QUESTORIES
STUDENT GROUP PRODUCTIONS 
Part Three: Groups 11-16 (1956-1961)

   Student Group 11 (1956/1957)
   Student Group 12 (1957/1958)
   Student Group 13 (1958/1959)
   Student Group 14 (1959/1960)
   Student Group 15 (1960/1961)
   Student Group 16 (1961/1962)

Student Group 11 (1956/1957)

There were fewer applicants this year and, according to Alfred Emmet, the standard of applicant was generally lower.

Part of the solution was to invite three members who had graduated from Group 10 to join Group 11. These were Dorothy Boyd Taylor (Dolly Barber), Graham Evans and Stuart Hartley.

There also still seemed to be thoughts of extending the course to three years.

February 1958
   A PROGRAMME OF THREE PLAYS
     THE FULL MOON by Lady Gregory
     THE HOUSE OF BERNARDO ALBA by Frederico Garcia Lorca
     SGANARELLE by Molière
Directed by Geraldine Alford
Cast:
Helen Blatch, Lindsay Bouvet, Philip Clark, Graham Evans, Soma Frisell, Stuart Hartley, Kenneth Kane, Derek Morris, Josephine Rowbottom, Hilary Sheath, Dorothy Boyd-Taylor, Sandra Turner, Barbara Turpin

 It's interesting to note that members of the student group stage managed these three plays.

[Photo: Sganarelle]

It would also have been Sandra Turner's début if she hadn't already appeared on stage as a first-year student in 1957.

Photos of THE FULL MOON
Photos of THE HOUSE OF BERNARD ALBA
Photos of SGANARELLE
Press Reviews (transcription)

July 1958
  TIME AND THE CONWAYSby J B Priestley
Directed by Geraldine Alford
Cast:
Helen Blatch, Lindsay Bouvet, Dorothy Boyd-Taylor, Alistair Elliot, Stuart Hartley, Anthony King, Derek Morris, Hilary Sheath, Sandra Turner, Barbara Turpin

Sadly we have no photos of this production but the review in the Middlesex County Times gave a colourful description of the performances.

Programme for TIME AND THE CONWAYS
Press review (transcription)

STUDENT GROUP 12 (1957/1958)

In its first year, this group was joined by The Young Questors Club, under the direction of Rena Rice (opposite) for Students at Work (June 1958). There is an interest account of it in the Middlesex County Times - although the reviewer seems to have been under the impression that Christopher Fry wrote MURDER IN THE CATHEDRAL!

Programme for STUDENTS AT WORK
Press review 

Student Group 12 included two students who had already completed Group 10 (Zafar Chaudhri and Peter Hutchins), who had completed Group 11 (Sandra Turner) and one who had completed Group 9 (Shaun Curry).

Shaun Curry is another alumni who left the Questors Student Group to go to RADA and thence via the Royal Shakespeare Company and the West End to enjoy a successful career on Film and TV in, amongst many, Z Cars, The Saint, Poldark, The Professionals, Coronation Street, Minder, Blake's Seven.

Shaun Curry on Wikipedia

February 1959
   TWO PLAYS
     ANTIGONE by Sophocles
     THE SKIN OF OUR TEETH (Act One) by Thornton Wilder
Directed by Geraldine Alford
Cast:
Tony Barber, John Chapman, Pat Coleman, Shaun Curry, Ken Heggie, Peter Hutchins, Barbara Jackson, Leonora Johnston, Derek Marlow, Veronica Meredew, Stephen O’Toole, Terry Quinn, Josephine Rowbottom, Sandra Turner

[Photo: The Skin of Our Teeth]

Photos of ANTIGONE
Programme
Press review [transcript]

This double bill included the student début ofTony Barber, another one of those people without whom, one wonders, Questors could have existed all these years.

Tony remembers:
“My Questors début was in HENRY V in 1957, following which, at the after show party in Alfredand Kit's flat at Haven Green, some members of the cast spoke to Alfred, who had directed the production, about using it as my audition for Questors' acting membership. Alfred's reply was to say my performance could serve as my successful application for the Student Group.

"I also appeared in THE VOICE OF SHEM directed by Colette King in 1958, and was also in IN SEARCH OF HAPPINESS in 1960 [see below] as a Student Group graduate from the previous year.”

