Dr. John Elsom has been a writer since leaving university. His works include many books, an opera libretto, plays and extensive journalism. He was an arts editor for the US magazine, The World and I, theatre critic and arts correspondent for the BBC and a talent scout for Paramount Pictures. As a member of the British Liberal Party, he stood for parliament and chaired the Liberal Party’s arts and broadcasting committee.
He was the chair of the IATC, a UNESCO cultural NGO, from 1985-92. He is a theatre historian and an authority on arts policy and cultural management. He is a director of Arts Interlink, the international arts management consultancy. In 2003, he was decorated by the Romanian President, Ion Iliescu, for his services to culture during the Cold War. In 2008, he won the Award of International Outstanding Contribution to the Creative Industry of China during the 3rd China Creative Industry Awards ceremony in Beijing.
About The Author
JOHN ELSOM
In brief
Current Activities
John Elsom is the director of Arts Interlink (A.I. Arts Management Consultants)
His recently published works include: Missing the Point, The Rise of High Modernity and the Decline of Everything Else (The Lutterworth Press, 2007).
His recent plays include: Second Time Round (2008) and Old Boy (2009). The musical, Second Time Round (2011), written with the composer Wayne Warlow, is scheduled for production in 2012.
In 2008, he was appointed Visiting Professor to the University of Pomerania at Słupsk, Poland.
In 2009, he was appointed Visiting Professor to the University of Bedfordshire, UK.
Career Details
Books
- Theatre Outside London (Macmillan, 1971), “An excellent survey of British reps.” Richard Findlater: Encounter (1971)
- Erotic Theatre (Secker, 1972), “This book is in another class altogether; and I can think of no other British critic with the knowledge, unflagging curiosity and modesty to have produced it.” Irving Wardle: The Times (1974)
- Post-War British Theatre (Routledge, 1976, 1980), “Probably the best book available on this intricate and intriguing subject.” Sunday Times (1976)
- The History of the National Theatre (with Nicholas Tomalin, Cape, 1978),
“provocative, sincere and even idealistic.” Rosemary Say: Sunday Telegraph (1978) - Post-War British Theatre Criticism (Ed.) (Routledge, 1981), “An obsessively interesting book.” Antonia Fraser, PEN, Spring, 1981
- Is Shakespeare Still Our Contemporary? (Ed.) (Routledge, 1989), “A racy and stimulating introduction to the problems of watching and thinking about Shakespeare.” Martin Wiggins in Notes and Queries.
- Cold War Theatre (Routledge, 1992), “Exciting and illuminating reading, striking at the very core of the existence of culture and the theatre in the 20th Century.” Jana Smatlakova, Kultirny Zivot (1993)
- Missing the Point: The Rise of High Modernity and the Decline of Everything else (Lutterworth, 2007). “A stimulating, challenging book that no one with the slightest interest in politics, arts or the media can afford to miss.” Anthony Howard. (See: www.missingthepoint.com for a selection of reviews and readers’ comments.)
- Kitsch (!981, revised 2009). A short novel
Theatre Criticism
John Elsom was the London theatre correspondent, reader and editor for Paramount Pictures (1960 to 1970). “As fine and thoughtful a theatre critic as you will find anywhere.” Michael Marshall, Managing Editor, World & I Magazine. He was the resident theatre critic and arts correspondent for:
- London Magazine (1963-70),
- The Observer (Guest, 1972),
- The Listener (BBC magazine, 1972-82)
- The Mail on Sunday (1983).
- The World & I (US Magazine) (1986 – 2004) (Contributing arts editor)
He has contributed theatre articles to many newspapers and magazines world wide, including the Sunday Telegraph, Moscow News, the Jordan Times, San Diego Union, New European Review (on-line) and Assaig de Teatre. He is a member of the British Critics Circle and a former president of the International Association of Theatre Critics (1986-1992).
