Roy Smiles
Encyclopedia
Roy Smiles is an English playwright
and singer-songwriter from West London
, also occasional actor.
As a songwriter-singer his first album Drunks & Dreamers was released by Red Admiral Records in March 2011.
and Groucho Marx
, was staged at the Battersea Arts Centre in 1992.
Other early plays include: Top Of The Town (Kings Head Theatre), Roberto Calvi Is Alive & Well (Finborough Theatre) Idiot's Waltz (Finborough Theatre), Danny Boy (Etcetera Theatre), The Boys Of Summer (Old Red Lion Theatre), The Promised Land (Kings Head Theatre), Get It While You Can - A Conversation With Janis Joplin (Etcetera Theatre), Stand Up (Old Red Lion Theatre), Bombing People (Jermyn Street Theatre), Sick Dictators (Jermyn Street Theatre) and Lunatic's Tango (Hen & Chickens Theatre).
Author of the script for The Rat Pack, the West End tribute to Frank Sinatra
, Dean Martin
and Sammy Davis Junior (Vaudeville Theatre, Strand Theatre, many British and European tours).
Winner of Guinness Fringe Theatre Awards in 1995 and in 1996 for the plays Roberto Calvi is Alive and Well and Get it While You Can - A Conversation with Janis Joplin.
Resident writer at the Warehouse Theatre
in 1995 and 1996 and at the Jermyn Street Theatre
in 2000 and 2001.
Writing attachment to the Royal National Theatre
(sponsored by director/playwright Terry Johnson
) in 2001.
His play about Spike Milligan
, Ying Tong - A Walk with the Goons, started at the West Yorkshire Playhouse
in 2004 and transferred to the New Ambassadors Theatre
in the West End
in 2005. Produced by Michael Codron
, it was later staged in New Zealand, South Africa, the United States, and had two sell-out tours of Australia.
Michael Codron also produced Year of the Rat
, his play about the attempts of George Orwell
to write Nineteen Eighty-Four
, at the West Yorkshire Playhouse
in 2008. Its world premier was staged at The Court Theatre in New Zealand in 2007.
Schmucks had its American premier at The Wilma Theatre in Philadelphia in 2008.
Pythonesque
, his story of the Monty Python
team, premiered in South Africa in 2008 and had its UK premier at the Edinburgh Festival
in 2009.
Kurt and Sid
, with Danny Dyer
as Sid Vicious
and Shaun Evans
as Kurt Cobain
, opened in the West End - the Trafalgar Studios - in 2009.
His backstage vaudeville farce Backstage was premiered at The Court Theatre in New Zealand in 2009.
The Last Pilgrim, about Senator
Robert F. Kennedy
's doomed attempt to run for the US presidency in 1968, staged at The White Bear Theatre, was shortlisted for Best Play at the 2010 Off West End Awards.
Burlesque, his musical co-written with Adam Meggido about the Communist witch-hunts in 1950's America, opened at the Jermyn Street Theatre in November 2011.
Pythonesque, Kurt and Sid, Year Of The Rat and Ying Tong are all published by Oberon Books
.
Ying Tong, Good Evening (the story of the Beyond The Fringe team) and Pythonesque have been broadcast on BBC Radio 4
.
His book celebrating his comic influences Funny People was published by Oberon Books in 2011.
Drunks and Dreamers is released by Red Admiral Records - REDADCDA576.
Time's Moving On is available to hear in its entirety on ReverbNation.
Sea Songs is available to hear in its entirety on Soundcloud.
As an actor Smiles was in the original cast of the musical A Slice of Saturday Night
(1989–1991) which ran for eighteen months at The Arts Theatre.
He played the leads in his plays Top of the Town (1992), The Promised Land
(1995), and The Ho-Ho Club (2006) - all at the Kings Head Theatre.
In the cinema he played the character of Itzak Heller in Roman Polanski
's Oscar-winning
film The Pianist.
Year Of The Rat (Oberon Plays 2007) - ISBN 978-1840028447
Pythonesque (Oberon Plays 2009) - ISBN 978-1840029413
Kurt & Sid (Oberon Plays 2009) - ISBN 978-1840029420
Funny People (Oberon Books 2011) - ISBN 9781849430340
Time's Moving On And Sea Songs available to hear on You Tube.
