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RolePlay (play)
''RolePlay'' is a 2001 play by British playwright Alan Ayckbourn, the third in a trilogy of plays called '' Damsels in Distress'' ('' GamePlan'' and ''FlatSpin'' being parts one and two). It is about an engaged couple, Julie-Ann Jobson and Justin Lazenby whose engagement party is interrupted by unexpected intrusions. Background '' Damsels in Distress'' was originally intended to be only a pair of plays: '' GamePlan'' and ''FlatSpin''. However, during early preparations, Ayckbourn had an idea for a third play, ''RolePlay''. When the cast agreed to the third play, the end of the Stephen Joseph Theatre's 2001 season was altered to accommodate this third play.Allen, Paul (2004) ''A Pocket Guide to Alan Ayckbourn Plays'' Faber & Faber Like the other two plays, this drew some inspiration from the London Docklands, where Alan Ayckbourn has a flat, and people often do not know each other well. Characters As part of the ''Damsels in Distress'' trilogy, ''RolePlay'' was written to us ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alan Ayckbourn
Sir Alan Ayckbourn (born 12 April 1939) is a prolific British playwright and director. He has written and produced as of 2021, more than eighty 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 1967. Major successes include ''Absurd Person Singular'' (1975), ''The Norman Conquests'' trilogy (1973), '' Bedroom Farce'' (1975), ''Just Between Ourselves'' (1976), '' A Chorus of Disapproval'' (1984), ''Woman in Mind'' (1985), ''A Small Family Business'' (1987), '' Man of the Moment'' (1988), ''House'' & ''Garden'' (1999) and ''Private Fears in Public Places'' (2004). His plays have won numerous awards, includi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
It's A Long Way To Tipperary
"It's a Long Way to Tipperary" (or "It's a Long, Long Way to Tipperary") is an English music hall song first performed in 1912 by Jack Judge, and written by Judge and Harry Williams, though authorship of the song has long been disputed. It was recorded in 1914 by Irish tenor John McCormack. It became popular as a marching song among soldiers in the First World War and is remembered as a song of that war. Welcoming signs, in the referenced county of Tipperary, Ireland, humorously declare, "You've come a long way" in reference to the song. Authorship Jack Judge was an Englishman whose parents were Irish, and his grandparents came from Tipperary. Judge met fellow Englishman Harry Williams (Henry James Williams, 23 September 1873 – 21 February 1924) in Oldbury, Worcestershire at the Malt Shovel public house, where Williams's brother Ben was the licensee. Williams was severely disabled, having fallen down cellar steps as a child and badly broken both legs. He had deve ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Guardian Media Group, owned by the Scott Trust. The trust was created in 1936 to "secure the financial and editorial independence of ''The Guardian'' in perpetuity and to safeguard the journalistic freedom and liberal values of ''The Guardian'' free from commercial or political interference". The trust was converted into a limited company in 2008, with a constitution written so as to maintain for ''The Guardian'' the same protections as were built into the structure of the Scott Trust by its creators. Profits are reinvested in journalism rather than distributed to owners or shareholders. It is considered a newspaper of record in the UK. The editor-in-chief Katharine Viner succeeded Alan Rusbridger in 2015. Since 2018, the paper's main news ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Michael Billington (critic)
Michael Keith Billington OBE (born 16 November 1939) is a British author and arts critic. He writes for ''The Guardian'', and was the paper's chief drama critic from 1971 to 2019. Billington is "Britain's longest-serving theatre critic" and the author of biographical and critical studies relating to British theatre and the arts. He is the authorised biographer of the playwright Harold Pinter (1930–2008). Early life and education Billington was born on 16 November 1939, in Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, England, and attended Warwick School, an independent boys' school in Warwick. He attended St Catherine's College, Oxford, from 1958 to 1961, where he studied English and was appointed theatre critic of '' Cherwell''. He graduated with a BA degree. As a member of Oxford University Dramatic Society (OUDS), in 1959, Billington played the Priest in '' The Birds'', by Aristophanes, his only appearance as an actor, and, in 1960, he directed a production of Eugène Ionesco's ''The Ba ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Independent
''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was published on Saturday 26 March 2016, leaving only the online edition. The newspaper was controlled by Tony O'Reilly's Irish Independent News & Media from 1997 until it was sold to the Russian oligarch and former KGB Officer Alexander Lebedev in 2010. In 2017, Sultan Muhammad Abuljadayel bought a 30% stake in it. The daily edition was named National Newspaper of the Year at the 2004 British Press Awards. The website and mobile app had a combined monthly reach of 19,826,000 in 2021. History 1986 to 1990 Launched in 1986, the first issue of ''The Independent'' was published on 7 October in broadsheet format.Dennis Griffiths (ed.) ''The Encyclopedia of the British Press, 1422–1992'', London & Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1992, p. 330 It was produc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Duchess Theatre
The Duchess Theatre is a West End theatre in the City of Westminster, London, located in Catherine Street near Aldwych. The theatre opened on 25 November 1929 and is one of the smallest West End theatres with a proscenium arch. It has 494 seats on two levels. It is a Grade II Listed Building. The Duchess Theatre was purchased in 2005 by Nica Burns and Max Weitzenhoffer forming part of the Nimax Theatres group. History The Duchess Theatre was designed by Ewen Barr and constructed by F. G. Minter Ltd for Arthur Gibbons. The theatre is built with the stalls below street level, both to overcome the scale of the site and to maintain the rights of neighbours to ancient lights. The theatre opened on 25 November 1929 with a play called ''Tunnel Trench'' by Hubert Griffith. The interior decoration scheme was introduced in 1934 under the supervision of Mary Wyndham Lewis, wife of J. B. Priestley. The original interiors were Art Deco in style, designed by Marc Henri and Gaston Lav ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alison Pargeter
