Young Vic the entire faculty resigned from the Old Vic, but in 1969 Frank Dunlop became founder-director of The Young Vic theatre with his free adaptation of Molière's "The Cheats of Scapin", presented at the new venue as a National Theatre production, opening on 11 September 1970 and starring Jim Dale in the title role with designs by Carl Toms (decor) and Maria Bjornson (costumes). Initially part of the National Theatre, the Young Vic Theatre became an independent body in 1974. In the words of Laurence Olivier, then director of the National Theatre: "Here we think to develop plays for young audiences,
Val May Peterhouse, Cambridge before studying at the London Old Vic Theatre School under Michel Saint-Denis. His national service was in the Royal Navy. Val May's first professional engagement was in 1950, when he directed Jean Cocteau's "The Typewriter" at the Watergate Theatre in London. He spent three years at the Dundee Repertory Theatre as assistant to the artistic director and became artistic director of the Ipswich Theatre in 1953. From 1957 to 1961 he was artistic director of the Nottingham Playhouse. May directed the London Old Vic's production of "Richard II" in 1959. Also in 1959, the Nottingham company's production of