Oval House programmer 1981-91 (dubbed ‘Kate’s Great’ by those participating). Around 40 people contributed to the creation of this event which gave an overview of her life and career, focusing especially on her Oval House years. Many companies, groups and individuals lined up to pay tribute including: Karen Parker and Debby Klein (formerly Parker and Klein), Eve Polycarpou and Martha Lewis (Eve and Martha formerly known as Donna and Kebab), Stella Duffy, Sandra Freeman, Sarah McNair, Nicolle Freni, Crin Claxton, Susan (Clark) Hayes, ), Caroline [...]
- [Oval House in the 1960s and 1970s](https://unfinishedhistories.com/oval-house-in-the-1960s-and-1970s/): A salon event held in Ovalhouse Café, November 18th, that looked at the work of alternative theatre companies at Oval House in the 1960s and 1970s. Introduced by Judith Knight and Sue Timothy (Oval House programmers in the 1970s), it had a panel of eleven including, Paddy Fletcher (Incubus), Geraldine Pilgrim (Hesitate and Demonstrate) and Neil Hornick (The Phantom Captain).
- [Re-Staging Revolutions launch](https://unfinishedhistories.com/re-staging-revolutions-launch/): Our exhibition Re-Staging Revolutions was launched on Sunday, November 10th, 2013 at Ovalhouse where it will stay until December 21st, 2013. The exhibition, dedicated to Kate Crutchley (Oval House programmer, 1981-91) was opened for us by Bill Patterson (7:84) with speeches from Deborah Bestwick (Ovalhouse Director), Susan Croft and Jessica Higgs. Susan later ran a live interview with members of the Pip Simmons theatre group. The Launch was a joyous celebration of Alternative Theatre and attended by many of those interviewed for the exhibition and our newly created Company webpages: Action Space, Artaud Company, Belt and Braces, Beryl and the Perils, Black Theatre Co-op, Blood Group, BLOOLIPS, Bloomers, Bristol [...]
- [Ovalhouse season](https://unfinishedhistories.com/re-staging-revolutions-alternative-theatre-in-lambeth-and-camden-1968-1988/): 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, [...]
- [Ovalhouse Season](https://unfinishedhistories.com/ovalhouse-season/): You will find details of events taking place as part of the Ovalhouse Season here.
- [A Dramatic Improvement? Theatre, performance and mental health](https://unfinishedhistories.com/a-dramatic-improvement-theatre-performance-and-mental-health/): Tuesday 15th October 6.30-8.30 doors open at 6.15pm. Refreshments will be available during the session This event brings together artists involved in the alternative theatre movement between 1968-88 who now practice as therapists, to discuss links between theatre and mental health. Using examples of their theatre work as a starting point, each speaker will explore connections between their artistic projects and the therapeutic work that they do with their clients. The discussion will look for relationships between performance practices such as improvisation and collaboration and the processes that therapists use in their work. It will also explore the theatrical possibilities [...]
- [The Artaud Company revisited](https://unfinishedhistories.com/the-artaud-company-revisited/):   Tuesday 17th September 6.30-8.30 doors open at 6.15pm. Refreshments will be available during the session The Artaud Company revisited. With Michael Almaz, Sally Willis and Pam Martell founded the company in the late 60s, with productions including Monsieur Artaud, Dreyfus, Letters from Kafka, Story and Masoch which toured extensively in the US and Europe. Sally Willis’s performance as Kafka’s long suffering fiancé was acclaimed by audiences wherever she went on her solo tours through Belgium, Holland, Switzerland, Germany and Austria both in English and German. Sally and Pam will lead a session revisiting the Letters from Kafka and Story. [...]
- [Kate Crutchley announcement](https://unfinishedhistories.com/kate-crutchley-announcement/): 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](https://unfinishedhistories.com/snoo-wilson/): 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. 
- [Agit-Squat: Squatting and the Alternative Theatre Movement](https://unfinishedhistories.com/agit-squat-squatting-and-the-alternative-theatre-movement/): Tuesday 16th July 6.30-8.30 doors open at 6.15pm. Refreshments will be available during the session This event focuses on the vital role that squatting played in the alternative theatre movement, allowing artists to live in cheaply in communities where they could work together. Including James Saunders’s Squat: a documentary play about Grosvenor Road, Twickenham and Rough Theatre’s Squat Now While Stocks Last. We would like as many people as possible to join in and read a part – there are plenty of parts in the James Saunders play. As Unfinished Histories is not funded to host these events and they [...]
- [Company Pages in Progress](https://unfinishedhistories.com/company-pages-in-progress/): 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 [...]
- [Heritage Lottery Fund success!](https://unfinishedhistories.com/heritage-lottery-fund-success/): 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](https://unfinishedhistories.com/franca-ram-2/): Franca Rame, Italian performer, playwright and activist, wife of Dario Fo died of May 29th, 2013. Please see her Guardian obituary for more details.
- [The Phantom Captain: What To Do On a Date](https://unfinishedhistories.com/the-phantom-captain-what-to-do-on-a-date/): The first of our new regular monthly salons was a roaring success last week! We are now looking ahead to the next scheduled event on the 18th June. Check out our blog for details of discussions about future potential topics for the sessions but in the meantime we plan to get the ball rolling with a series of readings of plays and performance texts created by various alternative theatre companies. Many fringe theatre productions during the 1960s-1980s were of significantly more than passing interest but got lost to view with the passage of time. In this series of events, directors [...]
- [Third Tuesday Salons number 1](https://unfinishedhistories.com/third-tuesday-salons-number-1/): We met in the Anson Room, what was obviously the sitting room of St Margaret’s House, where the settlement workers must have met among the bound volumes of Shaw and Galsworthy to share the events of their day, working among the East London poor. It’s an atmospheric room, early evening sunlight pouring in slantwise, big leather sofas, polished wood, even a spinning wheel. Perhaps a little incongruous for our topic. Perhaps not. We ranged in age from 20s to 70s, students, practitioners, volunteers, recipe for some very fruitful exchanges. The advertised topic was ‘The Alternative Theatre Movement Then – How [...]
- [Perils in Bethnal Green](https://unfinishedhistories.com/perils-in-bethnal-green-2/):   Thurs 28th March and we are having an Unfinished Histories Board meeting in 'The Create Place', a shopfront space just down the street from our new office at St Margaret's Settlement in Bethnal Green. The main building is an old white Georgian house, one of the many late 19th century institutions set up by universities, colleges and religious groups to do good among the poor of the East End. They now form a base for charities and non-profit groups of many kinds from Tower Hamlets befrienders to Bodywise, alternative health practitioners, and the local Council for Voluntary Services. There [...]
- [Theatre Centre](https://unfinishedhistories.com/theatre-centre/): Theatre Centre – amazingly this key Theatre-in-Education company are celebrating their 60th anniversary. For more details on the year’s activities see here.
- [Unfinished Histories Company Links](https://unfinishedhistories.com/unfinished-histories-company-links/): The project made its first proper connection with an Originator on 18th November with an assignation on Liverpool Street Station with Johnny Melville. I told him I would wear a red velvet scarf and lurk outside Smiths. He told me he was bald and very handsome. He approached cautiously and in a soft Edinburgh accent murmured; 'The owl flies over the crooked steeple' 'I replied: 'But only when the moon is full' and we had made the contact. He is indeed handsome and his years creating physical theatre are evident. He produced from his baggage a parcel of flyers, photos [...]
- [Jenny Harris (1944 – 2012)](https://unfinishedhistories.com/jenny-harris-1944-2012/): 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 (d 2012)](https://unfinishedhistories.com/michael-almaz-d-2012/): 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.
