Rupert Doone

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Rupert Doone (1903 – 1966) was an English dancer, choreographer, theatre director, and teacher.

Rupert Doone was born from a Worcestershire family in reduced circumstances, but with a background that reportedly included a link with Shakespeare. He left home at sixteen to began his career as a dancer, and in 1925 was the last premier danseur engaged by Diaghilev for the Ballets Russes but remained with the company only until Diaghilev's death a few weeks later. He then made his way to the Festival Theatre, Cambridge, to learn acting and production. He became part of a play-reading group in Cambridge that in 1932, after Medley had moved to London, evolved into the Group Theatre (London), which performed left-wing and avant-garde plays during the 1930s and again during its revival in the early 1950s.

From 1926 until his death Doone lived with the painter Robert Medley, who was the cofounder of the Group Theatre.

Despite his prominence in avant-garde theatre, Doone was a muddled and ineffective stage director, much disliked by W. H. Auden, Stephen Spender, and others who tried to steer the Group Theatre into more effective productions and organization.

In the 1950s he founded the Theatre School at Morley College and worked there until his premature retirement as a result of multiple sclerosis.

[edit] References

• Michael J. Sidnell (1984). Dances of Death: The Group Theatre of London in the Thirties. Faber. 
• Robert Medley (1983). Drawn from the Life: A Memoir. Faber.