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Garrick Theatre (Stockport)
Stockport Garrick Theatre is a theatre in Stockport, Greater Manchester, England, founded in 1901 and in 1904 obtained its own premises in Cobden Place, Wellington Street. It is the oldest "little theatre" in the United Kingdom, being defined as being an amateur theatre that owns, leases or otherwise has control of its own premises. Foundation and early years In the summer and autumn of 1901, the drama group that was based at the Stockport Unitarian Sunday School on Petersgate was rehearsing a production of '' The Merchant of Venice''. The church organist who was also directing the production and who was a qualified engineer, Edwin T. Heys, decided that to avoid the tortuous trek through the church on the floor above the playing space to get from one wing to the other, the solution would be to dig a tunnel under the stage. This he and his headstrong colleagues proceeded to do until the excavations were discovered by the authorities and put a stop to. The incensed actors gath ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stockport
Stockport is a town and borough in Greater Manchester, England, south-east of Manchester, south-west of Ashton-under-Lyne and north of Macclesfield. The River Goyt and Tame merge to create the River Mersey here. Most of the town is within the boundaries of the historic county of Cheshire, with the area north of the Mersey in the historic county of Lancashire. Stockport in the 16th century was a small town entirely on the south bank of the Mersey, known for the cultivation of hemp and manufacture of rope. In the 18th century, it had one of the first mechanised silk factories in the British Isles. Stockport's predominant industries of the 19th century were the cotton and allied industries. It was also at the centre of the country's hatting industry, which by 1884 was exporting more than six million hats a year; the last hat works in Stockport closed in 1997. Dominating the western approaches to the town is Stockport Viaduct. Built in 1840, its 27 brick arches carry the mai ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
A Little Night Music
''A Little Night Music'' is a Musical theatre, musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and book by Hugh Wheeler. Inspired by the 1955 Ingmar Bergman film ''Smiles of a Summer Night'', it involves the romantic lives of several couples. Its title is a literal English translation of the German name for Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Mozart's Serenade No. 13, Köchel catalogue, K. 525, ''Eine kleine Nachtmusik''. The musical includes the popular song "Send In the Clowns", written for Glynis Johns. Since its original 1973 Broadway theatre, Broadway production, the musical has enjoyed professional productions in the West End theatre, West End, by opera companies, in a 2009 Broadway revival, and elsewhere, and it is a popular choice for regional groups. It was A Little Night Music (film), adapted for film in 1977, with Harold Prince directing and Elizabeth Taylor, Len Cariou, Lesley-Anne Down, and Diana Rigg starring. Synopsis Act One The setting is Sweden, around the year 1900. O ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Simon Stephens
Simon Stephens (born 6 February 1971) is an English playwright and Professor of Scriptwriting at Manchester Metropolitan University. Having taught on the Young Writers' Programme at the Royal Court Theatre for many years, he is now an Artistic Associate at the Lyric Hammersmith. He is the inaugural Associate Playwright of Steep Theatre Company, Chicago, where four of his plays, ''Harper Regan,'' ''Motortown'', ''Wastwater'', and ''Birdland'' had their U.S. premieres. His writing is widely performed throughout Europe and, along with Dennis Kelly and Martin Crimp, he is one of the most performed English-language writers in Germany. Life Originally from Stockport, Greater Manchester, Stephens graduated from the University of York with a degree in History. After university, he lived in Edinburgh for several years, where he met his future wife Polly, before later completing a PGCE at the Institute of Education. He worked as a teacher for a few years, before quitting to become a pr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Joe Penhall
