Art of Giving Geoffrey Johnson: A Noël Coward Thank-You Before Geoffrey Johnson ’55 was the casting director behind some of Broadway’s biggest and longest-running hits—including
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Cats, Phantom of the Opera, and Les Misérables—he was the New York representative and longtime friend of Noël Coward. After meeting by chance when Geoffrey subbed in as stage manager during the auditions for Coward’s Sail Away in 1961, they built a professional and personal relationship that lasted until Coward’s death in 1973.
Last spring Geoffrey donated his collection of Coward’s paintings, photographs, and prints to Yale School of Drama to be auctioned in support of a new scholarship, The Geoffrey Ashton Johnson/ Noël Coward Scholarship, for students in the acting program. The collection was a part of the English and Irish contemporary art auction at Christie’s in London last July. “My motivation for the scholarship is a simple thank-you for the three years I spent at the Drama School,” says Geoffrey. “My initial exposure to the theatre there was outstanding. All I learned about the importance of drama from my superb acting coach Constance Welch (Former Faculty) and the entire faculty has stayed with me throughout my career. My classmates Sue Ann Gilfillan Converse ’55 and Carol Thompson Hemingway ’55 are still very close to me, and I see them and talk with them often about the happy New Haven days.” The scholarship is an opportunity for Geoffrey to honor Noël Coward. In reminiscing about Coward, he says, “He was always brilliant, quick, and witty, of course. However, at the same time, he was caring and considerate with very few exceptions.” Their friendship exposed Geoffrey to, in his words, “almost every major talent in the hemisphere.” The experiences, lessons, and relationships of those years with Coward served him well in the three-decade long career as a New York
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