Bill Gaskill Symposium

In May this year, I was on the opening panel of a day celebrating and examining the life and work of the director William Gaskill. Bill was one of the first directors at the Royal Court when it became the home of the English Stage Company in 1956. He then became Artistic Director in the mid-1960s. He was an extraordinary director, whose productions were political and beautiful in equal measure; he was one of the most committed Brechtians in British theatre; he was one of the early directors at the new National Theatre in the early 1960s; he directed many great new plays, forming a particularly close partnership with Edward Bond for the whole of Bond's great period of writing between the mid-60s and mid-70s.

I was on the panel with Irving Wardle, who wrote The Theatres of George Devine, a truly essential book about the founding artistic director of the English Stage Company, that gives you a sense of the deep roots of that apparently brand-new theatre. The session was chaired by the wonderful playwright, Colin Teevan, and there were contributions from Peter Gill, speaking from the floor.

The panel was recorded and you can listen to it here:

• http://backdoorbroadcasting.net/2017/05/welcome-to-a-life-in-the-theatre/