- [Re-creating the Fun Art Bus](https://unfinishedhistories.com/re-creating-the-fun-art-bus/): 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):  
- [Interviews](https://unfinishedhistories.com/interviews/): 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)
- [Palatine Project](https://unfinishedhistories.com/palatine-project/): 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 (d. 2012)](https://unfinishedhistories.com/victor-spinetti-d-2012/): 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 (1949 – 2011)](https://unfinishedhistories.com/peter-shorey-1949-2011/): 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 (1932-2011)](https://unfinishedhistories.com/sheila-allen-1932-2011/): 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 [...]
- [Dorothy Heathcote (1926-2011)](https://unfinishedhistories.com/dorothy-heathcote-1926-2011/): 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, [...]
- [Vagina Rex and the Gas Oven 40th anniversary celebration event](https://unfinishedhistories.com/vagina-rex-and-the-gas-oven-40th-anniversary-celebration-event/): 40th anniversary reading of Jane Arden’s play Vagina Rex and the Gas Oven followed by a roundtable discussion at Toynbee Studios with original cast members Sheila Allen and Victor Spinetti, and the production’s director, Jack Bond. Jane Arden’s play was the first British theatre work to come out of the Women’s Liberation Movement when it was staged at Jim Hayne’s Drury Lane Arts Lab in  February, 1969. The event has furnished us with new and exciting documentation relating not only to the work of Jane Arden and the original production of Vagina Rex, but also that of the Arts Lab, [...]
- [Jane Arden films on DVD](https://unfinishedhistories.com/jane-arden-films-on-dvd/): BFI launch of a box set of three films by Jane Arden (1927-1982): Anti-Clock, The Other Side of the Underneath and Separation available on DVD and Blu-ray. Jane Arden, playwright, actress, film director, is mentioned in a number of Unfinished Histories interviews, notably those with Sheila Allen (Vagina Rex and the Gas Oven) and Natasha Morgan (The Other Side of the Underneath) and the BFI used material from those interviews for the box set of films and commissioned Susan Croft to write the essay ‘Chasing Jane’ for the accompanying booklet.
- [Celebrating Oval House](https://unfinishedhistories.com/celebrating-oval-house/): An event celebrating the work of Peter Oliver, who ran Oval House from 1961-1974, and Kate Crutchley, the venue’s programmer in the 1980s. The first half of the evening paid tribute to the life and work of Peter Oliver (1926-2007) through a series of speakers who knew him personally. The second half took the form of a live interview with Kate Crutchley and Susan Croft using video footage from the Unfinished Histories series:  Women’s Theatre 1970s and 1980s. The event included an exhibition of material focusing on Unfinished Histories interviewees and their work alongside material on Oval House in the [...]
- [Drill Hall launch](https://unfinishedhistories.com/drill-hall-launch/): Launch of the completed Women’s Theatre 1970s and 1980s series of interviews, including a panel discussion with project interviewees, Lily Susan Todd and Eileen Pollock with freelance director Indhu Rubasingham and Lisa Godman, Artistic Director of Soho Theatre, and chaired by Carole Woddis. This was followed by audience discussion on women’s theatre now and then. There was an accompanying exhibition of posters, flyers, photos and scripts relating to the work of the interviewees and the companies and/or venues they worked with or ran. Copies of the series of interviews were officially handed over to the British Library’s National Sound Archives, [...]
- [Theatre Museum Unfinished Histories](https://unfinishedhistories.com/theatre-museum-unfinished-histories-2/): A one-off event at the Theatre Museum in April 2006 – a live oral history interview with alternative theatre director Michele Frankel, followed by a panel discussion with women active in feminist theatre in the 1970s and 1980s. The panel comprised Susie Orbach, Gillian Hanna, Jenny Harris, Sheryl Crow and Michele Frankel reflecting on their early work and examined how their experiences then continue to inform their work now. The panel discussion is available for listening at theatrevoice.com. The event was co-produced by Michele Frankel, Angie Milan and Susan Croft. Carole Woddis wrote a review of the event for the New Statesman [...]

## Pages

- [Reviews and Press Radical Rediscovery: Homosexual Acts and Beyond](https://unfinishedhistories.com/fyffi/fyffi-2-2025/reviews-and-press-radical-rediscovery-homosexual-acts-and-beyond/):    
- [Full Captions: Radical Rediscovery 2 - Homosexual Acts and Beyond](https://unfinishedhistories.com/fyffi/fyffi-2-2025/full-captions-radical-rediscovery-2-homosexual-acts-and-beyond/): Here you will find the detailed captions for the exhibition Radical Rediscovery 2 – Homosexual Acts and Beyond. It’s a work in progress as there are eight vitrines and we’re running behind so if they’re not all here, please check back later! Each vitrine also has an introductory text in the exhibition booklet. All items from Unfinished Histories collections unless described otherwise. If you can supply additional information or would like to take issue with any of the captions, please get in touch. If you find this online and it’s before 14th December 2025, you can still come and see [...]
- [Areas of work](https://unfinishedhistories.com/areas-of-work/): Black & Asian Community & Street Disability Experimental Gay & Lesbian New Writing Performance Art Political TIE, YPT & Arts Education Women’s
- [About us](https://unfinishedhistories.com/about/about-us/)
- [FYFFI 3: 2026](https://unfinishedhistories.com/fyffi/fyffi-3-2026/)
- [FYFFI 2: 2025](https://unfinishedhistories.com/fyffi/fyffi-2-2025/)
- [FYFFI 1: 2024](https://unfinishedhistories.com/fyffi/fyffi-1-2024/):  
- [FYFFI](https://unfinishedhistories.com/fyffi/)
- [A test page](https://unfinishedhistories.com/a-test-page/)
- [Notices](https://unfinishedhistories.com/about/notices/): Theatre Dance and Performance Training Journal (TDPT) Special issue: Training Places: Bretton Hall Call for contributions, ideas, proposals and dialogue with the editors Guest editors: Dr Ben Francombe, Chichester University (b.francombe@chi.ac.uk) Prof Alice O’Grady, University of Leeds (a.ogrady@leeds.ac.uk) Prof Jonathan Pitches, University of Leeds (j.pitches@leeds.ac.uk)   Training Grounds Editor: TBC Training Places: Bretton Hall (Issue 18.2) Context This Special Issue call for papers comes as a widely acknowledged financial and political crisis is happening in the Higher Education sector in the UK, one which is being felt particularly acutely in the creative arts. By the time it is published (in [...]
- [Anne Mayer](https://unfinishedhistories.com/history/individuals-2/anne-mayer/): Anne Mayer (born Dec 5, 1933; died April 22, 2025) Anne Mayer who died in April, was one of the most respected if not indeed a legendary Theatre PR by the time she retired. She died in her 92nd year but in essence she continued supporting and encouraging and was actively involved in theatre, dance and arts companies into her 90s. The many organisations she was involved with ranged across the board – from the Philharmonia Orchestra to the London Contemporary Dance Theatre at The Place (she was the inaugural press and publicity director there) to the inclusive dance company, [...]
- [Playreading Marathons](https://unfinishedhistories.com/categories/gayandlesbian/playreading-marathons/): SATURDAY 19th July Mister X  by Roger Baker and Drew Griffiths (Gay Sweatshop, 1976) scripted with the company was based on the booklet With Downcast Gays: Aspects of Homosexual Self-Oppression by Andrew Hodges and David Hutte. A ‘coming-out’ tale, it illustrates the journey of a gay man from adolescence, through various stages of self-oppression until his proud liberation at a time when pride in one’s sexuality was a revolutionary act. The play was centre stage in the debate about whether homosexuals should lead a quiet, conformist life to fit into the status quo or participate in direct action to demand equality. [...]
