Hands, Terry David

Hands, Terry David [ Terence David Hands] (1941– ), English director, one of the founders in 1964 of the Everyman Theatre in Liverpool. In 1966 he joined the RSC, initially as artistic director of Theatregoround, its travelling company, becoming an associate director of the main company in 1967 and its joint artistic director, with Trevor Nunn, in 1978. Outstanding among his productions at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre were The Merry Wives of Windsor (1968 and 1975), The Merchant of Venice (1971), the Stratford Centenary productions of Henry IV and Henry V (1975), and Henry VI (1977), the last three all starring Alan Howard. After Richard II and Richard III (1980), again with Howard, he had directed all Shakespeare's history plays in five years. His productions at the Aldwych Theatre included Triana's The Criminals (1967), the first Cuban play to be seen in London, Genet's The Balcony (1971), Arbuzov's Old World (1976), with Peggy Ashcroft and Anthony Quayle, and Gorky's The Children of the Sun (1979). He was also consultant director of the Comédie-Française, 1975–7, and directed several plays there. His productions of Much Ado about Nothing (1982) and Rostand's Cyrano de Bergerac (1983) were staged in New York in 1984. In 1987 he was appointed sole Artistic Director and Chief Executive of the RSC, but he relinquished the post in 1991.