Daniel Hyatt

Early life

Daniel Hyatt, the youngest of five children, was born in Toronto. His father, an electrical engineer, pursued what work was available during the 1930s depression at various locations in Ontario and the United States. After his father's death in 1942, he and his mother settled in Toronto, and he attended North Toronto Collegiate.

As a teenager he was a member of the Deer Park Players, an amateur church group in Toronto that did ambitious productions of the classics. He performed in “The Merchant of Venice,” “Romeo and Juliet,” “Hamlet,” “Twelfth Night,” and “She Stoops to Conquer.” Influenced by the one man shows of British actor Dicksen Kenwin then living in Toronto, he became interested in solo theatrical performance.

His family could not afford university tuition fees, so he attended Ryerson College taking the Radio Course. Over the next years he worked at CKPR in Fort William (Thunder Bay), then in Toronto at CKFH, and later at CHUM.

Acting career

The next stage of his career began when he was engaged by the Earle Grey Festival Company, a precursor of the Ontario Stratford Festival, for their Summer Shakespeare Festivals in Toronto and Fall Tours. Among other parts he performed the roles of Sebastian in “The Tempest,” Hortensio in “The Taming of the Shrew,” and Horatio in “Hamlet”.

In the 1956-57 season he traveled to England, performing solo shows at the Arts Club Theatre in London and receiving encouragement and advice from Dame Flora Robson. On his return to Toronto he pursued voice studies with Clara Salisbury Baker, and later with Gladys Shibley Mitchell, eventually sitting for the Licentiate exam in Speech Arts and Drama with Trinity College, London. While working in radio he interviewed such celebrities as Ethel Waters, Sophie Tucker, Jeanette MacDonald, Arthur Rubinstein and Lauritz Melchior. It was after interviewing Melchior in New York (an interview subsequently aired on CBC Radio) that the heldentenor gave him the contacts which led to him having a New York agent for his solo shows. He stayed under New York management for ten years, living part of each year on Long Island.

In 1970 CHCH Television asked for twelve half-hour programs of material from the solo “A Company of One” shows he was performing in the United States. These were broadcast in 1971. It was also 1971 that he had his first European tour – eleven shows in Switzerland, including Lucerne, Basel, and St Gall, and five in the Soviet Union including Moscow (Tchaikovsky Hall), and Leningrad (Philharmonic Hall). Over the next ten years there would be three more European tours.

Solo shows

His solo work consisted of programs of poetry, prose, and excerpts from plays, sometimes playing two or more characters. He also programed selections from French and German literature, e.g. from Goethe's “Egmont,” and Rostand's “Cyrano de Bergerac.”

The core of these solo programs was often a short story, and he became skilled in adapting and performing these—such stories as Virginia Woolf's “The Duchess and the Jeweler,” Katherine Mansfield's “The Doll's House,” Willa Cather's “A Wagner Matinee,” Eva Ibbotson's “The Great Carp Ferdinand,” Truman Capote's “A Christmas Memory,” and Somerset Maugham's “The Voice of the Turtle.”

For Europe he was sometimes requested to create programs featuring a single author, most notably, “Mad, Bad and Dangerous to Know” from Byron's letters and poems, and “Browning Portraits,” a selection of the dramatic monologues.

Company work

In Canada he kept up his company work, appearing in “The Unreasonable Act of Julian Waterman” (Julian Waterman), “Endgame” (Hamm), “L'Auberge des Morts Subites” (L'Anglais), “The Imaginary Invalid” (Argan), “Move Over Mrs Markham” (Ronald), “Absurd Person Singular” (Ronald), “Painting Churches” (Gardner Church), “The Gin Game” (Weller), and “Jacob's Wake” (Skipper), to name just a few. He worked with artists such as Virginia Reh, Jane Kean, Patricia Delves, Gerald Lenton, and Marion Gilsenan, and appeared in such theatres as The Citadel Theatre (Edmonton), Hamilton Place, and in Toronto, The Colonnade Theatre, and The Saint Lawrence Centre.

Music

He was classically trained in voice and piano, and music was always important in his career, from his early work in amateur variety shows as host and singer, to his late career cabaret-style performances of entertainment style music from the nineteen-twenties, thirties, and forties, with Clare Pengelly at the piano.

He created the spoken role of “He” in Michael J. Rudman's opera “Fall Legend,” and appeared in the Canadian Opera Company's production of Ambroise Thomas's opera “Hamlet” in the mime role of the Player King.

He championed the revival of works specifically written for spoken voice with instrumental accompaniment. With composer-pianist Michael J. Rudman he researched and performed many such compositions including works by Mozart, Schubert, Schumann, Liszt, Richard Strauss, and Sibelius, as well as commissioning and premiering new works. With orchestra or instrumental ensemble he performed Stravinsky's “L'Histoire du Soldat,” Walton's “Facade,” and Rudman's “Merton Triptych.”

Later life

Daniel's health finally broke down from the diabetes he'd suffered from for most of his adult life, and he had to retire from professional work, though he continued acting. For years he'd given Christmas Shows as fund-raisers for the historic Toronto house, The Grange; now he decided to give Christmas Shows in private homes. Some of his finest performances were in these shows. His last solo show in public, in May 2006, included selections from his long career. In August 2015 he suffered a series of strokes and died at Kensington Hospice in Toronto.