Other tracks available on You Tube: Ballad Of Moira Mooney, Girl From Devizes Fair, Saturday's Children, Veil Of Tears, What Fools These Mortals Be, Sunday Morning Rain, God Help The Down & Out, Twisted City.
Playwright
A playwright, also called a dramatist, is a person who writes plays.The term is not a variant spelling of "playwrite", but something quite distinct: the word wright is an archaic English term for a craftsman or builder...
and singer-songwriter from West 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...
, also occasional actor.
Career
Roy Smiles is the author of twenty three produced stage plays. He has had plays staged in the UK, US, Australia, Israel, Sweden, New Zealand and South Africa.As a songwriter-singer his first album Drunks & Dreamers was released by Red Admiral Records in March 2011.
Playwriting
His first play Schmucks, the story of a fictitious meeting between Lenny BruceLenny Bruce
Leonard Alfred Schneider , better known by the stage name Lenny Bruce, was a Jewish-American comedian, social critic and satirist...
and Groucho Marx
Groucho Marx
Julius Henry "Groucho" Marx was an American comedian and film star famed as a master of wit. His rapid-fire delivery of innuendo-laden patter earned him many admirers. He made 13 feature films with his siblings the Marx Brothers, of whom he was the third-born...
, was staged at the Battersea Arts Centre in 1992.
Other early plays include: Top Of The Town (Kings Head Theatre), Roberto Calvi Is Alive & Well (Finborough Theatre) Idiot's Waltz (Finborough Theatre), Danny Boy (Etcetera Theatre), The Boys Of Summer (Old Red Lion Theatre), The Promised Land (Kings Head Theatre), Get It While You Can - A Conversation With Janis Joplin (Etcetera Theatre), Stand Up (Old Red Lion Theatre), Bombing People (Jermyn Street Theatre), Sick Dictators (Jermyn Street Theatre) and Lunatic's Tango (Hen & Chickens Theatre).
Author of the script for The Rat Pack, the West End tribute to Frank Sinatra
Frank Sinatra
Francis Albert "Frank" Sinatra was an American singer and actor.Beginning his musical career in the swing era with Harry James and Tommy Dorsey, Sinatra became an unprecedentedly successful solo artist in the early to mid-1940s, after being signed to Columbia Records in 1943. Being the idol of the...
, Dean Martin
Dean Martin
Dean Martin was an American singer, film actor, television star and comedian. Martin's hit singles included "Memories Are Made of This", "That's Amore", "Everybody Loves Somebody", "You're Nobody till Somebody Loves You", "Sway", "Volare" and "Ain't That a Kick in the Head?"...
and Sammy Davis Junior (Vaudeville Theatre, Strand Theatre, many British and European tours).
Winner of Guinness Fringe Theatre Awards in 1995 and in 1996 for the plays Roberto Calvi is Alive and Well and Get it While You Can - A Conversation with Janis Joplin.
Resident writer at the Warehouse Theatre
Warehouse Theatre
The Warehouse Theatre is a professional producing theatre with one hundred seats in the centre of the London Borough of Croydon, south London, England based in an oak-beamed former cement Victorian warehouse...
in 1995 and 1996 and at the Jermyn Street Theatre
Jermyn Street Theatre
Jermyn Street Theatre is a performance venue situated in Jermyn Street, London.Formerly a restaurant, under the leadership of Howard Jameson, it was transformed into a 70-seat studio theatre right in the heart of London's West End...
in 2000 and 2001.
Writing attachment to the Royal National Theatre
Royal National Theatre
The Royal National Theatre in London is one of the United Kingdom's two most prominent publicly funded theatre companies, alongside the Royal Shakespeare Company...
(sponsored by director/playwright Terry Johnson
Terry Johnson (dramatist)
Terry Johnson is a British dramatist and director working for stage, television and film. He is a Literary Associate at the Royal Court Theatre. At The Court he directed Dumb Show by Joe Penhall and opened his play Piano/Forte...
) in 2001.
His play about Spike Milligan
Spike Milligan
Terence Alan Patrick Seán "Spike" Milligan Hon. KBE was a comedian, writer, musician, poet, playwright, soldier and actor. His early life was spent in India, where he was born, but the majority of his working life was spent in the United Kingdom. He became an Irish citizen in 1962 after the...
