June 1950- June 1958
Schoolboy Acting
"My
acting began early and continued mostly at school. At Bolton School
(1951-58) there were a number of lads who did as much acting as I did and,
voracious theatre-goers, also went on the annual camp to Stratford-upon-Avon
for the Shakespeare Festival. My best friends,
David Hargreaves and Duncan Sculthorpe,
and I were stage-struck and could alarm our peers by high-stepping routines
across the playground. We all went to Cambridge, where Hargreaves ended up as
Professor of Education. Sculthorpe wrote a classic study on aquatic plants.
Motives other than acting itself sent me into the theatre."
— Ian McKellen, December 2006
The Plays
