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  Alan Ayckbourn: Frequently Asked Questions - Acting  
  This page contains FAQs concerning Alan Ayckbourn and his acting career. If there is a question not listed here which you feel should be listed, please contact: simon.murgatroyd@sjt.uk.com.  
 

 

  
  1) What is Alan Ayckbourn's connection to Sir Donald Wolfit?
 2) What was his first professional acting role?
 3) What was Alan’s first acting role at the Stephen Joseph Theatre?
 4) What was Alan Ayckbourn’s final acting role?
 5) What about How The Other Half Loves in 1969?
6) What Is Alan Ayckbourn's connection to Harold Pinter?		  
     
  1) What is Alan Ayckbourn's connection to Sir Donald Wolfit?  
  After Alan left Haileybury, his acting teacher arranged for Alan to join Sir Donald Wolfit’s company for three weeks during the Edinburgh Festival. Alan was an acting assistant stage manager (an ASM with occasional acting roles) and appeared in the play The Strong Are Lonely.  
     
  2) What was Alan's first professional acting role following this?  
  Alan’s first professional acting role was in The Corn Is Green at the Connaught Theatre, Worthing.  
     
  3) What was Alan’s first acting role at the Stephen Joseph Theatre (then The Library Theatre)?  
  Alan’s first role at The Library Theatre, Scarborough, was Eric Birling in An Inspector Calls.  
     
  4) What was Alan Ayckbourn’s final acting role?  
  Alan’s final role was as Jerry Ryan in Two For The Seesaw, performed at the Civic Theatre, Rotherham. He played opposite Heather Stoney, whom he would marry in 1997.  
     
  5) What about How The Other Half Loves in 1969?  
  On the Sunday after How The Other Half Loves had its world premiere in 1969 at the Library Theatre, SCarborough, the actor Jeremy Franklin slipped a disc. As a result Alan stepped in to play the role of Frank Foster for that week’s four remaining performances. Alan also took to the stage briefly in 2005 during the Stephen Joseph Theatre’s 50th anniversary programme 50 Years New, when he played Dennis in a scene from Just Between Ourselves.  
     
  6) What is Alan Ayckbourn's connection to Harold Pinter?  
  Alan Ayckbourn appeared as Stanley in only the second production of Harold Pinter’s play The Birthday Party, directed by Harold Pinter himself (a three month rep tour from January 1959).
Intriguingly, this production by Stephen Joseph’s Studio Theatre company is rarely mentioned in conjunction with the history of the play or the playwright, but is notable for several reasons:
> It was the first professional production of his own work to be directed by Pinter himself.
> Pinter himself has said the production restored his confidence in both the play and his abilities as a playwright.
> It is demonstrably the first production of the play following its critical panning in London in May 1958; this is in contrast to the Tower Theatre’s production in London in May 1959 which is frequently cited as the second production of the play.
> Alan Ayckbourn’s experiences with the play undoubtedly influenced him in the very early stages of his professional playwriting career (Alan was commissioned by Stephen Joseph to write his first play at approximately the same time as rehearsing the Pinter play).

Alan’s experiences of the play and being directed by Harold Pinter can be found here.