Up until now there have been virtually no records or archives available which cover the first thirty years of the Liverpool Playhouse Theatre. The theatre is the oldest repertory theatre in the UK and the material discovered recently covers the period 1930-1940.

The cuttings are a personal record of William Armstrong who was director/producer of the Liverpool Playhouse from 1922 - 1944. Included in the scrapbooks are photographs of , letters from and articles about many well known people, actors, actresses and playwrights of the period including John Galsworthy, Sir Basil Dean who was the first producer/director of the Playhouse from 1911, J.B. Priestley , Somerset Maugham, Aldous Huxley George Bernard Shaw. Actors who made their debut at the Playhouse under William Armstrong and who give him full credit and acclaim for his part in their success include Sir Michael Redgrave who met his wife Rachel Kempson when she was given a part opposite him in one of Armstrong's productions, Rex Harrison, Robert Donat, Grace Wyndham Goldie, Eva Burrill, Penelope Dudley-Ward, the list goes on.

William Armstrong received honorary M.A. of Liverpool University in 1930 and appointed C. B. E. in 1951 for services to Liverpool and Birmingham Rep Theatres. He left Liverpool in 1944 and directed in London for a while before becoming assistant director to Sir Barry Jackson at Birmingham Rep in 1945-7. By this time he was aged 65 !! He died , unmarried, at his Birmingham home in 1952 and his portrait hangs in the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool.

Sample references include in the scrapbooks

Two full page article by Sir Basil Dean - The Liverpool Rep. Memories of its Beginning

Tomorrow, the Liverpool Playhouse comes of age and a celebration takes place on Monday. In the following article, which will be continued tomorrow. Mr. Basil Dean, who was the first producer of the theatre, gives some memories of its early days and struggles.

Twenty one years ago tomorrow the Liverpool Repertory Theatre re-named in a moment of weakness The Playhouse, was born. The troubles attendant upon its birth were many and severe. Looking back over the years it seems that many of those troubles were inherent in the attempt to foist upon a bustling seaport what was in its conception and first constitution virtually a civic theatre before the idea of such an institution had properly caught the imagination of the public. Somewhat long-winded that sentence, but it properly explains why the wild enthusiasm of the six weeks' experimental season at the old Kelly's Theatre was not consistently followed up when the alterations to the Star Theatre were completed and the Repertory Theatre opened its doors for good or ill.

Second Extract - Subject William Armstrong

I am wondering whether the same city fathers have yet granted the freedom of their city to William Armstrong, the present manager of the theatre, who has done better than any of us in maintaining and improving the standards we set all those years ago and to J.J. Shute, most helpful of the first directors, without whom the theatre must have come to an end long since. If they do neither of these things, it would not surprise me. If they do both it would not be one jot more than has been richly deserved.

Liverpool! City of gorgeous sunsets and indescribable clatter, os the sunshine and rain of first attempts, of first and last friendships I salute thee and give thanks on behalf of all those theatre people who have been permitted to begin their work within thy boundaries. Lovers of drama in Liverpool; Lift up your heads in pride for the rich store of artistic enthusiasm that has been continuously expended in your service.

George Bernard Shaw - Letter to William Armstrong on the occasion of the twenty first birthday of the theatre

G.B.S on Theatre Managers.
When Liverpool Repertory Theatre celebrated its twenty first birthday a fortnight ago it was thought good business to have messages of congratulation from some of the famous playwrights whose works the theatre has produced. Among them was G.B.S. But no message came. And the director William Armstrong, players and the Management Board wondered.

Today, however, they learned the reason for his silence and it came to Mr. Armstrong in a typical note which stated, "William, you err! Managers love messages and telegrams announced from the stage. It is their only chance of an appearance. Audiences loathe them, so I didn't send one."

But this is where G.B.S. erred, evidently he does not know the esteem and affection in which Mr. Armstrong (who today celebrated his 50th birthday) is held by Liverpool generally and theatre lovers in particular.

In fact, on the night when the messages were read there were loud acclamations. During the 10 years that Mr. Armstrong has been at the Liverpool Repertory Theatre he has endeared himself to the audiences.

Mr. Armstrong is rehearsing a new Priestley play, The Roundabout, which is to be given its premiere by Liverpool Repertory Company.

J.B. Priestley
Photograph on page 162 shows "An informal discussion during the rehearsal of 'The Roundabout' a play by Mr. J.B. Priestley (on right) It is to be produced at the Liverpool Playhouse next week. In the group are Mr. William Armstrong, Mr. Wyndham Goldie and Miss Jane Vaughan.

At Rehearsal
Mr. J.B. Priestley and William Armstrong watching a rehearsal yesterday of his play 'The Roundabout' to be produced next week by the Liverpool Playhouse Company.

Mr. J.B. Priestley in Liverpool
Mr. J. B. Priestley is in Liverpool for the rehearsals of his new comedy 'The Roundabout' which the Playhouse is producing on Wednesday and he will stay for what promises to be a distinguished first night. His wife is coming down tomorrow.

