Diana Isabel Jervis-Read
| Diana Isabel Jervis-Read FRSA | |
|---|---|
 Diana_I_Jervis-Read_2019_v2.jpg Diana Isabel Jervis-Read (2019) | |
| Born | 3 November 1945 Mursley, Buckinghamshire, England |
| 🏳️ Nationality | British-Canadian |
| 💼 Occupation | Arts administrator, producer, film maker & fundraiser |
| 📆 Years active | 1964–present |
| 👩 Spouse(s) | Peter Mortimer (1974–1979) |
| Twitter= | |
Diana Isabel Jervis-Read FRSA (born 3 November 1945) is a British arts administrator, producer, film maker and fundraiser. She co-founded OffWestEnd.com and the Offie Awards (The Offies), and is currently co-director and co-founder, and a trustee, of the Off West End Plays & Playwrights Adopt A Playwright Award. She is a full member of the British Association of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA).
Career[edit]
(1964) Jervis-Read began as assistant to the editor of Antique Finder magazine. She was briefly assistant to the advertising manager of Good Photography magazine before joining London Life Magazine (the "Magazine of the Swinging Sixties") at Thomson House, Grays Inn Road, London (1965). (Both magazines were part of the Sunday Times group.) Working briefly for news and features editor Laurence Marks, Jervis-Read became London Life's Music Critic and Reviewer, Assistant Picture Editor, and sometimes model.[1] She and some of her colleagues from the magazine also waitressed at a Kings Road restaurant to supplement their salaries.
(1966–1969) Jervis-Read moved on to become Personal Assistant to the actor/producer/writer Richard Johnson. She learned the film business from the ground up, which included reading scripts, continuity, dialogue coaching and acting. She worked on several feature films with Johnson (Deadlier Than the Male; The Rover; Danger Route; Oedipus the King; A Twist of Sand; Columna (a.k.a. The Column); Emma Hamilton and Some Girls Do). She had small roles in The Rover, Some Girls Do and Oedipus The King, credited as Diana J.Reed.[2] Jervis-Read also assisted Johnson on two editions of The American Sportsman television series (ABC), which were filmed in the former Yugoslavia, directed by Fred Gadette, and produced by Lorne Hassan. And for the West End play Brief Lives at the Criterion Theatre (1968) she was Assistant to the Producer, Richard Johnson and the Designer, Julia Trevelyan Oman CBE.
(1969–1974) Jervis-Read moved to Los Angeles to join Harold Robbins International - a film production company - and sister company Symbolic Records (headed by Quincy Jones and Ray Brown), for the production of soundtracks[3]. This short-lived collaboration only extended to one LP in 1970, following the film release of The Adventurers - 'Harold Robbins presents the Music of Antonio Carlos Jobim - Music from The Adventurers - The Ray Brown Orchestra; arranged by Quincy Jones'. During 1969, and accompanied by his wife Grace and Diana, Robbins appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show. Jervis-Read's work as executive assistant to Harold Robbins also included research and development, assisting with negotiations for film and TV projects, reading scripts and working on feature films with Bruce Geller (Harry In Your Pocket) and James Baldwin (Yao Of The Jungle). In 1969, Robbins had seen the 13 hour-long episodes of Yao (written and directed by Claude Vermorel) on French television, and was taken by the beauty of the Ivory Coast locations and the cinematography.[3] The series had won the Silver Leaf Award for the Cinema Congress of Human Relations in France, and Robbins bought the rights to and arranged for the series to be edited in Paris to feature-film length. Robbins arranged for his old and close friend James Baldwin to write new dialogue for the film. (Robbins had lent Baldwin his house in Le Cannet in which to write, whilst Robbins himself was in L.A. - the house subsequently featuring in the opening to Baldwin's 'Giovanni's Room'.) The original soundtrack language was Swahili, and had been dubbed into French. American editor Jim Wells was brought over to Paris to cut a feature-film length rough cut assembly out of 13 hours of film, plus numerous out takes. Jervis-Read acted as Wells' assistant and translator at the CTM Lab at Gennevilliers Film Studios, Paris. This part of the process took 8 weeks. She then hired an editing suite off the Champs Elysees, and worked with Baldwin as he wrote the new dialogue whilst watching the film on a Moviola, and she acted as Robbins' story supervisor. This part of the process took 6 weeks, and Baldwin maintained contact as the film was dubbed in L.A. Quincy Jones and Ray Brown added the soundtrack. The premiere of Yao Of The Jungle took place in Richmond, Virginia in 1972, shown in aid of the Sickle Cell Anemia Charity. It was during this time in Paris, that Jervis-Read became friends with artist Beauford Delaney, who joined her and Baldwin most evenings.[4] Also during DianaJervis-Read's time working for Harold Robbins, in 1971 he set up a new independent production company, Cinema Video Communications (CVC), with Blake Edwards, Bruce Geller and Alden Schwimmer in their US offices.[3]
After working on a script with the McCarthy-exiled writer, and friend of Harold Robbins, Ben Barzman, Jervis-Read moved to Canada.
