Michael Bawtree
| Michael Bawtree | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Born |
Michael Bawtree August 25, 1937 Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia |
| Residence | Wolfville |
| Occupation | Actor, Director, Author, Educator |
| Home town | Oxford, Oxfordshire, England |
Michael Bawtree (born 25 August 1937) is a Canadian actor, director, author and educator.
Bawtree was born in Australia, brought up in England and educated at Radley College. After two years of National Service (commissioned into the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry and serving in Cyprus), he read English Language and Literature at Worcester College, Oxford, leaving with a B.A. in 1961 (M.A. 1963).
Bawtree emigrated to Canada in 1962, and acted on stage and television in Toronto for three years. He also taught for one year at Victoria College, University of Toronto, and working as dramaturge at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival, Stratford, Ontario, for the 1964 season, under Michael Langham. After serving as the Toronto Telegram's book critic for six months in 1965, he resigned to take up a position at the newly formed Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, British Columbia, as Resident in Theatre. There, he was responsible for founding the university's theatre program. He held the position for four years, resigning in 1969.
In 1966 he returned to the Stratford Festival, being commissioned to write a play for the company. His The Last of the Tsars premiered at the Avon Theatre, Stratford, in July 1966, and was directed by Michael Langham and starred William Hutt, Amelia Hall and Tony van Bridge. In 1967, on receiving a Canada Council travel and study bursary, he went to live for eight months in Cali, Colombia, where he learned Spanish, wrote poetry and worked at the Teatro Experimental di Cali under its artistic director Enrique Buenaventura.
Returning to Ontario in 1969, Bawtree assisted Michael Langham on his 1970 production of The School for Scandal, and was then appointed as Director of English Theatre at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa. He resigned the next year after Jean Gascon offered him the post of Literary Manager and Assistant to the Director at the Stratford Festival. That year he first directed at the Shaw Festival, Niagara-on-the-Lake. At Stratford, he also became director of Stratford's Third Stage, where he initiated four seasons of theatre and music theatre productions, including Patria II: Requiems for a Party Girl by R. Murray Schafer (1971), starring Phyllis Mailing, The Red Convertible by Buenaventura, and The Medium of Menotti (1974), starring Maureen Forrester. In 1972 he directed Oliver Goldsmith's She Stoops To Conquer on the Stratford Festival's main stage; it was revived for the 1973 season, televised by CBC in 1974, and broadcast in 1975.
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