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The Mermaid Theatre was a theatre encompassing the site of Puddle Dock and Curriers' Alley〔(www.ancestry.com )〕 at Blackfriars in the City of London, and the most recently built in the City since the time of Shakespeare. It was, importantly, also one of the first new theatres to abandon the traditional stage layout; instead a single tier of seats surrounded the stage on three sides. ==History== The 20th-century theatre was the life's work of actor Bernard Miles with his wife, Josephine Wilson. His original Mermaid Theatre was a large barn at his house in the St. John's Wood area of London. This seated 200 people, and during 1951 and 1952 was used for concerts, plays and a celebrated opera production of ''Dido and Aeneas'' with Kirsten Flagstad, Maggie Teyte and Thomas Hemsley, conducted by Geraint Jones, which was recorded by HMV. For the third season in 1953 the Mermaid Theatre was moved to the Royal Exchange.〔McAthur, Edwin (1965) ''Flagstad, A Personal Memoir'' New York.〕 Miles was encouraged to build a permanent theatre and, raising money from public subscriptions, he oversaw the creation of the new building on land formerly occupied by a warehouse. This site was close to the location of an abortive attempt, in the Jacobean era, to build a theatre (named Porter's Hall) for the amalgamation of the Children of the Queen's Revels and Lady Elizabeth's Men. This project, undertaken by Philip Rosseter with distant backing from Henslowe and Alleyn, was ended because of complaints from the neighbourhood's residents. The new Mermaid Theatre opened in 1959 with a successful production of ''Lock Up Your Daughters'' and it was the venue for many other very successful productions, such as ''Cowardy Custard'' (often cited as responsible for the revival of interest in Noël Coward's works) and including an annual staging of ''Treasure Island'', with Miles reprising his role of Long John Silver, which he also played in a television version. The Mermaid Theatre also ran the Molecule Club, educating children about science. In July 1961 the poet and author Sylvia Plath read her poem "Tulips" at the Poetry at the Mermaid Festival, sponsored by the Arts Council of Great Britain. The programme notes that there were twelve commissioned poets at the festival, one of whom was Plath's husband, Ted Hughes. Other notable productions include the 1978 première of ''Whose Life Is It Anyway?'', with Tom Conti and Rona Anderson. Gomba Holdings, a property company owned by Ugandan Asian businessman Abdul Shamji and his family, which claimed to have interests in the Garrick and Duchess theatres as well as Wembley Stadium, bought the theatre in the mid-1980s in the hope of redeveloping the Puddle Dock site. Bernard Miles' tenure as honorary artistic advisor was abruptly terminated and the theatre's importance declined. In 1989 Abdul Shamji was sentenced to 15-months in prison over his involvement in the Johnson Matthey bank collapse.〔http://www.truthaboutlloyds.com/fraud/myth85.html〕〔https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2507&dat=19891101&id=jEVAAAAAIBAJ&sjid=YFkMAAAAIBAJ&pg=1612,32433〕 Josephine Wilson died in 1990 and Bernard (by then Lord) Miles died in 1991, financially destitute.〔 Marc Sinden was appointed artistic director in 1993, opening the Bernard Miles Studio as a second performance area,〔''The Stage'' 10 March 1994〕 but left the next year.〔http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/facethefacts 3 August 1994〕 Actor Roy Marsden and Vanessa Ford took over the running of the theatre for a few months prior to its eventual closure and the termination of the Shamji family's ownership. After a further change of ownership the theatre was slated for demolition in 2002 as part of redevelopment plans. Already it had fallen into disuse, the buildings being used more often as a conference centre than a theatre. A preservation campaign by actors and other supporters attempted to reverse the decision. In April 2003 Ken Livingstone, the Mayor of London, ordered the council to block the demolition. As of March 2005 new plans had been submitted for the redevelopment of the site. Nothing materialised and the building continued to operate primarily as a conference centre. The BBC Concert Orchestra used it for occasional concerts, and the BBC recorded a popular weekly radio show, ''Friday Night is Music Night'' that showcased musicians such as the violinist Nigel Kennedy and singer Josh Groban. In 2006, music duo Pet Shop Boys played a mid-length set accompanied by the BBC Concert Orchestra and special guests including Robbie Williams, Francis Barber and Rufus Wainwright which was musically directed by Trevor Horn. The show was documented on the audio release entitled Concrete. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Mermaid Theatre」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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