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Biographical Sketch

Scope and Contents

Restrictions

Administrative Information

Source:

Description of Series

University of Texas, Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center

Basil Langton:

An Inventory of His Theater Interview Transcripts at the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center



Creator: Langton, Basil, 1912-
Title:Basil Langton Theater Interview Transcripts
Dates:1960-1962
RLIN Record ID:TXRC99-A7
Extent:1 box (.42 linear feet)
Repository:Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, The University of Texas at Austin

Biographical Sketch

Born in Bristol, England, in 1912, Basil Langton was educated in Vancouver, British Columbia, and began his theatrical career there in 1930. By 1935 Langton was performing at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford; during the Second World War he became a producer and director associated with the Birmingham Repertory Theatre. Since 1945 Langton has been active in the performing arts in the United States, serving as director of numerous productions. Langton has also been involved in teaching, writing, and the graphic arts.

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Scope and Contents

Research material for a projected book on the stagecraft of Bernard Shaw ( "George Bernard Shaw at Work in the Theatre"), consisting of unedited typescript transcripts of 26 interviews with 27 interviewees. Interviewees include Dame Edith Evans, Sir Cedric Hardwicke, Christopher Fry, and Dame Sybil Thorndike.

The interviews comprising this collection were conducted between January 1960 and August 1962 with actors who had performed in the plays of Shaw at a time when he had personal involvement in their production. Langton wished to test by this means his thesis that while Shaw was "at the forefront of the modern theatre," his stagecraft was of an earlier epoch, depending on "the 19th century actor's theatre of declamation and rhetoric."

The 26 transcripts comprising this collection were taken from 74 reel-to-reel tapes held by the Ransom Center. It's probable these tapes have not been fully transcribed in all cases.

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Restrictions

Access:

Open for research

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Administrative Information

Acquisition:

Purchase, 1964 (R980)

Processed by:

Bob Taylor, 1999

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Source:

Contemporary Theatre, Film, and Television, v.2. Detroit: Gale Research Co., 1985.

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Basil Langton Theater Interview Transcripts--Folder List

 
BoxFolder
11Ballantine, E. J., July 23, 1962
2Barton, Mary, July 24., 1962
3Beldon, Eileen, July 5, 1962
4Bishop, George, Aug. 9, 1962
5Bourne, Adeline, Aug. 18, 1962
6Casson, Lewis, Sir and Thorndike, Sybil, Dame, Jan. 1960
7Colbourne, Maurice, Sir, June 15, 1962
8Evans, Edith, Dame, Oct. 26, 1960
9Fry, Christopher, Aug. 17, 1962
10Grey, Earl, July 3, 1962
11Halstan, Margaret, Oct. 29, 1960
12Hardwicke, Cedric, Sir [1961?]
13Hiller, Wendy, July 6, 1962
14Iden, Rosalind [n.d.]
15Jackson, Barry, Sir, Jan. 13, 1960
16Johnston, Oliver, June 1, 1962
17Lawson, Wilfred, Aug. 22, 1962
18Leahy, Eugene, Aug. 8, 1962
19Limerick, Mona, July 15, 1962
20Lohr, Marie, Aug. 8, 1962
21McCarthy, Lillah, Jan. 25, 1960
22Nesbitt, Cathleen, Mar. 21, 1962
23Scott, Hilda, Aug. 25, 1962
24Shelving, Paul, July 10, 1962
25Thesiger, Ernest, Jan. 18, 1960
26Tree, Iris, June 27, 1962

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