James Roose-Evans

James Roose-Evans (born 11 November 1927) is a British theatre director, priest, and writer on experimental theatre, ritual and meditation. In 1959 he founded the Hampstead Theatre Club, in London; in 1974 the Bleddfa Centre for the Creative Spirit, in mid-Wales; and in 2015 Frontier Theatre Productions. He is best known for directing the West End play, 84 Charing Cross Road.

James Roose-Evans was born in London on 11 November 1927, the second son of Jack and Primrose. His older brother Monty later emigrated to America. Roose-Evans attended the Crypt Grammar School, Gloucester, before spending eighteen months in the Royal Army Educational Corps, ending his service in Trieste in 1947.

In 1949, he was admitted to St Benet’s Hall, Oxford where he read English. In the vacations, and after graduating from university, he worked as an actor in repertory theatres. In 1954, at Bridgwater, Somerset, where he was leading man, he was encouraged to direct by Kenneth Williams.

In 1954, Roose-Evans was appointed Artistic Director of the Maddermarket Theatre in Norwich. Here, in the 1954-5 season he directed nine plays including Shakespeare’s Macbeth (in which he also played the lead), and Garcia Lorca’s Dona Rosita, for which he visited Granada and met the eponymous heroine.

Having met Martha Graham and seen her dance company on its first visit to England, Roose-Evans determined to go to America to learn more about modern dance. He was appointed to the Faculty of the Juilliard School of Music in New York where he was given a studio, a group of dancers, musicians and a composer, and invited to experiment with integrating music, dance and drama, which he did from 1955-6.

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