Category: Blog
Avice Spitta Landone
Avice Spitta Landone (1910-1976) During the party to celebrate the 21st birthday of the Ginner-Mawer School in 1934, Irene Mawer mentioned several former students who had gone on to do well for themselves. Among them was Avice Spitta, later known as Avice Landone. I got very excited because I discovered
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British Empire Shakespeare Society
In 1954, while Ruby Ginner was heading for retirement and the Ginner-Mawer School of Dance and Drama was being wound up, Irene Mawer continued to teach in Cheltenham for three days a week (Cheltenham Chronicle, 2nd Oct 1954). I don’t know where the classes were held, but throughout her life,
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Perugini Creative Family
Irene Mawer’s second husband, Mark Edward Perugini, was born in Chiswick, London. Through the kindness of researchers, I have learned that he came from an affluent and creative family. I don’t know if Mawer’s family background was creative, but she was certainly born into wealth in the same way that
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Amphissa / Amfissa
Freedom of Amphissa/Red Cross In October 1948, Irene Mawer and Ruby Ginner were awarded the Freedom of the town of Amphissa, Greece, in grateful thanks for their fund-raising to help Greece after World War 2. Modern spellings are hampering my research into where exactly Amphissa (or Amfissa) is. The Ginner-Mawer
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Rosina Bassett/Baroness von Kuhne
(Ada) Rosina Bassett/Baroness von Kuhne 1909-2002 During my Irene Mawer research, I came across one of Mawer’s books ‘Twelve Mime Plays’. Inside the flyleaf were written two names: Rosina Bassett 1934, and another name which looks something like Minnie A. S. Satchell, who was possibly Rosina’s “cousin ‘Minnie’ who had
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(Isabel) Sheila Evans
(Isabel) Sheila Evans This is another in the occasional series of blog posts which focuses on the women who were trained at the Ginner-Mawer School of Dance and Drama. Today’s post highlights Isabel Sheila Evans, who was always known as Sheila. While at school in Broadstairs (Kent), which would have been
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Melusine Wood
Miss Melusine Wood In 1933 and 1934 we hear about a woman called Miss Melusine Wood. Melusine is not a name I have come across before and according to Wikipedia it is a French word from European folklore, meaning ‘a female spirit of fresh water in a holy well or
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Miss Joyce Ruscoe
From an article in The Link, July 1934, p.6, we learn that there was to be a Summer School of the Central School of Speech Training at the Royal Albert Hall. It was to be attended by delegates of the Drama League. The inaugral lecture-demonstration in Mime was to be
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Italian Marionettes
Italian Marionettes The Link, July 1934, p.247 From time to time, Irene Mawer’s husband, Mark Edward Perugini, was editor of The Link, which was ‘The Journal of the Association of Teachers of the Revived Greek Dance; the Z Club; the Ginner-Mawer School; and of all who are interested
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