Alan Ayckbourn

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Sir Alan Ayckbourn (born 12 April 1939) is a British playwright and producer.

He has written and produced more than seventy full-length plays in Scarborough and London between 1972 and 2009, and it was the artistic director of the Stephen Joseph Theatre in Scarborough, where all but four of his plays have appeared for the first time.

Since being first introduced in the West End, at the Royal National Theatre, or by the Royal Shakespeare Company, more than 40 actors have appeared since his debut at the Duke of York's Theatre in 1969. Absurd Person Singular (1975), Bedroom Farce (1976), A Chorus of Disapproval (1984), Woman in Mind (1985), and Private Fears in Public Places (2004).

His plays have received numerous accolades, including seven London Evening Standard Awards.

They have been translated into over 35 languages and are seen on stage and television around the world.

On Broadway, ten of his plays have been produced, receiving two Tony nominations and one Tony Award.

Life

Ayckbourn was born in Hampstead, London. Irene Worley ("Lolly") (1906-1998), his mother, Irene Worley ("Lolly") (1906–1998), was a writer of short stories who appeared under the title "Mary James." Horace Ayckbourn (1904–1965), his father, was an orchestral violinist and was the lead violinist at the London Symphony Orchestra. His parents, who died soon after World War II, never married, and Ayckbourn's mother divorced her first husband, who married again in 1948.

When he was about 10, Ayckbourn wrote his first play at Wisborough Lodge (a preparatory school in Wisborough Green). His mother notified him she was marrying Cecil Pye, a banker, while at prep school as a boarder. His new family arrived home for the holidays: his mother, his stepfather, Christopher, and his nephew, who was younger than his grandfather by a previous marriage. According to reports, this was also causing problems early on.

Ayckbourn attended Haileybury and Imperial Service College in the village of Hertford Heath, and although not there, the school's Shakespeare company toured Europe and America.

Ayckbourn's career went through various careers before starting a part-time at the Scarborough Library Theatre, where he was introduced to Stephen Joseph, the artistic director. Joseph is said to have been both a mentor and father figure for Ayckbourn until his untimely death in 1967, and Ayckbourn has often praised him.

When he was called for National Service, Ayckbourn's career was briefly interrupted. He was quickly discharged, often for medical reasons, but a doctor who noticed his reluctance to join the Armed Forces deliberately failed the medical as a favor is said to have done so. Despite the fact that Ayckbourn continued to move where his career had taken him, he eventually settled in Scarborough, purchasing Longwestgate House, which had previously been owned by his mentor Joseph.

Ayckbourn married Christine Roland, another staff of the Library Theatre company, in 1957, and Ayckbourn's first two scripts were written jointly with her under the pseudonym "Roland Allen." Steven and Philip had two sons, Steven and Philip. However, the marriage suffered, resulting in their divorce in 1971. Ayckbourn said that his friendship with Roland became straightforward after they agreed that their marriage was over. He began to share a home with Heather Stoney, an actress he had first encountered ten years ago, around this time. Neither Roland nor his mother requested a divorce for the next 30 years, and they only divorced in 1997; Ayckbourn married Stoney. One side-effect of the timing is that, as Ayckbourn was granted a knighthood a few months before his marriage, both his first and second wife were entitled to the title of Lady Ayckbourn.

In February 2006, he suffered a stroke in Scarborough and said, "I want to be back on my feet, or should I say my left leg as soon as possible," but I suspect it will take some time. In the meantime, I'm in excellent hands, as well as the Stephen Joseph Theatre." After eight weeks of returning to directing after six months, but the Stephen Joseph Theatre's artistic director announced that he would step down next year. Ayckbourn, on the other hand, continues to write and direct his own theatre performances.