- [Updates on the Inter-Action archive](https://unfinishedhistories.com/history/companies/inter-action/saving-the-inter-action-archive/updates-on-the-inter-action-archive/): INTER-ACTION TO LONDON ARCHIVES (via Unfinished Histories) Bulletin One 9 March  2025                       The archive on its arrival at ACAVA Welcome! I am Tony Coult, tasked with the exciting project of preparing a safeguarded home for the Inter-Action archive at the London (Metropolitan) Archives. As most of you will know, David Powell has been working on a crowd-fundraising exercise to enable this work to be done, and the response has been both generous and indicative of the very special role that Inter-Action has played over many years of artistic, creative [...]
- [Mike Bradwell](https://unfinishedhistories.com/history/individuals-2/mike-bradwell/): Mike Bradwell, second from R, with the early Hull Truck company and their Bedford van, early 70s Unfinished Histories never got to interview Mike Bradwell, but that was partly because he wrote such a wild and wonderful autobiography in The Reluctant Escapologist: Adventures in Alternative Theatre (2010) telling of his career on the fringe from setting up Hull Truck in 1971 as a bastion of popular new writing touring the north (and still going, now building-based) today. It started when he put an ad in Time Out:  “Half-formed theatre company seeks other half” and grew from there. It includes his adventures with the out-of-body experience that [...]
- [Tributes to Neil Hornick](https://unfinishedhistories.com/interviews/interviewees-f-k/neil-hornick/tributes-to-neil-hornick/): We hope to create a memorial event for Neil in the not-too-distant future. If you would like to know more please email: ufhcontact at gmail.com               Neil in his archive in 2013 when we interviewed him for Unfinished Histories – see also Spring Update 2025 newsletter in our Newsletter Archive  for UH’s tribute David Gale writes: Neil was an important figure in my life and in the life of experimental performance in this country. He asked me to join Phantom Captain, along with Cindy Oswin and Ian Johnson, in the early 70s when performance [...]
- [Jobs Available](https://unfinishedhistories.com/about/who-we-are/jobs-available/): JOB DESCRIPTION: Unfinished Histories Administrator About Us Unfinished Histories is a small-scale arts charity dedicated to preserving, researching, documenting and sharing the history of alternative and experimental theatre in London from the 1960s to the 1990s. It has been going since 2007. During 2024-26 it is producing, with partners including London Performance Studios, the project FYFFI, Fifty Years of the Fight for Inclusion to mark key moments in the struggles for change in British theatre in the post-war era through a rolling programme of events. 2024 focused on the 50th anniversary of the first Women’s Theatre Festival, 2025 on the [...]
- [Cleo Sylvestre](https://unfinishedhistories.com/history/individuals-2/cleo-sylvester/): It is with special sadness UH pays tribute to Cleo Sylvestre as an interview was in the process of being planned when she died, after she attended our readings at Newington Green – having been part of the original cast of Jackie Kay’s Twice Over We are pleased to share the Guardian obituary but would love to hear more, especially about her work in alternative theatre, her one-woman show The Marvellous Adventures of Mrs Seacole and especially her times as joint Artistic Director of the Rosemary Branch  of  which she ran for many years from 1996 with Cecilia Darker. L to R: Cleo Sylvestre, Artistic Associate Bryony [...]
- [Saving the Inter-Action archive](https://unfinishedhistories.com/history/companies/inter-action/saving-the-inter-action-archive/): Inter-Action was perhaps the most influential arts, education and community development charity to emerge in post-war Britain. From the late 1960s onwards it ran dozens of projects which changed lives – both of the people and communities which it worked with and of the hundreds of people who worked so energetically as part of its teams. City Farms, Weekend Arts College, the participatory theatre company Dogg’s Troupe, the Fun Art Bus and the Almost Free Theatre, which hosted the first Women’s Theatre Festival and the first Gay Theatre Festival in Britain (the 50th anniversary of which Unfinished Histories are marking [...]
- [Radical Rediscoveries Reviews](https://unfinishedhistories.com/categories/womens/fifty-years-of-feminist-change-in-theatre/radical-rediscoveries-reviews/):                 ‘the ultimate fiery manifesto of love to the history of women-led performance art…. Above all, Radical Rediscovery: Feminist Theatre in Britain 1969-1992 is a mightily fierce labour of love, simply due to its dedication in championing the forgotten voices of women’s alternative theatre. Well, for as long as Dr. Croft continues her research, forgotten no more.’ (Eva Philips, SHOWStudio) ‘it’s fascinating to revisit a time when women had to shout very loudly to be heard in the testosterone-filled, male-dominated medium of theatre… sure to inspire, enthral and educate’ Nilgün Yusuf  (The Reviews [...]
- [Radical Rediscovery Exhibition Details](https://unfinishedhistories.com/categories/womens/fifty-years-of-feminist-change-in-theatre/radical-rediscovery-exhibition-details/): This document is designed to accompany the Exhibition booklet for Radical Rediscovery: Feminist Theatre in Britain 1969-92 We are in process of inserting links to further information on our website Vitrine 1. BEGINNINGS OF A MOVEMENT: CONTEXT 1969-73 AND BEYOND Why Miss World? pamphlet, 1970 Published by the WLM Office and illustration from inside. The ‘Miss World’ Story by Eric Morley, Angley Books, 1967 First staged in 1951, at its height the contest attracted 24 million viewers on television worldwide. The Body Politic edited by Michelene Wandor, Stage 1, 1972 Plays by Women Vol. 1, 1982 edited by Michelene Wandor [...]
- [Mike Mould](https://unfinishedhistories.com/history/individuals-2/mike-mould/): Ian Giles remembers Mike Mould This concerns the years 1971-1973 and thus predates his establishment of Bruvvers…. When I joined what was then The Tyneside Theatre Company at the University Theatre, Newcastle (now Northern Stage) in the summer of 1971, Mike was already there as a member of Stagecoach, its TIE company, along with Charmian Dore, Karl Johnson, Holly de Jong and Nic Jensen. When their director, Paddy Masefield became unwell, I was seconded to co-direct Stagecoach’s innovative show Theatre Zoom and this was the first time I worked with Mike Mould. He was terrific, both as a performer and [...]
- [How to get to LPS](https://unfinishedhistories.com/categories/womens/fifty-years-of-feminist-change-in-theatre/how-to-get-to-lps/): London Performance Studios Penarth Centre Penarth Street London SE15 1TR NB Exhibition is in Studio 3, entrance on Ormside St Travel details By Bus The nearest bus stop is Old Kent Road/Ilderton Rd stop – buses 21, 172, 53, 453 to Elephant and Castle, New Cross, New Cross Gate etc (0.3 mi /8 mins walk to LPS)  (P12 is not currently running to Ilderton Rd stops) By Train Regular trains take 8 minutes from London Bridge to South Bermondsey (0.4 mi / 12 mins walk to LPS ) By Overground To New Cross Gate / New Cross then buses as above along [...]
- [Guided Walks for FYFFI 2024](https://unfinishedhistories.com/categories/womens/fifty-years-of-feminist-change-in-theatre/guided-walks-for-fyffi-2024/): Women in the (Alternative) West End: two walks Cheek by Jowl arrive at Theatre Space, founded by Ann Fenn Theatre Space will form part of the West End South walk Book now for two walks (each scheduled twice) taking place Tuesday 12th to Friday 15th March 2024, celebrating International Women’s Week/ Women’s History Month. Photo: Prue Grice The walks will be led by Susan Croft with Polly Waldron and will cover a range of venues and women who helped create the alternative theatre movement or were active in women’s theatre including programmers, producers, playwrights, performers and designers. Primarily focused on the 1960s, [...]
