Editing Glenda Jackson (section)

===1957–1968: Rise to prominence ===
In January 1957, Jackson made her professional stage debut in [[Ted Willis]]'s ''Doctor in the House'' at the [[Connaught Theatre]] in [[Worthing]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Bryant |first=Christopher |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/42790640 |title=Glenda Jackson: the biography |date=1999 |publisher=HarperCollins |isbn=0-00-255911-0 |location=London |pages=30, 255 |oclc=42790640}}</ref> This was followed by [[Terence Rattigan]]'s ''[[Separate Tables]]'', while Jackson was still at RADA,<ref name="Peacock">D. Keith Peacock "Jackson, Glenda [May]" in Colin Chambers (ed) ''The Continuum Companion to Twentieth Century Theatre'', London: Continuum, 2002 [2005], p.398.</ref> and she began appearing in repertory theatre.<ref name="Oxford">[http://oxfordindex.oup.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803100015264 "Glenda Jackson (1936– )"], in ''Who's Who in the Twentieth Century'', Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999. {{ISBN|9780192800916}}</ref> She was also a stage manager at Crewe in repertory theatre.<ref name="WHO'S WHO & WHO WAS WHO-2007" />

From 1958 to 1961, Jackson went through a period of two and a half years in which she was unable to find acting work. She unsuccessfully auditioned for the [[Royal Shakespeare Company]] (RSC), and undertook what she later described as "a series of soul-destroying jobs". This included waitressing at [[The 2i's Coffee Bar]], clerical work for a large [[City of London]] firm, answering phones for a theatrical agent, and a role at [[British Home Stores]]. She also worked as a Bluecoat at [[Butlin's Pwllheli]] holiday resort on the [[Llŷn Peninsula]] in [[North West Wales]], where her new husband and fellow actor Roy Hodges was a [[Butlins Redcoats|Redcoat]]. Jackson eventually returned to repertory theatre in [[Dundee]], but worked in bars in between acting jobs.<ref>{{cite book |last=Bryant |first=Christopher |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/42790640 |title=Glenda Jackson: the biography |date=1999 |publisher=HarperCollins |isbn=0-00-255911-0 |location=London |pages=38–42 |oclc=42790640}}</ref>

Jackson made her film debut in a bit part in the [[kitchen sink drama]] ''[[This Sporting Life]]'' (1963). A member of the RSC for four years from 1963, she originally joined for director [[Peter Brook]]'s [[Theatre of Cruelty]] season, which included [[Peter Weiss]]'s ''[[Marat/Sade]]'' (1965), in which she played an inmate of an insane asylum portraying [[Charlotte Corday]], the assassin of [[Jean-Paul Marat]].<ref>{{cite news |first=David |last=Edgar |url=https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2010/jul/18/best-performance-david-edgar-marat-sade |title=The best performance I've ever seen |newspaper=[[The Guardian]] |location=London |date=18 July 2010 |access-date=10 November 2018}}</ref> The production ran on Broadway in 1965 and in Paris<ref name="Oxford" /> (Jackson also appeared in the 1967 [[Marat/Sade (film)|film version]]). She appeared as [[Ophelia]] in [[Peter Hall (director)|Peter Hall]]'s production of ''[[Hamlet]]'' the same year.<ref>{{cite web |title=BBC – Hamlet – Past Productions: 1965 |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/hamlet/past_productions/rsc_stage_1965.shtml |access-date=2 January 2024|publisher=BBC}}</ref> Critic [[Penelope Gilliatt]] thought Jackson was the only Ophelia she had seen who was ready to play [[Prince Hamlet|the Prince himself]].<ref>Penelope Gilliatt. [http://www.criterion.com/current/posts/2524-making-sunday-bloody-sunday "Making ''Sunday Bloody Sunday''"], The Criterion Collection, reprint of Gilliatt's introduction to the US publication of the script (1971).</ref>

The RSC's staging at the [[Aldwych Theatre]] of ''[[US (play)|US]]'' (1966), a protest play against the [[Vietnam War]], also featured Jackson, and she appeared in its film version, ''Tell Me Lies''.<ref>[http://www.rsc.org.uk/about-us/press/releases/peter-brook-returns-to-the-rsc.aspx "Peter Brook Returns to the RSC to Host a Theatre of Protest Event"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150613075605/http://www.rsc.org.uk/about-us/press/releases/peter-brook-returns-to-the-rsc.aspx |date=13 June 2015 }}, RSC, October 2011. A documentary of the stage production also exists, see Stuart Heaney [http://www.screenonline.org.uk/film/id/1379869/index.html "''Benefit of the Doubt'' (1967)"], BFI screenonline</ref> Later that year, she starred in the psychological drama ''[[Negatives (film)|Negatives]]'' (1968), which was not a huge financial success, but won her more good reviews.