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Jack Shepherd

JACK SHEPHERD

  (1940 - )
Nationality:    British
email:    n/a     Website:    n/a

Literary Agent:    Micheline Steinberg Associates  

Jack Shepherd was born in Leeds. He studied art at King's College, Newcastle, after which he went to Central School of Speech and Drama in London and was a student founder of the Drama Centre. He has since enjoyed a successful career as a stage actor, at the Royal Court Theatre and the National Theatre, as well as being well known for his role in the popular BBC detective series Wycliffe. His television writing credits include the Actual Woman, Underdog and Clapperjaw (all for the BBC). Jack has previously directed three productions at Shakespeare's Globe, the Two Gentlemen of Verona, Thomas Dekker's the Honest Whore, and a mask play, Man Falling Down. Holding Fire is the third of his 'revolution' plays, following In Lambeth, a confrontation between William Blake and Tom Paine, and Through a Cloud, in which Oliver Cromwell and John Milton look back on the broken dreams of the English revolution.

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

         Allotment, The         Chasing the Moment         Comic Cuts         Demi-Monde: the Half-World of William Morris         Half Moon         Holding Fire!         Honest Whore         In Lambeth         Man Falling Down: A Mask Play         Only When I Laugh or A Class Act         Revelations         Sleep of Reason, The         Through A Cloud         Under the Hill

Allotment, The

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Genre:
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Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
National Library of Scotland ref: Traverse - Dep.256/Box 60/1

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Chasing the Moment

Synopsis:
A four-man jazz band is preparing for its session in Wes's Jazz Cellar, in the East End. Les, the pianist, is played by Jack Shepherd, who wrote the play. the atmosphere is one of catchy camaraderie, with brief snaps of irritation. Les frets about how the young don't understand jazz. Harry, on double bass, old and druggy, frets about money. Tony, on drums, who is black, is cool, but not for long. Joe, on saxophone, struts and frets about his relationships: he's just dumped Tony's sister. Wes, a Trinidadian, is dying in hospital; his English wife distraught but controlled, runs the pub. This is a tough and beautiful play about music, pain, pride, love and loyalty. Under the friendships, tensions ripple. Ifjazz is a combination of spontaneity and discipline, then it's like life. When you play, do you just chase the moment or reach out to others?
John Peter, Sunday Times

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1st Published:
First Writes Publications, 1998   -

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Genre:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  4            Female:  2            Other:  -

Further Reference:

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Comic Cuts

Synopsis:
The Leeds Empire during the last days of Variety. A star crooner has come up from London to fill a sudden gap on the bill. The manager is fretting over takings. The comedian is drinking heavily and is visited by a representative from the local Watch Committee worried about how blue his act is

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Genre:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:

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Demi-Monde: the Half-World of William Morris

Synopsis:
Demi Monde tells the tale of Arts and crafts movement designer William Morris and how politics slowly acts as a distraction to his patterns, painting and poetry and ultimately ends up consuming him. Apart from being a master craftsman, Morris has a desire to run his business as an organisation in which everyone has an input. He also wants people to realise that art can be beautiful and useful, a notion alien to his colleagues and friends who believe that art can only be one or the other. Morris despises the capitalist system, which in itself is somewhat of a contradiction as his business benefits from and contributes directly to the system he so despises. Having his own strong views on how society should be run, Morris sets up a splinter socialist party, the Socialist League, but anarchists fester within and soon they outweigh the original party members. This wasn't what Morris had in mind. Aside from problem politics, Morris' somewhat sorry life is also depicted. A workaholic, he is oblivious at first to his wife's affair with Rossetti, who flirts with the 'little water lillie' whilst Morris is busy with a woodcut. Morris doesn't seem to mind greatly, coming over as a man who struggles with people and relationships. Early in the piece he states he can't do human forms, but can do design and poetry. This becomes a metaphor for his life.
- Simon Sladen, British theatre Guide

Notes:
Devised by Love & Madness Ensemble And Jack Shepherd

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Genre:
Piece

Parts:
Male:  4            Female:  2            Other:  extras

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Half Moon

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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

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Genre:
Play/Drama

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Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

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Holding Fire!

Synopsis:
England 1837: a country on the cusp of revolution. A young girl is propelled on a journey from a London slum to the servants' quarters of a great house, and from first love to murder. In her flight from authority she comes across the Chartist William Lovett, a man striving to steer a middle course between the brutal coalition of Parliament and Industry and the angry forces gathering against it. But can his rational, moderate voice be heard above the din of government militias on one side and the roaring

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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

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Genre:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  13            Female:  5            Other:  doubling (70+ characters)

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Honest Whore

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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

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Genre:
adaptation

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

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In Lambeth

In Lambeth
William Blake, the poet and artist was born in London in 1757. He became an apprentice engraver at the age of 14 and remained poor throughout his life. He believed fervently in the revolution of the inner man, that only personal salvation and spiritual regeneration could acheive a better world, fearing that social revolution would only replace one tyranny with another. Blake died in 1827. Thomas Paine, the political thinker and revolutionary, was born 20 years before Blake in thetford, Norfolk. An active figure in both the American and French revolutions in England he was considered a traitor and in 1791 fled across the channel to France. After a period of imprisonment during 'the Terror' (1793-4), he returned to America, where he died in 1809 reviled by the Christian fundamentalists for what they saw as the profanity of his beliefs. Against this background, In Lambeth shows Tom Paine going to pay his respects to William Blake. Originally produced in 1989 and first published the following year, this new edition published to correspond with the revival at the Southwark Playhouse, Lambeth, London in July 2014.

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1st Produced:
Partisan, SE22, London    12 Jul 1989

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Genre:
Short Play One Act

Parts:
Male:  2            Female:  1            Other:  -

Further Reference:

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Man Falling Down: A Mask Play

Synopsis:
Employing the half, three quarter and full masks, used variously and traditionally in comedy and tragedy, the play humerously sets about examining the fateful fruit-eating exploits of Adam and Eve.

Notes:
written And devised by Jack Shepherd And Oliver Cotton

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Genre:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  5            Female:  4            Other:  doubling

Further Reference:

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Only When I Laugh or A Class Act

Synopsis:
the theatre manager of the Leeds Empire in the glory days of variety going through a particularly trying time with his unreliable acts.

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1st Produced:

Organisations:
Love & Madness

1st Published:
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Music:
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To Buy This Play:
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Genre:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  5            Female:  3            Other:  -

Further Reference:

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Revelations

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1st Produced:
Bridge Lane, London    1983

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To Buy This Play:
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Genre:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:

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Sleep of Reason, The

Synopsis:
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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:
National Library of Scotland ref: Traverse - Dep.256/Box 60/1

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Through A Cloud

Synopsis:
England 1656. the sense of freedom, following revolution and the execution of the King, is still threatening to plunge the country into anarchy. A picnic in the woods is a very unparliamentary setting for a meeting between two key revolutionaries: the blind poet and Secretary for Foreign Languages, John Milton and Oliver Cromwell. An unwelcome interruption leads to a heated debate where the jaded aspirations of those in power and the perfect ideologies of those who sit on the sidelines are called into question. Once the dust of civil war has settled and the blood of those lives lost has been washed away, has anything really changed? Has the dream of a new and better world been compromised by the practical realities of running a country?

Notes:
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Organisations:
in association with Drum Theatre, Plymouth

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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:  4            Female:  1            Other:  -

Further Reference:

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Under the Hill

Synopsis:
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Notes:
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1st Produced:
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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:
National Library of Scotland ref: Traverse - Dep.256/Box 60/1

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