Stephen Plaice
Encyclopedia
Stephen Plaice is a UK based dramatist and scriptwriter who has written extensively for theatre, opera and television.
, he was co-founder of the literary magazine The Printer's Devil.
in the Seventies. In the Eighties he formed his own theatre companies, the short-lived Thumbscrew Theatre, and then Alarmist Theatre with the theatre director Helena Uren, now known as Helena Bell. Alarmist produced many of Plaice's plays and adaptations including his version of Vladimir Mayakovsky's
The Bedbug which, with the help of the British Council
, was taken to Moscow by the company in 1990, one of the first British productions to be performed under perestroika. Later in the Nineties, Plaice worked frequently with Shaker Productions, a theatre company based at the Hawth Theatre in Crawley, run by Alison Edgar. Edgar's 1993 production of Trunks, Plaice's play about the Brighton Trunk Murders
of 1934, was a critical success and transferred to Battersea Arts Centre and to the Lyric Theatre Studio Hammersmith before going on to tour nationally. It was successfully revived in expanded form in the Paganini Ballroom, Barcelo Brighton Old Ship Hotel, in 2008. His short play The Last Post originally produced by Shaker was made into a film by Sarah Radclyffe
Productions in 1995 and nominated for a BAFTA. The film was directed by Ed Blum
.
From 1987 Plaice was Writer-in-Residence at Lewes Prison, where he did the research for Trunks, and also for Prometheus Unlocked, a play about a prison arsonist. It was also here that his association with Glyndebourne Opera House began, after he invited a team from the Education Department to run annual workshops in the prison. In 1994, after seven years, Plaice left the prison residency and began writing scripts for ITV's The Bill
, scripting more than twenty episodes. Plaice has also worked extensively with the Education Department of the Berlin Philharmonic, most notably in 2004 with inmates in Plötzensee Prison
in Berlin on a project entitled Seven Doors, based on Bartók's Bluebeard's Castle.
After working in opera for most of the decade, in 2008 Plaice returned to straight drama and wrote Nemesis, a play which documented the extraordinary marriage between John and Ada Galsworthy
. John had been a visitor to Lewes Prison in the early 1900s.The play was given a rehearsed reading at the Minerva Theatre, Chichester
, but has not yet been produced. Mick and Me, about the author's imaginary friendship with a famous rock star in the 1960s, is in development and two new plays - Hearts and Minds, about the British Education Branch's role in the denazification of post-war Germany, and Wyatt, about the Tudor poet Thomas Wyatt - are planned.
. There were further collaborations with Lunn for the youth opera, Zoë in 2000 (made into a film for Channel 4 later that same year, directed by Theresa Griffith) and Tangier Tattoo in 2005, both produced at Glyndebourne. These operas were all directed by Stephen Langridge with whom Plaice has enjoyed a long working relationship. Richard Morrison of The Times wrote that the creative team 'virtually redefined the genre with their splendidly feisty Misper at Glyndebourne.... Zoe by the same team is a giant leap forward again'. Tangier Tattoo, however, an opera set against a background of jihadist kif-smuggling in Morocco, and ostensibly created for a target audience of 20 to 30 year olds, was less favourably received by the critics. Two new operas - The Benches and Imago - have been commissioned by Glyndebourne for 2012 and 2013 respectively.
In 2003 Langridge directed Plaice's first collaboration with Sir Harrison Birtwistle, the chamber opera The Io Passion
, which opened the Aldeburgh Festival
and toured to Bregenz later in the year. The Independent on Sunday praised "Stephen Plaice's beautifully organised libretto". Plaice also wrote the text for Birtwistle's carol The Gleam for the choir of Kings College Cambridge for The Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols in 2003. In 2010 Plaice wrote the libretto for Birtwistle's dramatic oratorio Angel Fighter which was premiered in the Thomaskirche at the Bachfest Leipzig
(de) to positive reviews: "a major work, one which points to a new direction for sacred music.....Birtwistle transforms the text, which Stephen Plaice has created for him in simple, magnificent, vivid sentences of Lutheran vehemence, into a seven-part arch form, a dramatic cantata, a compact oratorio".The UK premiere of this work took place on 20th August 2011 as part of the BBC Proms. Paint Me a chamber opera with the Portuguese composer Luis Tinoco was premiered in Lisbon in 2010, a Teatro Nacional de São Carlos / Culturgest co-production.
