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EWAN MACCOLL  (1915 - 1989)

Nationality:    British
email:    n/a     Website:    n/a

Literary Agent:    n/a

ewan MacColl (25 January 1915  22 October 1989). For nearly 60 years, ewan MacColl, an activist and left-wing socialist, expressed his views as a playwright, social activist, songwriter and performer. During the course of his lifetime he composed a body of work that ranks among the best in the British folk genre. among the songs he wrote that others recorded and made famous are "Dirty Old Town" (Rod Stewart, the Pogues), "Freeborn Man" (the Pogues), and his Grammy award-winning song "the First Time ever I Saw Your Face," a hit single for Roberta Flack in 1971, and which he wrote for his longtime collaborator and life partner, Peggy Seeger. Born Jimmie Miller in 1915, MacColl changed his name in 1949. His parents were from Scotland and relocated to Salford, Lancashire, england, where MacColl was born. Some sources incorrectly state that MacColl was born in Scotland, which derives from a mythology MacColl devised for himself as a young man. He set the record straight for a British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) documentary shortly before his death. His parents were laborers and socialists, and were well-versed in Scottish, Irish, and English folk songs. His father spoke Scots English and his mother spoke Gaelic. In his autobiography, Journeyman, MacColl remembered his youth: "the front room is where everything happens. We eat there and entertain friends. It is the centre of our social life. the table, which is its main item of furniture, has many uses. We take our meals on it. I draw and write and play games on it after the evening meal has been cleared away. My father sits at it when he writes his notes for the union branch or when the branch holds its meetings at our house. My mother uses it for doing her ironing on and for baking." MacColl quit school when he was 14 years old and worked briefly at a number of jobs, including factory worker, builder, mechanic, and street entertainer. During this period he wrote and edited for factory newspapers, and for a short time he wrote and performed advertising jingles for small English businesses. Because the early 1930s were a period of economic depression in many countries, including england, permanent jobs were difficult to find and unemployment was rampant. MacColl's leftist political leanings prompted him to join the hunger marches and protests of the unemployed. In 1934 MacColl met actress Joan Littlewood, who had recently left the Royal academy of Dramatic Arts. the young couple married and established an experimental Theater in Manchester called the Theatre of action. the following year MacColl and Littlewood moved to London to form a Drama school for workers. In 1936 they founded the Theatre Union, which they called the "Theatre of the people." Between 1936 and 1939 the Theatre Union produced plays throughout the industrialized northern areas of england, including works such as Lope de Vega's Fuente Ovejuna, MacColl's adaptation of the novel the Good Soldier Schweik, and MacColl's play the Last edition, which described many of the events leading up to World War II. although the play was successful, it was also highly controversial in a country preparing to enter war against Germany. as a result, MacColl and Littlewood were arrested for disturbing the peace. they received a heavy fine and a parole that forbade them from participating in the Theater for two years, and england's declaration of war on Germany broke up the Theatre Union. Following the war MacColl, Littlewood, and several members of the Theatre Union established the Theatre Workshop. During this phase of his career MacColl earned a reputation as a playwright of note, earning the respect of fellow socialist playwright George Bernard Shaw, who wrote: "apart from myself, MacColl is the only man of genius writing for the Theatre in england today." By 1952 several of his plays had been translated into many different languages. His marriage to Littlewood, however, had dissolved, and MacColl married dancer Jean Newlove in 1950. He turned his focus from the Theater to music.

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below is a list of Ewan MacColl's plays - click on a Play Title for more information

        End Part One, The         Festival Of Fools         Good Soldier Schweik, The         Jimmie Miller         Johnny Noble         Landscape With Chimneys         Lysistrata         Operation Olive Branch         Other Animals, The         Paradise Street         Prince And the Pauper, The         Shore Saints And Sea Devils         Travellers, The         Uranium 235