David Jones (director)

David Hugh Jones (19 February 1934 – 19 September 2008) was a British stage, television, and film director.

Personal history

Jones was born in Poole, Dorset, the son of John David Jones and his wife Gwendolen Agnes Langworthy (Ricketts). When married to British actress Sheila Allen, he had three sons, and together they had three grandchildren.Billington, "Obituary: David Jones".] After their divorce, Jones's partner of the last 20 years was photographer Joyce Tenneson.

Education and career

Jones was educated at Taunton School and Christ's College, Cambridge. Originally a television director, he first worked for BBC producer Huw Wheldon working on the "Monitor" arts television series from 1958 to 1964. His first London stage production was a triple-bill of T. S. Eliot’s "Sweeney Agonistes", W. B. Yeats’s "Purgatory" and Samuel Beckett’s "Krapp's Last Tape" at the Mermaid Theatre in 1961.

He directed his first production for the Royal Shakespeare Company at the Arts Theatre in 1962, Boris Vian’s "The Empire Builder", and two years later accepted the administrative post of RSC Artistic Controller, helping to plan programmes of new plays and European classics at the Aldwych Theatre in London. He also took over responsiblity for running the Aldwych from 1969 to 1972, and again in 1975-77. During this period he championed the plays of David Mercer and Maxim Gorky.

For BBC television he directed "Ice Age", "The Beaux Stratagem" and "Langrishe, Go Down" in 1978. He also produced "Play of the Month" (1977-79).

He left the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1979, taking up an appointment as an artistic director at the Brooklyn Academy of Music and to found a resident theatre company modelled on the RSC (Beauman 344).

After teaching at the Yale School of Drama in 1981, he returned to England where for the BBC Television Shakespeare series he directed "The Merry Wives of Windsor" (1982), and "Pericles, Prince of Tyre" (1984), and made his debut as a feature film director with "Betrayal" (1983), based on Harold Pinter's screenplay adaptation of his 1978 play "Betrayal" (Katz).

From 1973 to 1978, Jones was Artistic Director of the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC), in Aldwych, where he directed plays by William Shakespeare, Bertolt Brecht, Anton Chekhov, Sean O'Casey, Maxim Gorky, Harley Granville Barker, Graham Greene, and others, and became an honorary associate director of the RSC in 1991. From 1979 to 1981, he was Artistic Director of the BAM Theater Company (1979-1981).cite web|url=http://www.cft.org.uk/cft-productions_talents.asp?tid=262|title= David Jones: Biography|publisher=Minerva Theatre, Chichester, Chichester Theatre Festival|year=2007|accessdate=2008-09-26]

Since 2005, he has directed three productions at the Williamstown Theatre Festival, in Williamstown, Massachusetts: "On the Razzle" (1981), by Tom Stoppard (2005); "Sweet Bird of Youth" (1959), by Tennessee Williams (2006), and "The Autumn Garden" (1951), by Lillian Hellman (2007).cite web|url=http://www.wtfestival.org/performances/past_seasons.php?Search=David+Jones&Season=|title=Past Seasons: David Jones|format=Web|publisher=Williamstown Theatre Festival|accessdate=2008-09-26]

