Alan Ayckbourn

In this seminal guide to playmaking, renowned playwright Alan Ayckbourn shares his tricks of the trade. From helpful hints on writing to tips on directing, this book provides a complete primer for the newcomer and a refresher for those with more experience. Written in Ayckbourn's signature style that combines humor, seriousness, and a heady air of sophistication, "The Crafty Art of Playwmaking" is a must-have for aspiring playwrights, students of drama, and anyone who has ever laughed their way through one of Ayckbourn's plays.

Six aspiring authors meet on a winter's evening to discuss their work. Among them are writers of historical romances and children's literature who are finding it difficult to start writing, and a crime writer who can't stop. A creator of extremely complicated science fiction, a librettist without a musical partner and the Writer's Circle chairman, who produces instruction booklets, make up the rest of the team. The chairman, Arnold, attempts to get the rest of the group out of a rut by suggesting that they collaborate on a piece of writing, an idea that is received without enthusiasm. However, as Arnold is clearing up after the meeting there is a clap of thunder, a black-out - and then the story that would have resulted from the collaboration takes place before his very eyes. Sharp comedy and affectionate satire characterize this zany, imaginative play.

A student edition of five one-act plays by Britain's most popular playwright. Ayckbourn's series of plays for 4-5 actors typify his black comedies of human behaviour. First produced in 1976, the plays are alternately naturalistic, stylised and farcical, but underlying each is the problem of loneliness. The Mother Figure shows a mother unable to escape from baby talk; in The Drinking Companion an absentee husband attempts seduction without success; in Between Mouthfuls, a waiter oversees a fraught dinner encounter. A garden party gets out of hand in Gosforth's Fete whilst A Talk in the Park is a revue style curtain call piece for the five actors. Whether the comedies concern marital conflict, infidelity or motherhood and take place on a park bench or at a village fete, the characters are familiar and their cries for help instantly recognisable. "Principally he is respected as a radical re-inventor of form" Dominic Dromgoole

This hilarious and heartbreaking play was seen at the Lyric Theatre, London in 1999. It is set in the foreseeable future when everything has changed except human nature; a future where TV daytime soaps are performed by android actors emotionally programmed by the control room. One, JC 31333, finds herself humanized as Jacie Triplethree, complete with a sense of humour and Adam, a young scriptwriter, falls for her.

Charlie Conrad is a celebrity. His talent? He hasn't got one; the nation took him to their hearts for very publicly being unable to do anything competently. On a fateful day Charlie has an encounter with Marsha, a children's entertainer otherwise known as Mr Chortles, and his marriage and his career go into freefall..." Drowning on Dry Land" examines the current obsession with celebrity for its own sake and chillingly but hilariously demonstrates how celebrities can be destroyed as quickly as they can be made.

Alan Ayckbourn gibt zum ersten Mal Einblick in alle Kunstgriffe seines Handwerks. Von nützlichen Ratschlägen zum Schreiben (Wo fängt man an? Wie macht man weiter? Was ist eine Komödie, und wie schreibt man sie? Was ist eine Tragödie, und wie funktioniert sie?) bis zu Tipps für das Regieführen (Arbeit mit Schauspielern und Technikern, wann hört man besser auf die anderen Experten, wie bekommt man die Proben in den Griff) ist das Buch ein vollständiger Leitfaden für Anfänger wie auch ein Auffrischungslehrgang für den Fortgeschrittenen. Eingängig und ungemein unterhaltsam geschrieben, mit einer Vielzahl an Anekdoten zum Wie, Wann, Wo und vor allem Warum. Klar geschrieben, mit nützlichen Beispielen und einer Reihe von Anekdoten, decken seine 101 Regeln alles ab, von der ? Initialidee?, über das Schreiben und Erstellen von Plots, Schauplätzen, Figuren und Dialogen, bis hin zum Umgang mit ? Stars?, Produzenten, schwierigen Schauspielern, exzentrischen Bühnentechnikern und der Presse.

The trilogy comprises FlatSpin, GamePlan and RolePlay and was first seen at the Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough and later at the Duchess Theatre, London. Each is self contained, the common theme linking them is that the setting is the same London Docklands apartment and all three concern young women in various states of distress. Teenage Sorrel fights to keep herself and her abandoned mother, once a dot.com bUsinesswoman, financially afloat by setting up as a part-time hooker, advertising for clients on the Internet and persuading her tearful school chum to act as her maid. Just when you wonder what will happen in this terrible situation the play becomes a farce about body disposal, police questioning and media intrusion.

