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**Meet
your Committee***
MERVYN GOULD
Administrator
Mervyn Gould didn't quite run away with the circus, but
did do his first show whilst still a VIth-former. When the Regal Boston
had a stage, fly tower, and dressing rooms built on in 1963, to replace
the demolished New Theatre, he got a job as A.S.M. in the opening show,
Babes in the Wood. After the Boston run he got leave from the new term,
and toured with it to Crewe, Buxton, and Leake.
In 1965 he went up to Marjons, King's Road Chelsea, to read History and
join the swinging 60s scene (not convincingly as he wore corduroy twills,
suede shoes, hacking jacket and cravats - but a hell of a change from
the Fenlands), and worked as a Showman in the West End. After scraping
through Finals, he did summer seasons, pantos, and tours, interspersed
with residencies at both provincial and West End theatres. These included
a season at Bury S. Edmunds Theatre Royal - the only theatre not only
surrounded by a brewery but owned by it - three seasons at the historic
music hall Sunderland Empire, and a year as Deputy Chief Engineer at the
Palace on Jesus Christ Superstar.
For 17 years he was Technical Tutor and House & Stage Manager at Loughborough
University Theatre, and then took early retirement to research and write
on theatre and cinema architectural and technical history. He started
writing in the early 70s, and since then has been published by Tabs, Cue:
Stage Lighting International, The Stage, Focus, the Mercia Bioscope, and
other journals. He has produced two books - Loughborough's Stage and Screen
and, most recently, Boston and Spalding Entertainment. Four exhibitions
on entertainment history have been arranged and designed by him. At present
he is working on booklets on the stage and screen history of York, Crewe,
Burton-on-Trent. He hopes to resume work this year on his projected Ph.D.
thesis on Richard Thornton and the birth of Moss' Empires.
He became secretary of Mercia in 1992, and some years later assumed the
Administrator title. The society has honoured him by electing him an honorary
life member.
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