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Gareth Armstrong

GARETH ARMSTRONG

  (1948 - )
Nationality:    Welsh
email:    Click here to contact     Website:    Click here

Literary Agent:    United Agents  represented by Nicki Stoddart

Gareth Armstrong has combined the careers of writer, actor, director and voice-artist over a period of 45 years. Born in Wales in 1948 Armstrong began his career by acting in school plays at the Bishop Gore School, Swansea. At the age of 16 he joined the National Youth Theatre; and went on from there to study drama at Hull University.On stage he has played leading roles in most of the UK's regional theatres including Birmingham Rep., Nottingham Playhouse and the Bristol Old Vic where parts ranged from Mamet to Moliere. He has specialised in Shakespearean where roles have included Romeo and Richard 111, Oberon, Macbeth, Shylock and Prospero. Shakespeare,The Merchant of Venice. He has also toured to over fifty countries and all over the United States with his own one-man show Shylock, in which Shakespeare's principal Jewish character is seen from the viewpoint of Tubal, the Bard's only other male Jewish character and Shylock's only friend in the original play. The play has won awards in New Zealand, Canada, Spain and Germany and been translated into Catalan, Spanish, Italian, French and Russian as well being performed on Dutch television and Romanian radio. In 2004 he published his account of presenting his solo play in A Case for Shylock - Around the World with Shakespeare's Jew. His most recent book "So Want To Do A Solo Show", an instructional book for professional actors, is published by Nick Hern Books.

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below is a list of Gareth Armstrong's plays - click on a Play Title for more information

         Fondly Remembered         Shylock         Shylock Is My Name         Wilde Without the Boy - a dramatization of Oscar Wilde's 'De Profundis'

Fondly Remembered

Fondly Remembered
Is a man's memorial service the right time to tell the truth? Reunited for the occasion, a group of friends gather to celebrate a life. But who are they remembering? A creative genius, a former lover, a bitter rival  or the man who deceived them all? A five-strong cast in a wickedly funny new play full of revelation, rediscovery and revenge.

Notes:
Original music by Simon Slater

1st Produced:

Organisations:
Cahoots Theatre Company & Bedford Parks Festival

1st Published:

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
comedy

Parts:
Male:  3            Female:  2            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Shylock

Synopsis:
Shylock. A villain? A victim? Or something even more intriguing? Gareth Armstrong's award winning play confronts and confounds the stereotypes through the eyes of Shylock's only friend - and the only other Jewish man in all of Shakespeare - Tubal. Promoted to centre stage from his minor role in the Merchant of Venice he proves a born comic storyteller. Celebrating the richness of Shakespeare's language and conjuring up a whole cast of characters from Portia to Pontius Pilate, from Antonio the merchant, to Adolf Hitler, and from Dracula to the wandering Jew this dazzling, moving and often hilarious play is a fascinating exploration of Shylock and his people.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
the Players' Account, London, 1999   -

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  1            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Shylock Is My Name

Synopsis:
One man show portraying the controversial character from Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice

Notes:
-

1st Produced:

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
-   -

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
one man show

Parts:
Male:  1            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Wilde Without the Boy - a dramatization of Oscar Wilde's 'De Profundis'

Synopsis:
Wilde Without the boy is a dramatisation of De Profundis, the letter Oscar Wilde wrote in 1897 to his lover, Lord Alfred Douglas, from his cell in Reading gaol. Two years previously, Wilde had been imprisoned for acts of gross indecency with other males. Take a glimpse into the bruised, loving soul of one of the greatest geniuses ever to have lived. - See more at: http://www.stjamestheatre.co.uk/events/wilde-without-the-boy/#sthash.6F5sAHie.dpuf

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Lakeside Arts Centre, Nottingham     08 Apr 2014

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
-   -

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
Dramatisation

Parts:
Male:  1            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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