Tyrone Guthrie

Sir Tyrone Guthrie (1900-71) was a towering figure of international theatre who was highly influential in his lifetime. Describing himself as 'a very Irish sort of Anglo-Scot', Guthrie built his reputation in the 1930s as a versatile director, scoring critical and commercial successes with his productions of Shakespeare, opera and plays by new or unknown playwrights.Guthrie was a pioneer of the thrust stage, a re-imagining of Ancient Greek and Shakespearean theatre, with the actors playing on...See more

Sir Tyrone Guthrie (1900-71) was a towering figure of international theatre who was highly influential in his lifetime. Describing himself as 'a very Irish sort of Anglo-Scot', Guthrie built his reputation in the 1930s as a versatile director, scoring critical and commercial successes with his productions of Shakespeare, opera and plays by new or unknown playwrights.Guthrie was a pioneer of the thrust stage, a re-imagining of Ancient Greek and Shakespearean theatre, with the actors playing on an open stage with the audience surrounding them on three sides.After successfully experimenting with the thrust stage at the second Edinburgh Festival in 1948, Guthrie collaborated with designer Tanya Moiseiwitsch to create a thrust stage for the inaugural festival in Stratford, Ontario in 1953. He co-wrote this essay with her about their production of Oedipus in the second season.Encouraged by this success, in 1963 Guthrie founded the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis, which also had a thrust stage designed by Tanya. He served as the theatre's Artistic Director until 1966. Guthrie was also the inspiration for other thrust stage theatres, including the Festival Theatre Chichester, the Octagon Theatre (Perth, Australia) and the Crucible Theatre (Sheffield, UK).Guthrie died in April 1971, only a few months before the Crucible opened. See less