Thomson, Peter 1938- (Peter William Thomson)

PERSONAL:

Born February 6, 1938, in Poole, England; son of John William (a Methodist minister) and Lily Thomson; married Elizabeth Rita Prince (an activist organizer), October 18, 1963; children: James, Katharine, Stephen, Anne. Ethnicity: "British." Education: Jesus College, Cambridge, B.A., 1961. Politics: Labour. Hobbies and other interests: Wild flowers.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Exeter, Devon, England. E-mail—peterandritathomson@tiscali.co.uk.

CAREER:

Victoria University of Manchester, Manchester, England, lecturer in drama, 1964-71; University of Wales, Swansea, lecturer in drama, 1971-74; University of Exeter, Exeter, England, professor of drama, 1974-2003.

WRITINGS:

(Editor, with Kenneth Richards) Essays on Nineteenth-Century British Theatre, Methuen (London, England), 1970.

(Editor) Notes on Julius Caesar, Ginn (London, England), 1971.

(Editor, with Kenneth Richards) Essays on the Eighteenth-Century English Stage, Methuen (London, England), 1971.

(With Clive Goodhead) Ideas in Action, Hodder & Stoughton (London, England), 1973.

(With Jan Needle) Brecht, Basil Blackwell (Oxford, England), 1980, University of Chicago Press (Chicago, IL), 1981.

Shakespeare's Theatre, Routledge & Kegan Paul (Boston, MA), 1983, 2nd edition, Routledge (New York, NY), 1992.

(Editor and author of notes) Dion Boucicault, Plays, Cambridge University Press (New York, NY), 1983.

(With Gamini Salgado) The Everyman Companion to the Theatre, J.M. Dent (London, England), 1985.

Shakespeare's Professional Career, Cambridge University Press (New York, NY), 1992.

(Editor, with Glendyr Sacks) The Cambridge Companion to Brecht, Cambridge University Press (New York, NY), 1994, 2nd edition, 2006.

Brecht: Mother Courage and Her Children, Cambridge University Press (New York, NY), 1997.

On Actors and Acting, University of Exeter Press (Exeter, England), 2000.

The Cambridge History of British Theatre, three volumes, Cambridge University Press (New York, NY), 2004.

The Cambridge Introduction to English Theatre, 1660-1900, Cambridge University Press (New York, NY), 2006.

Contributor to books, including foreword to Contemporary Shakespeare: Exploring a Living Theatre for the 21st Century, by Marcus D. Gregio, Xlibris (Philadelphia, PA), 2003. General coeditor of "British and American Playwrights" series, Cambridge University Press. Contributor to journals, including Shakespeare Survey, Literature and History, and Critical Quarterly. Editor, Studies in Theatre and Performance.

SIDELIGHTS:

Peter Thomson once told CA: "I am a teacher of drama, which is quite another thing than being a teacher of English. Drama is a subject that demands deeds as well as thoughts. It remains lively, even as the professional theatre dwindles towards irrelevance. I am also a cricketer. I was offered a trial for Warwickshire in 1956, but have fallen away since."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

BOOKS

Milling, Jane, and Martin Banham, editors, Extraordinary Actors: Essays on Popular Performers; Studies in Honor of Peter Thomson, University of Exeter Press (Exeter, England), 2004.