Also stepping on to the Questors stage for the first time was budding playwright and best selling novelist Derek Marlowe. His play HOW I ASSUMED THE ROLE OF A POPULAR DANDY was premiered in the Questors New Plays Festival of 1965, and he was part of the group of actors and playwrights, including Tom Stoppard and Peter Whelan, who represented The Questors at the Literarisches Colloquium, Berlin in 1964. His entry in Wikipedia is an interesting read.

Shortly after taking the title role of Antigone (which she liked to claim she played with a cockney accent),Jo Rowbottom, at the time working as a clerk at the BBC, won a scholarship to LAMDA and went on to enjoy a long and very productive career in film and TV.

Described by John Deighton in Reveille as “one of the best known brassy birds on television”, she was a familiar face on British TV throughout the 60s,70s and 80s, appearing in countless series and dramas including Dr Who, The Bill, Juliet Bravo, Z Cars, Terry and June, The Morcombe and Wise Show, I Claudius and Romany Jones.

July 1959
   THE DIARY OF ANNE FRANK by Frances Goodrich, Albert Hackett
Directed by Geraldine Alford
cast:
Tony Barber, John Chapman, Pat Coleman, Shaun Curry, Derek H. Brown, Peter Hutchins, Barbara Jackson, Veronica Meredew, Jo Rowbottom, Sandra Turner

Photos of THE DIARY OF ANNE FRANK
Programme

"

STUDENT GROUP 13 (1958/1959)

Three graduates from Group 12, John Chapman, Pat Coleman and Terry Quinn , were invited to join this Group, and Madelaine Baily replaced Sheila Moriarty as voice tutor.

February 1960
   THE CRUCIBLE (Act One) by Arthur Miller
   UNDER MILK WOOD (Shortened version) by Dylan Thomas
Directed by Geraldine Alford
Designed by Tadeusz Orlowicz
Cast:
John Chapman, Barry Clark, Pat Coleman, Patricia Coleman, Charles Conabere, Shaun Curry, Barbara Giles, Leonora Johnston, Max Lawrie, Madeleine Margan, Lorraine Munns, Victor Pompini, Terry Quinn, Christopher Whitbread, Marian Wood, Ann Woods

[Photo: Under Milk Wood]

photos of THE CRUCIBLE
photos of UNDER MILK WOOD
Programme
Press cuttings

Barry Clark, pictured above as the Narrator in UNDER MILK WOOD, wrote to us in January 2014 with his reminiscences of being a student and after.

"In the period 1959 through 1967, I lent a willing hand to many of the Club's activities, including laying bricks for the foundation of the "new" theatre. I was fortunate to have worked with Alfred [Emmet] on the Theatre's first production in-the-round of THE GLASS MENAGERIE, which required understudying both male roles, as well as providing the background music that accompanied much of the action.

"In 1966, I worked in the sound department for the Student production of RING ROUND THE MOON, and personally obtained Richard Addinsell's integral score for the play, which is still in my possession complete with leader tape & cues. At the time, EMI did not consider the score "commercially viable", and refused to release a recording.

"Alan Drake [Editor: Alan died in 2017] might just remember me, notably for my part as the narrator in the shortened-version of UNDER MILK WOOD, which the Evening Standard critic of the time dubbed "Condensed Milk".

"Of course, I have many other anecdotes from that period -- in particular, our efforts to tart-up (pardon the expression) the only toilet that would have been available to the Queen Mother when she opened the new theatre.

"I am now resident in Tucson, Arizona, where I am pleased to report that we may live in a desert, but we are far from being a cultural one.

Sincerely,
Barry Clark"

Shaun Curry (Group 12) was brought in to support the cast in this double bill, as was Vic Pompini from the first-year of Group 13 [pictured here in the 1980s].

This was Vic Pompini's début appearance at The Questors. He quickly become a much loved and regular performer right up until his death in 1993, with more than 30 productions to his credit.

The Middlesex County Times reviewer, Douglas McVay, gave an extensive account of why he didn't like Dylan Thomas or UNDER MILK WOOD and his doubts about THE CRUCBLE as well - he gave the students a pretty hard time too!

