Masterclass under playwright’s watchful eye
Posted on 26 November 2009
His audience could hardly be more critical – as well as students, it will include the playwright himself.
The support of the UK's leading comic playwright and its most authoritative theatre critic has been crucial to the development of our work in this field
Mike Cordner
Michael Billington, a long-time supporter of the University’s Department of Theatre, Film and Television (TFTV), will direct a rehearsal of the concluding sequence of Act One of Sir Alan’s How the Other Half Loves – one of the most technically complex scenes in all of Ayckbourn's comedies.
Michael Billington will work with a cast of four students and two ex-students and an elaborate stage set-up. Sir Alan and Lady Ayckbourn will be among the audience in the Dixon Studio Theatre in Wentworth College.
Mike Cordner, Ken Dixon Professor of Drama in the Department of Theatre, Film and Television, said: “The support of the UK's leading comic playwright and its most authoritative theatre critic has been crucial to the development of our work in this field at the University. Having them with us together, as part of TFTV's unique visiting professional programme of masterclasses, promises a very special event."
Michael Billington is theatre critic for The Guardian and the author, among numerous other books, of the authorised biography of Harold Pinter and a study of Sir Alan Ayckbourn's plays.
ENDS
Notes to editors:
- More information on the Department of Theatre, Film and Television at www.york.ac.uk/depts/tft/
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