Alan Stanford

"For the American billionaire financier see Allen Stanford"

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Alan Stanford is an Irish actor and director

Early career

As a director Alan Stanford began his career at the Project Arts Centre where his productions included works by Shaw, Arbuzov, Graham Greene, Brecht, Dürrenmatt and Shakespeare. He is Artistic Director of Second Age Theatre Company for whom he has directed many productions, most recently "King Lear", "Othello" and "Philadelphia Here I Come". He also directed for the Irish Theatre Company and many independent managements. For Storytellers he directed both "The Mayor of Casterbridge" and "Oedipus". For the Gate Theatre, Alan has directed "Romeo and Juliet", "Tartuffe", "Present Laughter", "Pride and Prejudice", "The Picture of Dorian Gray", "Great Expectations", "A Tale of Two Cities", "The Collection" staring Harold Pinter, "Lady Windermere's Fan" twice, "The Weeping of Angels", "Cyrano de Bergerac", "An Ideal Husband", "A Christmas Carol", "Arms and the Man", "Oliver Twist", "Blithe Spirit", "Jane Eyre", "The Constant Wife", "Private Lives" and "The Importance of Being Earnest".

Roles

His work as an actor includes roles from Shaw to Wilde, from Ibsen to Ayckbourn. He received a Harveys Theatre Award for Best Actor for his performance as Salieri in "Amadeus" and was nominated for three further performances - Astrov in "Uncle Vanya", Higgins in "Pygmalion" and Valmont in "Les Liaisons Dangereuses". During the Gate Theatre Beckett Festival he performed as Pozzo in "Waiting for Godot" and as Hamm in "Endgame", performances he repeated to considerable critical acclaim at the Lincoln Center in New York and in Toronto, Melbourne at the Barbican Theatre in London and in both Beijing and Shanghai He played the Vice-Consul McCready in Michael Collins (in reality the Viceroy FitzAlan). His most recent stage appearances were at the Abbey Theatre as Lady Bracknell in "The Importance of Being Earnest" and the Gate Theatre in "Salome".

Other work

Stanford's work as an adaptor for the stage include adaptations of "Pride and Prejudice", "Oliver Twist", and "Jane Eyre"; all presented at The Gate Theatre; a stage version of "How Many Miles to Babylon?", for Second Age Theatre Company, as well as a screenplay of "The Picture of Dorian Gray", which he had previously co-adapted for the stage with writer Gavin Kostick. He has also co-written and directed the two pantomimes at the Gaiety Theatre, "Snow White" and "Sleeping Beauty".

Television and film

His film and television work includes "Educating Rita", "The Irish R.M.", "The Treaty", "The Hanging Gale", "Moll Flanders", "Kidnapped", "The American", "Animal Farm", "Waiting for Godot", and for many years the role of George Manning in RTÉ's "Glenroe".

Throughout his career Stanford has been a tireless advocate of the arts and most recently has become a member of the Arts Council of Ireland.

External links

*http://www.secondage.com
*imdb name|id=0822157