[Scrapbook and photographs relating to William Orr, founder of Phillip Street Theatre, Sydney, ca. 1929-1980s]

PXE 1740

fonds

ca. 1929-1980s

Graphic Materials, Photographs, Textual Records, Clippings, Ephemera

9586005

64 photographs and 0.01 metres of textual material

Eric Duckworth and William Orr founded Phillip Street Theatre in Sydney in 1954. Born in England in 1915, Duckworth moved to Australia with his family when he was eight. In the late 1930s he returned to England to work in theatre and became an actor, producer and theatre manager. Orr was born in Scotland and also worked in the theatre in England in the 1940s as an actor, stage manager and stage director, including at the Old Vic Theatre Company in London. Orr and Duckworth arrived in Australia in 1950 and the pair introduced the concept of 'Intimate Revue', a form of contemporary satire and comedy virtually unknown in Sydney at the time.

Over the next seven years, Phillip Street Theatre employed around 150 actors, plus musicians, script writers, designers and other support staff. The theatre closed in January 1961 and moved to a new building situated opposite Mark Foy's in Elizabeth Street and became widely known as the Phillip Theatre. The theatre's revues featured many notable Australian performers including Gordon Chater, Margot Lee, Jill Perryman, Noeline Brown, Judi Farr, Ruth Cracknell, Jacki Weaver, June Salter, John Meillon, Barry Humphries and Reg Livermore.

References:
Library correspondence file
Eric Duckworth obituary, A true gentleman of the theatre, https://www.smh.com.au (accessed 7 November 2018)

Comprises annotated scrapbook belonging to William Orr containing newscuttings and programmes of theatre productions in Britain he was involved in either as an actor, stage manager or stage director. Includes productions at the Repertory Theatre Rutherglen; Playhouse, Newcastle; Theatre Royal, Bristol; Criterion Theatre; Mercury Theatre; Grand Theatre, Swansea, Spa Theatre, Whitby; Glasgow Citizens' Theatre; and performances by the Pilgrim Players. Scrapbook also contains 12 photographs (some signed) of William Orr, performers and theatre sets, 1944-1949.

Also contains 6 loose pages from a photograph album containing 32 photographs mainly of William Orr from the age of 14, along with Eric Duckworth and other friends in Britain as well as Australia, and includes a photograph of Katharine Hepburn and Robert Helpmann cutting a cake on the occasion of Phillip Street Theatre's 1st birthday, ca. 1929-1970s.

In addition there are 32 loose photographs of William Orr, performers including Sybil Thorndike (signed), and various unidentified people and cats, ca. 1950s-1980s.

Out of copyright: Photographs created before 1955
Copyright status:: In copyright - Applies to photographs created after 1955 - Life of photographer plus 50 years
Copyright status:: In copyright - Applies to scrapbook
Please acknowledge:: Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales

Title devised by cataloguer. Dates based on inscriptions in scrapbook and album pages.

Scrapbook is signed by William Orr on the inside of the front cover, and throughout the book there are inscriptions by William and subjects of the photographs.
Some of the loose photographs are signed by the subject or have inscriptions on verso and some have photographer's stamp: John Hearder

Scrapbook has loose binding and worn edges