Everything Kevin Spacey - The Old Vic Theatre Company Current Productions » In February 2003, Kevin Spacey announced that he was returning to London to become the artistic director of The Old Vic Theatre Company . While appearing at a press conference with Dame Judi Dench and Sir Elton John, Spacey made the commitment to remain in the post for at least ten years. He promised to both appear on stage and to bring in big-name talent. More recently Kevin has said that he plans to remain at the helm of The Old Vic until 2015. Spacey's first season started in September 2004, and opened with the British premiere of the play Cloaca by Maria Goos, which Kevin Spacey directed. In 2005, Spacey made his UK Shakespearean debut to good notices in the title role of Richard II , which was directed by Trevor Nunn. In mid-2006, Spacey performed in productions of National Anthems by Dennis McIntyre, and The Philadelphia Story by Philip Barry, in which he played C. K. Dexter Haven, which was the Cary Grant role in the film version.

In the 2006 season, Spacey suffered a setback with a production of Arthur Miller's Resurrection Blues , directed by Robert Altman. Despite an all-star cast and the pedigree of Miller's script, the play opened to a critical panning, and closed after only a few weeks. Later in the year, Spacey starred in Eugene O'Neill's A Moon for the Misbegotten along with Colm Meaney and Eve Best. The play received excellent reviews for Spacey and Best and was transferred to Broadway in 2007. During the 2008 season, Jeff Goldblum and Laura Michelle Kelly joined Spacey as the three characters in David Mamet's 1988 play Speed-the-Plow . In January 2009, Kevin directed the premiere of Joe Sutton's Complicit with Richard Dreyfuss, David Suchet and Elizabeth McGovern. From September through December 2009, Trevor Nunn directed Kevin Spacey in a revival of Inherit The Wind , a play based on a true story of a teacher arrested for teaching his students evolution, also known as the "Scopes Monkey Trial".

Kevin Spacey was cast as defense lawyer Henry Drummond, a role that was made famous by actor Spencer Tracy in the 1960 film of the same name. Kevin Spacey and British director Sam Mendes teamed up again for a transatlantic stage production of Shakespeare's Richard III , the final production of Sam Mendes' Bridge Project . The Bridge Project was a unique three-year series of co-productions by BAM, The Old Vic, and Neal Street, devoted to producing large-scale, classical theater for international audiences with casts featuring actors from both the US and the UK. Richard III ran at The Old Vic in London from June until September 2011, and then toured Greece, Hong Kong, Spain, Istanbul, Naples, San Francisco, Beijing, Singapore, Sydney, and Doha prior to a U.S. engagement at the Brooklyn Academy of Music from January 10 through March 4, 2012. Kevin Spacey can remember the exact night he decided to become the artistic director of the Old Vic. It was in November 1999, and American Beauty for which the actor would go on to win a second Academy Award had premiered the day before at the London Film Festival.

The following evening, there was Spacey, chairing an industry pow-wow in a rehearsal room above the Old Vic, discussing the future of the venerable theatre on whose board he sat. "What is the Old Vic?" says the actor, recalling the meeting's topics of conversation nearly five years later. "Why is it held in such affection? Why has it gone into the period it's gone into?" Which is to say, into decline. Later that same evening, Spacey, back in his hotel, found himself unable to sleep. Heading downstairs at 2:30 a.m. to go for a walk, he instead hailed a cab in the rain and asked the driver to take him to the National. I walked to the South Bank and just sat and looked at that building, and was thinking about Laurence Olivier and about what he did when he started a national theatre," he says. "Then I walked down the four or five blocks to this theatre and sat in the cement park across the street. I looked up at the Vic, and I thought, 'What are you doing?

You're on this committee making all these lists when, in your heart of hearts, what you have wanted to do since you were 13 years old is run a theatre.'" And at that moment, the die was cast, even if, smiles Spacey, "we kept it a secret for four years". - TimesOnline, September 05, 2004 Kevin Discusses his role at the Old Vic, October 2010 Watch the Charlie Rose Interview: A conversation with actor Kevin Spacey, October 13, 2005. Charlie Rose and Kevin Spacey discuss Kevin's work as the artistic director at London's 'Old Vic Theatre' and the production of 'Richard II'. This is an informative and interesting 39 minute interview where Kevin talks in depth about his work at The Old Vic. I never, ever want to lose touch with when I was fourteen or fifteen years old and I was dreaming about building a theater and I was dreaming about doing plays and writing things with friends and watching them perform. I never went through a period where I thought, 'Oh, I'll do something else,' or 'Maybe this isn't right.' Never.

