John Sumner (director)

John Hackman Sumner, AO, CBE (27 May 1924 – 24 May 2013) was the founder and artistic director of Melbourne Theatre Company in Australia.

Early life

Sumner was born in England in 1924. At an early age he attended the London Opera School. He served in the British Merchant Navy in World War II before commencing his career in theatre in 1947 in Dundee as assistant stage manager. He later became stage director and manager with H. M. Tennent Theatres in the west end of London before moving to Australia in 1952.

Career in Australia

In 1953, Sumner established the Union Theatre Repertory Company (UTRC), later becoming the Melbourne Theatre Company, where he served as artistic director until 1955. After a short time in Sydney managing the Australian Elizabethan Theatre Trust he returned to Melbourne and resumed his role as artistic director in 1959, continuing until 1987. He directed more than a hundred plays from Australia and overseas and established the MTC as a model for other state theatre companies.

John Sumner

John Sumner may refer to:

John Sumner (priest)

John Sumner DD (d. 26 February 1772) was a Canon of Windsor from 1751 - 1772.

Career

He was educated at Eton College and King’s College, Cambridge and graduated BA in 1729, MA in 1732, and DD in 1744.

He was appointed:

He was appointed to the twelfth stall in St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle in 1751, and held the stall until 1772.

Notes

John Sumner (climber)

John (Fritz) Sumner (b. Blackburn 13 March 1936, d. 2004) was the pre-eminent exploratory climber in his chosen domain of Mid Wales, climbing cutting-edge routes on the remote crags and cliff-faces south of southern Snowdonia starting in the mid-1950s.

Books

References