Interviewers have raised the question whether Ayckbourn's performances are autobiographical since the West End's plays have been established. There is no straightforward answer to this query. There has only been one biography, written by Paul Allen, and this one primarily concerns his time in the theatre. Ayckbourn has often said that he sees aspects of himself in all his characters. For example, in Bedroom Farce (1975), he confessed to being, in certain respects, all four of the guys were present in the drama. Susan in Woman in Mind (1985), Ayckbourn's mother is believed to be the person who is most involved in his performances, particularly as Susan in Woman in Mind.

What is less certain is how much influence events in Ayckbourn's life have had on his writing. It's true that the theme of marriages in various difficulties was prevalent in his early seventies, around the time his own marriage was coming to an end. However, by this time, he had seen the failures of his parents' marriages, as well as those of some of his acquaintances. It's unclear if he stayed on for his characters. In A Chorus of Disapproval (1984), Ayckbourn is briefly compared to Dafydd and Guy. Both characters seem to be in danger, and there is rumors that Ayckbourn himself may have been in danger. He had reportedly become seriously involved with another actress, jeopardizing his friendship with Stoney at the time. However, it is also unknown if this had any effect on the writing, and Paul Allen's argument is that it is not new knowledge that Ayckbourn uses for his scripts.

It could be that Ayckbourn wrote plays with himself and his own concerns in mind, but it is difficult to imagine him revealing his own life in his performances to any significant degree. "If we take that to mean that his plays tell his own life story," Paul Allen wrote in the biography.

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Career

Sir Donald Wolfit's French mastership started immediately after leaving school, with an introduction to him. Ayckbourn was a part of Wolfit on tour as an acting assistant stage manager (which required both acting and stage management) for three weeks, with his first appearance on stage being several parts of The Strong Are Lonely by Fritz Hochwälder. Ayckbourn appeared in six other productions at the Connaught Theatre in Worthing and the Thorndike Theatre in Leatherhead in the ensuing year.

Ayckbourn was employed by director Stephen Joseph at the Library Theatre, Scarborough, the predecessor to the modern Stephen Joseph Theatre. He began as acting stage manager before moving to acting. In 1958, Ayckbourn earned the first professional script commission. Joseph begged him to write a better one after he complained about the consistency of a script he was delivering. The result was The Square Cat, written under the pseudonym Roland Allen and first performed in 1959. Jerry Watiss played him in this play.

Ayckbourn played three of his own at the Library Theatre in 1962, six of them his own, and in 1962, he appeared in a new Vic to help set up the Victoria Theatre, where he appeared in three more eighteen plays. In the tragic children's performance Christmas vs. Mastermind, his last appearance in one of his own productions was as the Crimson Gollywog. In 1964, he left the Stoke company informally to contribute his time to Mr. Whatnot's London production, but apparently because he was having trouble dealing with the artistic director, Peter Cheeseman, he resigned. By now, his writing career had come to an end, and his acting career had been put on hold.

Jerry in Two for the Seesaw by William Gibson at the Civic Theatre in Rotherham was his last appearance on stage. He was left stranded on stage because Heather Stoney, his future wife), was unable to return because her props were not set to be used. He came to the conclusion that acting was more risky than it was worth. Bill Kenwright, the production's assistant stage manager, will be one of the UK's most popular producers.

Ayckbourn's earliest plays were written and performed at a time when regional theatres, as well as most regional theatres, routinely sought out support from their own actors in order to keep costs low (another actor whose work was being licensed was David Campton). His first play, The Square Cat, was sufficiently well known locally to gain more commissions, but not this or the following three performances had a big effect outside of Scarborough. However, after his transfer to Victoria Theatre in Stoke-on-Trent, Christmas vs. Mastermind, which failed and is now commonly regarded as Ayckbourn's biggest tragedy.

Mr. Whatnot, a legend who appeared at the Victoria Theatre in 1963, has returned to life. This was Ayckbourn's first play to be able to perform today, as well as the first play to be able to get a West End performance. However, the West End production flopped due in large part to misguided casting. Ayckbourn experimented with comedy, first writing a monologue for Tommy Cooper and then collaborating with Ronnie Barker, who appeared in the London production of LWT's Hark at Barker in 1964. Because he was under exclusive agreement to the BBC at the time, Ayckbourn used the pseudonym Peter Caulfield.

