Hugh Hunt prompt books

A collection of Hugh Hunt's rehearsal copies of published plays which he used as director/producer for productions of plays. These volumes contain stage directions, annotations, alterations, some with diagrams in Hugh Hunt's hand and relate to a production of Marlowe's Dr Faustus and to 16 of his productions of Shakespeare's plays (including Hamlet [1950], Julius Caesar in 1953, King John in 1933, King Lear [1947 or 1952], Love's Labour's Lost in 1970, Macbeth, Merchant of Venice in 1953, The Merry Wives of Windsor in 1951, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Much Ado About Nothing [1947], Othello [1947] and Romeo and Juliet [1952]).

These rehearsal copies relate to productions Hunt directed between 1933 and 1970 at the New Theatre, Oxford, the Abbey Theatre, Dublin, with the Bristol and London Old Vic and a student performance at the University of Manchester.

The Shakespeare plays are all in the Temple Shakespeare or New Temple Shakespeare series published by J. M. Dent; the Marlowe play is in the Temple Dramatists series, also published by J. M. Dent

Hugh (Sydney) Hunt (1911-1993) English director and producer was educated Marlborough College and then Magdalen College, Oxford, graduating in 1934. In his last year at Oxford, he was president of the Oxford University Dramatic Society.

He was the producer at Maddermarket Theatre, Norwich, 1934, Croydon Repertory and Westminster Theatres, 1934-35 and the Abbey Theatre, Dublin, 1935-38. After war service with Scots Guards, King's Royal Rifle Corps, and Intelligence Service he became director firstly at the Bristol Old Vic Company, 1945-48 and then at the London Old Vic Company, 1949-53. In 1954 he was the adjudicator Canadian Drama Festival Finals and from 1955-60 he was Executive Officer of the Elizabethan Theatre Trust in Australia. In 1961 he was appointed as the Professor of Drama at the University of Manchester From 1969 until 1971 he also acted as the Artistic Director at the Abbey Theatre, Dublin.

Open to all registered researchers.

Purchased in 2003

Permission to make any published use of any material from the collection must be sought in advance in writing from the Director of Special Collections. Identification of copyright holders of unpublished material is often difficult. The Shakespeare Institute Library: Special Collections will assist where possible with identifying copyright owners, but responsibility for ensuring copyright clearance rests with the user of the material.

Correspondence and papers of Hugh Hunt, 1924-1980 are held by the John Rylands Library, University of Manchester (GB 0133).