, Ying Tong - A Walk with the Goons, started at the West Yorkshire Playhouse
West Yorkshire Playhouse
The West Yorkshire Playhouse in Leeds, England is a theatre which opened in March 1990 as part of the regeneration of the Quarry Hill area of the city...
in 2004 and transferred to the New Ambassadors Theatre
New Ambassadors Theatre
The Ambassadors Theatre , is a West End theatre located in West Street, near Cambridge Circus on the Charing Cross Road in the City of Westminster...
in the West End
West End theatre
West End theatre is a popular term for mainstream professional theatre staged in the large theatres of London's 'Theatreland', the West End. Along with New York's Broadway theatre, West End theatre is usually considered to represent the highest level of commercial theatre in the English speaking...
in 2005. Produced by Michael Codron
Michael Codron
Michael Victor Codron is a British film and theatre producer, known for his productions of the early work of Harold Pinter, Christopher Hampton, David Hare, Simon Gray and Tom Stoppard...
, it was later staged in New Zealand, South Africa, the United States, and had two sell-out tours of Australia.
Michael Codron also produced Year of the Rat
Year of the Rat (play)
Year of the Rat is a play by Roy Smiles about a encounter between George Orwell, Cyril Connolly and Sonia Brownell on the island of Jura...
, his play about the attempts of George Orwell
George Orwell
Eric Arthur Blair , better known by his pen name George Orwell, was an English author and journalist...
to write Nineteen Eighty-Four
Nineteen Eighty-Four
Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell is a dystopian novel about Oceania, a society ruled by the oligarchical dictatorship of the Party...
, at the West Yorkshire Playhouse
West Yorkshire Playhouse
The West Yorkshire Playhouse in Leeds, England is a theatre which opened in March 1990 as part of the regeneration of the Quarry Hill area of the city...
in 2008. Its world premier was staged at The Court Theatre in New Zealand in 2007.
Schmucks had its American premier at The Wilma Theatre in Philadelphia in 2008.
Pythonesque
Pythonesque (play)
Pythonesque is a Monty Python-related play by the British playwright Roy Smiles. It was first performed in South Africa in 2008 and made its British debut at the 2009 Edinburgh Fringe Festival where it starred Matt Addis as Terry Jones and Michael Palin, James Lance as Terry Gilliam and Eric Idle,...
, his story of the Monty Python
Monty Python
Monty Python was a British surreal comedy group who created their influential Monty Python's Flying Circus, a British television comedy sketch show that first aired on the BBC on 5 October 1969. Forty-five episodes were made over four series...
team, premiered in South Africa in 2008 and had its UK premier at the Edinburgh Festival
Edinburgh Festival
The Edinburgh Festival is a collective term for many arts and cultural festivals that take place in Edinburgh, Scotland each summer, mostly in August...
in 2009.
Kurt and Sid
Kurt and Sid
Kurt and Sid is a play by Roy Smiles which had its world premiere at the Trafalgar Studios in London's West End. The play opened on 9 September 2009 and starred Danny Dyer and Shaun Evans . Kurt and Sid was produced by Thomas Hopkins and Andrew Jenkins.-Development:Sid Vicious was only portrayed...
, with Danny Dyer
Danny Dyer
Danny Dyer is an English actor, media personality, and chairman of Greenwich Borough, a non-League football team.-Biography:Daniel John Dyer was born in Custom House, an area of East London, to Antony and Christine Dyer...
as Sid Vicious
Sid Vicious
Sid Vicious was an English musician best known as the bassist of the influential punk rock group Sex Pistols...
and Shaun Evans
Shaun Evans
Shaun Evans is an English actor.Evans completed a course with the National Youth Theatre before relocating to London at the age of eighteen to study at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. His first major role was that of gay French teacher John Paul Keating in the Channel 4 comedy-drama...
as Kurt Cobain
Kurt Cobain
Kurt Donald Cobain was an American singer-songwriter, musician and artist, best known as the lead singer and guitarist of the grunge band Nirvana...
, opened in the West End - the Trafalgar Studios - in 2009.
His backstage vaudeville farce Backstage was premiered at The Court Theatre in New Zealand in 2009.
The Last Pilgrim, about Senator
United States Senate
The United States Senate is the upper house of the bicameral legislature of the United States, and together with the United States House of Representatives comprises the United States Congress. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Article One of the U.S. Constitution. Each...
Robert F. Kennedy
Robert F. Kennedy
Robert Francis "Bobby" Kennedy , also referred to by his initials RFK, was an American politician, a Democratic senator from New York, and a noted civil rights activist. An icon of modern American liberalism and member of the Kennedy family, he was a younger brother of President John F...
