*GREAT DIRECTOR TYRONE GUTHRIE 1963 AUTOGRAPH LETTER & PHOTO*

Description

A rare original April 1963 silver print photograph and autograph letter of the great Anglo-Irish director Tyrone Guthrie. Photo dimensions ten by eight inches and letter eleven by eight nd a half inches. Light wear otherwise fine. See Tyrone Guthrie's extraordinary biography below.
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From Wikipedia:
Sir William Tyrone Guthrie
(2 July 1900 – 15 May 1971) was an English theatrical director instrumental in the founding of the
Stratford Festival of Canada
, the
Guthrie Theater
in
Minneapolis
,
Minnesota
, and the
Tyrone Guthrie Centre
at his family's ancestral home,
Annaghmakerrig
, near
Newbliss
in
County Monaghan, Ireland
.
Guthrie was born in
Tunbridge Wells
,
Kent
, England, the son of Dr. Thomas Clement Guthrie (a grandson of the
Scottish
preacher
Thomas Guthrie
) and Norah Power.
[1]
His mother was the daughter of Sir
William James Tyrone Power
,
Commissary-General-in-chief
of the
British Army
from 1863 to 1869 and Martha, daughter of Dr. John Moorhead of Annaghmakerrig House and his
Philadelphia
-born wife, Susan (née Allibone) Humphreys.
[2]
His great-grandfather was
Irish
actor
Tyrone Power
and he was a second cousin of famed film actor
Tyrone Power
. Guthrie's sister, Susan Margaret, married his close university friend, fellow Anglo-Irishman
Hubert Butler
. Tyrone Guthrie received a degree in history at
Oxford University
, where he was active in student theatre, and worked for a season at the newly established
Oxford Playhouse
.
[
citation needed
]
Career
In 1924 Guthrie joined the
BBC
as a broadcaster and began to produce
plays for radio
. This led to a year directing for the stage with the Scottish National Players, before returning to the BBC to become one of the first writers to create plays designed for radio performance. From 1929–33, he directed at various theatres, including the
Cambridge Festival Theatre
in 1929
[3]
and a production of
Pirandello
's
Six Characters in Search of an Author
at the
Westminster Theatre
in 1932.
During 1933–34, and again from 1936–45, he was director of the Shakespeare Repertory Company.
[4]
While in
Montreal
, Guthrie produced the
Romance of Canada
series of radio plays for recalling epic moments in Canadian history. The series was broadcast on the
Canadian National Railway radio network
.
Hubert Butler
translated the text for Guthrie's 1934 production of
Anton Chekhov
's
Cherry Orchard
, for perhaps its first English-language production.
[
citation needed
]
In the 1940s Guthrie began to direct
operas
, to critical acclaim, including a realistic
Carmen
at
Sadler's Wells
and the
Metropolitan Opera
in New York. He also returned to Scotland where, with
James Bridie
in 1948, he staged the first modern adaptation, by
Robert Kemp
, of
Sir David Lyndsay
's grand-scale medieval comedy
Ane Satyre of the Thrie Estaitis
for the Second
Edinburgh International Festival
; a landmark event in the modern revival of Scottish theatre. Staged in the city's
General Assembly Hall of the Church of Scotland
on
the Mound
, specially adapted for the occasion, it was here that Guthrie's hallmark
thrust stage
first proved its full worth.
[
citation needed
]
Stratford Festival of Canada
In 1952, he was invited to help launch the
Stratford Festival of Canada
.
[5]
Intrigued with the idea of starting a Shakespeare theatre in a remote Canadian location, he enlisted
Tanya Moiseiwitsch
to further develop his thrust stage design, successfully improvised in Edinburgh, and actors
Alec Guinness
and
Irene Worth
to star in the inaugural production of
Richard III
. All performances in the first seasons took place in a large tent on the banks of the Avon River. He remained as Artistic Director for three seasons, and his work at Stratford had a strong influence in the development of
Canadian theatre
.
[6]
[7]
[8]
Guthrie produced
Gilbert and Sullivan
's
H.M.S. Pinafore
in 1960 and
The Pirates of Penzance
in 1961, which were televised in Canada and also brought to the
Phoenix Theatre
in New York and on tour in the US. In 1962, as soon as the Gilbert and Sullivan copyrights expired, he brought these productions to Britain; they soon played at
Her Majesty's Theatre
and were broadcast by the BBC. They were among the first
Savoy opera
productions in Britain not authorized by the
D'Oyly Carte Opera Company
.
[9]
Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis, Minnesota
In 1963, he founded the
Guthrie Theater
in
Minneapolis, Minnesota
, designed by
Ralph Rapson
. He published a small invitation in 1959 in the drama page of
The New York Times
soliciting communities' interest and involvement in a resident theater. From that beginning, the
Twin Cities
was chosen and the Guthrie Theater was established, with construction being completed in 1963.
[10]
Guthrie served as Artistic Director until 1966, and continued to direct at the theater he founded until 1969, two years before his death.
[
citation needed
]
Legacy
In the prologue to his biography, James Forsyth wrote, "Anti-
Broadway
, anti-
West End
, anti everything implied in the term 'Legitimate Theatre', he ended up with a legitimate claim to the title of 'most important, British-born theatre director of his time
'
".
[11]
Sir Peter Hall
wrote, "Among the great originators in British Theatre...Guthrie was a towering figure in every sense. He blazed a trail for the subsidised theatre of the sixties. He showed how to run a company and administer a theatre. And he was a brilliant and at times great director..."
[12]
Guthrie wrote two major books about the creation of effective drama:
Theatre Prospect
(1932)
[13]
and
A Life in the Theatre
(1959).
[14]
Guthrie's autobiography,
A Life in the Theatre
, was adapted into a stage play,
Guthrie on Guthrie
by Margaret Dale. It was produced at the Stratford Festival in 1989, and again at the
Glenn Gould Studio
in 1998 for recording as an audiobook. Both productions featured
Colin Fox
as Guthrie.
[15]
[16]
Queen's University Belfast
He was Chancellor of
Queen's University Belfast
(1963–70).
[17]
On 15 September 2010, a blue plaque in his memory was unveiled at the BBC in Belfast by the Ulster History Circle.
Personal life
In 1931, Guthrie married Judith Bretherton, who survived him by only a year. He was
knighted
in 1961, and died a decade later at his home, Annaghmakerrig, in
Newbliss
,
County Monaghan
, Ireland, aged 70, from a severe heart attack. His body was buried in the graveyard of Aghabog Church of Ireland, in Newbliss.