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Dorothy Howard Talbot

Dorothy Howard Talbot (born Dorothy Maud Cross; 1886 – 5 December 1965) was an English actor and director. After a brief acting career as Dorothy Langton, she married the musical theatre composer Howard Talbot in 1910 and left the stage. She worked in stage management during the First World War in the West End. From the 1920s to the 1950s, she was hired to direct musicals and light opera for amateur operatic and dramatic societies, at a time when there were few women performing this role.[1][2]

Dorothy Howard Talbot
Born
Dorothy Maud Cross

1886
Dersingham, Norfolk, England
Died5 December 1965(1965-12-05) (aged 78–79)
Nottingham, England
OccupationTheatre director
Years active1910–1958
Spouse
​
​
(m. 1910; died 1928)​
Children4
FatherArthur Harry Cross

Early life

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Dorothy was born in Dersingham, Norfolk, the oldest daughter of Arthur Harry Cross, who was organist at St Mary Magdalene Church, Sandringham, from 1878 until his death in 1906. Her early education was at the West Norfolk and Lynn High School for Girls. She studied at RADA for three terms during 1908, and while there she met the dramatist W. S. Gilbert.[3][4]

She performed on the stage for a few years, using the stage name Dorothy Langton,[1][5] but gave up acting after her marriage in 1910 to Howard Talbot, a composer of music for Edwardian musical comedy. She then coached for Charles Hawtry's productions.[6]

During the first world war she assisted in stage management at the Adelphi Theatre, London,[7] at which her husband was conductor.[8]

Theatre director

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Dorothy Howard Talbot
 
Booklet on Stage Makeup

After her husband died of lung disease in 1928,[9] Talbot enrolled with the National Operatic and Dramatic Association (NODA),[10][11] which enabled her to stage musical plays.[9] She also lectured on courses that NODA organised.[12][13]

Talbot staged light operas, musicals and plays for the societies listed in the table below, amongst many others.[14][15][1][16] She thought it best to rehearse amateur casts for 4-5 weeks before a production, with a dress rehearsal on the Sunday before opening, which was a departure from the earlier practise among amateur British societies, to avoid Sunday rehearsals.[2]

In 1953 she decided to focus on directing and acting in Nottingham where she lived for the last years of her life.[17]

Bletchingley and District Amateur
Operatic Society 		Newton Abbot Dramatic Society Bury St Edmunds Amateur Operatic
and Dramatic Society 		Lincoln Thespians Operatic
and Dramatic Society
Musical/Opera Year Musical/Opera Year Musical/Opera Year Musical/Opera Year
Patience 1925[18] Chu Chin Chow 1939[19] The Belle of New York[20] 1948[21] The Arcadians 1930[22]
The Gondoliers 1926[23] Miss Hook of Holland 1947[24] Show Boat 1949[25] My Lady Frayle 1931[26]
The Mikado 1927[27] The Rebel Maid 1948[28] Torquay Operatic Society The Geisha 1934[29][7]
Ruddigore 1929[30] The Geisha 1949[31] Ruddigore 1949[32] The Maid of the Mountains 1936[33]
A Chinese Honeymoon 1933[34] A Country Girl 1950[35] The Pirates of Penzance; Trial by Jury 1950[36] West Bridgford Amateur Operatic Society
The Belle of Brittany 1935[37] Utopia, Limited 1951[38] Ruddigore 1953[39]
Iolanthe 1936[40] Waltz Times 1952[41] Patience 1955[42]
Princess Ida 1937[43] The Mikado 1953[17] The Pirates of Penzance; Cox and Box 1956[44]
Southport Orpheus Operatic Society Cooperative Arts Centre Nottingham
Musical/Opera Year Opera/Play Year
Madame Pompadour 1934[45][46] Before the Flood 1956[47]
East Surrey Amateur Operatic and Dramatic Society Dear Charles 1958[48]
Veronique 1923[49] L'elisir d'amore 1958[50]
H.M.S. Pinafore 1925[51] The Crucible 1957[52]
If I Were King (acted) 1925[53] One Wild Oat 1957[54]

