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: admin@alanayckbourn.net (labelled Ask The Archivist) and we'll publish any interesting questions.
Question: This is actually a frequently asked question - where can I find an official biography of Alan Ayckbourn which I can reproduce in a programme for a amateur / professional / school productions of an Ayckbourn play?
Answer: A free to reproduce and regularly updated short biography for Alan Ayckbourn can be found in the Biography section at www.alanayckbourn.net here. This approved piece can be reprinted and reproduced providing it is credited to: 'Alan Ayckbourn's Official Website: www.alanayckbourn.net.'
The Biography section of the website also has a more extensive biography which can also be reproduced providing the author and www.alanayckbourn.net are credited.
The current biography for Alan Ayckbourn can be found below and this is designed specifically for publication in 2013.
Alan Ayckbourn
Writer / Director
2013 marks Alan’s 52nd year as a theatre director and his 54th as a playwright. He has spent his life in theatre, rarely if ever tempted by television or film, which perhaps explains why he continues to be so prolific. To date he has written 77 plays and his work has been translated into over 35 languages, is performed on stage and television throughout the world and has won countless awards.
Major successes include: Relatively Speaking, How the Other Half Loves, Absurd Person Singular, Bedroom Farce, A Chorus of Disapproval and The Norman Conquests. The National Theatre recently revived his 1980 play Season’s Greetings to great acclaim and the past year alone has seen West End productions of Absent Friends and A Chorus Of Disapproval. In 2009, he retired as artistic director of the Stephen Joseph, where almost all his plays have been and continue to be first staged. Holding the post for 37 years, he still feels that perhaps his greatest achievement was the establishment of this company’s first permanent home when the two auditoria complex fashioned from a former Odeon Cinema opened in 1996.
In recent years, he has been inducted into American Theatre’s Hall of Fame, received the 2010 Critics’ Circle Award for Services to the Arts and became the first British playwright to receive both Olivier and Tony Special Lifetime Achievement Awards. He was knighted in 1997 for services to the theatre.
Reproduced with permission from Alan Ayckbourn's Official Website www.alanayckbourn.net.
To submit your question to Ask The Archivist, email Simon Murgatroyd at: admin@alanayckbourn.net labelled Ask The Archivist.
