Michael Langham (1919 – 2011)

During the Second World War (1939-1945) Michael was in a prisoner of war camp for five years. After the war he joined the theatre and began directing and running theatres in Britain. Langham was the second artistic director at the Stratford Festival in Canada from 1956 to 1967, and he directed 38 productions over a 53 year association with Stratford. He was the third artistic director of the Guthrie Theater from 1971 to 1977. He was also director of the Juilliard School from 1979 to 1982, and again from 1987 to 1992. In 1995 he directed two plays for the inaugural season of the Atlantic Theatre Festival in Wolfville, Nova Scotia. I had the good fortune to be directed by him at that Festival in Shakespeare’s The Tempest. Years later, Michael was very courteous to have lunch with me and his wife Helen Burns. I told him I was teaching in London, and he replied, “You’re very brave.” We all mourned his death.