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Actor. Director. Visionary. The fascinating life of Sam Wanamaker is explored for the first time in this biography by Diana Devlin, who worked closely with Wanamaker during the last twenty years of his life.
Sam Wanamaker (1909 - 1993) is best known as the man who spent the last twenty-five years of his life campaigning to reconstruct Shakespeare's Globe near its original site in London.
Born in the USA, he trained as an actor in Chicago and began his career during the golden age of radio drama, before moving on to Broadway. A vocal left wing activist, Wanamaker moved to the UK during the turbulent era of the anti-Communist witch hunts. Having crossed the Atlantic, he carved a successful international career as actor, producer and director. He directed the opening production at the Sydney Opera House.
With his staunch sense of purpose, he made as many enemies as friends: charismatic and persuasive, he was also stubborn and domineering. But above all, he was a man of great vision, and it was that vision that inspired many to help make his dream of Shakespeare's Globe come into being, which opened to much fanfare in 1997
List of contents
Foreword
Chapter 1 'An American Chicago Born'
Chapter 2 New York! New York!
Chapter 3 Good Times, Bad Times
Chapter 4 An American in Britain
Chapter 5 Leave to Remain?
Chapter 6 A Loyal American Citizen
Chapter 7 'A Lifetime Occupation'
Chapter 8 'Anything and Everything'
Chapter 9 'BIG' or 'Marvellous'
Chapter 10 A New Scheme
Chapter 11 'Let's Make an Opera' - Amongst Other Things
Chapter 12 K eeping the Flag Flying
Chapter 13 Alarums and Excursions
Chapter 14 'An American Chicago-born and All These Other Events and Notions.'
Afterword
Abbreviations
Endnotes
Bibliography and Sources
Acknowledgments
Index
About the author
Diana Devlin has written on theatre history and drama, and taught theatre and drama in colleges and universities in England and the USA, including more than twenty years as Head of Drama Studies at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama, which she retired from in 2015. For over forty years she has been closely associated with Shakespeare's Globe on Bankside, London, and is Deputy Chair of its Council.
Summary
Actor. Director. Activist. The fascinating life of Sam Wanamaker is explored for the first time in this biography by Diana Devlin, who worked closely with him for his last twenty years.