EALING ACTOR CAPTURES MAN WITH A GUN

Steve O’Toole, who was a first-year student in Group 13 and made an appearance in the main production of JULIUS CAESAR (1958) and the Student Production of ANTIGONE (1959), made the headlines a few years later for being something of a real-life hero.
The Middlesex County Times of 6 August 1965 reported the event as follows:

When an Ealing man captured a gunman in Dusseldorf, Germany, on Sunday, he risked his career and his life. For 28-year-old Steven Patrick O’Toole is a television and film actor.

“My face is my fortune,” he remarked this week after arriving back home at 17, Woodville-gardens. Waiting for him when he flew back was a letter from the Police President in Dusseldorf — in German — thanking him for capturing a thief who had stolen a car, and congratulating him upon his initiative.

 “All I was concerned with immediately afterwards was my coat. I had bought it only the day before and scuffed it in the struggle,” recalled Mr. O’Toole. But after, back at his hotel, he suddenly realized that he had done, “and all I wanted then was a drink...”

TRAPPED BY POLICE
What he did was capture a man who was later found to be carrying a gun and a knife. Trapped by police cars, a man had jumped out of a car in one of the main shopping areas of the German town on Sunday evening and fled. He was running towards Mr. O’Toole.

“And suddenly I was running towards him, with my eyes fixed on his hand reaching inside his coat,” said the 6ft actor. “The police were some way away, and there were women and children about. I was convinced he had a gun in his coat and my only thought was that he should not be allowed to use it

HELD ON
“He saw me coming and tried to round the corner. But I caught hold of his lapel and twisted him round until he fell on top of me. I just held on to his coat until the police arrived and handcuffed him.”

Mr O’Toole was in Germany working on a commercial film.

“I was looking for a present for my mother, otherwise I would have been asleep in the hotel,” he said.

 A former student at the Questors, Mr O’Toole has had parts in television series like “Z Cars,” “No Hiding Place,” “Compact,” “The Reluctant Bandit,” and the “World of Suzie Wong” film.

 Now he is off to the South of France.  

Our records indicate that many years later Steve returned briefly to The Questors and appeared in THE SHIFT (1990), THE STRANGENESS OF OTHERS (1992) and THE GROTESQUE FARCE OF MR PUNCH (1993)

July 1960
   IN SEARCH OF HAPPINESS by Viktor Rozov
Directed by Geraldine Alford
Designed by John Rolfe
Cast:
Tony Barber, Jonathan Beavis, Derek Brown, Barry Clark, Pat Coleman, Charles Conabere, Barbara Giles, Leo Johnstone, Max Lawrie, Lorraine Munns, Terry Quinn, Chris Whitbread, Marian Wood, Ann Woods

Pictured above with Barry Clark is the young actor Charles Conabere who seemed to make quite an impression at the time and has at least one credit as "second youth" in a 1962 episode of the TV series PROBATION OFFICER.

This was the first of some 20 Student Productions to be designed by John Rolfe.

Photos of IN SEARCH OF HAPPINESS Programme
Press cuttings 

STUDENT GROUP 14 (1959/1960)

In a Middlesex County Times article, Douglas McVay gave a detailed description of the Group 14 first-year STUDENT S AT WORK which took place on 27 June 1960 .

Press Cutting for STUDENTS AT WORK (Transcript)

Stepping into Geraldine Alford's shoes as director of the second-year students was Michael Hoddell. Michael had served in the Fleet Air Arm during the war, with a spell in ENSA (Entertainments National Service Association - not quite"It Ain't Half Hot Mum", but close). After stage managing at Watford Rep, he studied at the Central School of Speech and Drama, co-founded an amateur group called London Little Theatre, and became a producer at Goldsmith College. Before coming to Questors he worked for the British Council in the Middle East and taught the Student Group at Mountview Theatre. He was in charge of our second-year students for nearly a decade, and directing over 35 plays with them.

February 1961
   FOUR ONE-ACT PLAYS
      THE LADY OF LARKSPUR LOTION by Tennessee Williams
      THE LOVE OF DON PERLIMPLIN by Federico Lorca
      PORTRAIT OF A MADONNA by Tennessee Williams
      THE SHEWING UP OF BLANCO POSNET by Bernard shaw
Directed by Michael Hoddell
with original music composed by Ewart Vaughan Hopkins and Sylvia Leeson
Cast:
Carol Adams, Elaine Banham, John Beavis, Derek Brown, Charles Conabere, Frances Cooper, Barry Davis, David Floss, Jo Green, Monyene Kane, Victor Pompini, Liat Sandys, Karla Shackell, Clive Williams, Peter Wrigley

[Photo: THE SHEWING UP OF BLANCO POSNET

Photos of THE LADY OF LARKSPUR LOTION
Photos of THE SHEWING UP OF BLANCO POSNETProgramme for FOUR ONE-ACT PLAYS
Press cutting 

The casts of BLANCO POSNET and PORTRAIT OF A MADONNA included Monyene Kane from the first-year of Group 15.