's doomed attempt to run for the US presidency in 1968, staged at The White Bear Theatre, was shortlisted for Best Play at the 2010 Off West End Awards.
Burlesque, his musical co-written with Adam Meggido about the Communist witch-hunts in 1950's America, opened at the Jermyn Street Theatre in November 2011.
Pythonesque, Kurt and Sid, Year Of The Rat and Ying Tong are all published by Oberon Books
Oberon Books
Oberon Books is an independent publisher which specialises in drama and the performing arts. Whilst the majority of Oberon's catalogue is made up of play texts, in recent years it has begun to publish theatrical biographies as well as books on ballet, opera, illustration, photography and...
.
Ying Tong, Good Evening (the story of the Beyond The Fringe team) and Pythonesque have been broadcast on BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4 is a British domestic radio station, operated and owned by the BBC, that broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history. It replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. The station controller is currently Gwyneth Williams, and the...
.
His book celebrating his comic influences Funny People was published by Oberon Books in 2011.
Other
He has recorded three albums of original songs: Drunks and Dreamers, Time's Moving On and Sea Songs.Drunks and Dreamers is released by Red Admiral Records - REDADCDA576.
Time's Moving On is available to hear in its entirety on ReverbNation.
Sea Songs is available to hear in its entirety on Soundcloud.
As an actor Smiles was in the original cast of the musical A Slice of Saturday Night
A Slice of Saturday Night
A Slice of Saturday Night is a musical with book, lyrics and music by The Heather Brothers: Lea, Neil, Charles and John. The songs are a nostalgic pastiche of 1960s music, and the story tells a tale of teenage dreams and young love set around 1964 in a nightclub called Club-a-Go-Go.The Heather...
(1989–1991) which ran for eighteen months at The Arts Theatre.
He played the leads in his plays Top of the Town (1992), The Promised Land
The Promised Land
The Promised Land is a 1975 Polish film directed by Andrzej Wajda, based on a novel by Władysław Reymont. Set in the industrial city of Łódź, The Promised Land tells the story of a Pole, a German, and a Jew struggling to build a factory in the raw world of 19th century capitalism.Wajda presents a...
(1995), and The Ho-Ho Club (2006) - all at the Kings Head Theatre.
In the cinema he played the character of Itzak Heller in Roman Polanski
Roman Polanski
Roman Polanski is a French-Polish film director, producer, writer and actor. Having made films in Poland, Britain, France and the USA, he is considered one of the few "truly international filmmakers."...
's Oscar-winning
Academy Awards
An Academy Award, also known as an Oscar, is an accolade bestowed by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize excellence of professionals in the film industry, including directors, actors, and writers...
film The Pianist.
Published works
Ying Tong - A Walk With The Goons (Oberon Plays 2004) - ISBN 978-1840025255Year Of The Rat (Oberon Plays 2007) - ISBN 978-1840028447
Pythonesque (Oberon Plays 2009) - ISBN 978-1840029413
Kurt & Sid (Oberon Plays 2009) - ISBN 978-1840029420
Funny People (Oberon Books 2011) - ISBN 9781849430340
Plays
A complete list of Smiles' staged plays followed by the place and date of its original production is as follows:- Schmucks - Battersea Arts Centre, London, 1992
- Roberto Calvi Is Alive & Well - Finborough Theatre, London, 1992
- Top of the Town - Kings Head Theatre, London, 1992
- Idiot's Waltz - Finborough Theatre, London, 1993
- The Court Jester - Warehouse Theatre, CroydonCroydonCroydon is a town in South London, England, located within the London Borough of Croydon to which it gives its name. It is situated south of Charing Cross...
, London, 1994 - Danny Boy - Etcetera Theatre, London, 1994
- The Boys of Summer - Old Red Lion Theatre, London, 1995
- Dinner with the Borgias - Warehouse Theatre, Croydon, London, 1995
- The Promised Land - Kings Head Theatre, London 1995
- Get It While You Can, A Conversation With Janis Joplin - Etcetera Theatre, London,
- The Exiles (or Highgate Shuffle) - Hen and Chickens Theatre, London, 1997
- Stand-Up - Old Red Lion Theatre, London,
- Bombing People - Jermyn Street Theatre, London,
- Sick Dictators - Jermyn Street Theatre, London,
- Lunatic's Tango - Hen and Chickens Theatre, London,
- Ying Tong: A Walk with the Goons - West Yorkshire Playhouse, LeedsLeedsLeeds is a city and metropolitan borough in West Yorkshire, England. In 2001 Leeds' main urban subdivision had a population of 443,247, while the entire city has a population of 798,800 , making it the 30th-most populous city in the European Union.Leeds is the cultural, financial and commercial...