In 2006, Plaice scripted a hip-hop adaptation of Mozart's Così Fan Tutte
for Glyndebourne under the title of School4Lovers. This production toured to the Finnish National Opera
in Helsinki and to the Estonia Theatre
in Tallinn. In 2007 Plaice wrote the libretto for Orlando Gough's
The Finnish Prisoner
, a co-production between Finnish National Opera and the Lewes-based company The Paddock. The subject matter was the incarceration of Finnish prisoners in the now demolished Naval Prison at Lewes during the Crimean War. The opera was directed by Susannah Waters. In 2008, with the composer Richard Taylor, Plaice wrote the children's opera Confucius Says for Hackney Music Development Trust. This won the Royal Philharmonic Society Music Awards
for Education in 2008. He has collaborated again with Taylor on Ludd and Isis, a community opera commissioned for the opening of the new Royal Opera House
Production Park in Thurrock in late 2010. The Education Department of the Royal Opera House
has commissioned a new children's opera A Fight at the Opera for 2012.
musical, and took over the book of Daddy Cool
, the Frank Farian
musical, starring Michelle Collins
, Harvey
and Javine
, which was staged at the Shaftesbury Theatre
in 2006 before transferring to a purpose-built Theaterpalast in Berlin the following year. In 2009, with the composer Richard Taylor, he adapted Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book for the Castle Theatre Wellingborough
, and this was followed at the Castle in 2010 with a musical adaptation of Robin Hood, with the composer Grant Olding.
Early Career
Stephen Plaice was born in Watford UK in 1951 and attended Watford Grammar School for Boys. He went on to study German and Comparative Literature at the Universities of Sussex, Marburg and Zurich. An extensive account of his student days in Germany was given in The Romantic Road, a series of five programmes broadcast by BBC Radio 4 in 2009. He was co-translator of Ernst Bloch's The Principle of Hope (Blackwell 1986) and of Bloch's Heritage of our Time (Blackwell 1991). In the 1980s, with the poet Sean O'BrienSean O'Brien
Sean O'Brien may refer to:*Seán O'Brien , Gaelic footballer with Nemo Rangers*Sean O'Brien , Irish rugby union player*Sean O'Brien , based in Australia, competes on the Windsurfing World Tour...
, he was co-founder of the literary magazine The Printer's Devil.
Playwright
Plaice began his playwriting career as a translator of German plays at the Royal National TheatreRoyal 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...
in the Seventies. In the Eighties he formed his own theatre companies, the short-lived Thumbscrew Theatre, and then Alarmist Theatre with the theatre director Helena Uren, now known as Helena Bell. Alarmist produced many of Plaice's plays and adaptations including his version of Vladimir Mayakovsky's
Vladimir Mayakovsky
Vladimir Vladimirovich Mayakovsky was a Russian and Soviet poet and playwright, among the foremost representatives of early-20th century Russian Futurism.- Early life :...
The Bedbug which, with the help of the British Council
British Council
The British Council is a United Kingdom-based organisation specialising in international educational and cultural opportunities. It is registered as a charity both in England and Wales, and in Scotland...
, was taken to Moscow by the company in 1990, one of the first British productions to be performed under perestroika. Later in the Nineties, Plaice worked frequently with Shaker Productions, a theatre company based at the Hawth Theatre in Crawley, run by Alison Edgar. Edgar's 1993 production of Trunks, Plaice's play about the Brighton Trunk Murders
Brighton trunk murders
The Brighton trunk murders were two unrelated murders linked to Brighton, England in 1934. In both, the dismembered body of a murdered woman was placed in a trunk....
of 1934, was a critical success and transferred to Battersea Arts Centre and to the Lyric Theatre Studio Hammersmith before going on to tour nationally. It was successfully revived in expanded form in the Paganini Ballroom, Barcelo Brighton Old Ship Hotel, in 2008. His short play The Last Post originally produced by Shaker was made into a film by Sarah Radclyffe
Sarah Radclyffe
Sarah Radclyffe , sometimes credited as Sarah Radcliffe is a British film producer.She began working as associative producer in the late 1970s on movies like The Tempest by Derek Jarman...