Apart from an appearance as a nymph in THE TEMPEST (1960) this was Monyene's Questors début. When she passed away in 2011, David Emmet wrote:
"I have in front of me a record, written by Alfred Emmet, which tells me that on 6th September 1960, at 6.45 pm a girl called Monyene Kane, aged 16, came to The Questors and auditioned for the Student Group. That audition began a lifetime of involvement with the theatre. Alfred's record also tells me that he rated her the most outstandingly talented of all the applicants that year. Monyene stayed with us for forty-six years making 55 appearances on our stage and will always live in our memories as a warm, affectionate and much-loved friend, as well as a great actress."

July 1961
   ALL MY OWN WORK by Romilly Cavan
Directed by Michael Hoddell
Cast:
Carol Adams, Bashir Badrudin, John Beavis, Derek Brown, Veronica Castang, Alan Chambers, Barry Davis, Jo Green, Max Lawrie, Elizabeth Mead, Victor Pompini, Karla Shackell

Photos of ALL MY OWN WORK
Programme
 Press cutting

Although the County Times reviewer didn't reckon much on the play he was impressed by "the exotic Bashir Badrudin, with his tensely mannered prowling, growling and scowling: and Veronica Castang, with here dark mop of hair, slanted black-button eyes, and plump-muzzled, cheery - chirping mouth."

No mention however was made of new (non-student) acting member Alan Chambers who here made his third Questors appearance, his first two having been a few weeks earlier in the New Plays Festival. Apparently working with the students didn't put him off and he hung around Questors being absolutely indispensable as actor, director, board member, bar chairman, poet, drinking companion and beloved friend (and lots more) for the next sixty years!

STUDENT GROUP 15 (1960/1961)

February 1962
   FOUR IRISH PLAYS
     THE ONLY JEALOUSY OF EMER by W B Yeats
Directed by Bashir Badruddin
     BEDTIME STORY by Sean O'Casey
     LOOKING GLASS, LOOKING GLASS by Ned Gethings
     RIDERS TO THE SEA by J M Synge
Directed by Michael Hoddell
Designed by Mary Anderson
Cast:
Elaine Banham, John Beavis, Jennifer Brown, Richard Chester, Pat Gottlieb, Brian Horry, Monyene Kane, Max Lawrie, Barbara London, Wylie Longmore, Marion Mynard, David Ploss, Victor Pompini, Maria Ritchie, Susan Taylor

Programme for FOUR IRISH PLAYS
Press review

Bashir Badruddin [seen opposite in ALL MY OWN WORK 1961] from Group 14 directed THE ONLY JEALOUSY OF EMER which Douglas McVay in the County times thought "was nicely directed... with lots of fierce masks and dancing and music; and Mr Badruddin gave a nice performance as well; stripped to the waist, spitting real saliva, and hissing and snickering splendidly. But despite the saliva, I’m afraid that the play itself was...very dull; even duller than Mr Gethings'"

Mr Gethings' "dull" play LOOKING GLASS, LOOKING GLASS. was the third of Ned's plays to be premiered by a Student Group. Ned was in good company though, because according to McVay, the dullest play of all was J M Synge's RIDERS TO THE SEA in which "the fishers' wives in black coats... kept up a continuous wordless moaning, the sort of sound the Luton Girls’ Choir might produce when tuning up at a rehearsal." 

The only play McVay had a good thing to say about was O'Casey's BEDTIME STORY which he found "loose and light-hearted and laughable."

The four plays had an undeniably Irish flavour (which I think Mr McVay had difficulties with, much as he had difficulty with Dylan Thomas's Welshness) but that hadn't been the original intention. The fourth play was originally to have been THE DAMASK DRUM by Yukio Mishima, a modern day version of a traditional 14 century Japanese Noh Play. The cost of the performance licence was too much, sadly, and RIDERS TO THE SEA was chosen at the last minute to replace it.

