The History of the Darling Theater CompanyThis theater company began in 1979 when a famous old London theater went bankrupt and the owners of the building attempted to sell it to property developers. George Darling, a well-known stage actor, launched a campaign to save the theater and, with the help of many famous friends in the acting world, built strong public support for maintaining the building as a theater. However no existing theater company was in a position to take over the building and the owners suggested that George Darling use his contacts to set up his own company. After a vigorous fundraising campaign, enough money was raised to save the theater and establish the Darling Theater Company. Actors and actresses who had contributed to the campaign agreed to appear in Darling's productions for a fraction of their normal fee, but were only interested in appearing in classical stage productions rather than commercial productions, thus the company's policy from the start was to stage the classics for short periods of three to six weeks so that there were about ten new productions each year. full-time staff as possible, hiring directors, set designers, technical crews and actors only for each production and, subsidizing less popular works with successful performances, often by Chekhov ("He's the Monet of the theatre," George would say, "everyone loves him" ) managed to break even in the first few years. However, in the mid-1980s, the company fell on hard times and George was forced to find extra financing to survive. When his application for an Arts Council grant was rejected, he turned to sponsorship and found he was good at persuading wealthy companies to support his productions. The key to this, he soon realized, was providing company executives with access to famous actors and actresses, and while there were protests about these "extra performances", George usually managed to argue that the company would not could have survived otherwise. -five years the company's administrative procedures have been primitive and chaotic. George was only interested in the artistic side of the business and had little or no concern for practicality, but his personal charm was so great that the staff were willing to put up with the constant problems caused by poorly defined procedures and non-existent communication. Then, in the new century, George's health began to fail and he was often not present to resolve confusions and disputes. Furthermore, the rules regulating theaters and public shows and the hiring of part-time workers