The trilogy comprises FlatSpin, GamePlan and RolePlay and was first seen at the Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough and later at the Duchess Theatre, London. Each is self contained, the common theme linking them is that the setting is the same London Docklands apartment and all three concern young women in various states of distress. Justin and Julie-Ann, hopelessly mismatched in love, are about to introduce their respective parents to each other over dinner - Justin's upper-crust alcoholic ma from Surrey and Julie-Ann's bigoted Yorkshire father and prim mother. Into this doomed scenario drops, literally, via the balcony upstairs and the river, Paige Petite, a former lap-dancer with suicidal tendencies and her thick, gun-toting minder who is employed by her violent husband. They proceed to wreak havoc on the meticulously planned evening but the brilliantly orchestrated mayhem is tempered by subtle insights into family relationships and class distinctions.

The trilogy comprises FlatSpin, GamePlan and RolePlay and was first seen at the Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough and later at the Duchess Theatre, London. Each is self contained, the common theme linking them is that the setting is the same London Docklands apartment and all three concern young women in various states of distress. A night of romance in her luxurious riverside apartment with the good-looking stranger from next door. How can Joanna possibly go wrong? Except the flat isn't hers, her name isn't Joanna and heaven knows what the good-looking stranger is really after. Instead of romance comes considerable danger...

Miriam has cared for her father in the family home during his vituperative last years with the help of a creepily polite nurse, Alice. On Father's death, Miriam's older sister, handsome, divorced Annabel, comes home after over thirty years in Tasmania to find Daddy has left the bulk of his fortune to her. Alice complains to Annabel that Miriam has sacked her and is intent upon blackmail, having evidence, she says, that Miriam did away with the old man. Scatty Miriam and tough Annabel join forces against Alice and the blackmailer's body is soon hurtling down the well, but all does not end there...

"House" and "Garden" are two plays with the same characters running simultaneously in adjacent auditoria. In "House" Teddy Platt, whose marriage is on the rocks, is visited by the creepy Gavin Ryng-Mayne, and in "Garden", Teddy's jilted mistress threatens suicide as a garden fete is prepared.

Benjamin Cooper provides comfort and satisfaction to his wealthy patients, by improving their good looks with the aid of surgery. One of his patients is Angie Dell, a model at the peak of her powers. Her charms do not escape Benjamin, nor his old friend and former mentor, Hravic Zyergfoovc.

Features ten plays, which have been selected from the BT National Connections scheme, in which some contemporary playwrights in the UK and Europe were commissioned by the Royal National Theatre to produce original drama specifically for young people. The scripts are specifically written for 11-16+.

Murganah loves Ahmed, the Sultan's youngest son, but feeling herself rejected, she invokes the help of dark supernatural forces to regain him. When she finally loses him to another she seeks a terrible revenge.3 women, 7 men

An ingenious set greets the audience of this award winning play: the cross section of a Victorian house that has been divided into three flats. The owner, a fastidious, elegant executive named Barbara, contentedly occupies the ordered, male free ground floor visible in its entirety. The basement ceiling can be seen and this is were Gilbert, a boorish postman and handyman, is painting a nude study of his landlady. Barbara is letting Nikki, a schoolfriend, and her fiance use the upstairs flat even though she has taken an instant dislike to him. Ever life's victim, Nikki is destined to suffer yet again when Barbara succumbs to an unexpected and violent passion.-2 women, 2 men

Ein St?ck ?ber den manipu?lativen Einfluss der Massen?medien und die Gier des Publikums nach Sensation. Um sich zu profilieren kon?frontiert eine ehrgeizige Fernsehjournalistin einen Ex-Bankr?uber mit seinem Opfer.

A thunderstorm. A windswept country house. A family of failures - a detective who has never solved a case, a writer, an artist, a composer, and a dysfunctional teenager - are all arguing over a bequest. But the victim is not who we think it will be and the murderer could be one of three people.

This futuristic musical is set in a small-town railway station. Harry Wooller, a vicar, is looking for sponsorship for his group's musical Mystery play. But when youth arsonists destroy Earl Smallboys' "Paradise Club", Earl pulls out of the deal.

A musical which provides roles for eight actors/singers, combining the work of Alan Ayckbourn with John Pattison's fully integrated score (published separately) that ranges from the operatic to pop.