Plays
- Peacemaker (wrote and directed) (1956, ADC Cambridge) “This sense of unity is emphasized through the production, in which words, music and movement are treated as being equally important.” The Times, August, 1956
- Maui (1959) Opera libretto for the NZ composer Barry Anderson
- One More Bull (1966: Cockpit)
- The Well-Intentioned Builder (1968, Cockpit, revived 2004, National Theatre of Craiova) “It’s hard to imagine how a text written in 1968 could be so present in 2004….firm and complex in its simplicity.” Drama
- How I Coped (1969: Oval House)
- Malone Dies (1984 Edinburgh International Festival and tour) adapted and directed from the novel by Samuel Beckett for the comic actor, Max Wall. “The supreme achievement of the Festival’s Beckett season”. The Scotsman, 1984
- Hedda Gabler (adapted: 2006. Edinburgh Fringe Festival) “Ibsen reinvented to stunning effect” The List 2006
- The Man of the Future is Dead (Edinburgh Fringe Festival) “complex, dark and thought-provoking”. Three Weeks
- Second Time Round (2008) (With Anthony Field Associates:)
- Old Boy (2009) (Anthony Field Associates. www.anthonyfieldassociates.com)
Theatre-related activities
- 1969-78: Founder Member and Chair of the Alternative Theatre Company at the Bush Theatre, Shepherds Bush, London.
- 1969-72: Chair of The Society of Hermes, promoting contemporary music.
- 1978: British member and delegate to the International Association of Theatre Critics (IATC), a UNESCO-affiliated cultural non-governmental organization, which represents critics, dramaturges and those who write about the theatre. 1984-85: Vice-President: IATC
- 1985-1992: President: The International Association of Theatre Critics. Under his leadership, the IATC staged more than fifty international conferences, world-wide, during the years which saw the ending of the Cold War. ‘Is Shakespeare Still Our Contemporary?’ (Routledge, 1989) which he edited, provides an example of these meetings and was in print for 20 years. They include meetings held as part of, or in conjunction with, festivals in Eastern and Western Europe, Latin America, North Africa, the Middle East, the United States, Canada and the Far East.
- He launched the IATC publishing programme and raised the sponsorship from Philip Morris to do so. He launched exchange programmes for young critics and students across political and cultural boundaries, establishing the Young Critics meetings, which became a feature of the IATC’s annual programmes.
- 1992: Founder member, patron and international consultant for the International Shakespeare Festival, Craiova, Romania.
- 1996-2001: Chair of the Selection Panel of the Cairo International Festival of Contemporary Theatre (CIFET), Egypt.
- 1999-2002: Board member/chair of International Theatre Workshop Festival.
- 2003: Bucharest. Awarded a Romanian knighthood for his services to the theatre during the years of the Cold War.
- In 2007, he managed the visit of the Comedy Theatre of Bucharest to the Edinburgh Festival in their critically acclaimed production of Gogol’s The Government Inspector.
Travel, Politics and Academic Papers
John Elsom has written widely for many magazines and periodicals on politics and travel. He wrote on travel, the arts and politics for Contemporary Review (1979 – 89), where he was commissioned to write six articles a year – on subjects other than the theatre. These essays contributed to the development of cultural policies of the British Liberal Party’s arts policies and to international inter-cultural understanding. Many were published in other journals in the UK and (extensively) abroad.
He was the arts editor for the New Democrat (1985-6).
As a contributing editor to The World & I (1997- 2004), published in Washington, DC, he wrote about a variety of arts topics, including international festivals and major exhibitions.
He wrote the post-war British theatre sections for The World Encyclopaedia of Contemporary Theatre (Routledge) and The Cambridge Guide to World Theatre; and contributed to the Cambridge Guide to Literature in English, World Authors, The Dictionary of National Biography and other major reference works.
He has contributed to many academic papers to conferences and journals world-wide, including Drama on Drama (Ed. Boireau) (Macmillan, 1997) and on Copyright (Beijing, 2008).
Broadcasting
Plays and sketches: “Sir Godfrey in Bed” (1957, BBC3), BBC comedy sketches for BBC (1962-70).
Talks and documentaries: Charges against Christianity (1960, BBC3), Sold Out (1984, BBC4), Kaleidoscope Specials, including reports from Moscow (1984) and Novosibirsk (1984);
Arts Journalism and Reviewing: During the 1970s and 1980s, regular contributor to such BBC programmes as Kaleidoscope, Critics Forum (which he also chaired), Meridian, Theatre Call (which he presented) and First Night. Theatre correspondent for LBC’s Sounds New.
