The Theatre Workshop Story [antikvár]

The writing of this book had its origins in a relatively modest project I had undertaken for the North West Arts Association in 1977 dealing with the origins of Theatre Workshop in Manchester in the pre-war years and its subsequent connections with that city. It was while I was researching this project that Ewan MacColl suggested I attempt something more ambitious and write the history of Theatre Workshop. As an idea, it was exciting, but I was far from convinced that I could tackle it, and it was only after a great deal of prodding and encouragement from friends that I reluctantly took the first positive step. I prepared a synopsis and Tony Adams, a publisher friend, applied for a grant to the Arts Council on my behalf. I was offered little hope that the Literature Finance Committee would be able to help me. Their task was to encourage literature, and my project hardly came into that category, but to everyone's surprise I was offered a grant. I received the news with mixed feelings, grateful for the encouragement, but awed by the confidence placed in me. I was also aware that having accepted financial help, there was no turning back and that I was now under a clear moral obligation to proceed without further delay. In no time at all I realised that my original doubts and hesitations had been well founded, and that the task was even more formidable than I had imagined. How to present a factual picture of forty crowded years without becoming too dull and academic; how to make the story interesting without turning it into a 'coffee table book' ? Two things were clear from the outset. Firstly, though I had been personally involved for most of the time, it could not take the form of an autobiography. My own recollection of events was insufficiently clear. I had been away from the Company from time to time, and in any case, a subjective account of my own life in Theatre Workshop, while not without interest, could hardly be described as a history of the whole Company. Secondly, though the name of Joan Littlewood is, in most people's minds, synonymous with that of Theatre Workshop and she would naturally feature prominently in any book on the subject, it was not her biography I was writing. My aim all along has been to try and concentrate on the group rather than on the individual contribution. All who worked in Theatre Workshop are a part of the history while they were there. What happened to them after they left,