- [Pip Simmons (1942-2024) by Ruud Engelander](https://unfinishedhistories.com/history/individuals-2/pip-simmons/pip-simmons-1942-2024-by-ruud-engelander/): Theatre is the most ephemeral art form. Theatre, dance, mime, puppetry, they crumble under your hands, you look at them, the curtain falls (at least it did in the past) and it is gone and never comes back. You can keep some things, texts, costumes, set models, objects, photos of actors or dancers, video recordings, but the experience you had during the performance cannot be recreated or retold. It’s a cliché that has probably been around as long as theatre itself. Even if you see a performance for the second or third time, the experience can be different. But sometimes [...]
- [FYFFI: Fifty Years of the Fight for Inclusion](https://unfinishedhistories.com/categories/womens/fyffi-fifty-years-of-the-fight-for-inclusion/): FYFFI: Fifty Years of the Fight for Inclusion  2025 marks the 50th anniversary of the first Gay Theatre Festival in Britain Called Homosexual Acts it took place in 1975 at the Almost Free Theatre and later at the ICA. In 2015 we marked its 40th anniversary with a Gala at the Arcola Theatre led by Alan Wakeman one of the founders of the ’75 festival and of Gay Sweatshop. Over the course of 2026 we will be revisiting the history of Lesbian and Gay performance from the 1970s and 80s, rediscovering lost and little-known scripts through readings and workshops, staging [...]
- [Celebrating LGBTQ+ Theatre Histories](https://unfinishedhistories.com/categories/gayandlesbian/celebrating-lgbtq-theatre-histories/): Details to come
- [David Medalla](https://unfinishedhistories.com/history/individuals-2/david-medalla/): Filipino-born artist David Medalla was a key innovator in the 1960s arts scene. Coming to Britain in 1960 he created auto-creative foam sculptures called Cloud Canyons, developed kinetic art, installations and performances. Originally based at the Signals Gallery in Cornwall St and later Wigmore St, in 1967 he moved to set up the Exploding Galaxy in a communal house at 99 Balls Pond Rd, Dalston (with no phone, electricity, gas, or even water  at times) where he was based till 1969. A centre for avant-garde performances and happenings with lots of Eastern influence, nudity and dance, it was strongly body-focused. The membership was [...]
- [Pip Simmons](https://unfinishedhistories.com/history/individuals-2/pip-simmons/): In memory of Pip Simmons. The Pip Simmons Theatre Group was formed in 1968. Pip Simmons, the founder, served both as writer and director, he toured with the company and was always there; I should know because I was there too for over 10 years on the road rehearsing and performing 13 shows. The stage was stormed in Paris while we were performing An Die Musik headlined “Concert classique à Dachau par le Pip Simmons Theatre Group de Londres, Schubert, Liszt, Beethoven au pays de l’horreur” This was perhaps Pip Simmons best remembered work, commemorating the 30th anniversary of the liberation of Holland from German occupation. Pip [...]
- [Fifty Years of Feminist Change in Theatre](https://unfinishedhistories.com/categories/womens/fifty-years-of-feminist-change-in-theatre/): Women’s Theatre Festival 50th Anniversary events Radical Rediscovery: Feminist Theatre in Britain 1969-92 An exhibition by Unfinished Histories, curated by Susan Croft at London Performance Studios, the Penarth Centre, Penarth St, London SE15 1TR EXTENSION!! Now runs to 15th December 2024, Fri to Sun 12  till 5pm  NB Exhibition is in Studio 3, entrance on Ormside St Click here for reviews and detailed captions. The Symposium Radical Rediscovery: the Symposium  on Saturday 30th Nov went really well and got excellent feedback. More details on documentation soon How to get to London Performance Studios   Why now? We are celebrating the [...]
- [Roland Miller](https://unfinishedhistories.com/history/individuals-2/roland-miller/): Roland Miller was born in London in 1938, the only child of Dorothy and Douglas Miller. After the war Douglas was employed as a mental hospital administrator in Devon where the family moved. The hospital had its own farm and accommodation for staff in the grounds, so that is where Roland was brought up, in that strange environment. He attended local village schools and gained a scholarship to Exeter Grammar School, where most boys were fee paying, then went on to Wadham College Oxford where he studied English Literature. On graduating, he worked briefly as a journalist, as a gardener [...]
- [Can you identify these photos?](https://unfinishedhistories.com/news/can-you-identify-these-photos/): See Tolmers archive to see more photos Please email UH contact at unfinishedhistories.com if you know who this is.
- [The British Library and Me](https://unfinishedhistories.com/interviews/interviewees-f-k/neil-hornick/the-british-library-and-me/): THE BRITISH LIBRARY AND ME ‘I am very happy to let you know that the Library’s Heritage Acquisition board has approved us making an offer and, as expected, expressed a great deal of enthusiasm for your archive being acquired by the British Library. [It] will be a wonderful addition to the library and I am very pleased to have been part of making that happen.’ Eleanor Dickens, Curator Contemporary Archives and Manuscripts   In case I haven’t mentioned it… Please allow me to share with you a glimmer of good news. Last September the British Library (once part of the [...]
- [Acting Out: Celebrating LGBTQ Theatre of the 1970s and 80s](https://unfinishedhistories.com/categories/gayandlesbian/acting-out-celebrating-lgbtq-theatre-of-the-1970s-and-80s/): New Playreadings at Newington Green and Hackney Archives On Thurs 28th September at Newington Green Meeting House Unfinished Histories present a staged reading of Raising the Wreck by Sue Frumin, directed by Runa Augdal Journey into the heart of a sunken pirate ship, where four fierce female pirates, Irish, African, Chinese and English, recount their stories with a woman who has fallen into a timeslip from 1980s London, where she is one of the women running a pirate radio station. Originally produced in 1985 by Gay Sweatshop’s women’s company. ‘The actresses were so good…. Not only did they create such compelling characters [...]
- [Gillian Hanna Obituary](https://unfinishedhistories.com/history/individuals-2/gillian-hanna-obituary/)
- [Jean Hart](https://unfinishedhistories.com/history/individuals-2/jean-hart/)
- [Richard Stourac 1943-2022](https://unfinishedhistories.com/history/individuals-2/richard-stourac-1943-2022/): The Austrian actor and director Richard Stourac joined the core group that became Red Ladder in 1969, and with Kathleen McCreery went on to co-found Broadside in 1975.  Immersed in the Brechtian approach through his experience in Vienna with the award-winning company Die Komödianten, an activist and an athlete, Richard brought intellectual rigor and a remarkably precise, gestic, dynamic and funny physicality to playmaking and performances. He and Kathleen began researching workers’ theatres, and in 1986 their book Theatre as a Weapon, Workers’ Theatre in the Soviet Union, Germany and Britain, 1917-1934 was published by Routledge & Kegan Paul. Dr. Edward [...]
- [The Gang Bang Show revisited](https://unfinishedhistories.com/interviews/interviewees-f-k/neil-hornick/the-gang-bang-show-revisited/): THE GANG BANG SHOW REVISITED by Neil Hornick   July 2014   The undated introductory note included in my transcript of The Gang Bang Show (June-July 1967) was probably written not long after the show had been performed. While it supplies some valid background detail, it also omits some stuff of possible interest, especially from the broader perspective of 47 years on.   Firstly, it was my first production since leaving Bristol University Drama Department, a year earlier, in 1966.  Because no-one involved was paid for their services and the cast consisted of a mixture of professional and amateur actors, [...]
- [Naftali Yavin](https://unfinishedhistories.com/history/individuals-2/naftali-yavin/):   Naftali Yavin was born in Haifa Israel in 1936. He read philosophy at the University of Tel Aviv and trained at the Habimah National Drama School, playing many leading roles at the Habimah and working as assistant director to Sir Tyrone Guthrie, Andre Brasak and others. He went on to set up his own experimental theatre company in Israel, winning the Israeli Arts Council award for best play in 1965. A British Council Bursary took him to study for a postgraduate diploma in theatre at Manchester University, where Stephen Joseph was an important influence. He met ED Berman in [...]
