Most prolific contemporary playwright

Sir Alan Ayckbourn (UK) has written 76 full-length plays since 1959, when, at the tender age of 20, his first work, “The Square Cat”, had its debut production at The Library Theatre, Scarborough, UK. He has had a new full-length play produced nearly every year since, over a span of 53 years (only six of those years have not seen the premiere of a new Ayckbourn play). The prolific playwright has also penned two short one-act plays (N.B., several Ayckbourn plays are performed without an interval but are considered full-length as the running time for those shows range from 90 to 120 minutes), 11 revues, seven children’s plays and five stage adaptations (including “Dear Uncle”, an adaptation of Anton Chekhov’s “Uncle Vanya”), not to mention one screenplay and a book. All but four of these plays had their debut in Scarborough and 39 have been produced at The National Theatre and The West End (combined figure) as well as numerous Broadway and off-Broadway productions in New York. Sir Alan also holds the record for most plays being performed concurrently on the West End (N.B., for a modern playwright, as undoubtedly more than three Shakespearean productions had to have played concurrently some time in modern West End history - certainly, Ayckbourn holds this record for a contemporary playwright) when, in 1975, “The Norman Conquests”, “Absurd Person Singular” and “Absent Friends” were all on the boards. His plays have been translated into over 35 languages and he has garnered two Olivier Awards as well as a Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement (2010). Sir Alan started out in the theatre as an actor and stage manager, and also has the distinction of directing the world premieres of 69 of 75 of his plays - he is slated to direct the 76th play, “Surprises”, set for production in 2012. He suffered a stroke in 2006 but has continued to knock out plays, completing six since then and showing no sign of stopping. Guinness Q&A with Simon Murgatroyd, Alan Ayckbourn’s Official Archivist (14 December 2011) Thank you for your email and your interest in Alan Ayckbourn and his plays. I hope I can answer all your questions, but please don't hesitate to contact me if you need any clarification. Firstly, Alan has finished his 76th play Surprises (about which there was a short interview published on the Wall Street Journal blog yesterday), which will be produced in 2012. It is worth saying, of course, that Alan hopes he will predominantly be remembered for the quality of his plays rather than the quantity! 1) The 76 plays are all considered his full length canon plays. Although there are several once acts in there, they are still in the 90 - 120 minute bracket and are only single act by virtue of that format best suiting the play (i.e. Haunting Julia is a ghost story and Alan didn't want to break the suspense). The shorter one act plays are not considered part of the 76 full length canon. In addition to his 76 full-length plays, he has also written 2 short one act plays, 11 revues, 7 plays for children, 5 adaptations, 1 screenplay and 1 book. A full breakdown of his plays can be found on his website here: http://plays.alanayckbourn.net/CompletePlays.htm. All but four of these plays were premiered in Scarborough. Christmas V Mastermind (1962) and Mr Whatnot (1963) were premiered at the Victoria Theatre, Stoke-on-Trent; Jeeves (1975) was premiered at the Bristol Hippodrome; A Small Family Business (1987) was premiered at the National Theatre, London. As to whether he is the most prolific playwright, I suppose it depends on how you qualify that. Has he written more plays than anyone else - almost certainly not. But has he had more plays professionally produced (and provable so) than anyone else - there's a very strong possibility. What he certainly isn't, is the most performed living playwright in the world (which I know you haven't raised, but it does come up very frequently) - this is a fatuous fact that is repeated ad nauseum in the media with no evidence to back it up. It might be true (and certainly he must be one of the most performed living playwrights in the world), but there's no way to factually or statistically back this up. You can find out more about this at the website here: http://biography.alanayckbourn.net/BiographyFAQPopularity.htm 2) Not as simple question as it sounds as Alan has not only directed world premieres of his plays but also London and American premieres of his plays as well as revivals of his plays. So I'll break it down into what I think are the most significant figures - world and London premieres. Alan Ayckbourn has directed the world premieres of 69 of his 75 produced full length plays (which will raise to 70 of his 76 produced full length plays in 2012). He has directed the West End / National Theatre premieres of 26 of his plays. Alan's acting days are long behind him, he worked professionally as an actor between 1957 and 1964. During that period he appeared in productions of five of his plays. 