(1974–1978) In Toronto, she researched a historical film (an adaptation of the book 'A Child in Prison Camp' by Shizuye Takashima) for Espial Film Productions, before joining the British Consulate General as Assistant to the Deputy Consul General, Clement Spearman, in 1975. This was followed by being appointed as Chef de Lieu for the Olympic soccer at the 1976 Olympic Games in Montreal. Jervis-Read was Government Liaison & Publicity Director for the Young People’s Theatre, working for actress and producer Susan Rubes in 1977. When she worked for them, the office was over an old dilapidated firehall.
She also co-produced and directed an award-winning independent television series for young people called ‘FishTales[5]’ which was sold to TV Ontario in 1978. The series of thirteen 30 minute programmes was shown in school systems in Canada and the USA, from 1979-1981, with educational booklets produced to accompany each episode. Fishtales was made in partnership with Paulle Clark, who had been assistant to the producer of the film Oedipus The King, and writer Tony Sheer. It was filmed at Fort Bovisand, near Plymouth in Devon, and the team were assisted by the Marine Biological Association. Real - not animated - creatures were shot by the Emmy Award-winning underwater cameraman, Peter Scoones. Jervis-Read had been given advice to use canned music as a soundtrack to the series, but was opposed to the idea. She consulted with her friend Ray Brown, who was equally adamant for her not to do so. Jervis-Read thus hired late-night slots to save costs in the Morgan Earl Sound Studios, Yorkville Avenue in Toronto, and working from the hours of 12 midnight until 3am, young composer Jonathan Goldsmith scored the FishTales TV Series during sproadic sessions over five weeks or so. Goldsmith's memory of the actual recording was that he played keyboards and hired a woodwind player, who variously played flute, piccolo and bass clarinet, with a percussionist involved here and there, and that the recording engineer was Rick Shurman. Fishtales received a number of awards in 1979:
- Information Producers of America Award in Los Angeles
- Silver Medal at the Miami International Film Festival
- The Chris Plaque Award at the Columbus Film Festival
Jervis-Read became dual national whilst living in Canada.
(1979–1989) She assisted with the organisation and running of the Lorimar Films International Feature Film Showcase and Market, at La Costa in California, which presented such films as the then controversial Cruising (1979-1980). Diana returned in to London in 1980, where she became Cultural Representative for Ontario to the UK, and reported to David P. Silcox OC, Deputy Minister of Culture & Communications, Ontario . She covered all art forms and the cultural industries, as well as organising arts exchanges in all disciplines between the UK and Ontario, and worked on several arts projects with Curtis Barlow, Canadian Cultural Counsellor at the Canadian High Commission. In 1986, writer and Brideshead Revisited producer Derek Granger, a Trustee and Board member of the newly formed Crusaid, invited Jervis-Read to be on his events and fundraising committee for the charity, which she was a part of until 1989.
(1989–1992) Back in Toronto again, Jervis-Read freelanced for the Canadian Opera Company; for Arts & Communications Counselors (which later became A&C); and set up Jervis-Read & Beatty International Arts Management for the visual arts, fashion and design with her business partner Linda Belshaw Beatty. This partnership has continued to the present day. Arts & Communications Counselors was founded by Nina Kaiden Wright, and Jervis-Read helped to organise the month-long tour of Canada by the Kirov Ballet in 1989, prior to their US tour. The Jervis-Read & Beatty International Arts Company devised a major international fashion promotion for the Department of Foreign Affairs in Ottawa. Runway Canada was conceived and planned by Jervis-Read & Beatty in 1989 for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Ottawa. This was to promote fashion across Canada by having it featured in international fashion magazines and press. Other Jervis-Read & Beatty projects included organisational aspects for international touring of art and craft exhibitions for Philip Monk, Curator of Contemporary Art at the Art Gallery of Ontario and for Curtis Barlow, by then Cultural Counsellor at the Canadian Embassy in Washington DC. In 1990, Jervis-Read became Deputy Chief of Protocol for Ontario. In this job she helped to organise 71 State Visits and 13 Royal Visits with her protocol team, including the seven day visit by TRH The Prince and Princess of Wales, Prince William and Prince Harry in 1991.
(1993–2006) In 1993, she was back in London to devise and implement a plan for Sotheby’s 250th Anniversary worldwide, working for Luke Rittner CBE, Director of Sotheby’s Corporate Affairs.
