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Philip Hedley
Philip David Hedley, CBE (10 April 1938 – 5 January 2024) was a British theatre director.
Philip Hedley was born in Manchester, England, on 10 April 1938, and his growing interest in drama was the consistent element throughout his schooling in Manchester, London, Melbourne and Sydney. He was praised as an actor at the University of Sydney and when he returned to England in time for the Swinging Sixties, he thought it would be an actor's-life-for-him. Seeing a production directed by the innovative director Joan Littlewood revolutionised his thinking about theatre. In the early 1960s, Hedley became a founding student of East 15 Acting School devoted to Joan Littlewood's rehearsal methods, which in turn were based on the acting theories of Stanislavsky and the movement theories of Laban.
After Hedley graduated in 1963, he went on to put Littlewood's methods into practice in British theatres in the regions, in London's West End, and in Australia, Canada and the Sudan.
On graduating, Hedley became an actor/ASM for a year at a repertory theatre, the Liverpool Playhouse, but that experience convinced him he was a director, not an actor. So, he became a teacher at East 15 Acting School to give himself experience directing plays, for three years. He went on to direct plays for LAMDA, for the Royal Court's young people's programme and for the Watford Palace Theatre.
After successfully producing Sheridan's The Rivals at the Lincoln Theatre Royal in 1968, Hedley was offered the post of Artistic Director. During his tenure there, he directed twenty-five plays and produced twenty more. He relished deliberately casting parts against type for the actors to extend their range.
Before his move to London, Hedley also ran the Midlands Arts Theatre Company in Birmingham for two years and emphasised young people's work. While there, Hedley directed new plays by Henry Livings and David Cregan and he did two more of their plays at the Midland Arts Centre.
Hedley was then artistic director of Theatre Royal Stratford East from 1979 to 2004. Prior to that, he had been assistant to Joan Littlewood, and Gerry Raffles who was the administrator and owner, at Stratford East.
Hedley would also accept guest productions in eight different regional English theatres, plus two productions a-piece in Vancouver and Sydney. Typical of the reviews he would get: The National Health by Peter Nichols with Australia's leading company of actors at The Old Tote in Sydney: "There is over all an assured and relaxed ensemble playing of the kind one was beginning to despair of in the Old Tote Theatre Company, and a feel of common purpose behind the work which gives the whole play a sense of conviction." (Katherine Brisbane, The Australian). "The actors look like a team at last; the performances are so far ahead of what most of these actors have done this season that one feels like cheering." (Greg Curran, The Sunday Australian)
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Philip Hedley
Philip David Hedley, CBE (10 April 1938 – 5 January 2024) was a British theatre director.
Philip Hedley was born in Manchester, England, on 10 April 1938, and his growing interest in drama was the consistent element throughout his schooling in Manchester, London, Melbourne and Sydney. He was praised as an actor at the University of Sydney and when he returned to England in time for the Swinging Sixties, he thought it would be an actor's-life-for-him. Seeing a production directed by the innovative director Joan Littlewood revolutionised his thinking about theatre. In the early 1960s, Hedley became a founding student of East 15 Acting School devoted to Joan Littlewood's rehearsal methods, which in turn were based on the acting theories of Stanislavsky and the movement theories of Laban.
After Hedley graduated in 1963, he went on to put Littlewood's methods into practice in British theatres in the regions, in London's West End, and in Australia, Canada and the Sudan.
On graduating, Hedley became an actor/ASM for a year at a repertory theatre, the Liverpool Playhouse, but that experience convinced him he was a director, not an actor. So, he became a teacher at East 15 Acting School to give himself experience directing plays, for three years. He went on to direct plays for LAMDA, for the Royal Court's young people's programme and for the Watford Palace Theatre.
After successfully producing Sheridan's The Rivals at the Lincoln Theatre Royal in 1968, Hedley was offered the post of Artistic Director. During his tenure there, he directed twenty-five plays and produced twenty more. He relished deliberately casting parts against type for the actors to extend their range.
Before his move to London, Hedley also ran the Midlands Arts Theatre Company in Birmingham for two years and emphasised young people's work. While there, Hedley directed new plays by Henry Livings and David Cregan and he did two more of their plays at the Midland Arts Centre.
Hedley was then artistic director of Theatre Royal Stratford East from 1979 to 2004. Prior to that, he had been assistant to Joan Littlewood, and Gerry Raffles who was the administrator and owner, at Stratford East.
Hedley would also accept guest productions in eight different regional English theatres, plus two productions a-piece in Vancouver and Sydney. Typical of the reviews he would get: The National Health by Peter Nichols with Australia's leading company of actors at The Old Tote in Sydney: "There is over all an assured and relaxed ensemble playing of the kind one was beginning to despair of in the Old Tote Theatre Company, and a feel of common purpose behind the work which gives the whole play a sense of conviction." (Katherine Brisbane, The Australian). "The actors look like a team at last; the performances are so far ahead of what most of these actors have done this season that one feels like cheering." (Greg Curran, The Sunday Australian)