This is not a BLOG, a LOG or an AUTO-BIOG;
just a contact point in cyber space.
mauricestewartuk@BTinternet.com

Born 1932 in Leicester , England

... was active as a performer, then stage manager, company manager and director in many different branches of British theatre from 1945 to 1978 ...
... professional involvement ranged from Grand Opera at Covent Garden to West End productions of American musicals and from touring third-rate Variety to the Follies Bergère in Paris and London. He also travelled America with Britain’s Old Vic Company which is now the Royal National Theatre of Great Britain .

More recently, lecturing at colleges in Britain, Holland and the USA,
topics have included "Modern Actors Recreating the Past", "Shakespeare-as-Show Biz", Edward Gordon Craig, British Music Hall and Gilbert & Sullivan.

Now, at the age of 75, is enjoying sharing his wide variety of different theatrical experiences ... but is also still learning by questioning each audience he meets.

CURRENTLY
MAURICE STEWART offers two interactive talks on different aspects of British Theatre

Punctuated by familiar tunes, each light-hearted session aims to throw new light on a genre popular across several generations. This is achieved by exploring the audience’s own “LIVING MEMORIES”, and exploding general misconceptions about each of the two topics.

A few surprising facts and some provocative questions offer a fresh appreciation of popular entertainment in the past - but audiences are also invited to consider ways of passing on a valuable heritage to future generations.

GILBERT & SULLIVAN ... yesterday and tomorrow
In a world which changes so drastically from generation to generation, why are the names Gilbert and Sullivan still so widely known? The gentle comic operas inherited from a long-gone era were, when first written, considered to be almost shockingly subversive. Their original impact is now blurred by the varnish of respectability. The words of W.S.Gilbert are also full of references topical when first written, but these are no longer easy to appreciate. Can anything be done to make such period pieces attractive to the audiences of tomorrow - and should we bother?
Provocative questions and some familiar songs re-visited.

 BRITISH MUSIC HALL - a tradition distorted by time.
‘Old Time’ Victorian/Edwardian popular entertainment as it is presented today is a formula invented in the late 1930s. It is a mashing together of more than a hundred years of constantly changing styles. These were dictated by ever changing public demand.
Has the time come for a fresh look at what made British (and American) popular entertainment so different from generation to generation between 1840 to 1950?
Some surprises, a few songs and some challenging questions about the future.