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Roy Kift

ROY KIFT

  
Nationality:    British
email:    Click here to contact     Website:    Click here

Literary Agent:    n/a

Roy Kift has been writing plays since 1962 when he won the University of Wales eisteddfodd playwriting prize for a one-act play whose title he has long forgotten. He continued writing during his time as an acting student at the London Drama Centre where he had to both write and perform sketches. Whilst acting at the Sheffield Playhouse he wrote a cabaret-type review in 1968 called "the Continuing Tale of the Supermale" to commemorate women's fight for the vote in GB. This was his first professional effort and gave him the taste for more. His first play to be performed in London was "Mary Mary", an expressionist piece which played at the Theatre Upstairs in the Royal Court in 1973. He subsequently won the Thames Television Playwrights award in 1974 for a large-cast play about homeless teenage drug addicts called "Downers". This was only performed once at Bradford University where it received a great review from the TLS, but was never performed professionally. In 1976 "the Compleat Whole earth Catalogue", a play about a rural hippy commune received a reading at the Royal Shakespeare Company and was later produced as a radio play in Germany. He wrote two plays with Patrick Barlow which were performed at the almost Free Theatre in Soho and the Theatre Royal Stratford east. In 1980 his award-winning play "Stronger than Superman" premiered at the GRIPS Theater in Berlin, where it ran for three years, was subsequently translated into over 20 languages and televised all over the world. In 1984 he won 1st prize in a national competition in Germany for the libretto for an opera (composer SusAnne erding) entitled "Joy" which later premiered in Kiel, and in 1989 he was awarded a Berlin writer's award. He has written two holocaust plays "Dreams of Beating Time" and "Camp Comedy". By contrast, his new play "Kissing in the Hall of Mirrors or Love Letters with Shakespeare" is a three-hander about love and the tensions between private happiness and public success set in the present day. Kift has also written for tv and radio in Germany, translated plays from French, Italian and German, lectured at many universities, given workshops and contributed to many Theatre magazines and books. He currently lives in Germany.

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

         Cakewalk         Camp Comedy         Happy And Glorious         Kissing In the Hall Of Mirrors, Or Love Letters With Shakespeare         Land Of Hope And Glory         Play Mary Play         Smile For Jesus And the Cameraman         Stronger Than Superman
Cakewalk

Synopsis:
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Notes:
by Roy Kift And the company, with music by Hans Brown

1st Produced:

Organisations:
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1st Published:
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Music:
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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:  2            Female:  3            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Camp Comedy

Synopsis:
the dilEmma of the Jewish actor and film director Kurt Gerron (appearances incl. Tiger Brown in the original Berlin production of "the Threepenny Opera" - he sang the Mackie Messer song - and co-star in "the Blue angel" film with Marlene Dietrich) in shooting the "documentary" film on the comfortable life of the Jews in German concentration camps.

Notes:
features original songs written And performed in theresienstadt concentration camp cabaret

1st Produced:
Suny Geneseo New York     2003

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
in "the Theatre of the HolocAust Vol 2" University of Wisconsin Press.USA, 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 with Music

Parts:
Male:  14            Female:  4            Other:  doubling, musicians

Further Reference:
-

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Happy And Glorious

Synopsis:
exceptionally and unquestionably monarchist luncheon celebration for the Queen as hostessed by Mrs Henrietta Sluggett and her daughter Serenity

Notes:
written with Patrick Barlow

1st Produced:
Almost Free Theatre, London     1977

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:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Kissing In the Hall Of Mirrors, Or Love Letters With Shakespeare

Synopsis:
Sylvia, an author, presents her partner Michael with a 50th birthday present: a script about present-day experiences of love related to Shakespeare's sonnets, to be performed at a literary festival. Michael's career as an actor has stagnated and this has affected the relationship negatively because Sylvia's career is relatively successful. the present suits them both: Sylvia is relieved to have an opportunity to get Michael out of the house, and he is relieved to get some work. as Michael works on the script, he adapts it more and more to his own character so that it is almost impossible to tell fact from fiction, and - on a theatrical level - reality from acting. all the more so, because the script is originally based on Sylvia's biography, which she has twisted to fit his character. When Michael discovers that an imaginary love affair attributed to him in the script, is based on a real love affair which Sylvia had in his absence, he walks out on her. During a subsequent tour, he takes on a young partner Ella (an American black) as a singer - and potential lover. ella's rich Father offers to put up the money for a 6 month off-Broadway run, for what is now a 2 hander musical which has changed out of all recognition from the original. the show has brought both Sylvia and Michael success in their careers, at the expense of their personal happiness. Just before the opening in New York, Michael drives Ella up into the adirondack hills. But Sylvia is still omnipresent and everything is shattered, both personally and theatrically. . .

Notes:
Completed in 2006. the play plays with levels of reality And fiction. It uses video projections And Shakespeare's sonnets. One section of the text may be improvised, based on the written scene.

1st Produced:
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Organisations:
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1st Published:
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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:  2            Other:  muscian possible

Further Reference:
-

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Land Of Hope And Glory

Synopsis:
Henrietta's second foray into theatre Land. This time her family and friends interrupt to mount a Spectacular Variety show for an eeC Drama competition

Notes:
written with Patrick Barlow

1st Produced:

Organisations:
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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:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Play Mary Play

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
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1st Produced:

Organisations:
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1st Published:
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Music:
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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:
-

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Smile For Jesus And the Cameraman

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
ICA, London, UK >>>     24 Feb 1976

Organisations:
Pro Creation Company

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:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  2            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Stronger Than Superman

Stronger Than Superman
the problems of a one parent family with a handicap child

Notes:
premier in German As "Starker Als Superman"

1st Produced:
Grips Theatre, Berlin     1980

Organisations:
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1st Published:
Amber Lane Press, ambergate, Derbyshire & (englisch amerikansche Studien, Helt 4, 1980), 1981   

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:
Critical Comedy

Parts:
Male:  4            Female:  2            Other:  1 musician

Further Reference:
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