The Complete Plays: Turn Right At The Crossroads (1955)

Production Details
Title:
Author:
New Play:

Venue:
Location:
Staging:
Turn Right At The Crossroads
Jurneman Winch (Joan Winch)
Yes

The Library Theatre, Scarborough
Concert Room
Round
First performance:
Opening night:
Final performance:
11 August 1955
11 August 1955
9 September 1955
Company Details
Director:

Stage Manager:
Stephen Joseph

Margaret Tabor
Character
Timothy Lightfoot
Walter Thorogood
Otto Gort
Richard Lightfoot
Aileen Lightfoot
Belbella
Miss Tully / Clerk
Pastor Hubert Gregory
Miss Rosemary Pratt
Dora / Daisy Fitch
William Fitch
Elder-Warden Jones
Grout
Guards
Actor
Ralph Nossek
Ralph Nossek
Ralph Nossek
Morris Perry
Kara Aldridge
Kara Aldridge
Joan Cibber
John Sherlock
Shirley Jacobs
Helen Towers
Harry Landis
Charles Lewsen
Charles Lewsen
John Bradley, Charles Maclean, Stephen Joseph
Notes
○ Turn Right at the Crossroads was initially advertised to close the season on 10 September 1955, but midway through the season the decision was made that the final performance would be on 9 September. This is probably due to the time needed to present the play in London on 11 September (see below).
○ Jurneman Winch was the pseudonym for Joan Winch; presumably used because it was relatively rare at the time for women to break into professional theatre as playwrights.
○ Joan Winch was a participant in one of Stephen Joseph's playwriting courses held at the Central School Of Speech And Drama, London, prior to Theatre in the Round at the Library Theatre opening.
○ Joan Winch was one of three female writers to have new worked produced during Theatre in the Round at the Library Theatre's inaugural season of four plays alongside Eleanor D Glaser and Ruth Dixon.
○ Turn Right At The Crossroads was performed without an interval.
○ Midway through the season, Wallis's Holiday Camp asked if the company would provide alternative entertainment for a weekly matinee performance in case of rain, due to a circus act cancelling. Stephen agreed and the company performed for four weeks - probably on a Tuesday - from 15 August 1955 (TBC) beginning with Turn Right at the Crossroads.
○ On 11 September, the play was presented as the first of a weekly London performance as part of the Studio Theatre Club presented at the Mahatma Gandhi Hall (below the YMCA at 51 Fitzroy Street, London). The club was founded by Stephen Joseph to highlight new plays as well as raising the profile of both the company and theatre in the round.
All research for this page by Simon Murgatroyd. Image copyright: Scarborough Theatre Trust