Webber Douglas Academy
30 Clareville St in South Kensington
The Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art, formerly the Webber Douglas School of Singing and Dramatic Art, was a drama school, and originally a singing school, in London. It was one of the leading drama schools in Britain, and offered comprehensive training for those intending to pursue a professional performance career.
The school was founded in London in 1926 as the Webber Douglas School of Singing, by Walter Johnstone Douglas (youngest son of Arthur Johnstone-Douglas) and Amherst Webber. It was created from the singing academy founded in 1906 in Paris by Jean de Reszke. By 1932, the school had added full theatrical training to its curriculum, and was renamed the Webber Douglas School of Singing and Dramatic Art. It was located at 30 Clareville St in South Kensington.
In 2006, the academy was absorbed into the Central School of Speech and Drama. Many of the academy’s past alumni have formed a theatre company dedicated to keeping the original spirit of the school alive. In 2009, the Central School of Speech and Drama renamed its Embassy Studio the Webber Douglas Studio.
Past Pupils include:
- Steven Berkoff
- Hugh Bonneville
- Nicola Bryant
- Natalie Dormer
- Minnie Driver
- Rupert Evans
- JJ Feild
- Julian Fellowes
- Gregory Finnegan
- Angela Flowers
- Johnny Flynn
- Rupert Friend
- Rebecca Front
- Matthew Goode
- Ross Kemp
- Angela Lansbury
- Nigel Lindsay
- Katy Manning
- Julia Ormond
- Clara Perez
- Douglas Reith
- Ben Roberts
- Amanda Root
- John Sackville
- Antony Sher
- Donald Sinden
- Samantha Spiro
- Terence Stamp
- Bill Treacher
- Shaun Williamson
- Margaret Rutherford
Dudley trained at Webber Douglas for 2 years between 1967 & 1969.
Trelawny Of The Wells
The Douglas WebberAcademedy put on a production of Trelawnty of the Wells on the 9th July 1969 at their studios. Dudley was James Telfer & was given a good review in “The Stage” on Thursday 17 July 1969 (see below)
Trelawny of the “Wells” is an 1898 comic play by Arthur Wing Pinero.
It tells the story of Rose Trelawny, a popular star of melodrama plays at the Barridge Wells Theatre (a thinly disguised Sadler’s Wells Theatre). Rose gives up the stage when she decides to marry her sweetheart, Arthur Gower, in order to please his conservative family. She finds life with Arthur’s grandfather and great-aunt, Sir William and Lady Tralfagar, unbearably dull, and they detest her loud and unrestrained personality. Rose runs back to the theatre, abandoning Arthur. But her experience of the “real world” has killed her talent for melodrama, and she cannot recapture the liveliness that had made her a star. Meanwhile, Arthur has secretly run away to become an actor at the Bristol Old Vic.
The problem is solved when Rose encounters Sir William again, and she reawakens his memory of admiring the great actor Edmund Kean as a young man. Sir William offers to help Rose’s friend, Tom Wrench, an aspiring playwright who dreams of staging plays in a more realist style than the melodramas that dominate the stage. Tom stages the play with Rose as the star, and her newfound seriousness fits his style perfectly. Tom secretly arranges for Arthur to play the leading male role, and the lovers are re-united on stage.
Jew Of Malta
Dudley played a Friar
The Carnival Story – The Chanticleer 1st November 1969
Dudley played Pampan, a suspicious lover
