There is not much that Rupert Rhymes OBE doesn't know about the theatre business. He has not only been the Chief Executive of SOLT (The Society of London Theatre, which is the trade association that unites West End theatre owners, producers and managers) and of the TMA (Theatrical Management Association which covers theatre and touring managements countrywide) but Chairman of the Theatres Trust, the Bristol Old Vic and the Oxford Stage Company and in 2002 was given a special Olivier Award.
Other roles have ranged from being a trustee of the Peggy Ramsay Foundation to a judge for this year's Theatre Book Prize. On his retirement from theatre management, he founded the Rupert Rhymes Bursaries for recipients to undertake projects in theatre production or management.
Rupert Rhymes's career has taken him from box office to theatre administrator, working for Sir Laurence Olivier and Lord Harewood. It has been a life of dealing with personalities and politics and he has survived it. Now he is going to talk about it: the thrills and the problems, the people and the passions in conversation with former theatre manager Barry Sheppard.
This takes place next Thursday 22 March as part of the Society for Theatre Research's programme of talks. Anyone can attend and it is free.
The venue is the Swedenborg Hall in Bloomsbury Way, Holborn—though the entrance is a few yards down Barter Street. It starts at 7.30pm.