Joe Scott Penhall (born 1967) is an English-Australian playwright and screenwriter, best known for his award-winning stage play '' Blue/Orange'', the award-winning West End musical ''Sunny Afternoon'' and creating the Netflix original series ''Mindhunter''. Early life Penhall was born in London, and raised in Melbourne, Australia. Career Penhall's first major play, ''Some Voices'', premiered at the Royal Court Theatre's upstairs playing space in London in 1994. It was very well-received, winning the John Whiting Award, and has since been played off-Broadway twice. In 2000 Penhall adapted the play for a film with the same name directed by Simon Cellan Jones, starring Daniel Craig and Kelly Macdonald, which premiered at the Cannes Directors' Fortnight. Penhall returned to the Royal Court Theatre with his second full-length play ''Pale Horse'', which also played in the Theatre Upstairs and featured Ray Winstone, who had starred in ''Some Voices''. A dark play, ''Pale Horse'' te ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dennis Kelly
Dennis Kelly is a British scriptwriter for theatre, television and film. His play ''DNA'', first performed in 2007, became a core set-text for GCSE in 2010 and has been studied by approximately 400,000 students each year. He wrote the book for ''Matilda the Musical'', which featured music and lyrics from musician and comedian Tim Minchin. The musical went on to win multiple ‘Best Musical’ awards, with Kelly receiving a Tony Award for Best Book of a Musical. A film adaptation of the musical with screenplay by Kelly will be released in December 2022. For television he is known for co-creating and co-writing the BBC Three sitcom '' Pulling'', the Channel 4 conspiracy thriller ''Utopia'' and the HBO / Sky Atlantic thriller ''The Third Day''. Kelly wrote the screenplay for the 2014 film ''Black Sea'', directed by Kevin Macdonald and starring Jude Law. Personal life Kelly grew up on a council estate in Barnet, North London. A child of an Irish family, he was one of five ch ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Laura Wade
Laura Wade is an English playwright. Early life Wade was born in Bedford, Bedfordshire. She grew up in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, where her father worked for a computer company. After completing her secondary education at Lady Manners School in Bakewell, Derbyshire, she studied drama at Bristol University and was later a member of the Royal Court Theatre Young Writers' Programme. Career Laura Wade's first play, ''Limbo'', was produced at the Sheffield Crucible Studio Theatre in 1996. ''16 Winters'' was produced at the Bristol Old Vic Basement Theatre in 2000. After university she worked for the children's theatre company Playbox Theatre in Warwick. Wade's adaptation of W. H. Davies' ''Young Emma'' opened at the Finborough Theatre, London (where she was later Writer-in-Residence) in December 2003. Both ''Young Emma'' and ''16 Winters'' were directed by Tamara Harvey, a contemporary from Bristol. In 2004, Wade was a writer on attachment at Soho Theatre and her play '' Colder Th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Godber
John Harry Godber (born 18 May 1956) is known mainly for observational comedies. The ''Plays and Players Yearbook'' of 1993 rated him the third most performed playwright in the UK after William Shakespeare and Alan Ayckbourn. He has been creative director of the Theatre Royal Wakefield since 2011. Biography Godber, born in Upton, West Riding of Yorkshire, trained as a teacher of drama at Bretton Hall College, which is affiliated to the University of Leeds, and became artistic director of Hull Truck Theatre Company in 1984. Before venturing into plays, he was head of drama at Minsthorpe High School, the school he had attended as a student, and then wrote for the TV series ''Brookside'' and ''Grange Hill''. While he was at Minsthorpe he taught future actors Adrian Hood (''Preston Front'', '' Up 'n' Under'' film) and Chris Walker (''Doctors'', '' Coronation Street''). A 1993 survey for ''Plays and Players'' magazine cited Godber as the third most performed playwright in the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Andrew Bovell
Andrew Bovell (born 23 November 1962) is an Australian writer for theatre, film and television. Life Bovell was born on 23 November 1962 in Kalgoorlie, Western Australia and completed his secondary school education in Perth. He graduated from the University of Western Australia with a BA and followed that with a Diploma in Dramatic Arts at the Victorian College of Arts, in Melbourne. Writing career His AWGIE award-winning play, ''Speaking in Tongues'',(1996) has been seen throughout Australia as well as in Europe and the US and Bovell adapted it for the screen as ''Lantana'' (2001). Both the play and screenplay have been published by Currency Press along with ''After Dinner'' (1988), ''Holy Day'' (2001), ''Scenes from a Separation'' (written with Hannie Rayson) (1995) and ''Who's Afraid of the Working Class?'' (1998), written with Patricia Cornelius, Melissa Reeves, Christos Tsiolkas and Irene Vela. ''Who's Afraid of the Working Class?'' was adapted to film as ''Blessed (2009 fi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Yasmina Reza
