My mother, Diana Edwardes, who has died aged 98, was the founder and director of the West Kent Youth Theatre, and taught English for many years at Tunbridge Wells girls’ grammar school.
She had started out on the London stage in the years after the second world war, having trained at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York, but working in the theatre became more challenging after she moved with her husband to Tonbridge in Kent. There she became involved in various amateur companies as well as directing two seasons for the professional Penguin Players in Tunbridge Wells.
After running a series of workshops for young people, and following an encounter with the National Youth Theatre founder Michael Croft, Diana set up the West Kent Youth Theatre in 1965, providing opportunities for local teenagers, with a wide-ranging choice of plays, including The Fair Maid of the West, The Caucasian Chalk Circle and Arc, for which she co-wrote the book and lyrics. The company toured local schools and theatres and won invitations to play in London, at the Minack theatre in Cornwall, and in Belgium, the Netherlands and the US. Diana’s determination and energy kept it going for over 25 years. She was appointed MBE in 1983.
Having trained as a teacher as a mature student, from 1973 to 1991 Diana taught English at Tunbridge Wells girls’ grammar, becoming head of department. She co-wrote a volume in a series of drama education books called Ideas in Action. She also qualified as an adjudicator and judged drama festivals.
In the 1990s, she turned her attention to writing and directing community theatre, the climax of which was Celebration (1993), telling the story of Sevenoaks and the surrounding villages, and performed outside in Knole Park with a cast of 599 actors, 11 horses, two dogs, and over 100 technicians. Thousands turned out to see the show over three balmy evenings.
Diana was born in Cape Town, South Africa, the only daughter of Gladys (nee Borthwick), a university biology lecturer, and Frederick A Rimer, an accountant. She was seven years old when her parents divorced, and she never saw her mother again. After Herschel girls’ school, Diana started studying for an English degree at the University of Cape Town before crossing the Atlantic by boat during the war to Argentina at 17, from where she flew to New York to take up her place at drama school.
On graduating, she was cast in a Broadway play only to discover that her student visa prevented her from performing professionally. Instead, she moved to London, where she sang at the Players’ theatre and joined the original Young Vic company under George Devine, Glen Byam Shaw and Michel Saint-Denis. Saint-Denis picked her out as a potential director and took her under his wing.
Shortly afterwards, she met Paul Edwardes, an industrial engineer and fellow South African, who had been awarded the MC during the war, and they married in 1948, moving to Kent in 1952.
In her 80s, Diana began creating shows for community centres and old peoples’ homes. A Pocketful of Hops, based on the experiences of East Enders who came to Kent to pick hops, was a favourite.
Paul died in 1987. Diana is survived by her children, Simon, Pamela and me, her three grandchildren, Joe, Paul and Esther, and three great-grandchildren.
