Diane Wilson

(19**-) Stage, film, radio and TV actress and director. (****-****). Actress.

First discovered by Adam Leslie and started her career as a child actress in 1957, followed by the Cockney waitress in Leonard Schach's production of Separate Tables.

1961: The Amorous Prawn at the Alexander Theatre (September 1961) and a lead in Clare Boothe’s The Women for Taubie Kushlick and Leon Gluckman. In 1962 she acted for the Cockpit Players in The Corn is Green, The Birthday Party and The Night of the Iguana. She worked for PACT between 1974 and 1976. In 1978 she joined CAPAB, where she stayed on as a core member of the ensemble till her contract was cancelled in the down-scaling excercises of 1997. She then became a freelance actress, working primarily for the Baxter Theatre and touring her one-woman show Conversations with Virginia Woolf. A consummate stage actress, she has won numerous awards over the years, including Twigs (Fleur du Cap Theatre Award, Best Actress,1982), The Spare Room (1983), Shirley Valentine (multiple awards, including Fleur du Cap Theatre Award, Best Actress, 1992), Grace and Glorie (Fleur du Cap Theatre Award, Best Actress, 1998), Glass Roots (Fleur du Cap Theatre Award, Best Actress, 2000),. Other fine performances for the Performing Arts Councils include leads in ***, ***, Macbeth (199*), Kindertransport (199*) and the hugely successful local comedy Glassroots (Fiona Coyne, 2000). She also played the lead in a large number of television and film dramas, earning an Artes Award for TV in 1980 (for Giaconda Smile).

Won a Best Actress Award in 1974 for Twigs. Performed in So What About Love, Group Hairier, Twigs, the Robert Kirby Revue How Now Sacred Cow, Dear Lisa ( as “Mrs. Patrick Campbell”) and in Dear Liar. (SACD 1973) (SACD 1975/76) (SACD 1977/78) (SACD 1978/79)

WILSON, Diane. Actress. She played the lead in Kushlick-Gluckman’s revival of Clare Boothe’s [[The Women]] at the Intimate Theatre in 1961. Anthony Farmer designed and Jenny Gratus, Valerie Miller and Shirley Firth also played leads. She starred in Harold Pinter’s The Birthday Party, followed by Tennessee Williams’s The Night of the Iguana which was staged at the Playhouse by the Cockpit Players in 1962. Leonard Schach directed, and in his company of actors for these plays were Michael McGovern, Margaret Inglis, Marjorie Gordon, Siegfried Mynhardt and Kerry Jordan. She starred in According to the Evidence which Ricky Arden directed at the Alexander Theatre in 1966 together with Elaine Lee. She was married to and expecting Gordon Mulholland’s child at the time and had to relinquish her role mid performance because of complications. Together with Hugh Rouse she starred in Jerome Kilty’s Dear Liar which was staged at The Blue Fox in 1972. She was directed by Brian Murray in Twigs for PACT in 1974. She starred in the PACT production of Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman, directed by Ken Leach together with Joe Stewardson, Bill Flynn and Richard Haines in 1975. She starred in Thornton Wilder’s Our Town, together with Danny Keogh and Michael McCabe for PACT at the Alexander in 1976. It was directed by John Hussey. She starred in Ken Leach’s production of Feydeau’s A Flea in her Ear together with Dorothy-Ann Gould, Frantz Dobrowsky, Richard Haines, Paul Slabolepszy, Michael Richard, Annelisa Weiland and Lesley Nott for PACT at the Alexander Theatre in 1976. She starred in the revival of the musical Stop the World I Want to Get Off together David Gilchrist for PACT in 1976. She starred in William Luce’s Zelda directed by Michael Atkinson at the Adcock-Ingram in August 1987. She starred in Robert Hewett’s Gulls which Keith Grenville directed in 1987/1988. She starred in Willy Russell’s Shirley Valentine at the Victory in 1992. She starred in Yours Anne in 1994.

According to The Amorous Prawn's programme of September 1961 at The Alexander Theatre she began her career as the Cockney waitress in Leonard Schach's production of Seperate Tables. She has been to Britian, did television plays for the BBC and repertory work in York.

Sources

Tucker, 1997

The Alexander Theatre programme of the production The Amorous Prawn of September 1961.

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