Meet My Father was first published in 1965 at the Scarborough Library Theatre, later renamed Relatively Speaking. The performance was a huge success both in Scarborough and the West End, earning Alan Ayckbourn a congratulatory telegram from No.l Coward. This was not quite the end of Ayckbourn's hit-and-miss record, since his next game, The Sparrow, was only at Scarborough for three weeks. However, the Other Half Loves, which is the following play, is how the Other Half Loves gained him his runaway success as a playwright.

Absurd Person Singular (1975), Bedroom Farce (1975), and Just Between Ourselves (1976), three plays that emphasized heavily on marriage in the British middle classes, were among Ayckbourn's commercial success. Andrew Lloyd Webber's Jeeves was the only disappointment in this period, but even this did not do anything to dent Ayckbourn's career.

Ayckbourn started to explore other contemporary topics, one of which was Woman in Mind, a play entirely from the viewpoint of a woman going through a nervous breakdown. He also experimented with many more experimental writing styles, including Intimate Exchanges, which has one beginning and sixteen potential endings, and House & Garden, where both performances take place simultaneously on two separate stages, as well as diversifying into children's theater (such as Mr A's Amazing Maze Plays and musical productions, such as By Jeeves (a more effective rewrite of the original Jeeves).

Alan Ayckbourn is one of England's most versatile living playwrights, with a resume of over seventy plays, of which more than forty have performed at the National Theatre or in the West End. Alan Ayckbourn, despite his fame, honors, and awards (which include a coveted Laurence Olivier Award), is largely unknown figure dedicated to regional theatre. All but four of his plays were premiered at the Stephen Joseph Theatre in Scarborough's three different locations during his writing career.

Ayckbourn was granted the CBE in 1987 and was knighted in the 1997 New Year Honours. Alan Ayckbourn is often believed (but not proved) that he is the most well-represented English playwright and the second most staged of all time after Shakespeare.

Although Ayckbourn's plays no longer dominate the theatre scene, he continues to write, his most recent success being Private Fears in Public Places, directed by Alain Resnais, and Private Fears in Public Places, which was his most recent big success, was released in 2006. After suffering from a stroke, there was doubt about whether he would write (If I Were You, the Ayckbourn play premiered immediately after the stroke), but Life and Beth, his first play written afterwards, opened in the summer of 2008. With the first new play under this arrangement, My Wonderful Day, Ayckbourn continues to write for the Stephen Joseph Theatre on invitation of his successor as artistic director Chris Monks. Roundelay opened in September 2014 and the order in which each of the five acts is performed is to be left to chance (allowing 120 potential permutations) with spectators encouraged to remove five coloured ping pong balls from a bag prior to his performance.

Private Fears in Public Places, Intimate Exchanges, My Wonderful Day, and Neighbourhood Watch, among other items in Ayckbourn's annual Brits Off Broadway Festival, include Private Fears, My Wonderful Day, and Neighbourhood Watch.

Even though Ayckbourn is best known for his writing, it is estimated that he only spends 10% of his time on writing plays. The bulk of his time is spent directing.

Ayckbourn began directing at the Scarborough Library Theatre in 1961, with Patrick Hamilton's production of Gaslight. He directed five other plays in Scarborough this year and the following year, as well as the Victoria Theatre in 1963, which performed six others. He only wrote one script in 1964 to 1967 (when a large portion of his time was taken up by various productions of his early years, Mr. Whatnot and Relatively Speaking), but in 1968, he revived regularly directed plays, mainly at Scarborough, but most of which were on Broadway. He has also worked as a radio drama producer for the BBC, based in Leeds at this time.

His writing career was separate from his writing career at first. Ayckbourn directed a play of his own (a revival of Standing Room Only) in 1967, Ayckbourn directed a premiere of his own (The Sparrow). The London premieres remained in the custody of other directors for longer, with his first play written and directed by him in London (Bedroom Farce) being delayed until 1977.

