first performance as Hamlet in 1930 became the first Old Vic production to be transferred to the West End for a run. Baylis scored a casting coup in 1933 by featuring Charles Laughton at the theatre after he had become a worldwide name in the film The Private Life of Henry VIII. To exploit the audiences' interest in the film, she cast Laughton as Shakespeare's Henry VIII. Recognition and death Baylis was awarded an honorary master's degree from Oxford University for her work in the theatre in 1924, only the fourth such honour to be given to a woman by the university. In 1929 she was made a Companion of Honour (CH) for service to the nation. In 1934 Birmingham University awarded Baylis an honorary doctorate. A Greater London Council blue plaque commemorates Baylis at her home, 27 Stockwell Park Road in Stockwell, South London. and the Lilian Baylis Technology School, Kennington is so named in her honour. After a long illness, Baylis died of a heart attack on 25 November 1937, aged 63 in Lambeth, South London, the night before the Old Vic was to open a production of Macbeth starring Laurence Olivier and Judith Anderson. She was cremated at East London Cemetery and Crematorium, where her ashes were scattered at her request. There is a memorial plaque for Lilian Baylis at the Actors' Church, St Paul's, in the heart of Covent Garden. Influence In 1985, English National Opera created an education and outreach department, naming it the Baylis Programme called in Lilian Baylis's honour. The Baylis Programme (now called ENO Baylis) was led for ten years by its founder directors Rebecca Meitlis and David Sulkin. Subsequent directors included Steve Moffitt and Alice King-Farlow. In the Lilian Baylis tradition the work of ENO Baylis focusses on those who are new to opera. It involves around 12,000 people every year in a wide range of projects, events, courses and performances, with a goal of developing creative responses to opera and music theatre; making new work with communities and exploring individual creativity as a means of providing access to ENO's productions; and encouraging learning and development through participation of artists and collaboration of resources. The current Sadler's Wells Theatre contains a 200-seat theatre named after her, and the National Theatre has a Lilian Baylis Terrace. The upper circle in the Old Vic is called the Lilian Baylis Circle. A building in