ABSTRACT
The iconoclasts of the decades before the First World War wanted to build a better future for the theatre. It was a time of hope. The Liberal landslide of 1906, backed by the return of over fifty Labour MPs, suggested that at last the old ways, fusty and crusty, were to be swept away. However, time showed that was not so easy, and in the face of seemingly intractable economic problems, hope began to slide away. Most actors simply learned on the job, having obtained a place often in a touring company, but there were individual tutors, like Henry Neville, who opened his Dramatic Academy in 1884 and who published a book, Voice, Gesture and Elocutionary Art in 1897; Walter Lacey; Fanny Stirling; William Creswick; Herman Vezin, who had a ‘studio’ near Waterloo Bridge; and Cairn James, whose Academy was in Oxford Street.