Other activities

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In 1925, Dorothy and her husband set up the Bletchingley and District Amateur Operatic Society with Howard as chair and herself as honorary director.[55]

She wrote a libretto with Percy Greenbank,[56] from which a three-act comic opera, called Her Ladyship,[57] was produced, with lyrics by Percy Greenbank and music by her husband, Howard Talbot.[58][59][60] The opera was performed for the first time by the Stock Exchange Dramatic and Operatic Society at the Scala Theatre in London on 24 April 1928.[61]

She also lectured regularly in drama courses held at the Nottingham Co-operative Arts Centre[62] and other venues[63] and wrote a book about stage makeup.

During the second world war Talbot worked as a full time warden in Chelsea[64] and also directed a play, The Dark Lady, with a new theatre club called the Carlyle Players, which she helped to found.[64]

References

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  1. ^ a b c "A Lady Coach". Waterford Standard. Jan 1931. p. 3.
  2. ^ a b Lowerson, John (2005). Amateur Operatics A social and cultural history. Manchester University Press. ISBN 978-0-7190-5197-5.
  3. ^ "Utopia Ltd". Torquay Times. March 1951. p. 3.
  4. ^ "Bletchingley Operatic Society in Gilbert and Sullivan". Surrey Mirror and County Post. November 1936. p. 10.
  5. ^ "Dulwich Satger's Operatic Society". Sydenham, Forest Hill and Penge Gazette. p. 5.
  6. ^ "Amateur Opera at Lincoln". Lincolnshire Echo. April 1934. p. 1.
  7. ^ a b "Thespians' Coach". Lincolnshire Echo. April 1934. p. 4.
  8. ^ "Thee New "Veronique" at the Adelphi". The People. April 1915. p. 12.
  9. ^ a b Hyman, Alan (1978). Sullivan and his Satellites. Chappell and Company Ltd. p. 208.
  10. ^ "The Chocolate Amateurs". The Lynn Advertiser. October 1929. p. 2.
  11. ^ "Cloud over the Theatre". Lancashire Evening Post. October 1933. p. 6.
  12. ^ "Opera and Musical Comedy. Week-end course on Production". Sevenoaks Chronicle and Kentish Advertiser. April 1939.
  13. ^ "Opera and Musical Comedy". Bromley and West Kent Mercury. April 1939. p. 8.
  14. ^ "Theatre Royal Worcester". Evesham Standard and WEst Midland Observer. November 1946. p. 2.
  15. ^ "'Madame Pompadour' at Southport". Lsncashire Evening Post. October 1934. p. 5.
  16. ^ "A dramatic society for Horley". Surrey Mirror and County Post. January 1937. p. 1.
  17. ^ a b "The Torquay Operatic Society". Torquay Times. February 1953. p. 6.
  18. ^ "Bletchingley". Surrey Mirror and County Post. February 1926.
  19. ^ "Newton Abbot's Chu Chin Chow a winner". Western Times. March 1939. p. 11.
  20. ^ "Bury St Edmunds Operatic and Dramatic Society".
  21. ^ "'The Duchess' as Belle". Bury Free Press. December 1948. p. 10.
  22. ^ "Operatic Society's Success". The Lincoln, Rutland and Stamford Mercury. March 1930. p. 12.
  23. ^ "Bletchingley". Surrey Mirror and County Post. November 1926. p. 5.
  24. ^ "Newton Revival". Devon and Exeter Gazette. February 1947.
  25. ^ "Magnificent chorus made one forget blemishes". Bury Free Press. November 1949. p. 5.
  26. ^ "My Lady Frayle". Lincolnshire Echo. p. 3.
