Bust

This bust is of the Dutch-born theatre impresario and drama critic Jacob Thomas (J. T.) Grein ("Jack") (1862-1935) who moved to London in 1885 and became a naturalized British subject in 1895. Perhaps his greatest contribution to the modern theatre was the founding the Independent Theatre Society in 1891 for the private production of plays which otherwise would not have received the Lord Chamberlain's pfficial license. Their first production was Henrik Ibsen's Ghosts in 1891, and in 1892 the Society produced George Bernard Shaw's Widower's Houses, the first production of a Shaw play. Grein married Alice Grein in 1904; she later wrote and edited a biography of him under the pseudonym Michael Orme.