- [Peter Cheeseman](https://unfinishedhistories.com/history/individuals-2/peter-cheeseman/): 1932-2010 Pioneer of community theatre plays in the round at the New Vic, Stoke-on-Trent, a model influenced by the work of Charles Parker and influential for many others who worked with him including Kate Crutchley. See here for Guardian obituary
- [John Turner](https://unfinishedhistories.com/history/individuals-2/john-turner/): John Turner, 1946-2021 My brother John Turner, community theatre actor, playwright and director, songwriter and rock singer, died suddenly at the age of 75 on 15 November 2021. John was the elder of two brothers born to Hilda Turner, who worked for many years as a shop manager, and Matthew Turner, an engineering supervisor originally from Gateshead, Co. Durham. Both boys grew up in Hilda’s home town of Slough, Berkshire, where they attended the local technical school. It was there, under the aegis of Tom Barnes, our inspirational head of English, where John gained his lifelong passion for the theatre, [...]
- [Playreadings: Autumn 2021 to Summer 2023](https://unfinishedhistories.com/about/aims-and-activities/illustrated-talks-tours-workshops-discussions-and-readings/playreadings-autumn-2021-22/): The new season of playreadings as it stood at Nov 2021 was as follows (For updates email contact@unfinishedhistories.com, sign up to the UH newsletter or watch this space). Unless otherwise specified playreadings take place at 7.30 p.m GMT/BST on Thursday evenings on Zoom. Unfinished Histories has been running a playreading group on zoom since April 2020, focusing on scripts from the alternative theatre movement of the 1970s and 80s and New Women scripts from the late 19th / early 20th century. (To purchase copies of Thousands of Noras: Short Plays by Women 1875-1920 ed. Sherry Engle and Susan Croft, source [...]
- [Her Inside: Stepping Outside](https://unfinishedhistories.com/about/aims-and-activities/illustrated-talks-tours-workshops-discussions-and-readings/her-inside-women-in-the-lockdown/her-inside-stepping-outside/): Building on work done through Her Inside: Women in the Lockdown over the past year, the new phase of work, Her Inside: Stepping Outside aims to help isolated women to articulate the experience of beginning to move outside, addressing the joys, threats, anxieties and challenges of negotiating the ‘new normal’. In the UK, the confused, sometimes contradictory, and constantly changing government messaging around managing Covid has led to many of us feeling bewildered at the new demands on us to return to work outside the home, to using public transport and shopping to kickstart the economy, while safety precautions such [...]
- [Her Inside: Women in the Lockdown](https://unfinishedhistories.com/about/aims-and-activities/illustrated-talks-tours-workshops-discussions-and-readings/her-inside-women-in-the-lockdown/): Her Inside is a project that grew out of the Unfinished Histories zoom playreading series set up in April 2020. It created a blog where women and non-binary people could share responses to the lockdown, creative writing including short plays, poems, stories, reflections, as well as songs, drawings and other art works. Many of the early responses came from women who had been part of the alternative theatre movement including Beth Porter, Jo Stanley, Jill Greenhalgh, Claire MacDonald,  Sue Gill, Jacqueline Saphra (aka Jacqui Shapiro) and Helen Chadwick and we also republished April De Angelis’s 1986 play Breathless, along with [...]
- [Louis Mahoney](https://unfinishedhistories.com/louis-mahoney/): Louis Mahoney (1938-2020) One of the first black actors to perform, in 1967, at the RSC he was also a well-known face on television. As an activist for change he was chairman of Equity’s Afro-Asian Committee, working to persuade broadcasters and drama schools to address the barriers he described as “big hurdles to be jumped by anybody who was non-white”. He also founded Performers Against Racism in the 1980s to campaign against apartheid in South Africa and persuade performers not to tour and perform to segregated audiences. He was also one of the founders of Black Theatre Workshop in 1976. For [...]
- [Ags Irwin](https://unfinishedhistories.com/history/individuals-2/ags-irwin/): Ags Irwin (1949-2021) by Jessica Higgs Many of you I am sure will have crossed paths, socially or professionally, with Ags Irwin who died far too early on May 6th this year, not long after her 72nd birthday. Most theatre company histories are told through the names of their players, directors and designers but Ags, through her imaginative and fervent administrative, fundraising, managerial and producer roles, played an equally influential part in the successes of those she worked with – Gay Sweatshop,  Monstrous Regiment, Theatre Centre, Pascal Theatre Company, Disability Arts Forum among others – and it is good and [...]
- [David Holman Copy](https://unfinishedhistories.com/history/individuals-2/david-holman-2/):  
- [David Holman tributes](https://unfinishedhistories.com/history/individuals-2/david-holman/david-holman-tributes/)
- [David Holman](https://unfinishedhistories.com/history/individuals-2/david-holman/):  
- [She Also Wrote Plays](https://unfinishedhistories.com/about/who-we-are/susan-croft/she-also-wrote-plays/): Further information about She Also Wrote Plays: an International Guide to Women Playwrights from the 10th to the 21st Century by Susan Croft (Faber & Faber, 2001) The book gives critical entries looking at the work of nearly 400 women playwrights (names listed below) between c935 and 2001,  writing in or translated  into English, representing 35 different countries. It also includes  lengthy bibliographies of anthologies,  of critical works on the subject, and a list of other resources. Susan has a also compiled a detailed Index of plays by theme, ranging from women in sport to plays on workers’ struggles to [...]
- [SUS by Barrie Keefe - an online staged reading](https://unfinishedhistories.com/about/aims-and-activities/illustrated-talks-tours-workshops-discussions-and-readings/sus-by-barrie-keefe-an-online-staged-reading/)
- [Online Playreadings under the Lockdown](https://unfinishedhistories.com/about/aims-and-activities/illustrated-talks-tours-workshops-discussions-and-readings/online-playreadings-under-the-lockdown/): Plays read so far include (alternative theatre plays in bold, New Women plays in italics) 14/4/20 Go West Young Woman by Pam Gems (The Women’s Company, Roundhouse, 1974) 21/4/20 Act I of The Finding of Nancy (1902) by Netta Syrett; Cousin Mary (1912) by Catherine Dawson-Scott; The Common Round (1917) by Katherine Mansfield; Miss Tassey (1910) by Elizabeth Baker 28/4/20 Friends of Alice Wheeldon by Sheila Rowbotham (DAC Theatre, 1980) 5/5  Chains of Dew (1922) and Trifles (1916) by Susan Glaspell (US) 12/5 Son of a Gun by John Burrows (Sidewalk Theatre, 1976) 19/5/20 Cicely Hamilton’s Just to Get Married [...]
- [Current Activist Organisations](https://unfinishedhistories.com/home/current-activist-organisations/): The questions posed by the alternative theatre movement and the larger counterculture from which it emerged have been thrown into ever starker contrast by the pandemic and its consequences. A key task going forward is to connect the unfinished histories of the movement and the models of work and working practice that emerged from them with the Now and inform the emergence of New Alternatives in theatre as we eventually begin to emerge from the immediate crisis to envision what lies beyond it: work that confronts the poverty, debt, devastation of the social and cultural landscape, the housing crisis, the [...]
- [Ghost Boy: a Playwright's Progress](https://unfinishedhistories.com/archives/research-and-booklist/publications-list/ghost-boy-a-playwrights-progress/): Ghost Boy: a Playwright’s Progress by Richard Crane Ghost Boy is an autobiography, which artistically covers Richard Crane’s journey through a fascinating period of British theatre history including The Brighton Combination and the Bradford Festival, as a jobbing actor and aspiring playwright from the mid 60s at Cambridge, joining footlights up to about 1974, a period of the Swinging Sixties and the cultural ferment in which the Bonzo Dog Doodah Band rub shoulders with the John Bull Puncture Repair Kit. Densely packed with detail of artistic process, event-crammed days, reviews, extracts from letters of the time, it is a highly [...]
