"Peter HALL's Diaries" by John Goodwin, 1984. Hardback thick book with dustcover 9.5" x 6.3", many illustrations, 507 pages, INDEXED in EXCELLENT nearly new condition! Book was originally $25.00 new in 1984. Peter Hall born 1930 in Bury St. Edmunds in London he ran the tiny but adventurous Arts Theater in London during the 1950's. At 29 he became director of the Shakespeare Memorial Theater at Stratford-on Avon. Probably no one has had as much effect on the British theater of the last 2 decades as Sir Peter Hall, founder of the Royal Shakespeare Company and current (1984) director of the National Theater. In his intimate diaries, Hall Chronicles the 8 frenzied years between 1872, when he was first approached to succeed Lord Oliver as director of the National Theater-which was then preparing for its historic move from the Old Vic to its 3-auditorium "palace" on London's South Bank-and 1980, when the theater had achieved triumphant life in its new home. An exciting and vivid narrative of Peter Hall's opening years as Director of London's National Theater. Frank and energetic, the author gives a day-to-day account of his struggles, ambitions, successes and disappointments, as well as a perceptive revelation of his own character. It gives glimpses of the mysterious process of rehearsal, of its sequences of elation and stalemate, and how some of the greatest English actors hew out a role. It gives affectionate and very funny vignettes of the powerful and the famous: Harold Pinter, the worse for the brandy, sitting on the floor of a taxi and demanding to know who has moved the seat; Sir john Gielgud, facing the role of Prospero, like, ‘an extremely nervous racehorse,' in a tizz about his costume, his headgear, his wig. He write of genius Samuel Beckett, the comically aggressive Marxism of Edward Bond but he is closest to Harold Pinter. He admires many actors, but Sir Ralph Richardson is supreme-the benign eminence grise of Sir Peter's life. FUN thick Book! See book at: http://cgi.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=207177615 -- \\\|/// \\ ~ ~ // Give your children these two things - One is roots, ( @ @ ) the other, wings. -oOOo-(_)-oOOo- Rose CAUDLE TERRY, Washington state @>,--'--- BILYEU Listowner/Listmother (genealogical) & Proud RootsWeb Sponsor RMTerry@prodigy.net http://www.genealogy.bilyeu.com/ Current publications available at: http://cgi3.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewListedItems&userid=rosess