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Revision as of 17:17, 18 October 2011 by Demiurge1000 (talk | contribs) (tone down final paragraph - see talk page)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)Derek Goldby (born 1940) is an Australian-born theatre director who has worked internationally, particularly in Canada, Belgium, the United Kingdom, the United States and France.
In 1966 Goldby was an assistant director to John Dexter at the National Theatre of Great Britain (now the Royal National Theatre) when he directed Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead by the then mostly unknown Tom Stoppard. At that point, the play had been performed at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, but it was Goldby's 1967 National Theatre production at the Old Vic that brought the play to international attention. The production 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, and two musicals, The Rothschilds and Her First Roman, a musical based on Bernard Shaw's Caesar and Cleopatra (for which Goldby was brought in late in rehearsals as a replacement director).
Goldby spent most of the 1980s in Canada, where he directed for the Shaw Festival, the Stratford Festival, the Tarragon Theatre, CanStage, Théâtre de Quat'Sous and the National Theatre School. Among his work were several productions at the Shaw Festival, including Georges Feydeau's A Flea in Her Ear and a production of Rostand's Cyrano de Bergerac, featuring comic actor Heath Lamberts in the title role, which played at The Shaw in 1982 and 1983, and which was revived for a run at the Royal Alexandra theatre in 1985. Other work includes productions of Anton Chekhov's Uncle Vanya and August Strindberg's 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. In Belgium, Goldby worked at Brussels' Théâtre de Poche.
In the mid-1990s, Goldby left Canada to return to England and worked in drama schools and in fringe and off-West End venues. He turned to the work of Swedish playwright Lars Noren, but his British productions, including Noren's Autumn & Winter at Richmond's Orange Tree Theatre and The Clinic for the Bridewell Theatre, met with productional difficulties and cast conflicts.
References
- IBDB; conversation with Derek Goldby
- Canadian Theatre Encyclopedia; personal observation
- Derek Goldby CV at PFD
- The Stage. 2011.
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