Dorothy Howard Talbot

Dorothy was the oldest daughter of Arthur Harry Cross, who was organist at St Mary Magdalen Church, Sandringham from 1878 to 1906. She studied at RADA for 3 terms during 1908, and while there she met W.S. Gilbert.[2][3]

She performed on the stage for a while, with the stage name Dorothy Langton,[4][5] but gave up after her marriage in 1910 to Howard Talbot, a composer of music for Edwardian musical theatre. She coached for Charles Hawtry's productions.[6]

During the first world war she assisted in stage management at the Adelphi Theatre, London,[7] at which her husband Howard Talbot was conductor.[8]

After Dorothy's husband died of lung disease in 1928,[9] she enrolled with the National Operatic and Dramatic Association (NODA),[10][11] which enabled her to produce musical plays.[9] She also lectured on courses that NODA organised.[12][13]

Dorothy Howard Talbot

Booklet on Stage Makeup

Dorothy produced operas and plays for the societies listed in the table below, amongst many others.

In 1953 she decided to focus on producing and acting in Nottingham where she lived for the last years of her life.[14]

In 1925, Dorothy and her husband set up the Bletchingley and District Amateur Operatic Society with Howard as chair and herself as honorary producer.[52]

She wrote a play with Percy Greenbank,[53] from which a three act comic opera, called Her Ladyship,[54] was produced with lyrics by Percy Greenbank and music by Howard Talbot[55][56][57]. The opera was performed for the first time by the Stock Exchange Dramatic and Operatic Society at the Scala Theatre in London on 24 April 1928.[58]

She also lectured regularly on drama courses held at the Nottingham Co-operative Arts Centre[59] and other venues[60] and wrote a book about stage makeup.

During the second world war Dorothy worked as a full time warden in Chelsea.[61] and also produced The Dark Lady with a new theatre club called the Carlyle Players, which she helped to found.[61]