Alison Pargeter (born 31 May 1972) is an English actress who played the roles of stalker Sarah Cairns in the BBC soap opera ''EastEnders'', Mary Slessor in an 11-part television series of'' Mary Slessor'', the Nag's Head barmaid called Val in the BBC ''Only Fools and Horses'' prequel ''Rock & Chips'', She later played the role of Margaret Campbell in the third series of STARZ's '' Outlander'', and also as an Kindly Old Woman in the HBO series ''The Nevers''. Career Television appearances Pargeter has made several guest appearances over the years, she has appeared in the Channel 5 Horror series '' Urban Gothic'', the long-running ITV police drama series ''The Bill'', ''Strange'', ''Dalziel and Pascoe'', and ''Holby City''. Between that time in 2004, she played a recurring role which was Martin Fowler's stalker Sarah Cairns in ''EastEnders'', who appeared in 21 episodes, She was a barmaid who worked in Angie's Den club, and tried to split Martin Fowler up from his wife Sonia f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jacqueline King
Jacqueline King is a British stage and television actress known for her role in Alan Ayckbourn's theatre production of '' GamePlan'' and as recurring character Sylvia Noble in ''Doctor Who'' from 2006 to 2023. Career King trained at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School. After training, she worked as an actor in Africa, Canada, America, Sri Lanka, and UAE. On returning to the UK, she appeared in several Alan Ayckbourn productions, including the original runs of '' Comic Potential'' (1999) and the ''Damsels in Distress'' trilogy (2001–2002). King went on to appear at the Orange Tree Theatre in productions of ''The Madras House'', ''Press Cuttings'', ''Major Barbara'' and ''Larkin with Women''. King has made several television appearances, including roles in ''Hetty Wainthropp Investigates'', ''Casualty'', '' Life Begins'', '' Lawless'' and ''Doctors'' (as recurring character Wendy Sheffield). From 2004 to 2005 King had a regular role in the BBC crime drama series ''55 Degrees ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Godalming
Godalming is a market town and civil parish in southwest Surrey, England, around southwest of central London. It is in the Borough of Waverley, at the confluence of the Rivers Wey and Ock. The civil parish covers and includes the settlements of Farncombe, Binscombe and Holloway Hill. Much of the area lies on the strata of the Lower Greensand Group and Bargate stone was quarried locally until the Second World War. The earliest evidence of human activity is from the Paleolithic and the River Wey floodplain at Charterhouse was settled in the middle Iron Age and Roman period. The modern town is thought to have its origins in the 6th or early 7th centuries and its name is thought to derive from that of a Saxon landowner. Kersey, a woollen cloth, dyed blue, was produced at Godalming for much of the Middle Ages, but the industry declined in the early modern period. In the 17th century, the town began to specialise in the production of knitted textiles and in the manufactur ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Proscenium
A proscenium ( grc-gre, προσκήνιον, ) is the metaphorical vertical plane of space in a theatre, usually surrounded on the top and sides by a physical proscenium arch (whether or not truly "arched") and on the bottom by the stage floor itself, which serves as the frame into which the audience observes from a more or less unified angle the events taking place upon the stage during a theatrical performance. The concept of the fourth wall of the theatre stage space that faces the audience is essentially the same. It can be considered as a social construct which divides the actors and their stage-world from the audience which has come to witness it. But since the curtain usually comes down just behind the proscenium arch, it has a physical reality when the curtain is down, hiding the stage from view. The same plane also includes the drop, in traditional theatres of modern times, from the stage level to the "stalls" level of the audience, which was the original meaning of t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
London Docklands
London Docklands is the riverfront and former docks in London. It is located in inner east and southeast London, in the boroughs of London Borough of Southwark, Southwark, London Borough of Tower Hamlets, Tower Hamlets, London Borough of Lewisham, Lewisham, London Borough of Newham, Newham, and Royal Borough of Greenwich, Greenwich. The Dock (maritime), docks were formerly part of the Port of London, at one time the world's largest port. After the docks closed, the area had become derelict and poverty-ridden by the 1980s. The Docklands' regeneration began later that decade; it has been redeveloped principally for commercial and residential use. The name "London Docklands" was used for the first time in a government report on redevelopment plans in 1971 and has since been almost universally adopted. The redevelopment created wealth, but also led to some conflict between the new and old communities in the area. Case Study - Inner City Redevelopment - London's Docklands - Inte ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Theatre In The Round
A theatre in the round, arena theatre or central staging is a space for theatre in which the audience surrounds the stage. Theatre-in-the-round was common in ancient theatre, particularly that of Greece and Rome, but was not widely explored again until the latter half of the 20th century. The Glenn Hughes Penthouse Theatre in Seattle, Washington was the first theatre-in-the-round venue built in the United States. It first opened on May 19, 1940 with a production of ''Spring Dance'', a comedy by playwright Philip Barry. The 160-seat theatre is located on the campus of the University of Washington in Seattle and is on the National Register of Historic Places. In 1947, Margo Jones established America's first professional theatre-in-the-round company when she opened her Theater '47 in Dallas. The stage design as developed by Margo Jones was used by directors in later years for such well-known shows as the Tony Award-winning musical ''Fun Home'', the original stage production of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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