Sir Alan Ayckbourn is a prolific British playwright and director. He has written and produced as of 2023, 89 full-length plays in Scarborough and London and was, between 1972 and 2009, the artistic director of the Stephen Joseph Theatre in Scarborough, where all but four of his plays have received their first performance. More than 40 have subsequently been produced in the West End, at the Royal National Theatre or by the Royal Shakespeare Company since his first hit Relatively Speaking opened at the Duke of York's Theatre in 1967.
Tallulah Jessica Elina Hynes is an English actress, director and writer. Known professionally as Jessica Stevenson until 2007, she was one of the creators, writers and stars of the British sitcom Spaced.
Travesties is a 1974 play by Tom Stoppard. It centres on the figure of Henry Carr, an elderly man who reminisces about Zürich in 1917 during the First World War, and his interactions with James Joyce when he was writing Ulysses, Tristan Tzara during the rise of Dada, and Lenin leading up to the Russian Revolution, all of whom were living in Zürich at that time.
Adam Gabriel Garcia is an Australian stage, television, and film actor who is best known for lead roles in musicals such as Saturday Night Fever and Kiss Me, Kate. He is also a trained tap dancer and singer. Garcia has been nominated twice at the Laurence Olivier Awards in 1999 and 2013.
Best Actress is the name of an award which is presented by various film, television and theatre organisations, festivals, and people's awards to leading actresses in a film, television series, television film or play. The first Best Actress award was awarded for acting in a film, on May 16, 1929 by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) at the Academy Awards to Janet Gaynor for her role of Diane in 7th Heaven, Angela in Street Angel and The Wife - Indre in Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans. In theatre, it was first awarded on April 6, 1947 by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at the Tony Awards to Ingrid Bergman for her role of Mary Grey / Joan of Arc in Joan of Lorraine and to Helen Hayes for her role of Addie in Happy Birthday. In television, it was first awarded on January 23, 1951 by Academy of Television Arts & Sciences at the Primetime Emmy Awards to Gertrude Berg for her role of Molly in The Goldbergs. In a film festival, presented as the Volpi Cup, it was first awarded between August 1–20, 1934 by the Venice Film Festival to Katharine Hepburn for her role of Josephine 'Jo' March in Little Women.
Claire Skinner is an English actress, known in the United Kingdom for her television career, particularly playing Sue Brockman from the BBC television series Outnumbered.
Adam N. Godley is an English-American actor. He has been nominated for two Tony Awards and four Laurence Olivier Awards for his performances on the New York and London stages, including Private Lives in 2001, The Pillowman in 2002, Anything Goes in 2011, and The Lehman Trilogy in 2019. He made his Broadway debut in 2002 in a revival of Noël Coward's Private Lives for which he earned a Theatre World Award for Outstanding Broadway debut. In 2011, he returned to Broadway in the musical Anything Goes for which he earned a Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Musical nomination. In 2021, The Lehman Trilogy made its Broadway transfer to great critical acclaim, and securing Godley another Tony nomination for Best Actor in a Play.
The Norman Conquests is a trilogy of plays written in 1973 by Alan Ayckbourn. Each of the plays depicts the same six characters over the same weekend in a different part of a house. Table Manners is set in the dining room, Living Together in the living room, and Round and Round the Garden in the garden.
Angela Margaret Leslie Thorne was an English actress of stage, television and film having performed roles in World in Ferment (1969), Get Some In! (1976), The Good Life (1977), Midsomer Murders, Foyle's War and Heartbeat, The BFG (1989) as the voice of the Queen, Three Up, Two Down and Lassie (2005).
Ayub Khan Din is a British writer and actor. He wrote the BAFTA, BIFA and London Film Critics Circle award-winning film East Is East (1999), adapted from his 1996 Olivier-nominated play of the same name. His 2008 comedy play Rafta, Rafta... won the Olivier Award. He went on to write the film sequel West Is West (2010). On television, he created the Channel 4 comedy-drama Ackley Bridge (2017–2022).
Frank Vincent Ferrante is an American stage actor, comedian and director known for his improvisation and audience interactive comedy. He has performed as Groucho Marx in the Arthur Marx/Robert Fisher play Groucho: A Life in Revue and in his own An Evening With Groucho. Ferrante was nominated for the Laurence Olivier Award for 'Comedy Performance of the Year' for the title role in Groucho: A Life in Revue in London's West End in 1987. He had previously won New York's 1987 Theatre World Award for 'Outstanding Debut' for the same role.
Janie Dee is a British actress. She won the Olivier Award for Best Actress, Evening Standard Award and Critics' Circle Theatre Award for Best Actress in a Play, and in New York the Obie and Theatre World Award for Best Newcomer, for her performance as Jacie Triplethree in Alan Ayckbourn's Comic Potential.
Stephen Wight is an English actor. He won the Milton Shulman Award for Outstanding Newcomer at the Evening Standard Theatre Awards for his performances in Don Juan in Soho (2007) at the Donmar Warehouse, He was nominated for a Laurence Olivier Award for his performance in Dealer's Choice (2007).
Tim Firth is an English dramatist, screenwriter and songwriter.
Richard McCabe is a Scottish actor who has specialised in classical theatre. He is an Associate Artist of the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC).
Lia Williams is an English actress and director, both on stage, in film and television. Her roles have included playing Wallis Simpson in The Crown, May 33rd for which she was nominated for a BAFTA, The Missing (2016), Kiri (2016), His Dark Materials (2019–2022), and The Capture (2019–2021).
The Laurence Olivier Awards, or simply TheOlivier Awards, are presented annually by the Society of London Theatre to recognise excellence in professional theatre in London. The awards were originally known as the Society of West End Theatre Awards, but they were renamed in honour of the British actor of the same name in 1984.
Robert Hugh Carvel is a British film and theatre actor. He has twice won a Laurence Olivier Award: for Best Actor in a Leading Role in a Musical for his role as Miss Trunchbull in Matilda the Musical, and for Best Actor in a Supporting Role for his performance as Rupert Murdoch in Ink. For the latter role, he won the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Featured Role in a Play.
Sarah Goldberg is a Canadian actress. She is best known for her role as Sally Reed in the HBO dark comedy series Barry (2018–2023), which earned her a nomination for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series. She also originated the dual role of Betsey/Lindsey in the Royal Court Theatre's production of Clybourne Park, for which she was nominated for a 2011 Olivier Award, and later performed it on Broadway.
