Derek Goldby

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Derek Goldby
Born1940
Caius College
OccupationTheatre director

Derek Tomlin Goldby (1940 – 9 January 2022) was an Australian-born theatre director who has worked internationally, particularly in Canada, Belgium, the United Kingdom, the United States and France.

Early life

Derek Goldby was born in

Caius College in Cambridge, England. While at Caius, he directed a production of Arnold Wesker's The Kitchen which led to his first professional job as Assistant Director at the Royal Court Theatre in London.[citation needed
]

Work in Britain

He left the Royal Court Theatre after one year to direct a repertory season at

Berthold Brecht's A day in the life of the great scholar Wu.[1]

In 1966, Goldby became an assistant director to

Old Vic that brought the play to international attention.[3]

Work in the United States

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead went on to play on Broadway, where it was nominated for eight Tony Awards and received four, including Best Play. Goldby went on to direct several other productions on Broadway, including Loot by Joe Orton,[4] and Her First Roman, a musical based on George Bernard Shaw's Caesar and Cleopatra (for which Goldby was brought in late in rehearsals as a replacement director).[5][6]

In 1969, he was announced for a production of Harold Pinter's The Homecoming at the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis (but only made his debut at the Guthrie with The Merry Wives of Windsor, from which he was eventually ousted).[7][8] Already in 1968, he was announced as director for Bock and Harnick's musical The Rothschilds,[1] but, after out-of-town tryouts, was eventually replaced by Michael Kidd.[9]

Off-Broadway, Goldby directed Spitting Image by Colin Spencer in 1969. After a long absence, Goldby returned to New York in 1991 to direct Brad Fraser's Unidentified Human Remains and the True Nature of Love at the Orpheum Theatre.[citation needed]

International work

Goldby spent most of the 1980s in Canada, where he directed for the

the Father at the Tarragon Theatre; and productions of Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest and Frank Wedekind's Spring Awakening at CanStage.[10] In Belgium, Goldby worked at Brussels' Théâtre de Poche, where he directed, amongst other work, productions of Martin McDonagh's The Lieutenant of Inishmore and Simon Stephens' Motortown.[11]

Later life and death

In the 2000s, Goldby worked in drama schools in England including RADA,

Goldby never married. He died on 9 January 2022, at the age of 81.[13]

Thoughts on theatre and audiences

  • "I enjoy directing. Since I was 16, I always knew I'd be a director."[14]
  • "I still enjoy working on Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead. It's still interesting because of what each new cast of actors brings to it. The text has in many ways the polished surface of metal. The values are verbal, like the plays of Wilde and Shaw, really. So I'm fascinated to see how actors respond to the challenge of the play. It has its own unique laws—unlike any other play in dramatic literature. Some people hate it."[14]
  • "Orton is our best social satirist since Jonathan Swift. 'Loot' tears apart the whole mystique of respectability and death, and does it with laughs. If Broadway audiences aren't sophisticated enough to accept it then there's no hope for the theatre here...I couldn't expect your establishment critics to like it. After all, it's a left-wing play in a right-wing country."[15]
  • "It's not that I don't believe in the theatre of shock, or the theatre of purpose, or the theatre of whatever. It's that I think we all need to be reminded of what people go to the theatre for. People go to the theatre basically—young and old—for an experience they can't get anywhere else. They want to laugh and cry."[16]

References

  1. ^ a b c Much of this early information comes from Goldby's thumbnail biographical sketches appearing in the programs for the Broadway production of Her First Roman and Loot.
  2. ^ "Higher Education Helps," The Stage (28 February 1963).
  3. ^ "Night Waves – Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead". bbc.co.uk. 5 July 2007. Retrieved 20 October 2011.
  4. ^ "Derek Goldby Theatre Credits". broadwayworld.com. 2011. Retrieved 20 October 2011.
  5. IBDB
    ; conversation with Derek Goldby.
  6. ^ Sam Zolotow, "Vale Atque Ave", New York Times, 15 August 1968, p. 45.
  7. ^ "Wright Fires Director of 'Wives' at Guthrie," Variety (2 July 1986).
  8. ^ Sheri O'Meare, "Guthrie Director Gets His Walking Papers", Skyway News (26 June 1986), p. 5.
  9. ^ Dick Adler, "'The Producer' by Christopher Davis" (book review), New York Times (5 March 1972), p. BR4.
  10. ^ Canadian Theatre Encyclopedia; personal observation
  11. ^ a b "Derek Goldby". unitedagents.co.uk. 2011. Retrieved 20 October 2011.
  12. ^ Billington, Michael (9 May 2011), "Autumn and Winter – review", The Guardian, retrieved 24 November 2014
  13. ^ "Goldby, Derek Tomlin". The Times. 17 January 2022. Retrieved 17 January 2022.
  14. ^ a b Samuel Hirsch, "'Rosencrantz and Guildenstern' Is Alive," Boston Herald (26 January 1969).
  15. ^ Frances Herridge, "Angry 'Loot' Director Calls B'way Unsophisticated", New York Post (27 March 1968), p. 82.
  16. ^ "Quote of the Week", New York Times (10 December 1967), p. 165.

External links