Productions in 1995 and nominated for a BAFTA. The film was directed by Ed Blum
Ed Blum
Ed Blum is the director and producer of Scenes of a Sexual Nature , a low budget British movie starring Ewan McGregor and Sophie Okonedo, filmed entirely on Hampstead Heath. This was his first full-length feature and as Blum said, was made "for less than Love Actually 's catering budget."He was...
.
From 1987 Plaice was Writer-in-Residence at Lewes Prison, where he did the research for Trunks, and also for Prometheus Unlocked, a play about a prison arsonist. It was also here that his association with Glyndebourne Opera House began, after he invited a team from the Education Department to run annual workshops in the prison. In 1994, after seven years, Plaice left the prison residency and began writing scripts for ITV's The Bill
The Bill
The Bill is a police procedural television series that ran from October 1984 to August 2010. It focused on the lives and work of one shift of police officers, rather than on any particular aspect of police work...
, scripting more than twenty episodes. Plaice has also worked extensively with the Education Department of the Berlin Philharmonic, most notably in 2004 with inmates in Plötzensee Prison
Plötzensee Prison
Plötzensee Prison was a Prussian institution built in Berlin between 1869 and 1879 near the lake Plötzensee, but in the neighbouring borough of Charlottenburg, on Hüttigpfad off Saatwinkler Damm. During Adolf Hitler's time in power from 1933 to 1945, more than 2,500 people were executed at...
in Berlin on a project entitled Seven Doors, based on Bartók's Bluebeard's Castle.
After working in opera for most of the decade, in 2008 Plaice returned to straight drama and wrote Nemesis, a play which documented the extraordinary marriage between John and Ada Galsworthy
John Galsworthy
John Galsworthy OM was an English novelist and playwright. Notable works include The Forsyte Saga and its sequels, A Modern Comedy and End of the Chapter...
. John had been a visitor to Lewes Prison in the early 1900s.The play was given a rehearsed reading at the Minerva Theatre, Chichester
Minerva Theatre, Chichester
The Minerva Theatre is a studio theatre seating at full capacity 283. It is run as part of the adjacent Chichester Festival Theatre, located in Chichester, England, and was opened in 1989...
, but has not yet been produced. Mick and Me, about the author's imaginary friendship with a famous rock star in the 1960s, is in development and two new plays - Hearts and Minds, about the British Education Branch's role in the denazification of post-war Germany, and Wyatt, about the Tudor poet Thomas Wyatt - are planned.
Opera
In 1996 Glyndebourne produced the first of Plaice's librettos, the children's opera Misper, written with the composer John LunnJohn Lunn
John Lunn is a British composer, known for his soundtrack work for television. He was formerly a member of "systems music" band Man Jumping....
. There were further collaborations with Lunn for the youth opera, Zoë in 2000 (made into a film for Channel 4 later that same year, directed by Theresa Griffith) and Tangier Tattoo in 2005, both produced at Glyndebourne. These operas were all directed by Stephen Langridge with whom Plaice has enjoyed a long working relationship. Richard Morrison of The Times wrote that the creative team 'virtually redefined the genre with their splendidly feisty Misper at Glyndebourne.... Zoe by the same team is a giant leap forward again'. Tangier Tattoo, however, an opera set against a background of jihadist kif-smuggling in Morocco, and ostensibly created for a target audience of 20 to 30 year olds, was less favourably received by the critics. Two new operas - The Benches and Imago - have been commissioned by Glyndebourne for 2012 and 2013 respectively.
