Ralph Kimpton

(b. Bishopsgate, London, **/**/1879 - d. **/**/****). British-born stage manager, producer, director. Kimpton’s father was an outfitter and according to the census records for England and Wales, in 1901 Howard Ralph Kimpton was a commercial clerk. However, soon afterwards he became an assistant stage manager for Sir George Alexander at the St. James Theatre in London. He stayed there until August 1909, when he joined Alfred Wareing, the driving force behind the newly established Glasgow Repertory Theatre, where he staged plays like Chekhov’s The Seagull. Next he became the stage director of the Little Theatre in London and when, in 1912, the company took Cosmo Hamilton’s The Blindness of Virtue on a tour of the United States, Kimpton was the stage manager. Except for a short break when he became ill and returned to England to recuperate, he stayed in America until July 1914.

In November of 1915 he came to South Africa, travelling on the same ship as Frank Cellier, who was coming out with the Ethel Irving Company. He staged The Merchant of Venice for presentation at the Palladium Theatre from 24 to 27 April 1916 on the occasion of the Johannesburg Shakespeare Tercentenary Celebration and directed Frank Cellier in Caroline at the Standard Theatre for Leonard Rayne. After that he was employed by African Film Productions and, according to Stage & Cinema of 1 September 1917, he was one of the company’s assistant producers, having worked as such on Harold M. Shaw's De Voortrekkers. However, in April of that year the magazine had already reported that he was the co-producer (with Joseph Albrecht) of The Border Scourge (1917). It was a first feature for both of them and it is likely that Albrecht took care of the technical side, while Kimpton directed the actors. By the end of the year Kimpton was involved in an acrimonious libel case against his former employer, joining Shaw, who had also fallen out with I.W. Schlesinger. In April 1918 the case was settled out of court. In that same month, he came back to The Blindness of Virtue, staging it at the Standard Theatre, with Freda Godfrey and Frank Cellier in the cast.

In December 1917, he had moved to Cape Town to join Harold Shaw Film Productions, but after Shaw returned to Great Britain, Kimpton switched back to the stage. He worked primarily with Leonard Rayne, staging such plays as, once again, The Blindness of Virtue, The Morals of Marcus, Disraeli and Peter Pan, the latter starring Freda Godfrey in the title role. In 1919 he worked with the New Comedy Company in Cape Town, putting on plays such as The Professor’s Love Story, Quality Street and The Little Minister. In November 1919, he directed Alfred Holtzer's play A Broken Chain at the Railway Institute for the Owl Club. After that we lose sight of him. He may have returned to England for some time, but during the 1940’s he often worked with the Cape Town Repertory Theatre, and staged at least one play at the Little Theatre. It is not known where and when he died. (FO)

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