-- Kevin Spacey, Cigar Aficionado, February 2003 There is also a great focus on young people through an education program called Old Vic New Voices (OVNV) , which supports young actors, directors, writers and producers to learn their craft; invests in ground breaking programs in schools to raise aspiration among young people; and works with charities and local organizations to enable those in the community to participate. National Theatre's 50th: the best shows from 1963-1973 - Telegraph Theatre National Theatre's 50th: the best shows from 1963-1973 This week, ahead of the National Theatre's 50th birthday, Dominic Cavendish chooses its best productions. Today, it's the top ten shows from 1963 to 1973, with Hay Fever and The National Health among our favourites. Vote for yours in our poll The National Theatre building at night Photo: Paul Greenleaf Follow The hope for a National Theatre stretches right back to the Victorian age but it wasn't until 1962 that the theatre's story officially began.

After protracted discussions over funding, and a dismally slow construction pace, the decision was made to establish a National Theatre company without waiting for the theatre to be opened. In the interim, the company would perform at the Old Vic and in August 1962, the National's first artistic director was named as Laurence Olivier. The company's first performance (Hamlet) followed on 22 October 1963, and the National Theatre was born. The Old Vic episode, though protracted, was in many ways glorious. Directors included William Gaskill, Franco Zeffirelli, Jonathan Miller and Olivier himself. The list of actors collected for Zeffirelli’s production of Much Ado about Nothing alone spelt magnificence – among them Maggie Smith, Robert Stephens, Albert Finney, Derek Jacobi and Ian McKellen. Having an actor-manager of Olivier’s stature at the helm made the National a base for the best of British theatre, as it was intended to be. To select 10 productions from that first decade is an invidious task – the choices are open to challenge.

But to try and measure the scale of the National Theatre's achievement one must identify those shows it’s still worth talking about and summon them up from the dusty vaults of national memory. Away we go… Othello, directed by John Dexter, starring Laurence Olivier, Frank Finlay and Maggie Smith; 1964 Although the National Theatre Company launched in its temporary home at the Old Vic in 1963 with a Hamlet starring Peter O’Toole and directed by Laurence Olivier, its first hour was not its finest. Far more significant was when Olivier, the company’s artistic director, stepped into the title role of Othello (in black-face) to electrifying effect the following year. “Nowhere else in the world could a more completely realised performance than his have been seen,” Simon Callow observed in his history of the NT, published in 2007. The production, which also starred Maggie Smith as Desdemona, was rendered into a film the following year.

Related Articles 15 Oct 2013 Hay Fever, directed by Noel Coward, starring Edith Evans and Derek Jacobi; 1964 As Sheridan Morley noted in his Theatrical Companion to Coward, this was the first production at the National to be written and directed by a living playwright. Coward directed “a cast that could have played the Albanian telephone directory” with success. Leading the bohemian charge was Edith Evans as Judith Bliss, with Derek Jacobi, Lynn Redgrave, Robert Stephens and Maggie Smith also in the acclaimed mix. After the 1956 revolution of Look Back in Anger and kitchen-sink drama, the revival of this 1924 hit was “largely responsible for the start of the 'Noel Coward Renaissance'”. Play, directed by George Devine, starring Billie Whitelaw, Robert Stephens and Rosemary Harris; 1964 This Beckett (English) premiere starred Billie Whitelaw, Robert Stephens and Rosemary Harris as the three ghostly figures – man, wife, mistress – in urns, their faces applied with a mixture of porridge, egg-white and glue.