, - The Ho Ho Club (formerly Stand Up) - Kings Head Theatre, IslingtonIslingtonIslington is a neighbourhood in Greater London, England and forms the central district of the London Borough of Islington. It is a district of Inner London, spanning from Islington High Street to Highbury Fields, encompassing the area around the busy Upper Street...
, London, - Good Evening - Theatre-on-the-Bay, South Africa, 2007
- Year Of The Rat - The Forge at The Court TheatreCourt Theatre (New Zealand)The Court Theatre is a professional theatre company based in Christchurch, New Zealand. It was founded in 1971 and located in the Christchurch Arts Centre from 1976 until the February 2011 Christchurch earthquake and is currently developing a new site from which to resume activities before the end...
, ChristchurchChristchurchChristchurch is the largest city in the South Island of New Zealand, and the country's second-largest urban area after Auckland. It lies one third of the way down the South Island's east coast, just north of Banks Peninsula which itself, since 2006, lies within the formal limits of...
, New Zealand, - PythonesquePythonesque (play)Pythonesque is a Monty Python-related play by the British playwright Roy Smiles. It was first performed in South Africa in 2008 and made its British debut at the 2009 Edinburgh Fringe Festival where it starred Matt Addis as Terry Jones and Michael Palin, James Lance as Terry Gilliam and Eric Idle,...
- Theatre-on-the-Bay, South Africa, 2008 - Kurt and SidKurt and SidKurt and Sid is a play by Roy Smiles which had its world premiere at the Trafalgar Studios in London's West End. The play opened on 9 September 2009 and starred Danny Dyer and Shaun Evans . Kurt and Sid was produced by Thomas Hopkins and Andrew Jenkins.-Development:Sid Vicious was only portrayed...
- Trafalgar Studios, London 2009 - Backstage - The Forge at The Court TheatreCourt Theatre (New Zealand)The Court Theatre is a professional theatre company based in Christchurch, New Zealand. It was founded in 1971 and located in the Christchurch Arts Centre from 1976 until the February 2011 Christchurch earthquake and is currently developing a new site from which to resume activities before the end...
, ChristchurchChristchurchChristchurch is the largest city in the South Island of New Zealand, and the country's second-largest urban area after Auckland. It lies one third of the way down the South Island's east coast, just north of Banks Peninsula which itself, since 2006, lies within the formal limits of...
, New Zealand, - The Last Pilgrim - The White Bear Theatre, London,
- Burlesque - A Musical (co-written with Adam Meggido) - Jermyn Street Theatre, November 9, 2011.
Discography
- Drunks and Dreamers
- Tracks: Christ This City, St. Jude's Lament, Angel Of The North, A Land Called Home, Girls Who Ride On Trains, Raven Black, Happy (Clare's Song), Lighthouse Keeper, I'll Give You The Sun, Drunks & Dreamers, Wooden Ship, Sea Song (Above Us The Stars). (RED ADMIRAL RECORDS)
- Time's Moving On
- Tracks: El Dorado, Bird With A Broken Wing, All I Really Care About (Is You), Ship That Died Of Shame, Shadow Of My Songs, Nawal's Song II, For the Love Of Vera, Girls Of Summer, Queen For A Day, Love Of A Woman, Has Anybody Here Seen A Friend III, Time's Moving On. (REVERBNATION)
- Sea Songs
- Tracks: Ship Of Fools, Loving You All My Days, All That I Know, Desperation AM, Rome Wasn't Built, Yesterday's Sun, Meet Me (In The Angel), The Scarecrow, Spinning Wheel, Apostle's Song, Maid Of The Morning, Arrivederci. (SOUNDCLOUD)
Time's Moving On And Sea Songs available to hear on You Tube.
Other tracks available on You Tube: Ballad Of Moira Mooney, Girl From Devizes Fair, Saturday's Children, Veil Of Tears, What Fools These Mortals Be, Sunday Morning Rain, God Help The Down & Out, Twisted City.