Interviewed by the Daily Post last night, Mr. Priestley explained why his xomedy is being done in Liverpool first and made some interesting remarks upon the repertory movement.

"I wanted to produce the play first outside London" he said "and as the Liverpool Playhouse is easily the best company in the provinces I sent the manuscript to Mr. Armstrong and he liked it and took it.

Mr. Priestley's new play
Rehearsal finishing touches in secret. Mr. J.B. Priestley the author and playwright, today began to 'polish up' is new play 'The Roundabout' at the Liverpool Playhouse. As the company wanted to produce the play for the Christmas season Mr.Priestley had to give them the script before he had finished it. Today Mr. Priestley came to watch them rehearsing and to add the finishing touches while they worked but he refused to allow anyone to see him at work. The iron curtain separating the stage from the auitiorium was kept down all day and no one was allowed near the wings.

Mr.W. Armstrong, manager of the Playhouse, who is helping him told me "Mr.Priestley says he cannot allow anyone to watch him at work. It really would not do. We are bullying the company all the time and rewriting parts we do not like. Perhaps we will have the play sufficiently advanced to be seen some time next week."

There follows pages of reviews and articles about the play and its subsequent success. George Bernard Shaw
As a curtain raiser the company do 'The Fascinating Foundling" by Bernard Shaw, this also for the first time as a public performance. In this definitely dated little cameo of absurdity Mr. Shaw is joyously happy with his fun in the office of the Lord Chancellor

London Times
New Play at Liverpool
A large audience at the Liverpool Playhouse tonight expressed their emphatic approval of Mr. Philip Johnson's three act play Queer Cattle. This was its first priduction and from first to last it never lost its grip on the house...

The play was preceded by "The Fascinating Foundling", this being the first public performance of Mr. Bernard Shaw's little work.

John Galsworthy
Mr. John Galsworthy's play "Strife" is being produced at the Liverpool Playhouse in specially interesting circumstances and in view of the occasion the dramatist has written the following letter to Mr. William Armstrong.

It is pleasurable news to me that you are about to revive "Strife" in the admirable Playhouse at Liverpool. Is it, indeed, twenty years since Basil Dean produced it there for Miss Darragh at Kelly's Theatre and out of that venture evolved the Liverpool Repertory Theatre which has had its home ever since in the Playhouse.

Michael Redgrave
The appealing young man whose photograph appears (not inappropriately) on this page is Michael Redgrave, the new member of the Playhouse Company. At all costs must he be saved from the fate of Carl Brisson, whom he is not unremotedly like and from the rapt admiring gaze of the nameless young ladies who 'adored' Alan Webb, then Wyndham Goldie, and are this season rather at a loss.

He, himself, will probably resist anyhow because he is a nice, unspoilt, athletic young language master from Cranleigh, the public school and enormously sincere about his work, which is to learn to produce by way of becoming an actor, to that he was born: his mother, Elsie Scudamore, is an actress well known in London, if not in the provinces, and with his father and grandparents on the stage, he has that long stage ancestry behind him which, Sir John Ervine assures us, all good working actors.

His first appearance on any stage was a toddling on part at the age of two in one of his father's plays in Australia. At Cambridge he played the soldier with Lopokova in the first public performance of 'The Tale of the Soldier'. The BBC, a little impressed by his voice, invited him to recite love poems with Fay Compton and later to broadcast with Edith Evans in 'The Wife of Bath'

• Robert Donat
• How Liverpool trains Great Actors
• Drama School for Britain
• Galaxy of Talent
• Playhouse Players who have won fame

The Liverpool Repertory Theatre has enriched English acting to a quite extraordinary extent, and I believe it is true that more of the best actors and actresses learned their job in Williamson Square than in any other part of the country.

The words are those of Sir John Ervine, the famous playwright and dramatic critic and the truth of his statement is more obvious today than it ever was. Liverpool may well be proud of the long line of artists both of the stage and the screen who, if they did not actually begin at the Liverpool Repertory Theatre, have increased their fund of experience under such producers as Basil Dean, Madge McIntosh, Howard Leslie, Nigel Playfair, and for the past twelve years, William Armstrong.

Diana Wynyard, who was quite recently presented to Royalty, has probably scored the greatest triumph of all, as witness such films as 'Cavalcade', 'Reunion in Vienna' 'The Marriage Symphony' etc. Her contemporary, Robert Donat, is a close runner up with his latest success as Edmond Dantes in the talkie version of "The Count of Monte Cristo"

Michael Redgrave A Playhouse Romance
A love story transferred from stage to reality marks the latest Liverpool Playhouse romance - the engagement of Mr. Michael Redgrave, the talented young Playhouse actor, and charming Miss Rachel Kempson, who was specially engaged to play in Mr. Van Druten's war play, 'Flowers of the Forest'