Unidad documental compuesta DCL/1/8 - York Festival

Área de identidad

Código de referencia

DCL/1/8

Título

York Festival

Fecha(s)

  • 1980 (Creación)

Nivel de descripción

Unidad documental compuesta

Volumen y soporte

2 files

Área de contexto

Nombre del productor

(1931-2014)

Historia biográfica

David Clarke was a showman and theatrical all-rounder. For 50 years he devised, wrote and produced hundreds of plays, shows and full-scale pageants involving casts of hundreds on a monumental scale.

Clarke was born in London on 20 October 1931, before moving to Farncombe when he was two years old. He attended Godalming Grammar School, Goldsmiths Teacher Training College and Guildford School of Art.

In 1951 he acted in the Pageant of Farnham, and took part in the Guildford Coronation Pageant in 1952, before undertaking National Service in 1954-1955.

Clarke went on to teach art at Camberley Grammar School in Guildford, during which time he produced plays and operas, and founded the Cloister Players. In 1957 he was selected as production designer for the pageant of Guildford, which ran for ten days with a cast of thousands.

During the 1950s Clarke directed and produced two films, Mr Guy and The Girl with the Ponytail, both of which won awards in a national competion promoted by Movie Maker magazine and shown at London's Nationai Film Theatre. He also continued directing and producing plays for The Cloister Players and, in 1971, took the entire company to Cornwall's Minack Theatre to perform Romeo and Juliet and The Importance of Being Ernest. He also directeted A Mid-summer Night's Dream at Loseley Park, West Dean College in Sussex and at the Chichester Festival.

In 1968 David returned to pageants, devising, designing and producing The Pageant of England at Shalford Park. Around 1,000 people took part, all of them parading along Guildford High Street in full costume before the first performance. Some 100 technicians worked back-stage, 6,000 costumes were worn, 100 animals took part and it was watched by 40,000 people over two weeks. It was 10 years before David returned to Shalford Park with the Pageant of Monarchy.

In 1973 he was appointed artistic director of the Guildford Summer Festival, and in 1977 he organiscd Guildford Silver Jubilee Pageant. Princess Anne, the pageants patron, attended a Performance and David received the Queen's Jubilee Medal in recognition of his efforts.

Pageants followed in Farnham, in 1988, and at Corfe Castle, Dorset, in 1991, and then the Cranleigh Millennium Pageant in 2000 and the Chilworth Gunpowder Community Play at Tillingbourne Valley in the same year.

In 1980, and again in 1984, David was engaged to direct and produce the York Mystery Plays in York Minster.

He died in 2014.

Institución archivística

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Alcance y contenido

Contains programmes, photos, correspondence (including with the BBC) and press cuttings; leaflets and other information about activities in and around York during the Festival; letters from children at the Bar Grammar School, Blossom Street; a bookmark created by B. Gabrielow and signed by a large number of participants; and caricature drawing of David Clarke.

Also includes a number of outsized photographs from the Festival taken by David Dore.

Please note, part of this file is outsize.

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Condiciones de acceso

Restricted access (Data Protection Act)

Material is available subject to the usual terms and conditions of access to Archives and Local History collections.

Condiciones

Images are supplied for private research only at the Archivist's discretion. Please note that material may be unsuitable for copying on conservation grounds. Researchers who wish to publish material must seek copyright permission from the copyright owner.

Idioma del material

  • inglés

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