James Knowlson records in the biography Damned to Fame: “The actors were astonished at the speed at which they were being urged to deliver their lines.” Beckett arrived and argued the lines should be delivered even faster. Kenneth Tynan, the literary manager, was horrified and arguments were had but director George Devine did as the author desired. “At the end, Beckett took a tape-recording of the English version with him back to Paris to demonstrate to the French actors exactly how quickly he wanted the lines to go.” Tell us which show you voted for Tweet #bestNT Royal Hunt of the Sun, directed by John Dexter and Desmond O'Donovan, starring Michael Gambon, Anthony Hopkins and Derek Jacobi; 1964 “A virtuoso production in a dazzlingly bold design of a darkly questioning play, cast in epic form, performed by a company at a peak of physical fitness” wrote Simon Callow of Peter Shaffer’s dramatisation of a clash of civilisations – conquistador Spain and the Incas. The cast was led by Robert Stephens as Atahualpa, Inca king and son of the Sun God, and Colin Blakely as the tormented priest Francisco Pizarro.

Michael Gambon, Anthony Hopkins, Derek Jacobi and Edward Petherbridge also featured. Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead, directed by Derek Goldby, starring John Stride and Edward Petherbridge; 1967 Kenneth Tynan, the legendary theatre critic appointed literary manager at the National, exhorted Olivier to stage Tom Stoppard’s name-making hit, the dazzling re-imagining of Hamlet’s bit-players as a Beckett-influenced double-act, which had divided the critics at the Edinburgh Fringe. In London there were significant raves: Harold Hobson in the Sunday Times cheered that it was “the most important event in the British professional theatre of the last nine years”. But not everyone was charmed. Kenneth Williams detested it and Stoppard recalled “early in the first act, a man sitting in front of me turned to his companion and said “I do wish they would get on with it”. That finished it for me. I went to the pub and never came back.” It went on to win Evening Standard Award for Best Play and became a modern classic. Aged 25, Australian director Goldby was the youngest director to-date at the National.

John Stride & Edward Petherbridge in Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead, 1967 (Credit: Anthony Crickmay / National Theatre) As You Like It, directed by Clifford Williams, starring Ronald Pickup, Anthony Hopkins and Derek Jacobi; 1967 This all-male production was a box-office hit and a sign of more liberated times, although the revival had a troubled history. John Dexter initially proposed a more sexually provocative approach but his vision was so diluted at Olivier’s insistence that he resigned. Ronald Pickup starred as Rosalind, other cast members included Anthony Hopkins, Robert Stephens, Derek Jacobi and Jeremy Brett.

The New York Times was effusive: "As You Like It is fantastic, one of the most dazzling, sheerly enjoyable Shakespearean productions I have ever seen." He praised Pickup: "Within a minute or two you forget that this lanky, touching figure is a man (although he makes no effort to disguise his voice) and you see him as a soul in love.” The National Health, directed by Michael Blakemore, starring Tom Baker and Jim Dale; 1969 Peter Nichols’s play collided the grim experience of those reaching the end of life in an NHS ward with a pastiche TV soap opera (Nurse Norton’s Affair); the result, shaped and directed by Blakemore, was a sensation that won the Evening Standard Best Play award. As Blakemore records in his memoir Stage Blood: “On one side of the stage… challenges were bravely met and tragedy averted; on the other death made its random and monotonous progress through the ward… Both Peter and I began to realise that we were on to something that maybe hadn’t been done on stage before.” The show marked a return to the NT’s popular health, after a slight dip in fortunes.

Long Day’s Journey Into Night, directed by Michael Blakemore, starring Laurence Olivier, 1971 Michael Billington in the Guardian was spellbound by this account of Eugene O’Neill's posthumously published autobiographical masterpiece, dominated as it was by the fading grandeur of Laurence Olivier in his last major role for the company: “Olivier’s James Tyrone is a massive performance moving from an initial nervy jocularity to a throttled, brick-red despair at his wife’s relapse to a thrilling, soul-baring intensity in his cups… For a genuinely great actor to play a nearly-great actor is the hardest technical feat of all: Olivier does it to perfection.” Of this highly popular production he added: “Such is the quality of acting and direction we seem to be not merely watching great drama but to be eavesdropping on life itself.” Jumpers, directed by Peter Wood, starring Michael Hordern and Diana Rigg; 1972 As Ira Nadel notes in his biography of Tom Stoppard , A Double Life, “Ten days before the premiere, the text of Jumpers was still in flux and overlong at four hours’ running time”.

