2017 marks the 60th anniversary of Alan Ayckbourn joining the Library Theatre company in Scarborough, of which he was the Artistic Director for 37 years and where he made both his professional playwriting in 1959 and his directorial debut in 1961. He has spent his life in theatre, rarely if ever tempted by television or film, which perhaps explains why he continues to be so prolific. To date he has written 89 plays and his work has been translated into over 35 languages, is performed on stage and television throughout the world and has won countless awards. Major successes include: Relatively Speaking, How the Other Half Loves, Absurd Person Singular, Bedroom Farce, A Chorus of Disapproval and The Norman Conquests. In recent years, there have been revivals of Season’s Greetings and A Small Family Business at the National Theatre and in the West End productions of Absent Friends, Relatively Speaking and How The Other Half Loves. In 2009, he retired as artistic director of the Stephen Joseph, where almost all his plays have been and continue to be first staged. He has also forged close links with the 59E59 Theaters in New York, where he has directed a number of his own plays to great success since 2009. 2016 saw him direct the New York premiere of Confusions—40 years after it first opened in Scarborough—as well as a more recent piece, Hero’s Welcome, for the Brits Off-Broadway festival. In recent years, he has been inducted into American Theatre’s Hall of Fame, received the 2010 Critics’ Circle Award for Services to the Arts and became the first British playwright to receive both Olivier and Tony Special Lifetime Achievement Awards. He was knighted in 1997 for “services to theatre.” Source: Ayckbourn’s official website www.alanayckbourn.net.