Dean, Basil Herbert

Dean, Basil Herbert (1888–1978), English actor, dramatist, and theatre director, who made his first appearance on the stage in 1906, and was then for four years with Miss Horniman's company in Manchester. In 1911 he became the first director of the repertory company at the Liverpool Playhouse. From 1919 onwards he was active both as manager and director. Among the many important plays he directed were Clemence Dane's A Bill of Divorcement (1921), James Elroy Flecker's Hassan (1923), John Van Druten's Young Woodley (1928), and J. B. Priestley's Johnson over Jordan (1939). He was a pioneer of stage lighting, importing much new equipment from Germany and the USA and devising some of his own. He had already organized entertainments for the troops during the First World War, and during the Second he became director of the Entertainments National Service Association. He returned to the London theatre in 1946 with a production of Priestley's An Inspector Calls, and among his later assignments were The Diary of a Nobody (1954), based on the Grossmiths' book, and Michael Redgrave's adaptation of Henry James's The Aspern Papers (1959). Dean also organized the first British Repertory Theatre Festival in 1948.