Miss Barbara Hird, a native of Yorkshire, England, studied and performed at the Bradford Playhouse and Film Theater before coming to America. In the USA, she has developed a considerable reputation for her portrayals of English monarchs. Her work in Elizabeth R has brought her high critical acclaim, honorary citizenships, and the Order of the Long Leaf Pine, the highest civilian honor from the state of North Carolina.
Lebame Houston is a highly acclaimed stage director in the professional and educational theatre circuits, and a noted Elizabethan scholar. She has directed more than eighty other plays that rangefrom American musicals to Greek dramas. The line of history which holds Elizabeth R together is a result of her original research, and the innovative script is an example of one of her techniques of theatricalizing history. She is a recognized scholar whose expertise centers on Elizabethan England and has several publications associated therewith. She is also a designer of innovative educational programs for secondary and collegiate levels; Associate of the National Humanities Faculty for a number of years and educational theatre specialist for the NC Department of Public Instruction for a number of years. As a stage director in the educational and professional theatre circuits, primarily in Los Angeles, Metropolitan Washington, DC, and for the US Air Force, she has directed some 80 productions including The Sound of Music, Camelot, Funny Girl, Canterbury Tales, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Antigone, Mourning Becomes Electra, St. Joan, Anastasia, The Miracle Worker, Ashes, Gloria, The American Way. She is the author
Barbara
Hird
While she has performed in theatrical productions in several states, and in numerous film and television roles, she is best known in North Carolina for her interpretations of English monarchs - Queen Anne Boleyn in Anne of the Thousand Days,Elinor Of Quitaine in The Lion in Winter, and Queen Elizabeth in Paul Green's The Lost Colony. Miss Hird's particular blend of talent, technique, and intelligence and her commitment to authenticity in the interpretation of the character of Queen Elizabeth inspired lebame Houston to write and produce Elizabeth R specifically for her. While modern audiences have witnessed a vast arrary of film and stage actresses who have attempted to re-create the persona of England's Virgin Queen, encumbered scripts and stylization have for the most part prevented any represtnation of a
true portrait. According to critics and scholars alike, in Elizabeth
R, Miss Hird hits close to the mark of re-creating Gloriana's charisma,
persona, and style. Ever the consummate professional, in her off-stage
hours, sheand lebame Houston co-edited a book - Roanoke Revisited, the story of the lost colony. The text consists of a modernized version of original documents associate with the Roanoke voyages and colonies. By standardizing 16th-century spelling and adjusting awkward sentence structures and paragraphing, Miss Hird and Ms. Houston have created an easily readable book that brings the real story of the only Elizabethan colony in the "New World" to the attention of the American public.
Lebame Houston
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