Word: alan
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...Alan E. Heimert, Cabot Professor of American Literature, supported the legislation and called tutorials "a glorious opportunity...
...married, the formerly married and the soon-to-be unmarried. "It is a rich source of comedy," he says. "Everything that is most horrifying and wonderful happens in marriage." He should know. His mother, a novelist, divorced his father, first violinist with the London Symphony Orchestra, when Alan, the only child, was five. She married a bank manager, who did not hide his dislike of Alan. They were later divorced...
Ayckbourn married a young actress, Christine Roland, when he was 19 and fathered two sons, now 19 and 17. He and Christine separated several years ago, and Alan, who will be 40 next week, now lives with Heather Stoney, who is also an actress. His wife, Christine, has her own lover, and all four get along splendidly. Heather and Christine even take turns cutting Ayckbourn's hair; he is as frightened of barbers as he is of dentists. "People try to introduce me to my wife and get embarrassed when they find out we're married," he says...
...miles north of London, where he and Heather have a converted vicarage. He is director of a theater-in-the-round with some 300 seats. He puts on new works and old, but every year, shortly after Christmas, he is certain of one production, a new play by Alan Ayckbourn. Some time in November he sharpens his pencils, gets out his pad of paper from Woolworth's and shuts himself up. Heather can tell when the time is approaching because "he gets slightly weirder and gradually slips into his night routine," writing from 9 p.m. until dawn. A week...
Ayckbourn's aim is to write about serious matters in a funny way. One-liners terrify him even more than dentists and barbers. "There are not more than three funny lines in all of Bedroom Farce," he says proudly. At this point Heather confides his real ambition. "What Alan would like to do," she says, "is to write a funny King Lear." But with at least two third acts...