Roy Kift in Bideford

Bideford

Bideford is a small port town on the estuary of the River Torridge in north Devon, south-west England. It is also the main town of the Torridge local government district.-History:...

, Devon, is an English writer

Writer

A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....

.

Life

Roy Kift read French and Romance studies

Romance studies

Romance studies is an umbrella academic discipline that covers the study of the languages, literatures, and cultures of areas that speak a Romance language. Romance studies departments usually include the study of Spanish, French, Italian, and Portuguese...

 at the University of Wales in Aberystwyth, graduating with a B.A.

Bachelor of Arts

A Bachelor of Arts , from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences, or both...

 in 1964. Between 1965 and 1968 he followed an acting course at the Drama Centre London. This was followed by acting seasons in Sheffield

Sheffield

Sheffield is a city and metropolitan borough of South Yorkshire, England. Its name derives from the River Sheaf, which runs through the city. Historically a part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, and with some of its southern suburbs annexed from Derbyshire, the city has grown from its largely...

, Newcastle

Newcastle upon Tyne

Newcastle upon Tyne is a city and metropolitan borough of Tyne and Wear, in North East England. Historically a part of Northumberland, it is situated on the north bank of the River Tyne...

, London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

 and Amsterdam

Amsterdam

Amsterdam is the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. The current position of Amsterdam as capital city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is governed by the constitution of August 24, 1815 and its successors. Amsterdam has a population of 783,364 within city limits, an urban population...

. Since 1970 he has devoted his life mainly to writing and translating theatre plays and other texts, with a few excursions in directing and acting. His works include theatre plays

Play (theatre)

A play is a form of literature written by a playwright, usually consisting of scripted dialogue between characters, intended for theatrical performance rather than just reading. There are rare dramatists, notably George Bernard Shaw, who have had little preference whether their plays were performed...

, travel guides and children’s books

Children's literature

Children's literature is for readers and listeners up to about age twelve; it is often defined in four different ways: books written by children, books written for children, books chosen by children, or books chosen for children. It is often illustrated. The term is used in senses which sometimes...

. He translates from French, German and Italian into English. Amongst the best-known authors he has translated are Molière

Molière

Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, known by his stage name Molière, was a French playwright and actor who is considered to be one of the greatest masters of comedy in Western literature...

, Goldoni

Carlo Goldoni

Carlo Osvaldo Goldoni was an Italian playwright and librettist from the Republic of Venice. His works include some of Italy's most famous and best-loved plays. Audiences have admired the plays of Goldoni for their ingenious mix of wit and honesty...

, Patrick Süskind

Patrick Süskind

Patrick Süskind is a German writer and screenwriter.- Life and work :The public knows little about Patrick Süskind. He has withdrawn from the literary scene in Germany and never grants interviews or allows photos. He was born in Ambach am Starnberger See, near Munich in Germany...

 and Heinar Kipphardt. Roy Kift contributes regular articles and criticism to the New York theatre magazine “Western European Stages”.
Roy Kift is married to the social historian Dagmar Kift and has two daughters. He currently lives in the state of North Rhine Westphalia, Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

.

Prizes and Awards

• 1962 1st Prize University of Wales Eisteddfod playwriting competition for And Betty Martin…
• 1974 Thames Television Theatre Prize for Downers
• 1981 Winner. Preis der Bundesarbeitsgemeinschaft „Hilfe für Behinderte“ for Stärker als Superman
• 1984 Winner Competition organised by the Württembergische Staatstheater, Stuttgart
  Stuttgart
  Stuttgart is the capital of the state of Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany. The sixth-largest city in Germany, Stuttgart has a population of 600,038 while the metropolitan area has a population of 5.3 million ....
  
  , for Joy (Opera libretto. Composer: Susanne Erding)
• 1985 Literary award from the City of Berlin
  Berlin
  Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
  
  
• 1987 as a radio director: Radio Play of the Year: Howard Barker’s
  Howard Barker
  Howard E. Barker is a British playwright.-The Theatre of Catastrophe :Barker has coined the term "Theatre of Catastrophe" to describe his work...
  
   “Scenes from an Execution“ Radio Bremen/SWF/RIAS Berlin.

