Nugent Monck

Walter Nugent Monck (1877-1958) was an English theatre director and founder of Maddermarket Theatre, Norwich.

He was born in Welshampton, Shropshire in 1877. The child of the curate of Welshampton, he was educated in Liverpool and at the Royal Academy of Music. In 1895, he abandoned his study of the violin in favor of acting. After some years with a regional touring company, he premiered in London in Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson's Beyond Human Power at the Royalty Theatre in 1901.

That same year, he met William Poel, who would profoundly alter Monck's career. By 1902 Monck was stage manager for the Elizabethan Stage Society, learning to direct in Poel's revolutionary manner. In 1909, he directed a series of historical tableaus at St. Andrew's Hall, Norwich. Thenceforth, his career centered on Norwich, although he occasionally returned to London, as he did in 1910 to manage Poel's production of The Two Gentlemen of Verona at His Majesty's Theatre. From 1910, he produced a series of masques at Blickling Hall.

In 1911, he directed an amateur production of The Countess Cathleen which was seen by Yeats; Yeats subsequently invited Monck to become temporary director of the Abbey Theatre while Yeats and the main company toured the United States.

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