Yasmina Reza (born 1 May 1959) is a French playwright, actress, novelist and screenwriter best known for her plays '' 'Art''' and ''God of Carnage''. Many of her brief satiric plays have reflected on contemporary middle-class issues. The 2011 black comedy film '' Carnage'', directed by Roman Polanski, was based on Reza's Tony Award-winning 2006 play ''God of Carnage''. Life and career Reza's father was a Russian-born Bukharan Jewish engineer, businessman, and pianist and her mother was a Jewish Hungarian violinist from Budapest. During the Nazi occupation, her father was deported from Nice to Drancy internment camp. At the beginning of her career, Reza acted in several new plays as well as in plays by Molière and Marivaux. In 1987, she wrote ''Conversations after a Burial'', which won the Molière Award, the French equivalent of the Tony Award, for Best Author. The North American production premiered in February 2013 at Players by the Sea in Jacksonville Beach Florida. Holly G ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jean-Paul Sartre
Jean-Paul Charles Aymard Sartre (, ; ; 21 June 1905 – 15 April 1980) was one of the key figures in the philosophy of existentialism (and phenomenology), a French playwright, novelist, screenwriter, political activist, biographer, and literary critic, as well as a leading figure in 20th-century French philosophy and Marxism. His work has influenced sociology, critical theory, post-colonial theory, and literary studies, and continues to do so. He was awarded the 1964 Nobel Prize in Literature despite attempting to refuse it, saying that he always declined official honors and that "a writer should not allow himself to be turned into an institution." Sartre held an open relationship with prominent feminist and fellow existentialist philosopher Simone de Beauvoir. Together, Sartre and de Beauvoir challenged the cultural and social assumptions and expectations of their upbringings, which they considered bourgeois, in both lifestyles and thought. The conflict between oppressive, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
David Harrower
David Harrower (born 1966) is a Scottish playwright who (as of 2005) lives in Glasgow. Harrorwer has published over 10 original works, as well as numerous translations and adaptations. Career Harrower's first play, ''Knives in Hens'', which premiered at Edinburgh's Traverse Theatre in 1995, was considered a critical and popular success. It deals with a relationship triangle in a rural setting, and a woman's internal quest to find out what she wants from life. Subsequent plays include ''Kill the Old Torture Their Young'' (Traverse, 1998), which follows a disparate group of characters across an unnamed city, mixing realism with poetry and fantasy. '' Presence'' (Royal Court Theatre Upstairs, April 2001) takes another look at the Beatles' residency at the Indra club in Hamburg on the eve of their success, and ''Dark Earth'' (Traverse, August 2003) begins as a broad comedy and turns into a speculation about the meaning of history and the land. Harrower has also written adaptation ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
David Mamet
David Alan Mamet (; born November 30, 1947) is an American playwright, filmmaker, and author. He won a Pulitzer Prize and received Tony Award, Tony nominations for his plays ''Glengarry Glen Ross'' (1984) and ''Speed-the-Plow'' (1988). He first gained critical acclaim for a trio of off-Broadway 1970s plays: ''The Duck Variations'', ''Sexual Perversity in Chicago'', and ''American Buffalo (play), American Buffalo''. His plays ''Race (play), Race'' and ''The Penitent (play), The Penitent'', respectively, opened on Broadway theater, Broadway in 2009 and previewed off-Broadway in 2017. Feature films that Mamet both wrote and directed include ''House of Games'' (1987), ''Homicide (1991 film), Homicide'' (1991), ''The Spanish Prisoner'' (1997), and his biggest commercial success, ''Heist (2001 film), Heist'' (2001). His screenwriting credits include ''The Postman Always Rings Twice (1981 film), The Postman Always Rings Twice'' (1981), ''The Verdict'' (1982), ''The Untouchables (film), ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
