Editing Ewan MacColl (section)

==Acting career==
In 1931, with other unemployed members of the Clarion Players he formed an [[agit-prop]] theatre group, the "Red Megaphones". During 1934 they changed the name to "Theatre of Action" and not long after were introduced to a young actress recently moved up from London. This was [[Joan Littlewood]] who became MacColl's wife and work partner. In 1936, after a failed attempt to move to London, the couple returned to [[Manchester]], and formed the Theatre Union. In 1940 a performance of ''The Last Edition''&nbsp;– a 'living newspaper'&nbsp;– was halted by the police and MacColl and Littlewood were bound over for two years for breach of the peace. The necessities of wartime brought an end to Theatre Union. MacColl enlisted in the [[British Army]] during July 1940, but deserted in December. Why he did so, and why he was not prosecuted after the war, remain a mystery.<ref name="BBC"/> In an interview in June 1987, he said that he was expelled for "anti-fascist activity".<ref name="LastInterview23">{{cite book |last1=Moore |first1=Allan F |last2=Vacca|first2=Giovanni |date=2014 |title=Legacies of Ewan MacColl: The Last Interview|location=Farnham, Surrey |publisher=Ashgate Publishing Ltd. |page=23 |isbn=978-1-4094-2430-7}}</ref> Allan Moore and Giovanni Vacca wrote that MacColl had been subject to ''Special Observation'' whilst in the King's Regiment, owing to his political views, and that the records show that, rather than being discharged, he was declared a deserter on 18 December 1940.<ref name="LastInterview23"/>

In 1946, members of Theatre Union and others formed [[Theatre Workshop]] and spent the next few years touring, mostly in the north of England. In 1945, Miller changed his name to Ewan MacColl (influenced by the [[Lallans]] movement in Scotland).{{clarify|date=December 2014}}<ref name="Oxford"/><ref name="Seeger"/>

In the Theatre Union roles had been shared, but now, in Theatre Workshop, they were more formalised. Littlewood was the sole producer and MacColl the [[dramaturge]], art director and resident dramatist. The techniques that had been developed in the Theatre Union now were refined, producing the distinctive form of theatre that was the hallmark of Joan Littlewood's Theatre Workshop, as the troupe was later known. They were an impoverished travelling troupe, but were making a name for themselves.{{Citation needed|date=December 2012}}