Theatre Plays

• 1962: And Betty Martin…. (1st Prize University of Wales Eisteddfod)
• 1968: The Continuing Tale of the Supermale. Sheffield Playhouse
• 1970: Mary Mary. Royal Court Theatre Upstairs, later European tour incl. Amsterdam and Zurich. La Mama Theater, New York
• 1971: Genesis. Freehold Theatre, London
• 1974: Downers. Bradford University
• 1976: The Complete Whole Earth Catalogue. Royal Shakespeare Company, Donmar Theatre, London
• 1976: Smile for Jesus and the Cameraman. ICA London
• 1976: Cakewalk. Hampstead Theatre, London
• 1977: Happy and Glorious. (co-author Patrick Barlow), Almost Free Theatre, London
• 1978: Land of Hope and Glory. (co-author Patrick Barlow) Theatre Royal Stratford East
• 1980: Stärker als Superman. World Premiere: GRIPS Theatre, Berlin
• 1981: Stronger than Superman. Unicorn Theatre, London (translated into 21 languages)
• 1984: Joy, Opera libretto. Composer: Susanne Erding. World premiere. Kiel Opera House, Germany
• 1992: Dreams of Beating Time. Holocaust play on Wilhelm Furtwängler
  Wilhelm Furtwängler
  Wilhelm Furtwängler was a German conductor and composer. He is widely considered to have been one of the greatest symphonic and operatic conductors of the 20th century. By the 1930s he had built a reputation as one of the leading conductors in Europe, and he was the leading conductor who remained...
  
   and his former colleagues in the Theresienstadt concentration camp
• 1999: Camp Comedy. (Holocaust play about Kurt Gerron and the cabaret in the Theresienstadt concentration camp. Published by the University of Wisconsin Press. Translations: German, Polish, French. World premiere planned in Paris 2012)
• 2005: Cathedral of Heresies. S. Fischer Verlag (On problems in the Roman Catholic church)
• 2010: Nothing. Stage adaptation of Janne Teller’s novel for young people. (Strident Press, GB)
• 2011: The True Story of Adam and Eve as personally dictated by God Almighty, the Creator of Heaven and Earth to his prophet Moses between 2.41 pm on the 28th May and 9.27 am on the 3rd June 1423 BC and later published in a condensed version in the Book of Genesis for the salvation of humanity (and Sarah Palin). (A three-person comedy debunking the GENESIS myth as a man-made fiction to justify an authoritarian, male-dominated world. German and English versions.)

Theatre translations

From French:

• Molière's Don Juan
• Molière's Monsieur de Pourceaugnac (for the BBC)

From Italian:

• Goldoni's Mirandolina. BBC
• Gozzi's King Stag (Il Re Cervo). Arts Theatre, London

From German:

• Volker Ludwig's Things that go Bump in the Night. Unicorn Theatre, London
• Volker Ludwig's Mr Robinsons’ Party. Tricycle theatre, London
• Volker Ludwig's All in Stitches. Richmond Theatre
• Rainer Hachfeld's Mugnog Kids. Unicorn Theatre
• Reiner Hachfeld's The Magic Granddad. Unicorn Theatre
• Patrick Süskind's The Double Bass. National Theatre, London (at Edinburgh Festival)
• Heinar Kipphardt's Brother Eichmann. (Library Theatre, Manchester)

Oher translations (selection):
Books:

• Dagmar Kift's The Victorian Music Hall. Cambridge University Press
• FIFA: 100 Years of Football. Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London.
• Magic Places. (English edition of the catalogue for the exhibition „Magische Orte“ in Germany 2011)

Children’s book

• Franz, Anna und die Zechengeister. Klartext Verlag, Essen 1997, ISBN 978-3-88474-608-0

Travel guides

• Tour the Ruhr. 4th edition, Klartext Verlag, Essen 2011, ISBN 978-3-88474-815-2
• The Wupper Valley. Wuppertal, Solingen, Remscheid and the Bergisch Land. Klartext Verlag, Essen 2005, ISBN 978-3-89861-520-4
• Düsseldorf, Aachen and the Lower Rhine. Klartext Verlag, Essen 2008, ISBN 978-3-89861-892-2

Articles and lectures on theatre

• Getting to Grips with children’s theatre”. In: Theatre Quarterly, Vol X, no 39. 1981
• Hoping for the Unexpected: The Theatre of Peter Zadek. In: New Theatre Quarterly, Vol. 1, 1985
• Illusion and Reality in the Theresienstadt Concentration Camp. In: New Theatre Quarterly, Vol 12, 1996
• Reality and Illusion in the Theresienstadt Cabaret. In: Claude Schumacher (ed.): Staging the Holocaust. The Shoah in drama and performance .Cambridge University Press, Cambridge et al. 1998, ISBN 978-0-521-62415-2, pp. 147–168
• Singing in the Face of Death. A Study of Jewish Cabaret and Opera during the Holocaust. In: Rebecca Rovit/Alvin Goldberg (eds.): Theatrical Performance in the Holocaust. Texts, Documents, Memoirs. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore et al. 1999, ISBN 0-8018-6167-5, pp. 125–132

Film work

1984: ARD

ARD (broadcaster)

ARD is a joint organization of Germany's regional public-service broadcasters...

. Director: Unter deutschen Dächern. Teure Freunde (a film on the English occupying force in West Berlin)

2006: Narrator in Ilona Ziok's documentary film Kurt Gerrons Karussell (with Ben Becker, Ute Lemper and others)

Weblinks

• Roy Kift's official web site