Aware that his reputation was on the line, literary manager Kenneth Tynan took the initiative and made a series of cuts; the result was greeted with raptures. Irving Wardle proclaimed in the Times that Stoppard’s hugely ambitious, fiercely clever follow-up to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead – about a bumbling moral philosopher called George (Michael Hordern) and his former musical actress wife Dotty (Diana Rigg) “contains more good lines a minute than any other modern comedy now on show”. It was famous for a visually astounding opening sequence involving eight yellow-suited acrobats forming a human pyramid. The Front Page, directed by Michael Blakemore starring Denis Quilley; 1972 “We sailed through a week of previews and opened like a fireworks display,” recalls Blakemore in his recent memoir of his days at the National, Stage Blood.

Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur’s 1929 Broadway comedy about hard-bitten, wise-cracking Chicago tabloid hacks on the crime beat poses massive technical demands but the ensemble rose to the challenge, with Denis Quilley at the helm as Hildy Johnson, the reporter who gets the scoop on a fugitive condemned man by staying at his desk. Tell us which show you voted for Tweet #bestNT Look out for our run down of the top 10 NT shows from 1973 - 1983 tomorrow Kevin Spacey at The Old Vic | Kevin Spacey as part of The Old Vic Team - Kevin Spacey This is the show we've been waiting for since Kevin Spacey took over: a chance to see this great actor in a leading Shakespearean role. Charles Spencer The Old Vic theatre has always retained a strong grip on my imagination – I remember visiting this great Victorian stage when I first came to London as a young child, and coming back years later to see many of the theatre’s iconic productions.

I finally had the chance to tread the boards of the stage myself when we transferred Howard Davis’s production of Eugene O’Neill’s “The Iceman Cometh” from its initial run at the Almeida Theatre to the Old Vic. During our 16 week run at the Old Vic in the spring/summer of 1998, I was asked if I would join a committee to help the new Trust Board. The Old Vic had recently been purchased by a Trust and needed the committee’s help to find an Artistic Director to take on the re-vitalization of this famous and admired theatre. This was a task I took very seriously, as The Old Vic is one of the best known and best loved theatres in the world, synonymous with the greatest acting talent that Britain has ever produced; from Laurence Olivier, Peggy Ashcroft, John Gielgud and Ralph Richardson to Judi Dench, Maggie Smith, Albert Finney, and Peter O'Toole. This iconic 195 year old building has a rich history and has always been know for the great performances that have graced its stage. I spent the following year learning all I could about the more recent history of this iconic building.

I discovered that after the National Theatre departed the building – after 14 seasons of work under the Artistic Directorship of Laurence Olivier – the theatre became a booking house. This meant that it no longer held a company, and didn’t receive subsidies from the government which in turn lead to a decline in attendance as it ceased to be a destination theatre. There were a number of occasions when a few remarkable directors began their own companies in the building (most notably perhaps Jonathan Miller and Peter Hall), but neither of these companies managed to overcome the difficult challenges the funding presented in order to continue working there. In 1999 while I was in London for the premiere of American Beauty, I requested that an evening be organized for a free-flowing discussion about the future of the Old Vic. Gathered in the main rehearsal space at the top of the Old Vic were playwrights, directors, actors, theatre personnel and friends of the Vic. The questions discussed revolved around the status of the theatre: when had the Old Vic been at its best? What made it work when it was a major venue in London? What happened to it? What is its future?

I left this evening with my mind swirling, and decided to take a walk rather than go to bed. These discussions and ideas came at a time in my life when I was reflecting on my career and I was feeling that I’d arrived at a cross-roads. Having started my professional life in the living theatre I had spent the previous 12 years focused on building a film career. I was, however, beginning to have a sense that I did not want to spend the next ten years continuing down this same path. Typically for London it was drizzling this night, and I ended up hailing a taxi which drove me to the National Theatre. I walked to the edge of the Thames and looked up at the grand structure reflecting on what this theatre means today and where Olivier was in his career when he decided to take on the challenge of creating a National Theatre. I then walked the six blocks to the Old Vic and sat across the street in the Emma Cons Garden looking up at the theatre. Sitting there, my swirling mind seemed to settle and I realized that all my musings were leading me to the same idea – to a secret dream I had been nurturing since I was a teenager: I should take on the Artistic Directorship of the Old Vic myself!