In 2003 Langridge directed Plaice's first collaboration with Sir Harrison Birtwistle, the chamber opera The Io Passion
The Io Passion
The Io Passion is a chamber opera with music by Harrison Birtwistle and a libretto in English by Stephen Plaice. It was commissioned jointly by the Aldeburgh Festival, Almeida Opera and the Bregenz Festival in Austria.-Performance History:...
, which opened the Aldeburgh Festival
Aldeburgh Festival
The Aldeburgh Festival is an English arts festival devoted mainly to classical music. It takes place each June in the Aldeburgh area of Suffolk, centred on the main concert hall at Snape Maltings...
and toured to Bregenz later in the year. The Independent on Sunday praised "Stephen Plaice's beautifully organised libretto". Plaice also wrote the text for Birtwistle's carol The Gleam for the choir of Kings College Cambridge for The Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols in 2003. In 2010 Plaice wrote the libretto for Birtwistle's dramatic oratorio Angel Fighter which was premiered in the Thomaskirche at the Bachfest Leipzig
Bachfest Leipzig
The Leipzig Bach Festival is a music festival which takes place annually in the city of Leipzig, where Bach worked as the Thomaskantor from 1723 until his death in 1750....
(de) to positive reviews: "a major work, one which points to a new direction for sacred music.....Birtwistle transforms the text, which Stephen Plaice has created for him in simple, magnificent, vivid sentences of Lutheran vehemence, into a seven-part arch form, a dramatic cantata, a compact oratorio".The UK premiere of this work took place on 20th August 2011 as part of the BBC Proms. Paint Me a chamber opera with the Portuguese composer Luis Tinoco was premiered in Lisbon in 2010, a Teatro Nacional de São Carlos / Culturgest co-production.
In 2006, Plaice scripted a hip-hop adaptation of Mozart's Così Fan Tutte
Così fan tutte
Così fan tutte, ossia La scuola degli amanti K. 588, is an opera buffa by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart first performed in 1790. The libretto was written by Lorenzo Da Ponte....
for Glyndebourne under the title of School4Lovers. This production toured to the Finnish National Opera
Finnish National Opera
The Finnish National Opera in Helsinki is the leading opera company in Finland. Its home base is the Opera House on Töölönlahti bay in Töölö which opened in 1993, and is state-owned through Senate Properties...
in Helsinki and to the Estonia Theatre
Estonia Theatre
The Estonia Theater is an opera house and concert hall in Tallinn, Estonia.The Jugendstil building was designed by Finnish architects Armas Lindgren and Wivi Lönn. It was built as a national effort with the leadership of Estonia society in 1913 and was opened to the public on August 24th...
in Tallinn. In 2007 Plaice wrote the libretto for Orlando Gough's
Orlando Gough
Orlando Gough is a British composer, educated at Oxford, and noted for projects written for ballet, contemporary dance and theatre. Collaborators have included Siobhan Davies, Alain Platel, Shobana Jeyasingh and Ashley Page of The Royal Ballet. He is artistic director of The Shout, which he...
The Finnish Prisoner
The Finnish Prisoner
The Finnish Prisoner is an opera by Orlando Gough, first performed in 2007. Stephen Plaice wrote the English-language libretto based on the true story of Finnish prisoners of war incarcerated in England during the Crimean War.-Background:...
, a co-production between Finnish National Opera and the Lewes-based company The Paddock. The subject matter was the incarceration of Finnish prisoners in the now demolished Naval Prison at Lewes during the Crimean War. The opera was directed by Susannah Waters. In 2008, with the composer Richard Taylor, Plaice wrote the children's opera Confucius Says for Hackney Music Development Trust. This won the Royal Philharmonic Society Music Awards
Royal Philharmonic Society Music Awards
The Royal Philharmonic Society Music Awards are given annually for live classical music-making in the United Kingdom. The awards were first held in 1989 and are independent of any commercial interest....
for Education in 2008. He has collaborated again with Taylor on Ludd and Isis, a community opera commissioned for the opening of the new Royal Opera House
Royal Opera House
The Royal Opera House is an opera house and major performing arts venue in Covent Garden, central London. The large building is often referred to as simply "Covent Garden", after a previous use of the site of the opera house's original construction in 1732. It is the home of The Royal Opera, The...
