The Festival was founded in 1962 with the performance of two plays, 'Candida' and the Don Juan in Hell act of Man and Superman. Eight performances were made. The festival was founded by residents in the area led by Brian Doherty. Andrew Allan became the Artistic derector in the first full professional season with the performance of three plays that each ran a week. Allan was replaced in 1966 by Barry Morse who managed to gain international attention to the festival. Paxton Whitehead became Artistic Derector the next year and noticed that the Courthouse Theatre was not big enough and had the task to get money to build the Festival Theatre, which was done in 1972. Paxton Whitehead left in 1977. Christopher Newton became artistic Director in 1980, the year the Royal George Theatre was bought. He is the current artistic director. What was once a eight performances in one theatre in 1962 became a 700+ performance-3 theatre festival.
Here are the plays for 2000.
At the Festival Theatre there are four plays. "The Doctor's Dilemma" a 1902 play by Bernard Shaw is the story of a doctor who has to choose if he should save a promising artist from Tuberculosis. The cures are limited and if he saves him, someone else will be left to die. Easy Virtue is written by Noel Coward in 1925. It is the story of the Whittaker family who await the return of their son and his new wife, who is fifteen years older than he is and has a past that is not wanted to be known. Nigel Williams adapted for the stage of William Golding's Lord of the Flies also plays at Shaw. It is the story of the de-evolution of British boys to savagery when they are stranded on a deserted island. And finally, The Matchmaker by Thornton Wilder (1954) the story of Dolly Levi who is hired by Horace Vandergelder, a merchant of Yonkers, to help him meet a widow who owns a hat shop in New York. Vandergelder leaves the store to his clearks who end up going to New York and find themselves in the hat store of the widow.
Go To Page: 1 2