Even though I was only announced as Artistic Director a few years later, after that night I immediately began working on an economic model that I believed could work without having to take subsidies, as well as starting to raise the money. I also began to find people who would join me in this major enterprise. First on board was producer David Liddiment whom I convinced to leave his post as the head of ITV. It is now eleven years later and we have a staff of over 75, both behind the scenes and front-of-house, and are working on about 49 main stage productions. An important part of re-vitalizing the theatre was to introduce a ticket scheme to bring theatre to a wider, younger and more diverse audience. As the Old Vic doesn’t rely on subsidies and ticket sales alone are not enough to cover all of our costs, the financial support of generous individuals, companies, trusts and foundations have been vital to our existence. The Old Vic also hosts a vast educational department which is involved in community work and runs programs in schools. In addition to this we also host a program in which we nurture emerging actors, producers, writers and directors called Old Vic New Voices.

I am now in my last 18 months as Artistic Director and am excited about the legacy I will be leaving for the next person to step into this role. I have always believed that the best asset the Old Vic has is its future and it has been my honor to dedicate myself to the theatre’s revival and to ensure its continued existence without losing sight of its illustrious past. Please, donate here! Without regular subsidy from the government, The Old Vic relies on the invaluable support of individuals, companies and foundations to ensure we can continue our work, both on and off the stage. If you don't wish to commit to membership or another one of our giving schemes, you can make a one-off donation to The Old Vic, which is a registered charity. Your contribution is appreciated and will make a real difference. the-national-theatre - Definition, pictures, pronunciation and usage notes | Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary at OxfordLearnersDictionaries.com jump to other results a modern building containing three theatres on London's South Bank, and the theatre company that performs there. The National Theatre company was started in 1963. Its home was the Old Vic until the new National Theatre building was opened in 1976.

In 1988 the title Royal was officially added to the company's name to mark its 25th anniversary. However, most people call the company and the building by their original name. The three theatres at the National are the Lyttelton, the Olivier (named after the company's first artistic director, Lawrence Olivier) and the Cottesloe. The theatre presents a wide range of old and new plays and is known for the high quality of its productions. Help Centre | National Theatre National Theatre Sign in to your account * indicates required fields Do not tick this if you're on a shared computer. Login Help Centre Frequently asked questions Select a subject area below to review the questions and their answers. If you can't find an answer, follow the Contact us links and complete the most approprite contact form. What is the story behind the National Theatre? When did the National Theatre's history begin? The first proposal for a National Theatre was made in 1848 by Effingham Wilson, a London publisher, and supported by leading figures of the day, including Charles Dickens, critic and poet Matthew Arnold, and actors Charles Kemble and Sir Henry Irving. What happened next?

There were several unsuccessful attempts to launch the scheme during the rest of the century. Definite plans were formulated in a book by Harley Granville Barker and William Archer in 1903. When did Parliament give its approval? Not until 1949 when the National Theatre Bill was passed by both Houses of Parliament, without a division. It was left to the Chancellor of the Exchequer of the day to decide when the theatre should be built. When was the National Theatre company founded? It was decided in July 1962 that pending completion of the new building, the Old Vic Theatre was to become the temporary home of the specially created National Theatre company. The company's first ever performance was at the Old Vic on 22 October 1963. Before the move to the South Bank, they played at the Old Vic for twelve and a half very successful years, ten of them under the directorship of Laurence Olivier. When did work start on the building? The site itself was changed three – arguably four – times. The first foundation stone was laid by the Queen Mother in 1951 next to the Festival Hall.

Work on the site where the National Theatre actually stands started on 3 November 1969, and was inaugurated by Jennie Lee (made Baroness in 1970), then Minister for the Arts. When did public performances start? Because of the National Theatre Board's wish to make the building live as soon as possible despite protracted building delays, each of the three theatres within the National was used as it became available, even though not finished. The Lyttelton opened first, in March 1976; the Olivier next in October 1976; and the Cottesloe staged its first public performances in March 1977. The Queen officially opened the building on 25 October 1976. Saturday 1 March 1977 was the first night on which all three theatres were playing. When did the National become the Royal National Theatre? In October 1988. To celebrate its 25th anniversary, the National was granted the title Royal, and HM The Queen unveiled a plaque in the foyer commemorating the event. However, 'National Theatre' is still more commonly used. Why are the three theatres within the National named as they are?