1976-79. Arts correspondent for LBC (London Broadcasting Company) Additional broadcasting (radio and television) experience in Canada, US, Hong Kong and Russia.
Teacher/University lecturer
- 1958-72, taught in secondary schools and adult education colleges, such as the City Literary Institute and Marylebone Institute. Subjects: English, Creative Writing, Theatre, Performance and related subjects
- 1976 – 2004: Visiting lecturer in many universities in the UK and abroad, including GITIS in Moscow, Madurai University (India), Academy of the Performing Arts in Seoul (Korea) and Tufts in London. Subjects: theatre, arts management and the performing arts.
- British Council lecture tours to New Zealand, Hong Kong and
- 1985-1987: Senior Fellow at Gresham College in
- 1986-96: Lecturer and course leader, MA in Arts Criticism, at the Department of Arts Policy and Management at City University in
- 1996-98: Consultant on post-graduate arts management courses for South Bank University and SOAS (University of London).
- 2000: Led the I. team to Ukraine, supported by the British Council, to teach civil servants in Ukraine (Lviv) the management of arts festivals and cultural tourism.
- Training seminar for arts managers from Beijing. Møller Centre, Churchill College, Cambridge
- 2008-09: Director, The Shaping of Experience, Arts Management and Cultural Policy Seminbars at the Møller Centre, Churchill College, Cambridge
- 2008: Visiting University of Pomerania at Słupsk, Poland.
- 2009: Visiting Professor to the University of Bedford
In politics
- 1966: Parliamentary candidate for the British Liberal Party for Ealing North (and subsequently a candidate for the GLC and local elections).
- In 1977/8, he was invited to write a discussion paper, ‘Change and Choice’, for the Liberal Party. In it, he argued that the arts were not marginal to the economy but central to it, for they were the basis of the ‘arts-based’ industries. He advocated the replacement of the Arts Council of Great Britain by an Arts Development Board. This view, considered eccentric at the time, has become widely accepted in the UK and internationally.
- This paper led to the formation of the Liberal Party’s Arts and Broadcasting Committee. With Chris Green as its chair, he became its vice-chair; and chaired the meetings with arts professionals, representatives of the local and national authorities, and similar interested parties. This result in the publication of The Arts, Artists and the Community, which he edited, and led on to subsequent party debates and national discussions.
- 1982: Chair of the Liberal Party’s Arts, Broadcasting and Heritage Committee
- 1984: Wrote ‘The Shaping of Experience’ for the Liberal Party, advocating the establishment of a national-wide broadband service, to link all forms of broadcasting with the internet AND to establish an ‘Information Highway’.
- He chaired the discussions on cultural policy between the Liberals and SDP during the Alliance period. Wrote speeches and articles on the arts and cultural policies for Sir Clement Freud, Lord Steel, and Alan Beith, He was an adviser to Sir Menzies Campbell.
International Arts Management Consultant
- John Elsom established with colleagues Arts Interlink (A.I.Arts Management Consultants Ltd. – www.artsinterlink.com ) to advise governments and local authorities. Arts Interlink is a body of experts, limited to 21 in number, which provides a comprehensive advisory service on all aspects of arts management.
- Since 1999, he has been a director of Arts Interlink (A.I. Arts Management Consultants Ltd.). He led the I.. teams to Ukraine, Romania and Hong Kong. Currently A.I.. is developing projects in China and Romania. These include cultural tourism, educational exchange programmes, arts management training and copyright protection.
- 2008. Winner of The Award of International Outstanding Contribution to the Creative Industry of China at the China Creative Industry Awards.
Biographical Details
John Elsom was born on October 31, 1934. He was educated at Brentwood School, Essex, and won a State Scholarship and an Exhibition in History to Magdalene College, Cambridge, where he studied English Literature, receiving a BA (Hons.) degree. He received a PhD in Arts Policy and Management from City University, London, in 1991.
Contact:
Dr. John Elsom, 30, Landseer Road,
New Malden, Kingston-upon-Thames, SURREY, KT3 5NH.
Mobile: 07725530473
+44 (0) 20 8408 0435
Literary Agent:
Judith Elliott,
55, Summer Road, East Molesey, KT8 9LX.
Mobile: 07808721547
+44 (0) 20 8398 9556