“Shakespeare Memorial Theatre” Frank Benson Signed 3.25X5.25 Picture Postcard

Description: Up for auction a RARE! “Shakespeare Memorial Theatre” Frank Benson Hand Signed 3.25X5.25 Picture Postcard. Herre is an opportunity to own a piece of British Theatre history! ES-6952E Sir Francis Robert Benson (4 November 1858 – 31 December 1939), known professionally as Frank Benson or F. R. Benson, was an English actor-manager. He founded his own company in 1883 and produced all but two of Shakespeare's plays. His thirty-year association with the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre and the annual Shakespeare Festival in Stratford-upon-Avon laid down foundations for the creation of the Royal Shakespeare Company after his death. Benson's company toured widely, with few London seasons, and became a training ground for several generations of young performers, including Henry Ainley, Oscar Asche, Lilian Braithwaite, Isadora Duncan, Nigel Playfair, Nancy Price and Harcourt Williams. Benson was born at Eden House, Tunbridge Wells, Kent, on 4 November 1858, the third son and fourth child of William Benson (1816–1887), a barrister, and his wife, Elizabeth, née Soulsby Smith (1830–1892). Their eldest son, William Arthur Smith Benson, became a well-known architect and designer, and the youngest, Godfrey Rathbone Benson, later Baron Charnwood, was a Liberal politician. In 1871 Benson went to Winchester College, where a master inspired him with a love of Shakespeare.From there he went to New College, Oxford in 1878, where he distinguished himself as an athlete (winning the Inter-university three miles) and as an amateur actor. In 1880 he mounted a successful production of Aeschylus's Agamemnon, given in the original Greek; Benson played Clytemnestra. This was followed by Euripides's Alcestis the following year, in which Benson played Apollo. In July 1881 Benson and his Oxford Agamemnon Sociey took the Imperial Theatre, London, for a single performance of Romeo and Juliet. The performance was not admired; The Stage found it "one of the very worst it has been our misfortune to witness", and commented that Benson's Romeo resembled George Grossmith's Bunthorne in Patience. Benson then studied with Hermann Vezin and was encouraged by Ellen Terry, who persuaded Henry Irving to take Benson on to play Paris in Romeo and Juliet at the Lyceum in 1882. Irving was unimpressed and did not extend the young actor's contract. Terry suggested that Benson should join a touring company where he could gain more experience and better parts than in London. He joined first Miss Alleyne's company, and then that of Walter Bentley, which performed Shakespeare and classic comedies in the north of England and Scotland. The Times described the circumstances in which Benson came to take over the company in 1883: One night the manager was missing, and so were the salaries. A quick interchange of telegrams between Benson and his father; the necessary money was received; and the company ... became not Bentley's but Benson's. Helped by further subsidies from his father, Benson built up his company and extended its touring range to the whole of the country and beyond. In 1886 he married a member of his company, Constance Featherstonhaugh. They had two children, Eric William (1887–1916, killed at the battle of the Somme), and Brynhild Lucy (1888–1974). In 1886, Charles Flower, the philanthropist behind the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre, invited Benson and his company to open that year's Shakespeare Festival at Stratford-upon-Avon. From then until 1919 Benson presented all but five of the annual Stratford seasons. The critic James Agate said that Benson's company "was the nursery of modern Shakespearean acting", and both the Royal Shakespeare Company and the National Theatre have some of their roots in his company and productions. Each year, Benson gave one new production at Stratford, which was given on Shakespeare's birthday and became known as the Birthday Play. These productions, often of rarely performed plays, were subsidised by Flower or his fellow governors of the theatre, who paid for the design and making of the costumes and sets. Benson was then able to tour the production with his other plays. The extension of the Stratford repertoire rescued many Shakespeare plays from neglect, such as Timon of Athens, The Winter's Tale and King John, although the most popular plays were regularly staged as well. The three most successful at the box office were The Merchant of Venice, The Taming of the Shrew and The Merry Wives of Windsor, which were presented so often that members of Benson's company called their repertoire The Merry Shrews of Venice. Benson's productions were not avant-garde: he liked traditional staging and design, but he was the first producer of modern times to give Hamlet uncut, he purged the text of Richard III from Colly Cibber's additions, and brought Richard II back into the regular repertory. During his thirty-year association with Stratford, Benson staged all but two of Shakespeare's plays In 1910 Benson was awarded the freedom of the borough of Stratford, the first actor so honoured since David Garrick in 1769. He was later appointed as a governor of the Memorial Theatre and a trustee of Shakespeare's birthplace. When not at Stratford, the Benson company's repertoire included some non-Shakespearean classics and modern plays, but Shakespeare predominated. Benson's mission, in the words of The Times was:to carry Shakespeare far and wide over the United Kingdom, to dissolve, in cathedral city, in dingy manufacturing town, and in centres of agricultural life, the lingering prejudice against the stage play, to rescue Shakespeare from death in school examinations, and the never-opened gift-book on parlour tables, and to give a glimpse of the meaning and the value of art. Another celebrated aspect of Benson's life and work was the training of new generations of actors. A touring company paying modest salaries inevitably suffered a constant loss of its leading players to stardom and better pay in the West End, and Benson's company had a continual influx and outflow of actors. In 1913 The Times printed a list of more than 90 "Old Bensonians" – eminent actors and actresses who "learnt their art under the inspiration of Mr Benson". The men included Henry Ainley, Oscar Asche, Matheson Lang, Nigel Playfair, William Poel and Harcourt Williams. Among the women were Lilian Braithwaite, Isadora Duncan, Kitty Loftus and Nancy Price.

Price: 399.99 USD

Location: Fort Lauderdale, Florida

End Time: 2023-11-22T15:32:29.000Z

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