Production Park in Thurrock in late 2010. The Education Department of the Royal Opera House
Royal Opera House
The Royal Opera House is an opera house and major performing arts venue in Covent Garden, central London. The large building is often referred to as simply "Covent Garden", after a previous use of the site of the opera house's original construction in 1732. It is the home of The Royal Opera, The...
has commissioned a new children's opera A Fight at the Opera for 2012.
Music Theatre
Plaice has also written extensively for music theatre. He collaborated with Yusuf Islam on the early drafts of Moonshadow, the Cat StevensCat Stevens
Yusuf Islam , commonly known by his former stage name Cat Stevens, is an English singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, educator, philanthropist, and prominent convert to Islam....
musical, and took over the book of Daddy Cool
Daddy Cool (musical)
Daddy Cool is a musical based upon the works of Boney M and other Frank Farian produced artists. It premiered in the West End in 2006, followed by UK and international tours.The musical tells the story of Sunny, a young man who lives for his music...
, the Frank Farian
Frank Farian
Frank Farian , is a German record producer and songwriter. He started out as a trained cook before moving into the music industry...
musical, starring Michelle Collins
Michelle Collins
Michelle Danielle Collins is a British actress best known for her roles on television in the BBC soap opera EastEnders, as Cindy Beale, Coronation Street as Stella Price, and BBC dramas Sunburn and Two Thousand Acres of Sky...
, Harvey
So Solid Crew
So Solid Crew is an electronic and urban musical collective from South London, England, whose hits include "Oh No " and "21 Seconds", the latter reaching number one in the UK Singles Chart in August 2001. Another hit, "They Don't Know", reached number three in November 2001 and "Haters" got to...
and Javine
Javine Hylton
Javine Dionne Hylton , often known simply as Javine, is an English singer. She is most notable for representing the UK at Eurovision Song Contest 2005; beating competition favourite, model Katie Price, for the ticket to Kiev...
, which was staged at the Shaftesbury Theatre
Shaftesbury Theatre
The Shaftesbury Theatre is a West End Theatre, located on Shaftesbury Avenue, in the London Borough of Camden.-History:The theatre was designed for the brothers Walter and Frederick Melville by Bertie Crewe and opened on 26 December 1911 with a production of The Three Musketeers, as the New...
in 2006 before transferring to a purpose-built Theaterpalast in Berlin the following year. In 2009, with the composer Richard Taylor, he adapted Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book for the Castle Theatre Wellingborough
The Castle Theatre Wellingborough
The Castle Theatre is located in the town of Wellingborough, Northamptonshire, England. The theatre's main house can hold up to 503 people and hosts many productions through the year. The Castle was opened in 1995 as a community resource organisation on the site of Wellingborough's old cattle market...
, and this was followed at the Castle in 2010 with a musical adaptation of Robin Hood, with the composer Grant Olding.
Plays
- 1986: Young Faust
- 1987: Leonce and Lena (adaptation)
- 1987: Prometheus Unlocked
- 1990: The Bedbug (adaptation)
- 1993: Trunks
- 1995: Home Truths
- 1995: The Last Post
- 1996: The Shortlist
- 1997: The Milk Train
- 2008: Nemesis
- 2009: Mick and Me
Libretti
- 1996: Misper
- 2000: Zöe
- 2004: The Io Passion
- 2005: Tangier Tattoo
- 2006: School4Lovers
- 2007: The Finnish Prisoner
- 2008: Confucius Says
- 2010: Angel Fighter
- 2010: The Moon on A Stick
- 2010: Ludd and Isis
- 2010: Paint Me
Musicals
- 1995: Race the Devil (Glyndebourne Education)
- 2006: Daddy Cool (with Amani Napthali)
- 2009: The Jungle Book (adaptation)
- 2010: Robin Hood (adaptation)
Poetry
- 1983: Rumours of Cousins (Yorick Books)
- 1992: Over the Rollers (Yorick Books)