Hazel Vincent Wallace

Hazel Vincent Wallace OBE (born Hazel Beatrice Wallace; 8 December 1919 – 3 November 2019) was an actor and theatre manager who created the Thorndike Theatre in Leatherhead. She received an Order of the British Empire for her services to theatre in 1971.

Early life Hazel Beatrice Wallace was born on 8 December 1919 in Walsall, Staffordshire. After graduating in 1940, Wallace moved to Croydon to work in personnel management in a bell factory. 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. Wallace continued to act and direct plays as well as taking on the management of a weekly repertory theatre. By the middle of the 1960s, the weekly runs had become three-week runs, with every performance sold out. She then worked with architect Roderick Ham to design a new theatre complex using the shell of the cinema. 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.

Wallace raised £220,000 in public donations to support the building costs. She employed Carmen Silvera as her assistant director and casting director for five years.

Later career Wallace became the first woman to be conference chair at the Council of Repertory Theatres. 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 Michael Caine became its new patron in 2012.

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