Harley Granville-Barker

Harley Granville-Barker was born in London in 1877. He began his stage career at an early age when he became an actor in a provincial company. His first London appearance was in 1892, and he produced and acted in a number of George Bernard Shaw's early plays, helping to make Shaw’s reputation as one of the foremost playwrights of the time. His play THE MARRYING OF ANN LEETE was produced by the Stage Society in 1900. In 1904 he undertook, with J.E. Vedrenne, the management of the Royal Court Theatre, where he successfully experimented in a repertory scheme, producing many new plays by Shaw, St. John Hankin, J.M. Barrie, and John Galsworthy, as well as his own plays, the best known of which are THE VOYSEY INHERITANCE (1905), PRUNELLA (1906), WASTE (1907), and THE MADRAS HOUSE (1909). During his later years, he adapted plays, wrote about the theatre, and lectured, both in England and the United States. He died in Paris in 1946.