Beryl Annear Bryant was an Australian stage actress and theatrical producer born in America who was active in the 1930s and 1940s. She was responsible for first bringing the plays of Patrick White to the stage. Her career had many parallels with that of Doris Fitton and her Independent Theatre.
Biography
Beryl's mother, Elizabeth Anne Bryant, was an Australian actress whose brother was the architect Harold Desbrowe Annear. Her father George Edwin Bryant, was an actor born in England. He began his career in Australia around 1885 in a Brough-Boucicault production playing a policeman. He and his wife Elizabeth left for America in 1890, working in productions for Daniel and Charles Frohman, David Belasco and the Kyrle Bellew – Mrs Brown-Potter partnership. He and Beryl toured the US with E. H. Sothern and played in the New York production of The College Widow. He returned to Australia for a J. C. Williamson production of The Squaw Man. and The Virginian. He worked for Muriel Starr and Gregan McMahon, when he notably played the part of Abraham Lincoln. By this time they had decided to settle in Australia, purchasing a farm in Lilydale, Victoria. She attended the Church of England Girls Grammar School in Melbourne.
Acting
She joined J. C. Williamson's Criterion Company in 1917, playing in The Outcast, produced by Hugh J. Ward, followed by L'Aiglon, The Rainbow, Cheating Cheaters, Daddy Long Legs, Romance, A Tailor-Made Man, Nothing But the Truth, Seven Keys to Baldpate, Tilly of Bloomsbury, The Silent Witness, The Blindness of Virtue, His Lady Friends, Adam and Eva, all with favourable notices. By 1923 when she retired to start her family, she was playing lead in The Faithful Heart. From this time her stage acting was confined to amateur productions with her own company until 1941 when she played Calpurnia in Arthur Greenaways production of Julius Caesar.
Production
Her own company had its origins when she took on students for elocution and stagecraft then mounted modest plays. By 1931 she was producing plays at The Savoy theatre for charitable causes. She soon, with assistance of her father, took over the tiny Community Theatre in Forbes Street, Darlinghurst from Carrie Tennant. The Bryant Playhouse, as they renamed it, near King's Cross was the crypt of a church with two just dressing rooms and audience capacity of only 90. The ethics she imbued in her pupils were that there were no "stars", only members, and each was expected to pass through a sort of apprenticeship which could include anything from program selling to scene shifting. In July 1942 she was forced to vacate the Forbes Street premises so moved to the "Little Theatre" at 5 Phillip Street, which she renamed "Bryant's Playhouse". Fanny's First Play was the first production in the new venue. Without Beryl's guiding force, the company lost direction and She Stoops to Conquer was its last production. The theatre was then used by the Reiby Players, the Naval Dramatic Society, the Kuring-gai Theatre Guild, then the "Radio Players" until 1947, when it was acquired by Peter Finch's Mercury Theatre School.
12 Aug 1939 Man and Superman complete and unabridged – the "Hell" scene alone occupied three hours!
2 Sep Geneva at Federation Hall, 166 Phillip Street
14 Oct 1939 The Doctor's Dilemma all five acts
2 Dec 1939 You Never Can Tell
19 Apr 1941 Major Barbara
11 Apr 1942 Fanny's First Play at new theatre in Phillip Street
5 Sep 1942 Arms and the Man produced by Dorothy Hemingway
17 Feb 1943 The Millionairess revived by Dorothy Hemingway to "mixed reviews"
8 Sep 1944 Three short plays. But which?
The Shaw season was not continuous – Beryl staged Peer Gynt at the spacious grounds of her Vaucluse home from 24 February to 16 March 1940 then a second season in 1941??, and the annual play-writing contest went on as usual. This had been a tradition of Carrie Tennant, which Beryl revived in 1935. She also staged Man and Superman in her Vaucluse garden, refreshments provided.
17 Feb 1943 The Millionairess prod. Dorothy Hemingway
*26 June 1943 The Admirable Crichton prod. Dorothy Hemingway and Dorothy Atkinson
*14 Aug 1943 Quality Street prod. Dorothy Hemingway
*2 Oct 1943 Mary Rose prod. Dorothy Hemingway
*22 Jan 1944 Alice Sit by the Fire
11 Mar 1944 High Tor
27 May 1944 Terese Raquin
25 May 1945 She Stoops To Conquer
Bryant was a member of Moral Rearmament from 1935, which may have influenced her choice of plays. She also produced plays for charity, often by the Doone Dramatic Society, all at the Savoy Theatre. Quinneys, Nine Till Six, Trelawney of the Wells were three such. After her retirement to Melbourne, she produced The Forgotten Factor from 20 June 1949 at the Union Playhouse for Moral Rearmament.
Alumni
Among Bryant Playhouse members who went on to greater things were:
John Cazabon
Patricia Firman
Carlotta Kalmar
Jane Holland
Personal
She married Albert Edward Mayor, a businessman prominent in the Commercial Travellers' Association, at her parents' home in South Yarra on 22 April 1921. The couple moved to Sydney and in 1923 she had her first son. She had another son and a daughter Elizabeth. Her husband died in 1941 and she moved to Melbourne shortly after.
