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Description: | The Archive consists of some 16,000 items and covers most aspects of the long and varied career of Basil Dean (1888-1978), theatre impresario, Director of ENSA and pioneer of British film-making. Correspondence and related papers form the largest single component (over 11,000 items). The collection includes copies of Dean's replies to correspondence recieved, and actors, authors and playwrights are particularly well represented. Important correspondents include: H. E. Bates, Arnold Bennett, Lilian Braithwaite, No?l Coward, John Galsworthy, Graham Greene, Margaret Kennedy, Flora Robson and P. C. Wren. There are over 800 letters relating to James Elroy Flecker's "Hassan", which Dean adapted for the stage, including 80 letters from Flecker's widow. Correspondence with Dean's associates is also considerable. These include: George Harris, his designer; Roger Ould, his personal assistant; E. P. Clift, business manager; and George Ansley, who provided substantial financial backing. There are also over 200 letters and papers relating to his association with Sir Alfred Butt in the 1920s. The volumes of press cuttings are an essential source. They date from 1904, when Dean was performing in amateur theatricals, to the last decade of his life. They contain reviews of his productions and interviews with him on a wide range of subjects related to the stage and cinema, together with numerous articles he wrote and speeches he made. Throughout his career Dean made numerous public addresses, including lectures and broadcasts on radio and television. Many of these texts are part of the archive. The collection also includes prompt books and scripts, set and costume designs (chiefly the work of George Harris) and over 1,000 photographs, both individual and in albums, relating to his career, his productions and his work in ENSA. An unexpected element in the archive is correspondence addressed to Arnold Bennett, numbering over 600 letters and replies relating to the theatre. Letters from Basil Dean form only part of this correspondence and it has not been possible to establish how the whole came to be included in this archive.; Handlists and catalogues are available for the papers of Horniman, Dean, Hunt, Joseph, Slade, Nicholson, Pettitt, Monkhouse, Montague, Thrale-Piozzi, North West Playwrights, Donat and "Manchester Guardian". Allardyce Nicholl Collection recorded on on-line catalogue of printed books.
John Rylands University Library of Manchester, Special Collections Division, University of Manchester, | Format: | Correspondence Documents (production) Set designs Press cuttings Playtexts (typescripts) Libretti Documents (business) Licenses Cartoons Programmes Photographs (portrait) Playtexts (prompt books) Documents (personal) Periodicals Costume designs Photographs (production) Playtexts (printed) Drawings | Subjects: | Theater management Great Britain; Theater production and direction Great Britain; Theatre history 20th century; motion pictures production and direction Wartime entertainment; theatre productions; World War I; World War II | Temporal: | 1970 1900 | Source: | Backstage | Address: | 150 Deansgate, Manchester,,
M3 3EH | Creator: | Basil Dean | Identifier: | www.backstage.ac.uk/records/collection/c | Language: | en | Format: | Correspondence Documents (production) Set designs Press cuttings Playtexts (typescripts) Libretti Documents (business) Licenses Cartoons Programmes Photographs (portrait) Playtexts (prompt books) Documents (personal) Periodicals Costume designs Photographs (production) Playtexts (printed) Drawings | Go to resource |
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