- [Nandita Ghose](https://unfinishedhistories.com/history/individuals-2/nandita-ghose/): Nandita Ghose was a playwright, poet, radio producer and director and an inspirational teacher. Born in 1963 daughter of Bengali father and a white British mother, Nandita, known as Nanda, grew up in Seaford and went on to study Theatre at Dartington College of Arts. In 1986 her play Ishtar Descends was joint winner of the first Second Wave Young Women Playwrights’ competition and was produced at The Albany Empire.  It drew on the ancient Sumerian myth of Ishtar’s search for her lost lover Tammuz to explore a contemporary young woman’s confrontation with grief and madness. She went on to [...]
- [The Plot: Theatre of Black Women, 1986](https://unfinishedhistories.com/the-plot-theatre-of-black-women-1986/)
- [Alfred Fagon](https://unfinishedhistories.com/history/individuals-2/alfred-fagon/): Alfred Fagon was born 25 June 1937 in Clarendon, Jamaica, the third of nine brothers and two sisters. Upon his arrival in Britain in 1955 he worked for British Rail in Nottingham before joining the Royal Signal Corps, where he became the army’s middleweight champion in 1962, later working as a welder in Bristol. His acting career began in Bristol when he appeared in Henry Livings’ The Little Mrs Foster Show at Bristol Arts Centre.  He appeared in Drums Along the Avon and Whatever Next for the BBC in Bristol along with Granny Doesn’t Live Here Anymore for Harlech TV, [...]
- [Black and Asian Women Playwrights to 1993: a bibliography](https://unfinishedhistories.com/categories/asian/black-and-minority-ethnic-theatre-resources/black-and-asian-women-playwrights-to-1993-a-bibliography/)
- [Black Women Playwrights in Britain, 1993](https://unfinishedhistories.com/categories/asian/black-and-minority-ethnic-theatre-resources/black-women-playwrights-in-britain-1993/):  
- [Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic Theatre Resources](https://unfinishedhistories.com/categories/asian/black-and-minority-ethnic-theatre-resources/): If you are visiting the Unfinished Histories site for the first time you can find Interviewee pages for practitioners of colour here: Jamal Ali,  Poulomi Desai, George Eugeniou, Mustapha Matura, Jacqueline Rudet, Nabil Shaban There are also shorter Individual pages for: Parv Bancil, Alfred Fagon, Nandita Ghose, Tony Gouveia, Naseem Khan, Louis Mahoney, Ellen Stewart The Individuals list includes people active in alternative theatre during the timeframe c1968 to 1990 – performers, directors, writers, designers, musicians amongst others, including lots more Black British names. Long-term we hope to create pages for each person or link to material elsewhere on the [...]
- [Jane Arden](https://unfinishedhistories.com/history/individuals-2/jane-arden/)
- [Ray Batchelor's Account](https://unfinishedhistories.com/history/companies/gay-sweatshop/dear-love-of-comrades/ray-batchelors-account/): After a performance of Dear Love of Comrades at the small theatre at Birmingham Rep (Studio?), we were making our way to a gay club, The Grosvenor House Hotel. We had to park the Sweaties Ford Transit minibus round the corner from it and were walking towards the club. We passed two parked cars. What was odd, was that they had their lights on and were full to bursting of with young people. I thought nothing of it and we carried on. As we were walking, whoever was next to me said, “OK. Just keep walking.” I asked why but then [...]
- [Philip Osment Obituary](https://unfinishedhistories.com/interviews/interviewees-l-q/philip-osment/philip-osment-obituary/): Philip Osment was an advisor to and supporter of Unfinished Histories and is very sadly missed. He worked with Gay Sweatshop as a performer, notably in Poppies, and began to find his creative voice as a writer through the company where he met his friend and for many years partner Noel Greig.  He went on to write his classic This Island’s Mine for the company, recently and movingly revived by Ardent Theatre Company at the King’s Head. He went on to work with young people’s theatre companies like Red Ladder and Theatre Centre as a playwright, dramaturg and director, developing [...]
- [Joel Cutrara Texts and Tributes](https://unfinishedhistories.com/history/companies/phantom-captain-new/joel-cutrara/joel-cutrara-texts-and-tributes/): JOEL CUTRARA – ENTERTAINER OF IDEAS  (1936-2019) writer/actor/director/sound designer in partnership with Neil Hornick, The Phantom Captain  (1972-87) ‘If we made our work totally comprehensible it would lose part of its meaning.’  – Joel Cutrara   A UH selection of messages received by Neil Hornick, June 2019 PHANTOM CAPTAIN MEMBERS AND IRREGULARS Just been talking to Louise on the phone about this terribly sad news. I have so many memories of Joel from the Phantom Captain days, not least his very first question to me when you and he interviewed me for a role in my first Phantom Captain musical show. [...]
- [Joel Cutrara](https://unfinishedhistories.com/history/companies/phantom-captain-new/joel-cutrara/): Joel Cutrara (1936 – 2019) Neil Hornick writes: Actor, Writer, Performance Artist, and Entertainer of Ideas, Joel Cutrara was my partner in The Phantom Captain company from 1972 to 1987. He wrote, acted, sang, directed, sound-designed, mastered advanced computer technology, played ukulele and drove the company van. Joel was born in Chicago in 1936, the only son of August Cutrara, a Sicilian immigrant, and Betty Cutrara, a Polish-American clerical worker, who separated not long after Joel was born. Betty and her son changed addresses often, apparently to avoid being located by August. As a result, Joel once told me, he [...]
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- [Heritage Specialists](https://unfinishedhistories.com/heritage-specialists/): Unfinished Histories Heritage Specialists Over the course of thirteen years of operation Unfinished Histories has built a great range of experience and knowledge both of documenting alternative theatre, but also of the processes of documenting cultural heritage more broadly.  This is available on a consultancy basis to other organisations. Areas of specialism include: Conducting, managing and editing oral history interviews and training others in interviewing Curating exhibitions Working with groups to share skills and engage them with heritage Research, writing and publishing Archive consultancy Project management Funding application development Disability and diversity awareness and training Volunteer recruitment and management Creating [...]
- [Friends of Unfinished Histories](https://unfinishedhistories.com/friends-of-unfinished-histories/): Unfinished Histories prides itself on not just recording quality interviews but making them accessible. The interview involves research and preparation by an interviewer, as well as the interview itself, which may be 5 or 6 hours long and often includes a technician or camera operator. Afterwards: logging, fluff-editing, copying, making and printing copies for Special Collections. We select and edit extracts for the web page, and write a biography, a detailed topic list with time code, bibliography, as well as selecting and digitising images for a Gallery and transcribing key extracts. Even when volunteers help out, this involves putting up [...]
- [Illustrated Talks, Tours, Workshops, Discussions, and Readings](https://unfinishedhistories.com/about/aims-and-activities/illustrated-talks-tours-workshops-discussions-and-readings/): Available now Zoom Playreadings from the Alternative Theatre Movement During the pandemic Unfinished Histories is running a regular participatory playreading group reading rare plays from the alternative theatre movement, many unpublished and not seen since their original production, along with New Women plays of the late 19th/ early 20th century. See here for information on sessions planned for Autumn 2021-Spring 2022 and here for  further details of readings so far. If you would be interested in taking part in future playreadings or attending as an audience member, please email contact@unfinishedhistories.com Her Inside: Women in the Lockdown In April 2020 Unfinished [...]