The Olivier Theatre is named after the National's first Director (1962 until 1973), the late Lord Olivier, then Sir Laurence Olivier (made Baron 1970); and the Lyttelton after the National's first Chairman (1962 until 1971), Oliver Lyttelton (the late Lord Chandos). The third, studio theatre, was named after the late Lord Cottesloe, first Chairman (1962 until 1977) of the South Bank Theatre Board, which was responsible for the building of the National Theatre; following the NT Future redevelopment, it reopened in 2014 as the Dorfman Theatre, named after Lloyd Dorfman CBE, Founder and Chairman of Travelex and a member of the NT Board, in recognition of his personal £10 million philanthropic gift. The three theatres contain, in all, nearly 2,500 seats. Who has been Director of the National Theatre?

Lord Olivier OM was Director from 1963 to 1973, succeeded by Sir Peter Hall CBE until 1988; Sir Richard Eyre was Director from 1988 until 1997. Sir Trevor Nunn was Director from 1997 to 2003, and was succeeded by Nicholas Hytner from April 2003 to 2015. Our current Director is Rufus Norris. Who have held the position of Chairman of the National Theatre? The first Chairman was Oliver Lyttelton (the late Lord Chandos) from 1962 to 1971. He was succeeded as Chairman by Sir Max (later Lord) Rayne in 1971, who served until 1988. The Lady Soames DBE was the third Chairman of the National from 1988 until 1995. Sir Christopher Hogg became Chairman in August 1995; he was succeeded by Sir Hayden Phillips GCB in 2005. John Makinson became Chairman in November 2010. Sir Damon Buffini became Chair in June 2016.

NT Future was an £80million redevelopment programme between 2012 and 2015 which transformed the facilities we offer audiences and artists. The money raised was used to facilitate the following developments: Give audiences the chance to learn, explore and discover in the new Clore Learning Centre. Provide facilities for artists, designers and theatre-makers in the new Max Rayne Centre. Offer more flexibility and comfort in the new Dorfman Theatre (previously the Cottesloe). Allow audiences to see how theatre is made from the new Sherling High-Level Walkway. Improve signage and access with the new Sackler Pavilion entrance. Provide comfortable and attractive cafés and bars on the river front. Create a public garden and reduce energy consumption. Develop the Wolfson Gallery exhibition space on the Olivier Theatre Cloakroom level. Maintain our world-leading capability by renewing 1970s equipment and infrastructure. Expand our in-house digital facilities for pioneering innovations such as NT Live broadcasts. Provide on-site access to our digital archive collections. Improve services and facilities to make our work truly accessible. The Audience Appeal for NT Future has now finished, following overwhelming support from our community - but we still need your donations.

Every penny contributes directly towards our mission to make the very best theatre and share it with as many people as possible. If you still have unanswered questions, please contact us Can I have a work placement at the NT? If you are over 18, please check the list of departments that offer work placements at the NT, email your CV and covering letter to workexperience@nationaltheatre.org.uk, for the attention of one of the departments, making your request as specific to that department as possible. You will then be sent a question sheet to tell us in more detail what you are looking for from your placement. Once this is returned your application will be passed on to the relevant department for consideration. The NT only offers work placements to people over the age of 18.

Work Placements for over 18s are offered in a number of different departments: · NT Archive (two weeks) · Catering (one to three weeks) · Commercial Operations (one or two weeks) · Scenic Construction (two to four weeks) · Scenic Painting (two weeks) · Costume & Wardrobe (one to six weeks) · Development Department (Fundraising) (one or two weeks) · Director’s Office (one week) · Digital Media · Learning Department (Education) (two to ten weeks) · Production Department (two to ten weeks) · Stage Department (two to four weeks) · Lighting Department (two to four weeks) · Sound Department (two to four weeks) The NT is unable to offer placements in Acting, Directing, or Design. How long do work placements last? The duration of work placements can vary in different departments, lasting between one to ten weeks. Work placements are usually aimed at those in higher education on the second or third year of a relevant course. Please allow at least two months notice to arrange a placement.

