LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Alan Ayckbourn: Stephen Joseph Theatre
built 172 days ago
Alan Ayckbourn would perhaps regard his greatest achievement to be the establishment of a permanent home for the company of which he has been Artistic Director since 1971 - the Stephen Joseph Theatre. Six years of fundraising and hard work, culminated in the opening on 30th April 1996 of a splendid two auditoria arts complex. Fashioned from a former Odeon cinema, it stands in the centre of Scarborough and is the realisation of a 40 year dream.
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Alan Ayckbourn was born in London in 1939 and has worked in theatre all his life. Before establishing himself as a writer and director, Alan worked in roles as various as stage manager, sound technician, lighting technician, scene painter, prop maker and actor. He always claims that most of these talents he developed with the help of Stephen Joseph, his mentor and founder of the Theatre in Scarborough who first encouraged him to write. One of Alan’s greatest achievements has been the establishment of a permanent home for the company of which he has been artistic director since 1972 – the Stephen Joseph Theatre. This splendid two-auditoria arts complex opened in 1996.
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As well as writing, Ayckbourn ... acts as director, both of his own plays and of other writers. In 1987 he directed four works in each of the auditoria of the Royal National Theatre, using a stock company for all four plays which included established performers like Michael Gambon, Polly Adams and Simon Caddell. Arthur Miller's A View From the Bridge was performed in the Cottesloe, the farce "Tons of Money" by Will Evans and Valentine (with adaptations by Ayckbourn) was performed in the Lyttleton, 'Tis Pity She's A Whore was performed in the Olivier and his own A Small Family Business was also performed in the Olivier. Ayckbourn later directed Gambon in a season at the Stephen Joseph theatre in Scarborough that included Othello and a revival of his own Taking Steps.
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Ayckbourn began his theatrical career as an actor working in repertory at Edinburgh, Worthing, and Oxford. He was a founder member of the Victoria Theatre, Stoke-on-Trent, in 1962 and, after several years in Leeds as a BBC radio drama producer (1964-1970), he became artistic director of the Stephen Joseph Theatre in Scarborough.
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Generally speaking, the first port of call when buying Ayckbourn playtexts should be the Stephen Joseph Theatre Shop (details below) as it keeps a complete collection of published Ayckbourn scripts in stock at all times. Their prices are kept at the recommended retail price, the shop does not charge a sourcing fee and does ship internationally.
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In 1994, the Stephen Joseph Theatre In The Round began advertising Alan Ayckbourn’s latest play: Private Fears In Public Places. Which he had not yet written. Nor was he going to write in the immediate future. Alan apparently had two ideas for Private Fears and neither came to anything during the writing process. What emerged instead was a totally different play, Communicating Doors. A play which would veer away from the darker pieces of recent years and would be unashamedly entertaining, slightly scary and a recognisable tribute to many of Alan’s favourite films.
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Stephen Joseph Theatre