No 8 — November 1977 Edited by Michael Walters
GREEN TAYLOR: A forgotten obscurity ?
After examining the career of David Fisher, I thought it might be fun to look at one who was certainly obscure in D'Oyly Carte annals, and probably deservedly so. So I settled on Green Taylor who played Marco for one month, in April 1890, in the "E" Company, which was touring Mikado & Gondoliers. That month they played in the week commencing April 7th, 3 performances at Ashton–under–Lyne and 3 at Macclesfield. The following week they played at Derby, and the week after that at Wolverhampton. The week commencing 28 April, they played 2 performances at Dudley and four at Gloucester, Looking for some press reports in The Era, I could find nothing for this final week. It commented on April 12th for Ashton:– "Mr. D'Oyly Carte's Gondoliers appeared here on the first three nights of this week [Rollins & Witts state 2 performances only] The opera was well played, staged and dressed. The characters were ably sustained by Messrs Frank Holt, Henry Bellamy, Lawrence Gridley, Frank Tebbutt, W. Kembie, Frank Lynne, & Misses Madge Christo, Agnes Taylor, Marie Arnold, Louise Rowe and Alice Gresham". There is no comment for Macclesfield save that the show played there for three nights. On April 19th, The Era said, for Derby: "Mr. Green Taylor shows considerable aptitude as Marco..." The rest of the crit. is short but good. On April 26th under Wolverhampton, a short notice appeared, saying nothing of consequence except that Mr. T. Silver was conductor. It would seem therefore, that Mr. Taylor was merely a member of the chorus who played the role for a few weeks, possibly even only one week and was of average ability. We shall probably never know what subsequently became of him, but then perhaps the above sums up all that ever need be said of Mr. Green Taylor. MICHAEL WALTERS
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