The Royal Shakespeare Company 1965

Summary

In 1960 when Peter Hall became Director of the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre at Stratford-upon-Avon he spoke of forming a company. He wanted a policy. He did not want each production to be a shot at a target chosen by its director in the light of his own limited experience and to serve his individual career. He did not want to provide vehicles for star actors with established reputations and established mannerisms. He talked about creating a real company with its own distinctive character, whose members could gain strength from each other and from a common purpose. Nothing like this existed in England but Peter Hall persuaded a great number of persons to work with him so that in five years he has achieved the best part of his ambition.

Now the Stratford programme can display the company's wide-ranging activity. There are ‘artists under long-term contract’, associate directors and associate designers, teachers engaged for speech, singing, music and movement. The public is assured that the company ‘develop in private in their studio the agility and freedom that Shakespeare’s plays demand’.