Following Stephen Joseph's death in 1967, the position of Director of Productions was filled on an annual basis. Ayckbourn was on the job in 1969 and 1970, replacing Rodney Wood, but he handed over the responsibility to Caroline Smith in 1971 (having spent most of his time in the United States with How the Other Half Loves). He took over as Director of Productions in 1972, this time on November 12th, the same year, he was named permanent artistic director of the theatre for the first time.

Ayckbourn accepted an invitation to work as a visiting director for two years at the National Theatre in London, form his own company, and produce a play in each of the three auditorias. At least one of the three auditoria produced was a new play of his own in mid-1986. Using a stock firm that included actors like Michael Gambon, Polly Adams, and Simon Cadell. The three actors were able to perform three roles, including Will Evans and Valentine, along with adaptations by Arthur Miller's A View From the Bridge (Cottesloe), his own A Small Family Business (Olivier), and John Ford's 'Tis Pity She's a Whore (Olivier). Ayckbourn also discussed his time as artistic director of the Stephen Joseph Theatre with Robin Herford, then moved to direct the premiere of Henceforward in 1987.

He announced in 1999 that he would stop directing other playwrights' scripts and instead concentrate on his own scripts, the last of which being Rob Shearman's Knights in Plastic Armour in 2002; the only exception being in 2002, when he directed the world premiere of Tim Firth's The Safari Party.

Ayckbourn criticized both this and the West End's treatment of theatre in general, particularly their casting of celebrities in 2002. Though he did not specifically say he would boycott the West End, he did not return to direct in the West End until 2009 with a revival of Woman in Mind (though he did encourage other West End producers to revive Absurd Person Singular in 2007 and The Norman Conquests in 2008).

After Ayckbourn suffered from a stroke in February 2006, he returned to work in September and premiered his 70th play If I Were You at the Stephen Joseph Theatre the following month.

In June 2007, he revealed that after the 2008 season, he would step down as artistic director of the Stephen Joseph Theatre. Chris Monks took over at the start of the 2009-2010 season, but Ayckbourn continued to direct premieres and revivals of his theatre, beginning with How the Other Half Loves in June 2009.

He penned an in-the-round revival of his play Taking Steps at the Orange Tree Theatre in March 2010, gaining international attention.

Ayckbourn produced a musical adaptation and lyrics by Paul James and Eric Angus and Cathy Shostak in July 2014. The performance appeared in The Stephen Joseph Theatre and attracted critical acclaim.

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Honours and awards

• 1973: Evening Standard Award, Best Comedy, for Absurd Person Singular
• 1974: Evening Standard Award, Best Play, for The Norman Conquests
• 1977: Evening Standard Award, Best Play, for Just Between Ourselves
• 1981: Honorary Doctor of Letters degree (Litt.D.) from University of Hull
• 1985: Evening Standard Award, Best Comedy, for A Chorus of Disapproval
• 1985: Laurence Olivier Award, Best Comedy, for A Chorus of Disapproval
• 1986: Freedom of the Borough of Scarborough.
• 1987: Evening Standard Award, Best Play, for A Small Family Business
• 1987: Plays and Players Award
• 1987: Honorary Doctor of Letters degree (Litt.D.) from Keele University
• 1987: Honorary Doctor of Letters degree (Litt.D.) from University of Leeds
• 1987: Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE)
• 1989: Evening Standard Award, Best Comedy, for Henceforward...
• 1990: Evening Standard Award, Best Comedy, for Man of the Moment
• 1997: Knight Bachelor
• 1998: Honorary Doctor of the University degree (D.Univ.) from Open University
• 2008: Induction into the American Theater Hall of Fame
• 2009: Laurence Olivier Special Award
• 2009: The Critics' Circle annual award for Distinguished Service to the Arts
• 2011: Honorary Doctor of Letters degree (Litt.D.) from York St. John University