Alan Ayckbourn Quotes

Sir Alan Ayckbourn is a prolific British playwright and director. He has written and produced more than seventy full-length plays in Scarborough and London and was, between 1972 and 2009, the artistic director of the Stephen Joseph Theatre in Scarborough, where all but four of his plays have received their first performance. More than 40 have subsequently been produced in the West End, at the Royal National Theatre or by the Royal Shakespeare Company since his first hit Relatively Speaking opened at the Duke of York's Theatre in 1969.

Major successes include Absurd Person Singular , The Norman Conquests trilogy , Bedroom Farce , Just Between Ourselves , A Chorus of Disapproval , Woman in Mind , A Small Family Business , Man Of The Moment , House & Garden and Private Fears in Public Places . His plays have won numerous awards, including seven London Evening Standard Awards. They have been translated into over 35 languages and are performed on stage and television throughout the world. Ten of his plays have been staged on Broadway, attracting two Tony nominations, and one Tony award. Wikipedia  

✵ 12. April 1939
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Famous Alan Ayckbourn Quotes

“Plays by Alan Ayckbourn have been attracting larger audiences in the regional theatres than those of Shakespeare.”

Press release by the Arts Council of Great Britain, November 2, 1983.
This is said to be the source of the common, but unsubstantiated, statement that Ayckbourn is the second most performed playwright after Shakespeare. http://biography.alanayckbourn.net/BiographyFAQPopularity.htm
Criticism

“Few women care to be laughed at and men not at all, except for large sums of money.”

Preface to The Norman Conquests (New York: Grove Press, [1975] 1988) p. 11.

“The darker the subject, the more light you must try to shed on the matter. And vice versa.”

The Crafty Art of Playwriting (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003) p. 3.

“A comedy is just a tragedy interrupted, I once said. Do you finish with the kiss or when she opens her eyes to tell him she loves him and sees blonde hairs on his collar?”

"A Crash Course in Playwriting" (1993) http://education.alanayckbourn.net/EducationInterviewsPlaywriting.htm.

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