Hazel Vincent Wallace

Hazel Beatrice Wallace was born on 8 December 1919 in Walsall, Staffordshire. Her father was a railway administrator and music teacher who was descended from William Vincent Wallace. During World War One he had been one of the first members of the Royal Flying Corps. Hazel had one sister, Marjorie, who would go on to be one of the first women ordained in the Anglican Communion.

Hazel attended Queen Mary's Grammar School in Walsall; she had planned to take up a place at Dartington Hall studying drama. When this was not possible, she instead studied social and political sciences at Birmingham University. After graduating in 1940, Wallace moved to Croydon to work in personnel management. In the evenings, she would go to the Unity Theatre in Camden where she acted, danced and sang on stage. This included taking the lead in a Ted Willis play. At the end of World War Two, she toured Europe with ENSA.

Wallace joined Oscar Quitak's Under Thirty Theatre Group in 1946. The group produced plays in the West End on Sundays, and Wallace was involved in all aspects of production and co-founded the Buckstone Club, a membership club for actors.{{cite book |last1=Dundy |first1=Elaine |title=Life Itself!: An Autobiography |date=5 January 2012 |publisher=Little, Brown Book Group |isbn=978-1-4055-1491-0 |url=https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Life_Itself/axKEun0xt1MC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=%22Hazel%20Vincent%20Wallace%22%20-wikipedia&pg=PT97&printsec=frontcover |access-date=18 April 2025 |language=en}} She became the director of the Under Thirty group.

The Under Thirty Theatre Group signed a lease on a theatre in Leatherhead and opened the Leatherhead Theatre Group in 1951.{{cite web |last1=Quade |first1=Rosamund |title=Hazel Vincent Wallace obituary |url=https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2019/nov/21/hazel-vincent-wallace-obituary |website=The Guardian |access-date=18 April 2025 |date=21 November 2019}} Wallace continued to act and direct plays as well as taking on the management of a weekly repertory theatre. Wallace decided not to form a permanent company but to attract actors from London and build the rest of the cast around them. Names she drew to the theatre included Vanessa Redgrave, Penelope Keith, and Richard Briers. Wallace also employed Alan Ayckbourn as an assistant stage manager and actor.{{cite book |last1=Allen |first1=Paul |title=Grinning At The Edge: A Biography of Alan Ayckbourn |date=13 February 2014 |publisher=A&C Black |isbn=978-1-4081-1785-9 |page=41 |url=https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Grinning_At_The_Edge/UWOJAgAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=%22Hazel%20Vincent%20Wallace%22%20-wikipedia&pg=PA41&printsec=frontcover |access-date=18 April 2025 |language=en}} By the middle of the 1960s, the weekly runs had become three-week runs, with every performance sold out.

In 1966, Wallace was approached by the owners of a cinema in Leatherhead that was due to be demolished for a new development of shops and offices. She suggested it could be redeveloped as a community arts centre and theatre. She rejected the contractors' designs for the new theatre complex as having a shallow stage, and inadequate spaces for both rehearsals and the public.{{cite book |last1=Fair |first1=Alistair |title=Modern Playhouses: An Architectural History of Britain's New Theatres, 1945-1985 |date=2018 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-880747-6 |page=139 |url=https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Modern_Playhouses/jWpNDwAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=%22Hazel%20Vincent%20Wallace%22%20-wikipedia&pg=PA139&printsec=frontcover |access-date=18 April 2025 |language=en}} She then worked with architect Roderick Ham to design a new theatre complex using the shell of the cinema.{{cite web |title=Thorndike Theatre, Leatherhead – The Twentieth Century Society |url=https://c20society.org.uk/building-of-the-month/thorndike-theatre-leatherhead |website=c20society.org.uk |access-date=18 April 2025}} Wallace insisted that the theatre included a coffee bar, art gallery, restaurant and a studio theatre. This created an arts and community centre for the town. It was also the first theatre where all foyer areas and the whole auditorium is accessible for wheelchair users. {{cite web |title=The Leatherhead Theatre: About |url=https://theleatherheadtheatre.com/ |website=The Leatherhead Theatre |access-date=18 April 2025}}

Wallace raised £220,000 in public donations to support the building costs. The remainder was contributed by the developers and the local authority. Wallace approached Dame Sybil Thorndike, who agreed to lend her name to the new theatre. The attached studio theatre was named the Casson, after Thorndike's actor husband Lewis Casson. The theatre opened on 17 September 1969, and was the site of Thorndike's final stage appearance the following month.

Wallace was the managing director of the theatre from 1969 until her retirement in 1980.{{cite book |last1=Turnbull |first1=Olivia |title=Bringing Down the House: The Crisis in Britain's Regional Theatres |date=14 May 2014 |publisher=Intellect Books |isbn=978-1-84150-266-3 |page=144 |url=https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Bringing_Down_the_House/qQHsEAAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=%22Hazel%20Vincent%20Wallace%22%20-wikipedia&pg=PA144&printsec=frontcover |access-date=18 April 2025 |language=en}}{{cite book |last1=Hayman |first1=Ronald |title=The Set-Up: An Anatomy of the English Theatre Today |date=1 November 2024 |publisher=Taylor & Francis |isbn=978-1-040-18373-1 |url=https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/The_Set_Up/iL8YEQAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=%22Hazel%20Vincent%20Wallace%22%20-wikipedia&pg=PA201&printsec=frontcover |access-date=18 April 2025 |language=en}} She employed Carmen Silvera as her assistant director and casting director for five years.{{cite book |last1=Pertwee |first1=Bill |title=Dad's Army: The Making of a TV Legend |date=3 November 2009 |publisher=Bloomsbury USA |isbn=978-1-84486-105-7 |page=85 |url=https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Dad_s_Army/HoqHel5bnfMC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=%22Hazel%20Vincent%20Wallace%22%20-wikipedia&pg=PA85&printsec=frontcover |access-date=18 April 2025 |language=en}}

Wallace became the first woman to be conference chair at the Council of Repertory Theatres. She encouraged the use of the phrase "regional theatre" to replace "repertory".{{cite book |last1=Rowell |first1=George |last2=Jackson |first2=Tony |last3=Jackson |first3=Anthony |title=The Repertory Movement: A History of Regional Theatre in Britain |date=18 October 1984 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-31919-5 |page=87 |url=https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/The_Repertory_Movement/jXymVyaXRkQC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=%22Hazel%20Vincent%20Wallace%22%20-wikipedia&pg=PA87&printsec=frontcover |access-date=18 April 2025 |language=en}}

She also served as a member of Arts Council England's training committee. Wallace retired in 1980, but remained on the board of the Thorndike until it closed in the 1990s. She remained closely connected to the venue in its new form as the Leatherhead Theatre, and was guest of honour when Sir Michael Caine became its new patron in 2012.

Wallace moved to Denville Hall, a care home for the theatre profession, where she died on 3 November 2019.

{{Reflist}}

• [https://theleatherheadtheatre.com theleatherheadtheatre.com]
• [https://leatherheadhistoryarchive.org/wallace-hazel-vincent/ Interview with Hazel Vincent Wallace], 4 October 2018 (interviewer Tony Matthews).

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Category:1919 births

Category:2019 deaths

Category:20th-century English actresses

Category:Actor-managers

Category:Actors from Walsall

Category:Alumni of the University of Birmingham

Category:Members of the Order of the British Empire

Category:Theatre directors