Jervis-Read then became Canada’s Cultural Attaché to the UK and Northern Ireland - representing all art forms and the cultural industries, and worked on exchanges and joint ventures. (She worked on very many arts and cultural industry projects, as well as international conferences and touring shows throughout the UK with her team of 7 professional arts officers, and ran Canada House in Trafalgar Square as a Cultural Centre. This included a professional art gallery, performance space, 35mm cinema and library. (1994–2006).
(2006–present) In 2006, Jervis-Read and Sofie Mason set up OffWestEnd.com (OWE) to promote and advance the work of smaller and non-central-London theatres. This led to the launch of the annual Offies Awards from 2010, setting out to create 'The Oliviers of The Fringe', and hosted annually by a variety of theatres in London. Early on, Simon Callow CBE took Jervis-Read and Mason under his wing and, particularly in the early years, was by their side to advise and encourage, give quotes to the press, host events and build profile. Michael Grandage CBE also incentivised the project at its inception with detailed and specific advice in a chance encounter with Diana at an ITI Awards Ceremony, and he later presented the 2014 Adopt A Playwright Award. In 2008, they also set up an arm of OWE to support new writers, raising bursary funds for the OffWestEnd Plays & Playwrights Adopt A Playwright Award. In 2017 the OWE website and Offie Awards were taken over by Geoffrey Brown, whilst Jervis-Read and Mason continue to run Adopt A Playwright.
In 2008, Jervis-Read was proposed to become a Fello of the Royal Society of Arts in 2008 by Dominic Reid OBE, and she was elected to the Chelsea Arts Club in 2018.
Jervis-Read is also an Associate of Intent New Theatre, who produce international theatre projects in war-torn countries. Their current project is in Kosovo.
She continues to work on a variety of international film, music and art projects. Jervis-Read & Beatty are researching and developing an art book entitled The Look Of Canada, featuring the best of historical and contemporary Canadian portraiture from the 18th century to the present.
Recognition and awards[edit]
- ISPAA Special Achievement Award (The International Society of Performing Arts Administrators) (1987)
- Her Majesty The Queen’s Commemorative Golden Jubilee Medal (2002)[6]
References[edit]
- ↑ "BBC News - In Pictures feature". London Life Magazine, 1966 - image: _86041901_10223136 - Diana is in the middle row, centre, in a blue shirt. Archived from the original on 16 October 2015. Retrieved 26 June 2020. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help) - ↑ "Oedipus The King cast list". IMDB.com. Retrieved 26 June 2020. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help) - ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Wilson, Andrew (2007). Harold Robbins: The Man Who Invented Sex. UK: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC. pp. 181, 190. ISBN 0747592659. Search this book on
- ↑ Delaney, About Beauford (2019-10-26). "Les Amis de Beauford Delaney: Diana Isabel Jervis-Read Remembers Beauford". Les Amis de Beauford Delaney. Retrieved 2020-07-24.
- ↑ FishTales (TV Series 1978–1984) - IMDb, retrieved 2021-05-12
- ↑ "Queen Elizabeth II's Golden Jubilee Medal (2002) recipients". The Governor General of Canada. 26 June 2020. Archived from the original on 29 June 2020. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help)
External links[edit]
- http://offwestendplaysandplaywrights.com/
- https://www.intentnewtheatre.org/
- http://www.thisistheatre.com/londonshows/brieflives.html#1969
- https://www.discogs.com/The-Ray-Brown-Orchestra-Music-From-The-Adventurers/master/1375022
- https://www.discogs.com/artist/2681314-Rick-Shurman
- https://www.imdb.com/title/tt14274844/?ref_=fn_tt_tt_5
- https://www.imdb.com/name/nm5196758/?ref_=fn_al_nm_1
- https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3618684/companycredits?ref_=ttfc_sa_3
- https://www.imdb.com/search/title/?companies=co0032567
- https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0164364/?ref_=ttfc_fc_cr26
- https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0790703/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0
- https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3618684/fullcredits/?ref_=tt_ov_st_sm
- https://www.cbc.ca/archives/charles-diana-william-harry-visit-canada-ontario-1991-1.5316289
- https://www.nytimes.com/1988/09/01/arts/kirov-to-dance-in-new-york-after-25-years.html
- https://apnews.com/28ab0bb5ede14ba81c0a34edc8e35fd0
This article "Diana Isabel Jervis-Read" is from Wikipedia. The list of its authors can be seen in its historical and/or the page Edithistory:Diana Isabel Jervis-Read. Articles copied from Draft Namespace on Wikipedia could be seen on the Draft Namespace of Wikipedia and not main one.