- [The Rasputin Show](https://unfinishedhistories.com/about/events/the-rasputin-show/)
- [Celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the Women's Liberation Movement in the UK](https://unfinishedhistories.com/about/events/celebrating-the-50th-anniversary-of-the-womens-liberation-movement-in-the-uk/)
- [Unfinished Histories](https://unfinishedhistories.com/)
- [Sistershow](https://unfinishedhistories.com/sistershow/): For information on Sistershow, see d-m Withers’s excellent resource on Sistershow Revisited.
- [Elyse Dodgson](https://unfinishedhistories.com/history/individuals-2/elyse-dodgson/): Born in New York Elyse Kramer, she studied drama at Northwestern University and then came to the Guildhall School in London. She joined The Brighton Combination where she met actor John Dodgson and touring in The NAB Show. They married and later had two children and they settled in London where from 1978 to 83 she was Head of Drama at Vauxhall Manor School, where she developed three major projects which ‘attempted to explore race and gender through drama’, the third one Motherland a particular success, a youth and community project drawing on oral histories  recorded by young women at [...]
- [Brighton Combination](https://unfinishedhistories.com/history/companies/brighton-combination/): Company name: Brighton Combination Founders: Noel Greig, Jenny Harris, Ruth Marks Established: 1968 Reason:  To establish an Arts Lab set up outside London Current status: In 1971 the company moved to East London to become part of the Albany Empire (as The Combination at The Albany i.e. ‘The Old Albany’ in Creek Road, later replaced, after it was burnt down, by The Albany Empire, later The Albany in Douglas Way, Deptford). The Combination continued forward until 1990. Area of Work: Political, New Writing, Community Policy: ‘The theatre will be administrated by a non-profit-making company (The Combination) and subsidised by its other under-takings which will [...]
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- [Joint Stock](https://unfinishedhistories.com/history/companies/joint-stock/): Company Name: Joint Stock Theatre Company (1974-1989) Founders: David Hare, David Aukin, Max Stafford-Clark. Established: 1974 Purpose: Umbrella company for new work and projects of the founders; subsequently reshaped as a company presenting work created through research and workshops in an author-led devising process that came to be called the Joint Stock Method and striving to enact socialist principles in company management. Current Status: Company disbanded in 1989, three years after losing revenue funding from the Arts Council of Great Britain. Some of its methods where continued by Out of Joint from 1993 to the present. Out of Joint continues [...]
- [Half Moon Theatre](https://unfinishedhistories.com/history/venues/half-moon-theatre/): Venue name: the Half Moon Theatre Location: Started in an old synagogue in Alie St, E1, taking its name from the neighbouring Half Moon Passage, it moved in 1979 to an old Welsh Methodist Chapel near Stepney Green station on the Mile End Rd. Around 1982 it began to build a new theatre to the rear of the chapel, but the finances were precarious at a time of cuts to arts funding and the company went into administration in 1990. The Half Moon Young People’s Theatre that had grown up alongside the main company initially based at Oxford House in [...]
- [Hilary Westlake other productions](https://unfinishedhistories.com/interviews/interviewees-r-z-3/hilary-westlake/hilary-westlake-other-productions/): Projects with Hilary Westlake,  David Gale, Frank Millward, and/or Simon Corder in some combination but Lumiere and Son productions
- [Hilary Westlake directing](https://unfinishedhistories.com/interviews/interviewees-r-z-3/hilary-westlake/hilary-westlake-directing/): Shows directed by Hilary Westlake other than those produced by Lumiere and Son
- [Lumiere and Son](https://unfinishedhistories.com/history/companies/lumiere-and-son/): Company Name: Lumiere & Son Founders: Hilary Westlake and David Gale Established: 1974 Purpose: to reflect the performer’s interest in the extremes of human appetites, both conscious and unconscious, as evidenced in dreams, madness, obsession, and disease. ‘We aim to give our audiences an entertainment that is humorous, spectacular, and thought provoking’ –promotion pamphlet for the planned 1978 summer show Current Status: Disbanded. Company largely ceased to produce under the name in 1992, though Westlake and Gale made work and led residencies in the company’s style up through 2009. Area of Work: Experimental and crossover performance, touching on aspects of [...]
- [General Will people interview breakdown](https://unfinishedhistories.com/history/companies/general-will/general-will-people-interview-breakdown/): The General Will Group Interview Breakdown The following people were interviewed by Unfinished Histories as a group in July 2013: Bobby Weaver, Johnny Buck, Ali Hussain, Dusty Rhodes, Sue Imerson, Marion Heap; Alan Richardson,  Carol Moss, Joel White Company: The General Will Interviewer: Susan Croft Location: Bradford Playhouse Precis & timings: Sara Freeman Interview precis + timings: Part I Bobby Weaver intro (:34); Johnny Buck intro (1:09); Ali Hussein intro (1:33); Dusty Rhodes intro (2:11); Sue Imerson intro (3:26); Marion Heap intro (4:11); Alan Richardson (4:36); Carol Moss intro (5:14); Joel White intro (6:11). Plans for a separate interview with David [...]
- [Bobby Weaver](https://unfinishedhistories.com/interviews/interviewees-r-z-3/bobby-weaver/):   Bobby Weaver (1952?-) was an actor, singer, and writer with The General Will from 1972-1975. After leaving school, he worked backstage at the Ashcroft Theatre in Croydon, and then made the move to being a performer, working for the Theatre Centre doing TIE. He also did doing street theatre with Canned theatre and agit prop with West London Theatre Workshop. He moved north and became involved with General Will as a performer in State of Emergency. He also performed in a revival of The National Interest and the premiere of Dunkirk Spirit. He worked with Road Gang after General [...]
- [Margaret Robson](https://unfinishedhistories.com/interviews/interviewees-r-z-3/margaret-robson/):   Margaret Robson (1951-) was an actress with The General Will from 1974-1977. She was involved with the Women’s Liberation Movement and was a socialist feminist, forging links with Asian youth groups in Bradford. When the General Will split, Robson stayed with the former company members who fulfilled a commission to write about housing in the Northeast and co-founded Road Gang. After 1977, she completed teacher training and taught English as Second Language, engaging in anti-racist work throughout her professional life. Margaret Robson was interviewed by Unfinished Histories on the 10th July 2013, Bradford Playhouse Company: The General Will Interviewer: [...]
- [Greg Philo](https://unfinishedhistories.com/interviews/interviewees-l-q/greg-philo/):   Greg Philo (1947-) was a founding member of The General Will with David Edgar and John Cudmore who ran a theatre group at the University in the early 1970s. An academic and an artist first in, Philo primarily acted and directed for General Will. He relocated to Glasgow in 1973 and joined the University of Glasgow. Now a professor of Communications and Social Change he is also the Research Director of the Glasgow Media Unit. Greg Philo was interviewed by Unfinished Histories on 11th July 2013, Bradford Playhouse Company: The General Will Interviewer: Jo Stanley Interview precis + timings: [...]
- [Carol Moss](https://unfinishedhistories.com/interviews/interviewees-l-q/carol-moss/):   Carol Moss was a student at Bradford University in modern linguistics and her interest in politics and social change led her to involvement with The General Will. She was administrator of the company from 1973-1975. She worked particularly on The Pub Show and The Prison Show. She continued to organize the tour for Road Gang after General Will’s reorganization, then returned to teaching, working in continuing education at Bradford College. Carol Moss was interviewed by Unfinished Histories on 7th July 2013, Bradford Playhouse Company: The General Will Interviewer: Susan Croft Interview precis + timings: Sara Freeman Interview precis + timings: [...]
