Dorothy Howard Talbot

Dorothy Howard Talbot (born Dorothy Maud Cross; 1886 – 5 December 1965) was an English actress and director. After a brief acting career as Dorothy Langton, she married the musical theatre composer Howard Talbot in 1910 and left the stage. She worked in stage management during the First World War in the West End. From the 1920s to the 1950s, she was hired to direct musicals and light opera for amateur operatic and dramatic societies, at a time when there were few women performing this role.

Early life Dorothy was born in Dersingham, Norfolk, the oldest daughter of Arthur Harry Cross, who was organist at St Mary Magdalene Church, Sandringham, from 1878 until his death in 1906. Her early education was at the West Norfolk and Lynn High School for Girls. She studied at RADA for three terms during 1908, and while there she met the dramatist W. S. Gilbert.

She performed on the stage for a few years, using the stage name Dorothy Langton, but gave up acting after her marriage in 1910 to Howard Talbot, a composer of music for Edwardian musical comedy. She then coached for Charles Hawtry's productions.

During the first world war she assisted in stage management at the Adelphi Theatre, London,

Theatre director

After her husband died of lung disease in 1928, Talbot enrolled with the National Operatic and Dramatic Association (NODA), which enabled her to stage musical plays.

Talbot staged light operas, musicals and plays for the societies listed in the table below, amongst many others. She thought it best to rehearse amateur casts for 4-5 weeks before a production, with a dress rehearsal on the Sunday before opening, which was a departure from the earlier practise among amateur British societies, to avoid Sunday rehearsals. Chu Chin Chow 1939 The Belle of New York 1948 The Arcadians 1930 The Gondoliers 1926 Miss Hook of Holland 1947 Show Boat 1949 My Lady Frayle 1931 The Mikado 1927 The Rebel Maid 1948

The Geisha 1934 Ruddigore 1929 The Geisha 1949 Ruddigore 1949 The Maid of the Mountains 1936 A Chinese Honeymoon 1933 A Country Girl 1950 The Pirates of Penzance; Trial by Jury 1950

The Belle of Brittany 1935 Utopia, Limited 1951 Ruddigore 1953 Iolanthe 1936 Waltz Times 1952 Patience 1955 Princess Ida 1937 The Mikado 1953 The Pirates of Penzance; Cox and Box 1956

Other activities In 1925, Dorothy and her husband set up the Bletchingley and District Amateur Operatic Society with Howard as chair and herself as honorary director.

She wrote a libretto with Percy Greenbank, from which a three-act comic opera, called Her Ladyship, was produced, with lyrics by Percy Greenbank and music by her husband, Howard Talbot. The opera was performed for the first time by the Stock Exchange Dramatic and Operatic Society at the Scala Theatre in London on 24 April 1928.

She also lectured regularly in drama courses held at the Nottingham Co-operative Arts Centre and other venues and wrote a book about stage makeup.

During the second world war Talbot worked as a full time warden in Chelsea