  27. ^ "Bletchingley". Surrey Mirror and County Post. November 1927. p. 8.
  28. ^ "The Rebel Maid at Newton Abbot". The Western Times. 1948. p. 7.
  29. ^ "Coaching Lincoln Amateurs in Musical Comedy". Lincolnshire Echo. April 1934. p. 1.
  30. ^ "Ruddigore". Surrey Mirror and County Post. November 1929. p. 8.
  31. ^ "Amateurs score at Newton". Torbay Express. March 1949. p. 8.
  32. ^ ""Ruddigore" – high standard maintained". Torquay Times. April 1949. p. 1.
  33. ^ "Lincoln Thespaians The Maid of the Mountains at Theatre Royal". Lincolnshire Echo. p. 1.
  34. ^ "Bletchingley and District Amateur Operatic Society". Surrey Mirror and County Post. September 1933. p. 5.
  35. ^ "Newton Success Local Amateurs present A Country Girl". The Western Times. March 1950. p. 7.
  36. ^ "Operatic Society's April Productions". Torquay Times. January 1950.
  37. ^ "Bletchingley Operatic Society". Surry Mirror and County Post. January 1935. p. 9.
  38. ^ "Utopia Ltd -clever prophetic writing". Torquay Times. p. 3.
  39. ^ "W. Bridgford Amateurs in Ruddigore". The Nottingham Journal. April 1953. p. 4.
  40. ^ "A very creditable 'Iolanthe'". Surrey Mirror and County Post. December 1936. p. 5.
  41. ^ "Torquay Operatic Society's April Production". Torqauy Times. February 1952. p. 8.
  42. ^ "Successful Patience". The Nottingham Guardian Journal. p. 5.
  43. ^ "Bletchingley Operatic Society". Surrey Mirror and Count Post. December 1937. p. 1.
  44. ^ "Two Sullivan Operas". The Nottingham Evening Post. p. 7.
  45. ^ "Societies with some Ambitious Programmes". The Lancashire Daily Post. October 1934. p. 4.
  46. ^ "Madame Pompadour at Southport. Amateurs Triumph". Lancashire Daily Post. October 1934. p. 5.
  47. ^ "Nottingham Axctors prepare to salute Bernard Shaw". Nottingham Evening News. January 1956. p. 8.
  48. ^ "Play with Unusual 'Triangle'". Nottingham Evening News. p. 7.
  49. ^ "East Surry Amateur Operatic and Dramatic Society". Surrey Mirror and County Post. December 1923. p. 8.
  50. ^ "City music groups in comic opera". The Nottingham Guardian Journal. June 1958. p. 7.
  51. ^ "East Surrey Amateur Operatic and Dramatic Society". Surrey Mirror and County Post. April 1925. p. 8.
  52. ^ "Whispers in the Wings". Nottingham Guardian. October 1957. p. 4.
  53. ^ "The East Surrey Hospital". Surrey Mirror and County Post. p. 1.
  54. ^ "Whispers in the Wings". The Nottingham Guardian Journal. February 1957. p. 4.
  55. ^ "Bletchingley". Surrey Mirror and County Post. July 1925. p. 11.
  56. ^ "British Musical Theatre Her Ladyship". January 2017.
  57. ^ "Blair and Rattray Society to produce Opera". Dundee Courier. August 1928. p. 5.
  58. ^ "Her Ladyship". Aberdeen Press and Journal. March 1931. p. 8.
  59. ^ "Her Ladyship". Tonbridge Free Press. November 1932. p. 5.
  60. ^ "The Adastral Players". The Era. March 1930. p. 8.
  61. ^ "British Musical Theatre – The Shows". July 2017.
  62. ^ "You too could be an actor". Nottingham Guardian Journal. p. 4.
  63. ^ "Opera "Cinderella of the Arts"". Sevenoaks Chronicle and Kentish Advertiser. 1939. p. 12.
  64. ^ a b "Chelsea Gossip". West London Press. p. 2.
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