LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Alan Ayckbourn: Scarborough Company
built 215 days ago
In 1957, Ayckbourn took a position with the Stephen Joseph Company in Scarborough. This experimental theater-in-the-round troupe specialized in so-called "underground" dramatic techniques. Originally, Ayckbourn was hired as a bit player and assistant stage manager. Like a lot of young actors... he began to lobby for bigger and better parts. Stephen Joseph, the leader of the company, thought Ayckbourn had more potential as a writer than an actor. He appealed to the actor's vanity.
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Alan is ... committed to theatre-in-the-round, for which he has written the vast majority of his plays. It is always worth remembering that when he stages a play in London or any are performed in the proscenium arch, it is a step away from the author’s original intention. It has frequently been stated that the definitive production of Alan’s plays is the premiere production in the round in Scarborough.
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B[E]tween The Lines is a second retrospective of music composed by Alan Ayckbourn and Paul Todd. However, Alan had little to do with this production and is credited solely as lyricist (a clause in the contract states Alan must be referred to only as lyricist to prevent the show being billed as Alan Ayckbourn’s Between The Lines). The show was a re-write of an earlier collection of Alan and Paul Todd’s work by Todd entitled Todd on Ayckbourn On Song. For Between The Lines, Paul wrote the book which loosely revolves around a love-triangle. The show has never been produced in Scarborough and was created after Paul Todd had stopped working with Alan at the Stephen Joseph Theatre In The Round.
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In 1957, Ayckbourn employed by the director Stephen Joseph as an acting stage manager (a stage manager with acting roles) at the Library Theatre, Scarborough. In 1959 he played Stanley in Harold Pinter's self-directed second production of The Birthday Party.
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Alan continued to act and write for the Studio Theatre Company in Scarborough until 1962 when he was involved in the formation of the Victoria Theatre, Stoke-on-Trent, with Stephen Joseph and Peter Cheeseman. He premiered two plays there,
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The short answer is that Ayckbourn, who is now 68, first came to Scarborough as an 18-year-old actor in 1957, liked it and stayed. The longer answer is that Scarborough is where his mentor, the theatrical pioneer Stephen Joseph, founded the theatre-in-the-round that was to become Ayckbourn's spiritual home.
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