3) Unfortunately, no, Alan has never been an actor manager. Alan retired from acting in 1964, eight years before he became the Artistic Director of what is now the Stephen Joseph Theatre in Scarborough. He has always considered himself a writer / director and has never emphasised the acting side of his career. Although more prolific and long-running, he is no different in this than say John Godber who had a similar role at the Hull Truck Theatre as Artistic Director / writer / director. 4) You can find a complete list of all Alan's major awards on the website here: http://biography.alanayckbourn.net/BiographyAwards.htm Despite his success he has only won two Oliviers (Best Comedy for A Chorus Of Disapproval in 1985 and the Special Olivier Award in 2009) and two Tonys (Best Revival for The Norman Conquests in 2009 and the Tony Special Award in 2010). 5) Alan's plays have been produced in most continents. He is frequently produced in Japan and Australia as well as obviously being popular in America and throughout Europe (being particularly popular in Germany - and he has been translated into most European languages). In the past couple of years he has started to be recognised in Latin America and the first South American Ayckbourn festival was held in Brazil earlier this year. His works have also been translated into Cantonese, Russian, Hebrew, Welsh and even Esperanto! It may also be worth mentioning that as far as I am aware no-one has had more productions of different plays staged in the West End / National Theatre than Alan Ayckbourn (given that 39 of his plays have been produced in the West End / National Theatre, which is more than the output of most professional writers in their lifetimes). This figure is strictly West End / National Theatre and does not include the fringe or revivals (in which case the figure goes even higher). Although I could be wrong about this (but it seems unlikely), I believe he is also the only playwright to have had plays simultaneously running at the National Theatre, the West End and in the London fringe when between 21 May and 13 May 1987 he had A Small Family Business at the National Theatre, Woman In Mind at the Vaudeville Theatre in the West End and his revue The Westwoods at the Oxford Arms in Camden. You can find out more about Alan's London career here: http://biography.alanayckbourn.net/BiographyFAQLondon.htm I hope these answers were of use to you and, as I said, please don't hesitate to contact me if you need anything else. Simon Murgatroyd Dear Mr Murgatroyd, I research and write the Theatre sections for The Guinness World Records Book and had a query re: Mr Ayckbourn. Guinness suspects (rightly, I should think) that Mr Ayckbourn may well hold the record for Most Plays Written. I believe your website cites 76 as the number but I am in New York, and "Neighborhood Watch" is being promoted here as the 75th play by him. I would think that he has already written and produced one after that? The questions I had were: 1) Of those 76, how many are full-length plays and how many one acts? Did they all make their debut in Scarborough? And most importantly, might you have an idea as to whether, indeed, he is the most prolific playwright? 2) Of great interest is the fact that Mr Ayckbourn directs so many of his plays. How many of his own plays has he directed? And since he is also an actor, how many of his own plays has he been in? 3) Might one consider him a modern version of the great Actor Managers like David Garrick since he has, I believe, run the Theatre in Scarborough where so many of his plays have had their debut? I think that would be an apt analogy and one rarely used in the Theatre today and would be a particularly nice touch for a Guinness record entry. 4) Also, how many Oliviers and Tonys has he won and are they all for playwrighting or are some for his directing as well? 5) I noticed that on your website, you say that his plays have been performed in 35 languages. Might you please give me some specific languages and perhaps a far-off country or two where his plays are popular? Have they been done in China, Japan, and Korea for instance? Latin America? Being an old time admirer of Mr Ayckbourn--the first production I saw was one of "A Chorus of Disapproval" with Bob Peck at The NT--so I am especially excited about the prospect that he may be included in Guinness.