First Houses On Becoming an Actor by Barkworth, Peter - 1983

London: Secker & Warburg, 1983. review-contents British actor Barkworth recalls his early years in the theater--starting as a teenage reciter of dialects and funny poems at fundraising concerts during WW II. Seeing Gielgud's Hamlet in 1944, however, made him want to be a ""serious and great actor"": he won a scholarship to RADA (supplemented by family sacrifice); provincial repertory followed--with one compelling little anecdote about breaking a contract in order to take a more attractive job. (The theater manager in Folkestone was furious; Barkworth carried the guilt for some time after.) And, after an agent saw him in Sheffield, Barkworth was off to London circa 1952--but with disappointing results. So only after deciding to give up and turn to teaching did Barkworth "fall in love again with the whole business of being an actor"--leading to his first big West End success, Roar Like a Dove. 132 well bound clean pp, bw pix interspersed. Hardcover. Very Good/Good. 24 Cm.