Esmé Church

A major figure in the history of 20th-century British theatre, Esmé Church (1893 to 1972) was a trailblazing actress, director and theatre educator. She brought professional training and performance to the heart of regional theatre.

Believing that world-class theatre should be accessible beyond London, Church laid the foundations for this by establishing training for young actors outside of the capital. Pupils who studied at the Northern Theatre School at 26 Chapel Street included many actors who went on to find fame and success in theatre, film, radio and TV, including Billie Whitelaw, Edward Petherbridge, Bernard Hepton, and Robert Stephens.

From her first season at the Bradford Playhouse in 1943, Church introduced new ideas and methods, as well as professional standards. She was appointed Artistic Director at the theatre the following summer in August 1944.

From September 1946, she ran classes for adults and children, engaging influential figures in theatre as tutors, including movement theorist Rudolf Laban and the experimental director Michel Saint-Denis.

Church purchased 26 Chapel Street in July 1949 as the home for the theatre school, by then renamed the Northern Theatre School. The national blue plaque on the Grade II listed terrace house in the Little Germany area of Bradford marks her lasting impact on the cultural life of the city.

The inscription on the plaque reads: Esmé Church / 1893-1972 / Actress and Director ran the Northern Theatre School here.

Training and early career

Esmé Church was born in Marylebone, London, on 11 February 1893. She was the younger of 2 children of Henry George Church, a solicitor, and his wife Annie. After leaving school, she trained to be an actress at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA).

In 1916, Church was invited to join Lena Ashwell's all-female troupe of actors and performers, who gave regular concert parties for British soldiers posted on the Western Front in France during the First World War.

Church continued to work for Lena Ashwell after the war and made her London stage debut in 1921 in a performance of Cicely Hampton's 'The Child in Flanders' at the Lyric, Hammersmith.

In 1927, she joined the Old Vic Company, and over the next 4 years took leading Shakespearean roles including Viola in 'Twelfth Night', Lady Macbeth opposite John Laurie’s Macbeth, Gertrude in 'Hamlet' and Mistress Page in 'The Merry Wives of Windsor'.

Church's career as a director began in 1931 when she was appointed Artistic Director at the Greyhound Theatre in Croydon. For 2 years, she directed plays by Henrik Ibsen, Somerset Maugham, and Arthur Wing Pinero, featuring casts that included Margaret Rutherford, Donald Wolfit, and May Whitty. Rutherford described Church as "a brilliant woman, a wonderful producer – firm and strong-minded" (Andy Merriman, Margaret Rutherford, 2011, p. 33).

Church returned to the West End in 1933 and, in the same year, played Gertrude in Hamlet at the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon.

In 1936, she was appointed head of the drama school at the Old Vic and directed the theatre's production of 'As You Like It', starring Michael Redgrave, Edith Evans, and Alec Guinness. She also directed Ibsen's ‘Ghosts’ at the Vaudeville Theatre in London, a production which was later filmed for television.

In January 1939, Church embarked on a 3-month tour with the Old Vic, putting on productions in Portugal, Italy, Greece, and Egypt. When she returned, she made changes to the Old Vic drama school, which gave opportunities for students to appear in productions and created a partnership with Toynbee Hall in London's East End to support students from disadvantaged backgrounds.

When the Second World War began, the Old Vic Company, including Church, was evacuated from London and settled in Burnley, Lancashire. From there, the group toured many towns and cities across England.

Esmé Church and Bradford

Church is best remembered in Bradford for her leadership at the Bradford Civic Playhouse, where she served as Artistic Director from 1944 to 1950. It was there that she championed regional theatre, establishing the Northern Theatre School and mentoring a generation of actors who would go on to national prominence, such as Billie Whitelaw, Edward Petherbridge, Bernard Hepton, and Robert Stephens.

Her first association with the Bradford Civic Playhouse was in summer 1943, when she was invited to produce 2 plays for a new drama festival in the city, receiving excellent reviews and bringing some 'Old Vic' glamour to the city.

