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William Gaskill, papers principally relating to his period at the Royal Court Theatre, 1965-1972

Archive Collection: BC MS 20c Theatre, Gaskill

Details

Type of record: Archive

Title: William Gaskill, papers principally relating to his period at the Royal Court Theatre, 1965-1972

Level: Collection

Classmark: BC MS 20c Theatre, Gaskill

Creator(s): Gaskill, William (1930-2016)()

Date(s): 1892-2010

Language: English; German; Russian; Japanese

Size and medium: 21 boxes; manuscript papers; typescript papers; newspaper cuttings; slides; photographs; photocopies; notebooks; artworks; scrapbooks; diaries; USB flash drive

Persistent link: https://explore.library.leeds.ac.uk/special-collections-explore/8378

Collection group(s): English Literature

Description

There are two accruals in this collection. One received in 2003, the second in 2016. See the attached record BC MS 20c Gaskill/1 for details of the second.


The first accrual includes:

1) Folders containing material related to plays directed by Gaskill, including: extracts from scripts; production and casting notes; set and costume designs; photographs; reviews and correspondence;

2) Programmes from productions acted in, produced by or directed by Gaskill, 1948-2001;

3) Four scrapbooks of newspaper cuttings, 1949-2001;

4) Two decorated envelopes addressed to Gaskill and containing photographs of plays in performance and stage sets, c.1988;

5) Programmes from plays at the Royal Court Theatre, 1965-1972;

6) Programmes and pamphlets from festivals and touring productions, 1964-1995;

7) Japanese theatre programmes, c.1999;

8) Programmes from productions of works by Bertolt Brecht; with pamphlets and related material, 1956-1988;

9) Two editions of 'Encore', Nov/Dec 1960, Jul/Aug 1962;

10) Souvenir programme from Henry Irving's production of King Lear, Lyceum Theatre, 1892.

Biography or history

William Gaskill was born in Shipley in 1930. After experience in amateur and repertory productions and for Granada television, he began directing at the Royal Court Theatre in 1957. He worked with the Royal Shakespeare Company and was a founder-director of the National Theatre, before succeeding George Devine as Artistic Director of the English Stage Company in 1965. He was a founder of the Joint Stock Company, and from 1983 began working as a freelance director and theatre teacher. He is especially associated with productions of Restoration comedy and the work of Bertolt Brecht.

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