If you still have unanswered questions, please contact us Sir Peter Hall To Head London's Famed Old Vic | Backstage Sir Peter Hall To Head London's Famed Old Vic By David McGillivray | Posted Feb. 21, 2001, midnight Share: Sir Peter Hall, former director of the Royal Shakespeare Company and the Royal National Theatre, is to take over artistic control of the Old Vic, south of the River Thames, in the Waterloo district. Hall, 66, will form a resident company of "marvelous actors" for an ambitious program of classics and new work which will play in repertory seven days a week at the venerable London theatre. The first 40-week season will open March 4, 1997, and the entire project will spread over five years into the next millennium. Sir Peter's associates are Dominic Dromgoole, former artistic director of the prestigious London fringe theatre The Bush, who will commission the new plays; and hotshot producer Bill Kenwright, who will have the option of transferring them to the West End. The Old Vic opened as the Royal Coburg in 1818.

From 1912, it prospered under Lillian Baylis as a temple to Shakespeare. Sir Laurence Olivier founded the National Theatre here in 1963. In 1982 it was bought and restored by Canadian businessman Ed Mirvish. Speaking during rehearsals of Sophocles' "Oedipus" plays--which will be seen in Epidaurus, Greece, before opening at the National on Sept. 7--Hall expressed his great affection for one of Britain's most illustrious theatres. "It means the whole British theatre tradition to me," he said. "Without the Old Vic and what Lillian Baylis achieved, we wouldn't have a Royal Court, we wouldn't have a Royal Shakespeare Theatre, we wouldn't have a National Theatre. They all started there." Hall was director of the National from 1972 to 1988. "I find it curious," he added, "that 20 years ago I led the National Theatre out of the Old Vic to inhabit their great new building, and now I'm going back." Hall's appointment came about from talks with Bill Kenwright. "He loves the theatre," said Hall of his colleague.

"He's mad enough to back a full-length 'Hamlet' in the West End." (Their 1992 production, with Stephen Dillane, did make money.) "I said to Bill that what I really would like to try was to make a company and run repertory of a particular kind. We were thinking about a theatre in the West End. But my plan didn't fit the West End ethos. Their dream is a two-character play in one set that will run for 10 years. Bill said, 'Let me talk to David Mirvish.' He flipped." On the telephone from Toronto, Old Vic producer David Mirvish said that the right team had been put together to make the project work. "Peter can attract actors of proven stature. Dominic Dromgoole has been ferreting out the next generation at The Bush. There's been great excitement. We think we're probably on the right track." For economical reasons, the 10 plays in the first season will be presented in "simplified" sets aided by "modern lighting technology." But Mirvish refuted the suggestion that audiences might not get full value for their money.

"I always thought that plays were about the stories they told," he said. He claimed that he would also undercut West End ticket prices and offer further incentives to attend all 10 plays. Full details of the opening season are expected to be announced in the early fall. Sir Peter Hall's 1992 production of "An Ideal Husband" is now playing at the Old Vic and on Read Also: The National Theatre The National Theatre Maggie Smith as Halina in Coming In To Land by Stephen Poliakoff (born 1952), photograph by Graham Brandon, National Theatre, London, England, 1987 The National Theatre opened on the South Bank in London in 1976. The need to create a theatre to promote and support the best of British talent and expertise was not just a 20th-century preoccupation. A national theatre had first been suggested in the 18th century by David Garrick, and Henry Irving championed the idea in the 19th century. However, it was not until the early 20th century that fundraising for the project was initiated.

In 1908 Harley Granville Barker and William Archer published 'The National Theatre: A Scheme and Estimates', detailing extensive plans for the management, organisation and budget for a national theatre. Two World Wars delayed plans to open the theatre and it was not until 1962 that Laurence Olivier was appointed director of the first National Theatre company which was based in the Old Vic Theatre. In 1976 the company moved to its new home on London's South Bank under the direction of Peter Hall. The new building had three theatre spaces: the Lyttelton, the Olivier and the smaller Cottesloe. The new flagship company was soon hit by the cutbacks and funding crises of the 1970s and 1980s. Despite its relatively large budget, the venue was forced to close one of its three theatres for a season. Under the management of Trevor Nunn the theatre has aimed to be more popular, both to recoup revenue and also to draw in a more mixed audience.