Theatre

His theatre directing credits include:
*"The Empire Builders" (Boris Vian) RSC Arts Theatre, 1962
*"The Governor’s Lady" (David Mercer) Aldwych, 1965
*"Saint’s Day", Stratford East, 1965
*"The Investigation" (Peter Weiss) co-directed with Peter Brook, Aldwych, 1965
*"Belcher’s Luck" (David Mercer) Aldwych, 1966;
*"As You Like It", Stratford, 1967; Aldwych, 1967; Los Angeles, 1968; Stratford, 1968
*"Diary of a Scoundrel", Liverpool, 1968
*"The Tempest", Chichester, 1968
*"The Silver Tassie" (Sean O'Casey) Aldwych, 1969
*"After Haggerty" (David Mercer) Aldwych and Criterion Theatre, 1970
*"The Plebeians Rehearse the Uprising" (Günter Grass) Aldwych, 1970
*"Enemies" (Maxim Gorky) Aldwych, 1971
*"The Lower Depths" (Maxim Gorky) Aldwych, 1972
*"The Island of the Mighty" (John Arden) Aldwych, 1972
*"Love's Labour's Lost" Stratford, 1973; New York and Aldwych 1975
*"Duck Song" (David Mercer) Aldwych, 1974
*"Summerfolk" (Maxim Gorky) Aldwych, 1974; New York, 1975
*"The Marrying of Anne Leete" (Harley Granville-Barker) Aldwych, 1975
*"The Return of A. J. Raffles" (Graham Greene) Aldwych, 1975; Stratford 1976
*"Twelfth Night", Stratford, Ontario, 1975
*"The Zykovs" (Maxim Gorky) Aldwych, 1976
*"Ivanov" (Anton Chekhov) Aldwych, 1976
*"All's Well That Ends Well", Stratford, Ontario, 1977
*"Cymbeline" Stratford 1979
*"Baal" (Bertolt Brecht) The Other Place, Stratford 1979; Donmar Warehouse, 1980
*"The Winter's Tale", BAM Theatre Company, 1980
*"Jungle of Cities" (Bertolt Brecht) BAM Theatre Company, 1981. [http://theater2.nytimes.com/mem/theater/treview.html?_r=1&res=9B06E0D81E39F934A25757C0A967948260&oref=login]
*"The Custom of the Country" (Nicholas Wright) RSC Barbican The Pit, 1983
*"Old Times" (Harold Pinter), starring Liv Ullman, Yvonne Arnaud Theatre and Theatre Royal Haymarket, 1985
*"Principia Scriptoriae" (Richard Nelson) The Pit, 1986
*"Barbarians" (Maxim Gorky) Aldwych, 1990
*"Misha's Party" (Richard Nelson and Alexander Gelman) The Pit, 1993
*"No Man's Land" (Harold Pinter) New York, 1994
*"The Hothouse" (Harold Pinter) Minerva Theatre, Chichester and Comedy Theatre, 1995
*"Taking Sides" (Ronald Harwood) New York, 1996. [http://www.curtainup.com/sides.html]
*"The Caretaker" (Harold Pinter) New York, 2003. [http://www.curtainup.com/caretakerny.html]
*"Triptych" (Edna O'Brien) Irish Repertory Theatre, New York, 2004. [http://www.curtainup.com/triptych-irishrep.html]
*"On the Razzle" (Tom Stoppard), Williamstown Theatre Festival, 2005. [http://www.wtfestival.org/performances/detail.php?PerformanceID=500]
*"Sweet Bird of Youth" (Tennessee Williams), Williamstown Theatre Festival, 2006. [http://www.curtainup.com/sweetbirdofyouth.html]
*"The Last Confession" (Roger Crane) Minerva Theatre, Chichester, May 2007, Theatre Royal Haymarket, July 2007. [http://www.britishtheatreguide.info/reviews/lastconfessionPF-rev.htm]
*"The Autumn Garden" (Lillian Hellman), Williamstown Theatre Festival, August 2007. [http://www.curtainup.com/wtf07.html#Autumn]

Films

*"Betrayal" (1983)
*"84 Charing Cross Road" (1987)
*"Jacknife" (1989)
*"The Trial" (1993)
*"Time to Say Goodbye?" (1997)
*"The Confession" (starring Ben Kingsley) (1999)

Television

Produced and presented the BBC arts magazine "Monitor" (1958-1964) and "Review" (1971-1972). Also produced "Kean" (Jean-Paul Sartre, 1954) for BBC television (starring Anthony Hopkins and directed by James Cellan Jones) (1978).

Directed the following productions:
*"Langrishe, Go Down" (starring Judi Dench and Jeremy Irons) (1978)
*"The Merry Wives of Windsor" (starring Richard Griffiths as Falstaff) (1982_
*"Pericles, Prince of Tyre" (1984)
*"The Christmas Wife" (starring Jason Robards and Julie Harris) (1988)
*"Look Back in Anger" (co-directed with Judi Dench and starring Kenneth Branagh) (1989)
*"Fire in the Dark" (starring Olympia Dukakis) (1991)
*"And Then There Was One" (1994)

Also various episodes of:
*"Picket Fences" (1992)
*"Chicago Hope" (1994)
*"The Practice" ("The Civil Right") (1997)
*"" (1999)
*"7th Heaven" (2003)
*"Bones" ("The Man on Death Row") (2005)

Notes

References

*Beauman, Sally. "The Royal Shakespeare Company: A History of Ten Decades". Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 1982. ISBN 0192122096 (10). ISBN 9780192122094 (13).
*Billington, Michael. [http://www.guardian.co.uk/stage/2008/sep/23/theatre.television?gusrc=rss&feed=film "Obituary: David Jones: Theatre, Television and Film Director Famed for His Interpretations of Gorky and Pinter"] . "The Guardian", September 23, 2008. Accessed September 26, 2008.
*Katz, Ephraim. "The Macmillan International Film Encyclopedia". 2nd ed. London: Macmillan, 1994. ISBN 0333616014 (10). ISBN 9780333616014 (13).
*"Who's Who in the Theatre". 17th ed. New York: Gale, 1981. ISBN 0810302157.
*"Halliwell's Television Companion". 3rd ed. London: Grafton, 1986. ISBN 0246128380.
*"Halliwell's Who's Who in the Movies". Ed. John Walker. 4th ed. New York: HarperCollins, 2006. ISBN 0007169574.
*"Theatre Record" and "Theatre Record" annual indexes.

External links

*imdb name|id=0427880|name=David Jones.
*ibdb name|id=15241|name=David Jones.