Alan Ayckbourn's Official Website receives a constant stream of enquiries about the playwrights and his plays, but some questions do crop up a bit more frequently than the rest.
Today, the blog looks at the top five queries to the website.
1) How do I pronounce Ayckbourn?
Ayckbourn is pronounced Ache-born (Ache rhyming with wake).
2) When and where was Alan Ayckbourn born?
Alan Ayckbourn was born on 12 April 1939 in Hampstead in London
3) Is Alan Ayckbourn the second most performed playwright in the UK / World after Shakespeare?
No. And if anyone says differently, ask them to provide empirical evidence to prove it. The issue is explored in depth here.
4) How many plays has Alan Ayckbourn written?
As of January 2015, Alan Ayckbourn has written 79 full length plays. The 79th and latest, Hero's Welcome, will premiere at the Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, in September 2015.
In addition, Alan Ayckbourn has also written 11 revues, 4 one-act plays, 2 plays for performance by young people, 2 plays for pre-school children, 5 adaptations of work by other authors, 1 screenplay and 1book.
5) Will Alan Ayckbourn read / advise on my play-scripts?
Alan Ayckbourn no longer accepts script submissions. Whilst Artistic Director at the Stephen Joseph Theatre, he spent 37 years reading and evaluating scripts (and five years at the BBC between 1965 and 1970 doing the same) as well as advising writers. With his retirement as Artistic Director in 2009, he felt it was time to pass the torch onto others so that he could understandably concentrate completely on his own writing and directing for the first time.
With regard to advice to writers and directors, he sincerely feels that everything he has to say on the subject can be found in his book The Crafty Art Of Playmaking (Faber, 2002) which is available via the website shop and many libraries.
Actually, there is another frequently asked question but we answered that last month (click here to read) to all the enquiries about the television adaptations of Alan Ayckbourn's plays being available to buy.
You can contact Alan Ayckbourn's website at www.alanayckbourn.net with your Ayckbourn related questions via the Contact page.
