Ask The Archivist is a regular feature allowing you to put your Alan Ayckbourn related questions to the playwright's archivist Simon Murgatroyd.
If you have a question regarding any aspect of Alan's work, email it to: ayckbourn@gmail.com (labelled Ask The Archivist) and we'll publish any interesting questions.
Question: With the announcement that Alan Ayckbourn will direct Sugar Daddies at the ACT in Seattle in 2013, I wondered how many plays Alan Ayckbourn has specifically directed in North America - as opposed to tours or transfers from the UK.
Answer: Although productions of Alan Ayckbourn's plays have been taking place in North America since 1970 and Alan's own productions have also toured to the USA, there are only four plays he has specifically directed for North American venues.
The first was in February 1982 when Alan Ayckbourn toured his Scarborough company to the Alley Theatre in Houston. The company performed two plays, the first was Way Upstream and this was a transfer of the Scarborough production which had opened the previous October. Of interest here is that he also directed the same company whilst in Houston in a production of Absent Friends. This was directed specifically for the Alley Theatre and was performed nowhere else.
The Alley Theatre was also host to Alan's second specific production when in 1987 he directed Henceforward... at the venue. The play had premiered in Scarborough in July and less than three months later, he opened an entirely new production of the play in Houston. The cast featured George Segal and Judy Geeson and was again only seen at the Alley Theatre.
The third play was By Jeeves - although this had a convoluted production history. After the play's premiere at Scarborough in 1996 and following its London premiere, Alan was invited by the Goodspeed Opera House to direct an American premerie at the Norma Terris Theater, Chester, Connecticut, in 1996. This featured John Scherer as Bertie Wooster and, initially, Malcolm Sinclair reprising his Scarborough role as Jeeves. This production became the basis for several further productions of the play, directed by Alan in various venues (and for television), until it opened in Broadway at the Helen Hayes Theater in 2001.
The final play - as of writing - will be Sugar Daddies, which Alan will specifically direct for the ACT in Seattle in 2013, with the play expected to run during September / October. This will also mark the professional North American premiere of the play, which was first produced in Scarborough in 2003.
Of course, Alan has transferred productions from the UK to the USA and directed them in the USA (such as Bedroom Farce (1979), Way Upstream (1982), Communicating Doors (1994), Private Fears In Public Places (2005), Intimate Exchanges (2007), My Wonderful Day (2009), Neighbourhood Watch (2011)), but the four plays discussed above remain the only ones to have been specially produced by Alan for American venues.
To submit your question to Ask The Archivist, email Simon Murgatroyd at: ayckbourn@gmail.com labelled Ask The Archivist.
