Sam Wanamaker: A Global Performer

by Diana Devlin

Overview

Actor. Director. Visionary. The fascinating life of Sam Wanamaker is explored for the first time in this biography by Diana Devlin, who worked closely with Wanamaker during the last twenty years of his life.

Sam Wanamaker (1909 - 1993) is best known as the man who spent the last twenty-five years of his life campaigning to reconstruct Shakespeare's Globe near its original site in London.

Born in the USA, he trained as an actor in Chicago and began his career during the golden age of radio drama, before moving on to Broadway. A vocal left wing activist, Wanamaker moved to the UK during the turbulent era of the anti-Communist witch hunts. Having crossed the Atlantic, he carved a successful international career as actor, producer and director. He directed the opening production at the Sydney Opera House.

With his staunch sense of purpose, he made as many enemies as friends: charismatic and persuasive, he was also stubborn and domineering. But above all, he was a man of great vision, and it was that vision that inspired many to help make his dream of Shakespeare's Globe come into being, which opened to much fanfare in 1997

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781786827098
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	08/13/2019
Series:	Oberon Books Series
Pages:	360
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.30(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

Diana Devlin has written on theatre history and drama, and taught theatre and drama in colleges and universities in England and the USA, including more than twenty years as Head of Drama Studies at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama, which she retired from in 2015. For over forty years she has been closely associated with Shakespeare's Globe on Bankside, London, and is Deputy Chair of its Council.

Table of Contents

Foreword 1

Chapter 1 'An American Chicago Born' 5

Chapter 2 New York! New York! 21

Chapter 3 Good Times, Bad Times 35

Chapter 4 An American in Britain 55

Chapter 5 Leave to Remain? 71

Chapter 6 A Loyal American Citizen 87

Chapter 7 'A Lifetime Occupation' 102

Chapter 8 'Anything and Everything' 119

Chapter 9 'BIG' or 'Marvellous' 136

Chapter 10 A New Scheme 153

Chapter 11 'Let's Make an Opera'-Amongst Other Things 174

Chapter 12 Keeping the Flag Flying 192

Chapter 13 Alarums and Excursions 208

Chapter 14 'An American Chicago-born and All These Other Events and Notions.' 222

Afterword 241

Abbreviations 247

Endnotes 248

Bibliography and Sources 264

Acknowledgments 268

Index 270