Walter Nugent Monck Walter Nugent Monck ( 1877 - 1958 ) was an English theatre director and founder of Maddermarket Theatre , Norwich . He was born in Welshampton , Shropshire in 1877 . The child of the curate of Welshampton , he was educated in Liverpool and at the Royal Academy of Music . In 1895 , he abandoned his study of the violin in favor of acting . After some years with a regional touring company , he premiered in London in Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson ' s " Beyond Human Power " at the Royalty Theatre in 1901 . That same year , he met William Poel , who would profoundly alter Monck ' s career . By 1902 Monck was stage manager for the Elizabethan Stage Society , learning to direct in Poel ' s revolutionary manner . In 1909 , he directed a series of historical tableaus at St . Andrew ' s Hall , Norwich . Thenceforth , his career centered on Norwich , although he occasionally returned to London , as he did in 1910 to manage Poel ' s production of " The Two Gentlemen of Verona " at His Majesty ' s Theatre . From 1910 , he produced a series of masque s at Blickling Hall . In 1911 , he directed an amateur production of " The Countess Cathleen " which was seen by Yeats ; Yeats subsequently invited Monck to become temporary director of the Abbey Theatre while Yeats and the main company toured the United States . The same year , Monck formed a troupe of amateur players to produce mystery play s and morality play s . Out of this troupe came the Shakespearean company that , a decade later ( after World War I service in the Royal Army Medical Corps ) , Monck housed in a renovated Catholic chapel which had once served as a baking powder factory . Monck named his theatre after the adjoining church of Saint John Maddermarket . Madder rose madder is a plant that since medieval times had been used to dye Norwich cloth . Originally seating 220 , the theater was expanded in 1953 to seat 324 . Audiences viewed plays staged on a replica of a Renaissance stage , the first such permanent stage since before the English Restoration . On this stage , Monck and his company kept up a steady stream of performance . The repertory , which changed at a rate of one per month , included all of Shakespeare ' s work , of course , as well as numerous other Renaissance plays and many modern works . By the early 1950s , he had produced over 200 plays . Despite his isolation from London , he was among the more influential mid - century producers . From the mid - 30s on , he occasionally directed in London and Stratford . These productions included a " Pericles , Prince of Tyre " with Paul Scofield in 1947 ; " Cymbeline " at the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre in 1946 ; and " King Lear " in London in 1953 . Monck retired from his positions in 1952 , but he remained intermittently active with the company until his death in 1958 . While generally considered less innovative and less imaginative than Poel , Monck was an influential director both for directors and for scholars . For directors , he continued Poel ' s destruction of the legacy of actor - managers such as Charles Kean and restored some of the vital conditions of Renaissance stagecraft . For the same reason , he aided scholars in exploring their own theories about Elizabethan practice ; for example , his ruthlessly cut performances provided insight into the " two hours traffic " of the Renaissance stage .