Ann Jellicoe
Ann Jellicoe | |
|---|---|
| Born | 15 July 1927 Middlesbrough, Yorkshire, England |
| Occupation(s) | Actor, Theatre Director & Playwright |
Ann Jellicoe (born 15 July 1927) is a British actor, theatre director and playwright. Although her work has covered many areas of theatre and film, she is best known for "pushing the envelope" of the stage play, devising new forms which challenge and delight unconventional audiences. As a result her dramatic career is, in many ways, unique in the twentieth century.[1]
Biography
Jellicoe was born in Middlesbrough, Yorkshire in England in 1927 and from childhood showed an interest and an aptitude for the theatre. She attended Polam Hall School and Queen Margaret's School, York and studied performing arts at the Central School of Speech and Drama. This was followed by experience in repertory and fringe theatre.[1]
In 1949 she was commissioned to undertake an investigative study into the relationship between acting and theatre architecture; the finding of this study led her to the Open stage. Jellicoe established a Sunday Theatre Club (Cockpit Theatre Club) where she produced and directed a number of plays exploring the possibilities of this form of Open stage theatre, including a one-act of her own.[1]
Thereafter, Jellicoe used many of her plays to further explore her innovative ideas on theatre. In 1956 The Observer set-up a playwright’s competition to find new talent. Jellico submitted The Sport of My Mad Mother, which won a prize in the competition.[2] In writing this play Jellicoe applied many of the ideas she had learnt in her early years at Central School. The play was subsequently staged by the Royal Court Theatre and directed by George Devine and Jellicoe. Although originally a commercial failure, the play was later performed all over the world in many different languages. Set in a cockney neighborhood of London, it combines realism, mysticism, music, dance, and ritual to create a powerful, feminist myth about modern civilization. Jellicoe revised the original 1958 version in 1962 to create a better play.[1]
The play's title derives from a Hindu religious saying: "All creation is the sport of my mad mother Kali (a Hindu goddess)." However, as most Londoners know, "the sport of me mad mother" is also a cockney expression implying something highly unusual.[1]
But it was the Royal Court's production of Jellicoe’s The Knack in 1962 that won her the most notoriety. A major hit, the play was filmed and won the Palme d'Or at Cannes.[3] The film's director was Richard Lester, who also directed movies for the Beatles; the cast included a very young, non-singing Michael Crawford and Rita Tushingham, who was then at the height of her popularity.[3] In it a group of young, London adults clash and commiserate about how to get "the knack" with the opposite sex. The film is shown today as an example of the "British New Wave." Jellicoe has also written plays for children.[2]
In 1962, she married photographer - Roger Mayne.[1]
One of Jellicoe's most interesting works is a brief essay entitled, "Some Unconscious Influences in the Theatre." In a space of about thirty pages, she devises a number of complex yet common-sense theories which account for the reasons why audiences react to stage and screen as they do.
The Colway Theatre Trust
In 1978, Jellicoe set up the Colway Theatre Trust to explore the concept of Community Plays: pioneering work which she continued to develop over the next ten years. Jon Oram became artistic director of Colway Theatre in 1985 - now called Claque Theatre.[1]
Colway Theatre Trust are the founders of the Community Play genre. A community play as practiced by Colway is the result of no less than 18 months work. They are original plays written for and about a specific community. The writer generally works with a community research team. Plays are traditionally performed in a promenade style where the audience and cast share the same space with action happening on stages around the edge of that space and in the body of the standing audience. In 2000, Colway Theatre relocated to Kent in the South East of England and changed its name to Claque. Today the company is of international standing, run by Jon Oram who has written, produced or directed over 30 productions.
Selected works
Following list from Whos Who [1]
- The Knack: A Comedy in Three Acts. London: Encore, 1962; New York: French, 1962.
- The Sport of My Mad Mother. Revised version. London: Faber, 1964; New York: Dell, 1964. Originally published in The Observer Plays, London: Faber & Faber, 1958.
- Shelley; or, The Idealist. London: Faber & Faber, 1966; New York: Grove Press, 1966.
- Some Unconscious Influences in the Theatre. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1967. The Judith Wilson Lecture, 1967.
- The Giveaway: A Comedy. London: Faber & Faber, 1970.
- The Seagull by Anton Chekhov, translated by Jellicoe & Adriadne Nicolaeff. New York: Avon, 1975.
- Three Jelliplays. London: Faber & Faber, 1975. Contains You’ll Never Guess; Clever Elsie, Smiling John, Silent Peter, and A Good Thing or a Bad Thing.
- Devon, by Jellicoe and Roger Mayne London: Faber & Faber, 1975. A Shell Guide.
- Community Plays: How to Put Them On. London: Methuer, 1987.
Community Plays: Writer, Director & Producer: 1978 "The Reckoning" Lyme Regis 1980 "The Tide" Axe Valley 1988 "Mark og Mont" (Money & Land) Holbaek. Denmark 1989 1989 " Under the God" Dorchester 1992 "Changing Places" Woking
Community Plays by other writers:Director and/or Producer including: Howard Barker, David Edgar (playwright), Charles Wood, John Downie, Sheila Yeger, Andrew Dickson, Arnold Wesker, David Cregan, Nick Darke, Peter Terson and Jon Oram
Notes
References
- Kate Dorney (2005). "Theatre Archive Project, Ann Jellicoe interview". London: British Library. Retrieved 30 December 2010.
- "IMDB". IMDB. Retrieved 29 December 2010.
- "Who's Who and Who Was Who". Oxford: OUP. Retrieved 29 December 2010. - Subscription required.
External links
- Claque Theatre (formerly the Colway Trust).