The students must have already put in a good amount of work on the Japanese play, though, because a few days later they gave a "representation"of it before an invited audience alongside a presentation by Vincent McQueen's Schools Company.

THE DAMASK DRUM was eventually performed by Student Group 20 in 1967.

Incidentally a dramatic contribution to this production came from Michael Langridge who, as a first-year student in Group 16, had been commissioned with the responsibility of providing effects of various kinds for RIDERS TO THE SEA - a commission which other members of the cast and production team may have come to regret!

The Testimony of Michael Langridge
An Extract from Questopics, July 1968

I turned the wind machine with my left hand delicately varying the speed of revolution to prevent the contraption sounding too much like a coffee grinder and more like the phenomenon it was intended to create. My right hand had a piece of cotton around one finger which was attached to an insignificant fishing net draped over two poles out on the stage, and by jerking my arm every now and again I could flap the net in full view of the audience in order to convince them that the dreadful sound emanating from the wings was indeed a light to moderate gale. Whilst I was attempting to synchronise my grindings with my flappings I had to let forth the muted cry of a man drowning in the sea three miles away, a sound almost impossible to produce when one's arms are flailing around like something possessed.

This sequence of events occurred during my first year as a Questors student and I was assisting backstage on the second year student group One Act Plays. The contortions described above were part of the sound plot for RIDERS TO THE SEA by J. M. SYNGE, and on the second night I over enthusiastically jerked my arm, resulting in chaos. The fishing net nearly came off its poles and finished in a horizontal position as if it were frozen stiff. To justify this rather sudden freak weather I turned the wind machine like a dervish, furiously trying to hide my mistake, only succeeding in making a noise like ten coffee grinders. At this point in the proceedings the cotton broke from the extreme tension and the net gracefully collapsed on the stage taking two of the cast with it. I had sufficient presence of mind to cease the operation of the wind machine and at the time noted a distinct sigh of relief from the audience, who, I was later to learn, had not heard a single line since the curtain went up. Perhaps this was the reason why the programme had me listed as 'lighting assistant'.

July 1962
   LIOLA by Luigi Pirandello
Directed by Michael Hoddell
Designed by John Rolfe
Music composed by Ewart Vaughan Hopkins
Cast:
Elaine Banham, Derek Brown, Frances Cannon, Sonia Dowden, Bridget Evans, Pat Gottlieb, Wendy Jolly, Monyene Kane, Gillian Kerswell, Barbara London, Victor Pompini, Maria Ritchie, Hazel Smith, Susan Taylor

Programme for Liola
Press reviews

This was the first Student production in the Studio, and the first (as far as I know) in the round.Douglas McVay in the County Times was as colourful as ever in his description of the play as "one of those earthy Mediterranean sagas of lust, compounded of pride, peasant roundelays and periodic familiararities, interspersed by an occasional plea to the Holy Virgin."

STUDENT GROUP 16 (1961/1962)

February 1963
   THREE PLAYS
     DOUBLE DOUBLE by James Saunders
     NIGHT-TIME FOR THE BIRDS by Colin Finbow
     A PAINTING ON WOOD by Ingmar Bergman
Directed by Michael Hoddell
Designed by John Rolfe
Cast:
Michael Cartwright, Rachel Emmet, Winifred Fraser, Estelle Hampton, Mary Holland, Michael Langridge, Wylie Longmore, John Mcandrew, John Turner, Susan Tylor, Cleo Wrighton

[Photo: A Painting on Wood]

Photos of A PAINTING ON WOOD
Programme for THREE PLAYS
Press Reviews

July 1963
   DOUBLE BILL
     ANTIGONE by Jean Anouilh
     THESE CORNFIELDS by Georges Courteline
Directed by Michael Hoddell
Designed by John Rolfe
Cast:
Frances Cannon, Graham Cherry, Robert Cushman, Michael Davis, Winifred Fraser, Estelle Hampton, Mary Holland, Michael Langridge, Earle Lewis, Wylie Longmore, John Turner, Cleo Wrighton

[Photo: THESE CORNFIELDS]

Photos for ANTIGONE
Photos for THESE CORNFIELDS
Programme for STUDENT DOUBLE BILL
Press review