Church was subsequently appointed Artistic Director at the Playhouse in August 1944. Her 6 years in the role presented a diverse range of plays, including G. B. Shaw's 'The Apple Cart' and Shakespeare's 'Much Ado about Nothing'.

The first auditions were held in July 1946, and the Bradford Civic Playhouse Theatre School opened that September, initially using the Playhouse premises. Church ran classes for adults and children, engaging influential figures in theatre as tutors, such as movement theorist Rudolf Laban and the experimental director Michel Saint-Denis.

In May 1947, Church was able to realise her long-held ambition to found a children's theatre. The first production was a dramatisation of Hans Christian Anderson's 'The Tinder Box', which she co-produced with Laban.

The Playhouse flourished during her years, achieving financial stability as well as an increased membership.

However, tensions with the Playhouse management committee, largely over a perceived conflict with her commercial interests as owner of the theatre school, led Church to resign as Artistic Director in June 1949. She stepped down from her role at the end of her contract in summer 1950.

The break from the Playhouse did not diminish Church's commitment to drama in Bradford. In July 1949, she purchased 26 Chapel Street to serve as a dedicated home for the theatre school, by then renamed the Northern Theatre School.

Church bought this property and also a home in Horsforth, near Leeds, together with her close friend Florence Mary Anderson (1893 to 1972, née MacArthur), who worked as a stage designer under the name of Molly MacArthur.

Church's students at Bradford included many actors who went on to find fame and success, such as Bernard Hepton, Billie Whitelaw, Edward Petherbridge, and Robert Stephens. They were given opportunities to act as part of the Northern Children's Theatre Company, whose productions often toured to other theatres in Yorkshire. This work featured in a BBC radio programme recorded on site in April 1951.

Well-loved in Bradford, former students have fond memories of the formative training they received from Church. The actor Edward Petherbridge recalled: "Esmé had the status of a minor goddess in Chapel Street" ('Young Illusionists', 10 August 2010, www.edwardpetherbridge.com).

Celebrating Esmé Church's life and contributions to Bradford is particularly fitting as it coincides with the city's year as the UK City of Culture in 2025. Her work laid the foundations for a thriving cultural scene in the city and left an enduring legacy in British theatre education.

After Bradford

Esmé Church and Molly MacArthur sold 26 Chapel Street and their Horsforth home in July 1959.

On leaving Bradford, Church resumed her acting career. She gave her final stage appearance at Stratford in the Royal Shakespeare Company's celebrated adaptation of 'Les Liaisons Dangereuses' in 1962.

In the years that followed, she appeared in several BBC television series, including 'Vanity Fair' (1967) and 'Sense and Sensibility' (1971).

Church and MacArthur continued to live together, first in Kent, then in the village of Wroxton St Mary, near Banbury, Oxfordshire. MacArthur died in an Oxford nursing home in January 1972, and 4 months later, Church died on 31 May 1972 in Quenington, Gloucestershire.

26 Chapel Street

26 Chapel Street is the ideal location for a plaque commemorating Church's important contribution to theatre in Bradford and across the north of England.

It was the home of the Northern Theatre School and the Northern Children's Theatre Company from 1949 until around 1958, and so was Church's workplace for nearly a decade. A generation of northern drama students were trained here and had opportunities to perform and produce plays through the programme of the Northern Children’s Theatre Company.

The building sits in the area known as Little Germany, which owes its name to the German cloth merchants who settled in Bradford in the mid-19th century. Chapel Street was developed from the 1820s onwards, including a Quaker school built in 1837 and a temperance hall that opened the same year. 26 Chapel Street is part of a 2-storey terrace built of sandstone, 20 to 28 Church Street, which was constructed in the 1850s and is Grade II listed.

No. 26 is situated only a few doors away from the Bradford Playhouse, which enabled Church to continue her association with the Playhouse after she had ceased to be its Artistic Director.