Arts Professional - A new book by the late Richard Pilbrow explores how the National came about
Read about A Sense of Theatre on Art Professional
A Sense of Theatre at the ABTT Theatre Show 2024
Rob Halliday and Richard's son Fred Pilbrow, the team who completed A Sense of Theatre after Richard’s passing, will be talking about the book at this year’s ABTT Theatre Show, which takes place at Alexandra Palace in London on the 5th and 6th of June 2024.
Their talk will take place at 4.00pm-4.30pm on Thursday, June 6th. It will provide an high-speed overview of the book, attempting to condense 530 pages (and the sixty years of Richard Pilbrow's involvement in the National, and the more than one hundred year quest to build a National Theatre before that) into just thirty minutes!
Both will also be at the show across both days talking about the book.
The ABTT was the lead supporter of the publication of A Sense of Theatre. Copies of the book, and also of Richard's previous book, A Theatre Project, providing a history of his life and work beyond the National Theatre, will be available at teh show.
Further information about the ABTT Show can be found here.
Celebrating Richard Pilbrow
The life and work of Richard Pilbrow, author of A Sense of Theatre, was celebrated at a packed event at the Dorfman at the National Theatre on 17th May 2024.
The occasion saw almost four hundred of Richard's family, friends, colleagues, associates and others who just felt a connection to him through his writing and other work gathered together in the theatre designed by Richard’s Theatre Projects team, in the building that he was so closely involved in the creation of, and then wrote about in such detail in A Sense of Theatre.
Reflecting his multi-faceted life, the event included songs from a number of shows he produced, and stories and reminisces from those who knew him best including TP colleagues , family members and those who worked with him on theatres, books, films, TV shows and countless other projects. Former NT Director Richard Eyre and incoming NT Director Indhu Rubasingham closed proceedings, before everyone adjourned to the bar to share their own stories and to catch up with each other.
Enormous thanks to everyone at the National Theatre for being such warm, welcoming and magnificent hosts for the day, to the ABTT and ALPD for helping to organise it, and to the wonderful organisations who supported it, including Charcoalblue, ETC, GLP, IoTC, PLASA, PRG, The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, SBTD, Theatre Projects, Vari-Lite and Wonder Works.
The event is available to view online here.
A digital version of the programme for the day is available here.
How The National Theatre Was Born, in The Londonist
Read about how A Sense of Theatre covers the birth of the National Theatre, in The Londonist website.
The Making of A Sense of Theatre, in Live Design magazine
Read about the process of making A Sense of Theatre, in Live Design Online.
A Sense of Theatre: Shortlisted for Theatre Book of the Year
A Sense of Theatre has been shortlisted for the Society for Theatre Research’s annual Theatre Book Prize.
Established to celebrate the Golden Jubilee of the Society in 1998, the aim of the Book Prize is to encourage the writing and publication of books on British-related theatre history and practice, both those which present the theatre of the past and those which record contemporary theatre for the future.
A Sense of Theatre has been shortlisted alongside books by Dame Judi Dench, Bill Alexander, Michael Ball.
The winner of the prize will be announced on June 11th, at an event at Sadler’s Wells in London.
There is more information about the Theatre Book Prize here.