Sam Walters

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Sam Walters Is a British theatre director and Artistic Director of the Orange Tree Theatre in Richmond upon Thames, specialising in theatre-in-the-round productions. He has also directed in the West End and at Ipswich, Canterbury and Greenwich, as well as at LAMDA, RADA and Webber Douglas.

Contents

[edit] Career

[edit] Early years

Sam Walters took a degree at Oxford University, where he was president of the Experimental Theatre Club. He trained as an actor at LAMDA, then turned to directing with the formation of the Worcester Repertory Company.

[edit] Orange Tree

Together with his wife, actress Auriol Smith. he was invited to establish Jamaica's first full-time theatre company and drama school, and on their return to England in 1971 they founded the Orange Tree Theatre, first in a room above the Orange Tree pub, now in a purpose built theatre.

“When we started the Orange Tree Theatre in 1971, we only wanted to put on plays. There was no political or social aim, nor did we philosophise about theatre-in-the-round or a style of minimal theatre, There was no money for stage lights or a raised stage, so we performed by daylight on the same floor level as the seating. And we discovered the excitement of making the audience part of the action.” (Sam Walters in conversation with Marsha Hanlon for the Orange Tree Theatre appeal brochure in 1991).

Walters won a Time Out Award for his 1987-88 season in the old theatre, being described as a ‘theatrical totter’, and in 1989 was awarded a Winston Churchill Travelling Fellowship, part of which he spent in Prague during the revolution, and part in Moscow and Leningrad.

In 1991 he received the Charrington Fringe Award for Outstanding Achievement in Small Theatre, which was followed by the Peter Brook Empty Space Award for the work of the 1992-93 company season.

In 1993-94 he took a year away from the Orange Tree, taught in America and visited all fellow theatres-in-the-round.

He was appointed MBE in 1999.

[edit] Productions

Sam Walters' productions at the Orange Tree Theatre include:

[edit] Old Orange Tree Theatre

[edit] New Orange Tree Theatre

  • All In the Wrong (Arthur Murphy), opening production in the new theatre, February 1991
  • Nutmeg and Ginger (Julian Slade) June 1991
  • Little Eyolf (Henrik Ibsen) October 1991
  • Cerceau (Viktor Slavkin) Walters as a performer only, May 1992
  • Dark River revival (Rodney Ackland) March 1992
  • His Majesty (Harley Granville Barker) also Edinburgh Festival, September 1992
  • The Dutch Courtesan (John Marston) October 1992
  • A Penny for a Song (John Whiting)j December 1992
  • The Artifice (Susannah Centlivre) February 1993
  • Nice Dorothy (David Cregan) May 1993
  • A Penny for a Song (John Whiting) revival, July 1993
  • Doctor Knock (Jules Romains) revival, October 1994
  • Flora the Red Menace (Kander and Ebb December 1994
  • Portrait of a Woman (Michael Vinaver, translated by Donald Watson) February 1995
  • The Memorandum (Vaclav Havel) March 1995
  • Retreat (James Saunders) May 1995
  • Flora the Red Menace (Kander and Ebb) revival, August 1995
  • The Maitlands (Ronald Mackenzie) October 1995
  • The Simpleton of the Unexpected Isles (George Bernard Shaw) December 1995
  • The Good Woman of Setzuan (Bertolt Brecht) February 1996
  • The Power of the Dog (Ellen Dryden) May 1996
  • What the Heart Feels (Stephen Bill) October 1996
  • Family Circles (Alan Ayckbourn) December 1996
  • Inheritors (Susan Glaspell) February 1997
  • Family Circles (Alan Ayckbourn) August 1997
  • Overboard (Michel Vinaver) October 1997
  • All in the Wrong (Arthur Murphy) revival December 1997
  • Macbeth (Shakespeare) February 1998
  • Sperm Wars (David Lewis) September 1998
  • Court in the Act (farce Hennequin and Veber) December 1998
  • The Way of the World (Congreve) March 1999
  • The Last Thrash (David Cregan) Walters as a performer only, April 1999
  • Winner Takes All (farce La main passe Feydau) January 2000
  • Hurting (David Lewis) March 2000
  • Arms and the Man (George Bernard Shaw) September 2000
  • The Daughter-in-Law (D. H. Lawrence) February 2001
  • Clockwatching (Torben Betts) March 2001
  • Whispers Along the Patio (David Cregan) October 2001, also Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough
  • The Caucasian Chalk Circle (Bertolt Brecht, with a new Prologue by James Saunders) November 2001
  • Have You Anything to Declare? (farce Hennequin and Veber) December 2001
  • Three Sisters (Chekhov, translataed by Carol Rocamora as The Three Sisters) February 2002
  • Happy Birthday Dear Alice (Bernard Farrell) April 2002
  • The Road to Ruin (Thomas Holcroft) September 2002
  • Saints Day (John Whiting) October 2002
  • The Game Hunter(Monsieur chasse farce, Feydeau, translated by Richard Cottrell) April 2003
  • The Mob (John Galsworthy) September 2003
  • King Cromwell (Oliver Ford Davies) November 2003
  • Love's a Luxury (farce Guy Paxton an Edward V Hoile) April 2004
  • The Marrying of Ann Leete (Harvey Granville Barker) September 2004
  • Myth, Propaganda & Disaster in Nazi Germany & Contemporary America (Stephen Sewell) November 2004
  • Monkey's Uncle (David Lewis) October 2005
  • A Journey to London (Vanbrugh in a version by James Saunders) December 2005
  • The Madras House (Harley Granville Barker) September 2006
  • Major Barbara (George Bernard Shaw) October 2006
  • The Skin Game (John Galsworthy) March 2007
  • The Woman Hater (Fanny Burney) December 2007

[edit] Private life

Sam Walters is married to actress director Auriol Smith and they have two daughters: Dorcas Walters, who is a soloist with the Birmingham Royal Ballet, and the stage actress Octavia Walters.

[edit] References

  • Who's Who in the Theatre 17th edition, Volume 2 Playbills, ed Ian Herbert, Gale (1981) ISBN 0810302365
  • Theatre Record and its annual Indexes
  • Orange Tree Theatre appeals brochure 1991
  • Sam Walters' programme CVs

[edit] External links