- [Sue Imerson](https://unfinishedhistories.com/interviews/interviewees-f-k/sue-imerson/):   Sue Imerson (1952-) was a member of The General Will from 1975-1977. She got involved after seeing the company’s shows: she was a factory worker at Lister Mills silks factory and part of radical political activism in the Bradford area. She worked on maintenance and building support as well as show creation. Sue Imerson was interviewed by Unfinished Histories on 10th July 2013 at the Bradford Playhouse Company: The General Will Interviewer: Jo Stanley Interview precis + timings: Sara Freeman Interview precis + timings: Born 1952; Imerson joined later – no memory of David Edgar in the company (:42) [...]
- [Pam Schweitzer Honorary Doctor of Arts](https://unfinishedhistories.com/interviews/interviewees-r-z-3/pam-schweitzer/pam-schweitzer-honorary-doctor-of-arts/): Pam Schweitzer received an Honorary Doctor of Arts at the University of Greenwich in 2017. Below are copies of the conferment’s eulogy and response. Chancellor (Chris Philpott): Pam Schweitzer is the founder of a unique theatre movement, now known as reminiscence theatre: this is the creation of original shows from the recorded memories of older people. Today reminiscence theatre is practiced around the world, playing an important role in preserving oral history, and bringing the generations together through creating joyous, moving performances, telling the stories of real people on important themes such as war, immigration and living in diverse communities. [...]
- [Parv Bancil](https://unfinishedhistories.com/history/individuals-2/parv-bancil/): We were shocked to hear of the sudden death in April 2017, aged only 50, of Parv Bancil, playwright, member of the Hounslow Arts Co-operative (HAC); the comedy team One Nation Under a Groove, and musician with comedy band The Dead Jalebis. HAC gave voice to a generation of urban Asian youth, growing up with punk and committed to finding new energised and subversive forms to express their experience.  Fellow HAC member Poulomi Desai describes a company doing street theatre, publishing a zine, creating spoof bands, as well as putting on shows like Parv’s and Ravinder Gill’s Curse of the Dead [...]
- [Heathcote Williams](https://unfinishedhistories.com/history/individuals-2/heathcote-williams/): Playwright, poet and activist, the brilliant Heathcote Williams died in July 2017. His revolutionary AC/DC challenged the shape of theatre in 1970 at the Theatre Upstairs. His works for alternative theatre included The Local Stigmatic, (Traverse, 1966, recently revived at the Old Red Lion), The Immortalist at Oval House and on tour, Hancock’s Last Half Hour for the Almost Free in 1977, while his documentation of Speakers’ Corner was the inspiration for Joint Stock’s first show, The Speakers in 1974. His books Whale Nation, Sacred Elephant and Autogeddon were passionate celebrations of a natural world under attack. He was a wonderful Prospero in [...]
- [Naseem Khan](https://unfinishedhistories.com/history/individuals-2/naseem-khan/): Naseem Khan OBE We were hugely saddened to hear of the death of Naseem Khan on 8th June 2017. Naseem was an advisor to the Unfinished Histories project in its early years and we had hoped to interview her. Her 1976 report on The Arts Britain Ignores altered the cultural landscape, forcing the arts establishment and funders to begin the – all-too-slow – process of addressing the needs to support cultural diversity in the arts. We took its title as the starting point for the section on Black and Asian theatres in the exhibition Re-Staging Revolutions in 2013-14. Naseem was, with [...]
- [Robert Hahn and Jenn Ben Jackov interview outline](https://unfinishedhistories.com/interviews/interviewees-f-k/robert-hahn-and-jenn-ben-jackov/robert-hahn-and-jenn-ben-jackov-interview-outline/): Date: 05.12.15 Duration: 1:32:44 Location: Amsterdam Company: Friends Roadshow Interviewer: Susan Croft Interview outline: Robert Hahn’s (RH) family background – born South Africa. German family left Germany in 1938. RH job to help support Mother as theatre usher. Went on tour with theatre company in late 1950s; toured with Athol Fugard – Hello Goodbye + another play; was doing Stage Management; worked Market Theatre and University Theatre in Johannesburg. Underground political activities at that time. Called up to army. Deserted and fled to Holland where he met Jenn Ben Jackov (JBJ) who was working in radical theatre company there. RH had lot of Black [...]
- [Peter Oliver](https://unfinishedhistories.com/history/individuals-2/peter-oliver/): Peter Oliver (1926-2007) – founder Oval House, Pip Simmons Theatre Group For his Guardian’s obituary: https://www.theguardian.com/news/2007/oct/24/guardianobituaries.obituaries For more information see Joan Oliver. Image: photos © Sheila Burnett (courtesy of Arena Pal) Back to Individuals
- [Pam Schweitzer video Topics List](https://unfinishedhistories.com/interviews/interviewees-r-z-3/pam-schweitzer/pam-schweitzer-video-topics-list/): Date: 11th Feb 2016 Location: Blackheath Interviewer: Susan Croft Technician: Joseph Dunne Observer: Juley Smith Topics List: Susan Croft  Video timings – 2:46:29 Video One 01:30:15 Video Two 01:16:14 Video One 00:00:00         Family Background and school. Grew up in Hale, Cheshire, nr Manchester. Father a local solicitor, mother a housewife. Part of the Jewish community – among the first Jewish families to move to green and leafy South Manchester from traditional N Manchester community. PS was a bit of an educational disaster. Went to a small private school and didn’t like it much. Failed 11plus, didn’t want to go away to school so went to [...]
- [Bill Mitchell](https://unfinishedhistories.com/history/individuals-2/bill-mitchell/): Visionary designer with Perspectives, Kneehigh and Wildworks, Bill Mitchell died on 14th April 2017. See The Guardian for full obituary Tony Coult writes: It was my good luck to join the same company, Key Perspectives, as Bill Mitchell in the late seventies. I soon saw that Bill Mitchell was a great learner and an even greater teacher. He taught by doing. I’d written a script to tour Fenland village halls and community centres, and set in the same locations. Knowing it was undoable I’d written a final scene where the back wall of the village hall cracks open and a [...]
- [Pam Schweitzer Topics List](https://unfinishedhistories.com/interviews/interviewees-r-z-3/pam-schweitzer/pam-schweitzer-topics-list/): Date: 11th Feb 2016 Location: Blackheath Interviewer: Susan Croft Technician: Joseph Dunne Observer: Juley Smith Topics List: Susan Croft Audio timings Track One      01:06:44 Track Two      01:45:40 For video recording timings see Pam Schweitzer video Topics List Track One 00:00:00         Family Background and school. Grew up in Hale, Cheshire, nr Manchester. Father a local solicitor, mother a housewife. Part of the Jewish community – among the first Jewish families to move to green and leafy South Manchester from traditional N Manchester community. Pam Schweitzer (PS) was a bit of an educational disaster. Went to a small private school and [...]
- [Pam Schweitzer Bibliography](https://unfinishedhistories.com/interviews/interviewees-r-z-3/pam-schweitzer/pam-schweitzer-bibliography/):  Theatre-In-Education  Anthologies Theatre in Education: Four Infant  Programmes ed. Pam Schweitzer, Eyre Methuen, 1980 (includes: Hospital; Polly, the All-Action Dolly; The Navigators; Ifan’s Valley; Pow-Wow, all collectively devised) Theatre in Education: Four Junior Programmes ed. Pam Schweitzer, Eyre Methuen, 1980 (includes: Rubbish by Annalyn Bhanji, Sally Mavor, John Surman, Rob Willsher; Travellers collectively devised inc. Grazyna Monvid; Big Deal by Mervyn Watson with Julie Holledge, Libby Mason and Harry Miller; The Price of Coal devised by David Frederick, David Pammenter, Judi Earl, Rod Brookes, Paul Swift, Jill Hellerman )  Theatre in Education: Four Secondary Programmes ed. Pam Schweitzer, Eyre Methuen, [...]


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