His decisions to programme popular musicals such as 'My Fair Lady' and 'South Pacific' were met with fierce criticism from people who believe that a National Theatre with such a high proportion of public subsidy should not replicate West End commercial shows, but be a house that supports both innovative new work and revivals of the classics. Nicolas Hytner is now the artistic director of the National Theatre. The Old Vic Lilian Baylis, black and white photograph, around 1930 Lilian Baylis' Old Vic provided the starting point for the formation of Britain's national ballet, opera and theatre companies and for the careers of stars such as Ralph Richardson, John Gielgud, Vivien Leigh, Peggy Ashcroft and Flora Robson. Baylis was one of the greatest pioneers in the history of British Theatre. She came to England from South Africa to help her aunt, Emma Cons, run the Old Vic Theatre in putting on popular temperance concerts for the working class, offering an alternative to the pub. She then took over its management after her aunt's death in 1912.

At first she ran the hall according to her aunt's ideas: Thursday was music night with ballad concerts, opera tableaux, and oratorio, Saturday was variety, Tuesday lectures, Friday temperance lectures and on Monday and Wednesday the theatre was let to other societies. By 1914 Lilian had gained a theatre licence and began to produce plays. In the early years of the Old Vic audiences were often sparse and conditions in the theatre were poor. Sybil Thorndike recalled playing Macbeth to a house of less than a dozen. The floor was sprinkled with sawdust, the seats were wooden benches, there were no proper dressing rooms, the scenery still worked on the groove principle and there was no proper lighting system. While Baylis was also committed to staging affordable theatre, she saw no reason why the inhabitants of Waterloo shouldn't enjoy Shakespeare, opera and ballet. Under her management, every Shakespeare play was produced between 1913 and 1923 and she staged operas and ballets at the Old Vic and Sadler's Wells. Her work laid the foundation for both the National Theatre and the English National Opera.

In 1928 she employed Ninette de Valois who created the ballet company that would eventually become the Royal Ballet. In 1924 Lilian Baylis was awarded an honorary Master's degree from Oxford University (only the second woman to receive one) and in 1929, she became a Companion of Honour, an honour awarded for service to the nation. In 1920 Robert Atkins was appointed Shakespearean director. In five years he consolidated the work of the Shakespearean company and established it as a valid and recognisable company. It was during this time that the Old Vic produced every play in the Shakespeare First Folio achieving a then unique record. 1925 Atkins was succeeded by Andrew Leigh. Under him, the first of the West End stars crossed Waterloo Bridge for the opportunity to learn the craft of playing Shakespeare. Within the next few years a new generation of actors were to pass through the Vic - the giants of 20th century acting. Among them were John Gielgud, Ralph Richardson, Peggy Ashcroft, Laurence Olivier, Edith Evans, Michael Redgrave, Alec Guinness, James Mason, Flora Robson and Emlyn Williams.

The audience of ordinary people drawn from a new lower middle class - clerks, typists and shop-workers, was a very important part of the particular Vic atmosphere. This was a new era of popular education that was aided by the growth of radio, popular science and the newly founded Penguin Press. The London City Council school matinees were also an important part of life at the Vic and through them many schoolchildren got their first taste of Shakespeare. In 1933 director Tyrone Guthrie seized the opportunity to make radical changes. It was he who finally split the companies into separate theatres. The opera and ballet company went to Sadler's Wells and the Shakespeare company stayed at the Old Vic. Guthrie expanded the programme to include work other than by Shakespeare and generally raised production standards. In the 1930s the Old Vic became England's leading theatre and a training ground for a generation of successful actors and directors. The 1944 to 1945 season of the Old Vic company was one of the richest periods of great acting in the 20th century with Olivier's Richard III and Richardson's Falstaff and Cyrano de Bergerac.

When the company returned to the Old Vic in the 1950s a new generation started to emerge, including Claire Bloom and Judi Dench. Having been the nearest thing to a National Theatre in Britain it finally became the temporary home for the new National Theatre Company in 1963 under the direction of Laurence Olivier. Since then the Old Vic has seen off various funding crises and is still committed to innovation, supporting the work of up and coming actors, director and writers. In 2003 Kevin Spacey was appointed artistic director.

Question: Who was the first artistic director of the National Theatre, started at the Old Vic in 1963?
Answer: Laurence Olivier