Auriol Smith

Auriol Smith is an English actress and theatre director. She is a founder member and associate director of the Orange Tree Theatre. She started her career as an actor, but now divides her time between acting and directing.

Early years

Whilst taking a degree in drama at Bristol University she became President of the Green Room Society at the newly-founded university Drama Department ["The Life and Work of Harold Pinter" by Michael Billington, Faber 1996, page 66] . This was followed by a year in America as a Fulbright Scholar, before making her professional debut at the Hampstead Theatre Club in January 1960 in Harold Pinter's first play "The Room" (which she had originally played in a converted squash-court for the Bristol Drama Department in May 1957) [British Library Theatre Archives Project: Interview with Auriol Smith (Pinter's "The Room") [http://www.21citizen.co.uk/projects/theatrearchive/smitha.html] ] .

Orange Tree Theatre

After extensive experience in repertory theatres and a year in Jamaica setting up a drama school and theatre, she and her husband Sam Walters co-founded the Orange Tree Theatre in Richmond upon Thames in 1971, where she has since played many classic and modern parts. "We enjoyed doing small-scale productions in Jamaica, and hoped that eventually we'd run that kind of theatre in England. Then, when we returned in 1971, we decided that now was the time and Richmond (where we lived) was the place." (Auriol Smith in conversation with Marsha Hanlon for the Orange Tree Appeal brochure, 1991).

Performances

In the old theatre:
*Penelope in "A Slight Accident" (James Saunders) Lunchtimes, January 1976
*"Find Me" (Olwen Wymark) 1977
*Teacher in "The Primary English Class" (Israel Horovitz) November 1979
*Woman in "Living Remains" (Martin Crimp) Lunchtimes, 9-25 July 1982 Since the new theatre opened in February 1991 her Orange Tree performance credits have included:
*Countess Czernyak in "His Majesty" (Harley Granville Barker 1992 - also Edinburgh International Festival)
*Mary Faugh in "The Dutch Courtesan" (John Marston1992)
*Hester Bellboys in "Penny For a Song" (John Whiting 1992)
*Dorothy in "Nice Dorothy" (David Cregan 1993)
*Mariette in "Doctor Knock" (Jules Romains 1994)
*Emma in "Family Circles" (Alan Ayckbourn 1996 and 1997)
*Mme Lepine in "Overboard" (Michael Vinaver, part of a French season in 1997)
*Aglae in "Court in the Act" (farce Maurice Hennequin and Pierre Veber 1998)
*Lady Wishfort in The Way of the World (Congreve 1999)
*Mme Dupont in "Have You Anything to Declare?" (farce Hennequin and Veber 2001)
*Widow Warren in "The Road to Ruin" (Thomas Holcroft 2002)
*Helena in "Previous Convictions" (Alan Franks 2005)
*Lady Smatter in "The Woman Hater" (Fanny Burney 2007 [http://www.thestage.co.uk/reviews/review.php/19376/the-woman-hater]

Directing

Since 1991 she has also regularly directed at the Orange Tree. Her credits have included:
*"Cat With Green Violin" (Jane Coles 1991)
*"The Case of Rebellious Susan" (H A Jones 1994: Time Out Award 1994)
*"The Verge" (Susan Glaspell 1996)
*"Love Me Slender" (Vanessa Brooks 1997)
*"Dissident, Goes Without Saying" (Michael Vinaver 1997)
*"Lips Together, Teeth Apart" (Terrence McNally 1998 and1999)
*"The Cassilis Engagement" (St John Hankin 1999)
*"The Captain's Tiger" (Athol Fugard 2000)
*"Flyin’ West" (Pearl Cleage 2001)
*"Three Sisters Two" (Reza de Wet 2002)
*"The House of Bernarda Alba" (Federico Lorca 2003)
*"Simplicity" (Lady Mary Wortley Montagu after Pierre Marivaux 2003)
*"Doña Rosita the Spinster" (Lorca 2004)
*"The Women of Lockerbie" (Deborah Brevoort 2005)
*"Tosca’s Kiss" (Kenneth Jupp 2006)
*"Nan" (John Masefield 2007)
*"Chains" (Elizabeth Baker 2007) [http://www.thestage.co.uk/reviews/review.php/18881/chains]

Other acting and directing work

During 1990, as part of a busy year, she played Lady Wishfort in "The Way of the World" at the Royal Exchange Manchester (deputising for Sylvia Sim who was indisposed), and toured North America for the ACTER company in "The Winter's Tale" playing opposite Paul Shelley as Leontes. She also appeared in Christine Edzard's film "The Fool".

In the West End for producer Bill Kenwright, Smith has directed "Dead Guilty" by Richard Harris (Apollo 1995) starring Hayley Mills and Jenny Seagrove; and Michael Redgrave's "The Aspern Papers" (Wyndham's 1996) with Hannah Gordon. She also directed a Japanese version of "Dead Guilty" in Japan.

At the Theatre Royal Windsor she directed "Shadow of a Doubt" and "Canaries Sometimes Sing". At the Northampton Theatre Royal she directed Arthur Miller's "Broken Glass", David Mamet's "Oleanna" and James Robson's "Mail Order Bride"; while at the Stephen Joseph Theatre in Scarborough she first directed "Love Me Slender".

Television and audio

She has worked extensively on radio including Pinter's 1960 radio version of his sixty-minute play "The Room" for the BBC Third Programme. For ten years she presented "Listen With Mother" on BBC Radio 4 and was a long-serving member of the Radio Drama Company. Her BBC radio credits include Alan Bennett's "Forty Years On", the role of a tipsy summer partygoer in Ellen Dryden's romantic comedy "Forgetting Rosalind" (a FirstWrites production for the BBC), and "East of the Sun" by Carey Harrison.

For Naxos Smith has recorded the roles of Alice in "Henry V" with Samuel West, and the Duchess of York in "Richard III" with Kenneth Branagh. She has also acted on television in "Kavanagh QC", "One Foot in the Grave", "Peak Practice" and "Doctors", among others.

Private Life

Auriol Smith is the wife of Orange Tree co-founder and Artistic Director Sam Walters. They have two daughters: Dorcas Walters, a former soloist and principal dancer with the Birmingham Royal Ballet, and Octavia Walters who is a fellow actress.

References

* Auriol Smith's Orange Tree Theatre programme CVs, 1991 and 2007
* "The Life and Work of Harold Pinter" by Michael Billington, Faber 1996 ISBN 0571171036
* Theatre Record and its annual Indexes

External links

*Orange Tree Theatre website [http://www.orangetreetheatre.co.uk/]