Peter Shaffer--Playwright--imdb
Date of Birth 15 May 1926, Liverpool, England, UK Birth Name Peter Levin Shaffer
Mini Biography--Educated St Paul's School & Trinity College, Cambridge. Worked in
Aquisitions Dept. of New York Public Library and for music publisher Boosey &
Hawkes before finding fame as playwright.
TriviaHe has a twin brother named Anthony Shaffer who was born five minutes before him
and is also an author.
Brother-in-law of Diane Cilento.
He was award Knight Bachelor of the Order of the British Empire in the 2001 New
Year's Honours List for his services to drama.
Both he and brother Anthony Shaffer have adapted their own sucessful plays into
successful films: Peter wrote Amadeus (1984), and Anthony wrote Sleuth (1972).
Has twice won Broadway's Tony Award as author of a Best Play winner: in 1975 for
"Equus" and in 1981 for "Amadeus." He was also twice nominated as author of a Best
Play nominee: in 1967 for "Black Comedy" and in 1991 for "Lettice and Lovage."
Step-uncle of Jason Connery.
Personal Quotes
I've often wondered, because of my frequent sojourns in America, how much good
psychiatry and all the rest of it was doing those of my acquaintances who were in
treatment. I know a couple who appear to have benefited from it, but most, whatever
they may think, haven't changed at all. I began to wonder some time ago whether it
might not be a false religion with a lot of worshipers.
When you first do a play, the actors tend to eye you ingratiatingly, with a kind of
respectful hope, as if you are the repository of some great secret which they must have.
Three weeks later, these roles are reversed. It is you, the author, who is sidling up to
them nervously and saying in a low voice "I wonder if you'd mind putting in this line, or
saying this to her". And quite often the erstwhile timid star is staring at you and saying
"Oh no. he would never say that!" Being a playwright in rehearsal involves a necessary if
saddening process of being gutted and then discarded. You are first welcomed and then
shown the door.
I think think some of the reasons I've had a sense of happiness in my life, a sense of
fulfillment, is that I began with a sense of invisibility about myself. As I evolve I become
more visible. When I'm 100, if I manage to write lots of play, I can read them all in a row
and it may give me some vague sense - only vague - of what I am and was.
[on using LSD] It was a transporting experience, expressed in very concrete images,
places and periods. It involved both generic pictures [from China and the Congo] and
more strictly autobiographical ones (a book-laden boy in perhaps 1850 walking to
Hebrew School through a labyrinth of alleys, perhaps in Kiev). I have never forgotten it
or moved far from the sense of wonder it provided and a fairly constant gratitude for the
infinite complexity of being it revealed to me.
Wikipedia
Sir Peter Levin Shaffer (born 15 May 1926) is an English playwright and screenwriter of
numerous award-winning plays, several of which have been filmed.
Early life: Shaffer was born to a Jewish family in Liverpool, the son of Reka (née
Fredman) and Jack Shaffer, an estate agent.[1][2] He is the twin brother of fellow
playwright, Anthony Shaffer. He was educated at St Paul's School, London and
subsequently he gained a scholarship to Trinity College, Cambridge, to study history.
Shaffer was a Bevin Boy coal miner during World War II, and took a number of jobs
including bookstore clerk, and assistant at the New York Public Library, before
discovering his dramatic talents.
Theatrical career
Shaffer's first play, The Salt Land (1954), was presented on the BBC. Encouraged by this
success, Shaffer continued to write and established his reputation as a playwright in
1958, with the production of Five Finger Exercise,[3] which opened in London under the
direction of John Gielgud and won the Evening Standard Drama Award. When Five
Finger Exercise moved to New York in 1959, it was equally well received and landed
Shaffer the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award for Best Foreign Play.
Shaffer's next piece was a double bill, The Private Ear/The Public Eye, two plays each
containing three characters and concerning aspects of love. They were presented in May
1962 at the Globe Theatre, and both starred Maggie Smith.
In 1963, the National Theatre was established, and virtually all of Shaffer's subsequent
work was done in its service.
Shaffer's canon contains a unique mix of philosophical dramas and satirical comedies.
The Royal Hunt of the Sun (1964) presents the tragic conquest of Peru by the Spanish,
while Black Comedy (1965) takes a humorous look at the antics of a group of characters
feeling their way around a pitch black room — although the stage is actually flooded
with light.
Equus (1973) won Shaffer the 1975 Tony Award for Best Play as well as the New York
Drama Critics' Circle Award. A journey into the mind of a 17-year-old stableboy who
had plunged a spike into the eyes of six horses, Equus ran for over 1000 performances on
Broadway. It was revived by Massachusetts' Berkshire Theatre Festival in the summers
of 2005 and 2007, by director Thea Sharrock at London's Gielgud Theatre in February
2007, and on Broadway (in the Sharrock staging) in September 2008. The latter
production, which ran in New York until February 2009, required the stableboy to
appear naked; its star, Daniel Radcliffe, was still associated with the Harry Potter films
intended for general audiences, and this led to mild controversy.[4]
Shaffer followed this success with Amadeus (1979) which won the Evening Standard
Drama Award and the Theatre Critics Award for the London production. This tells the
story of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and court composer Antonio Salieri who, overcome
with jealousy at hearing the "voice of God" coming from an "obscene child", sets out to
destroy his rival. When the show moved to Broadway it won the 1981 Tony Award for
Best Play and, like Equus, ran for more than 1000 performances.[citation needed]
Screen adaptations[edit]
Several of Shaffer's plays have been adapted to film, including Five Finger Exercise
(1962), The Royal Hunt of the Sun (1969), The Public Eye (1962), from which he adapted
the 1972 film Follow Me! (1972), Equus (1977), and Amadeus (1984), which won eight
Academy Awards including Best Picture.
Shaffer received two Academy Award–nominations for adapting his plays Equus and
Amadeus for the big screen. For writing the screenplay for Equus, he was nominated for
the 1977 Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar but the award went to Alvin Sargent, who
wrote the screenplay for Julia. For writing the screenplay for Amadeus, Shaffer received
both the 1984 Best Screenplay Golden Globe and the 1984 Best Adapted Screenplay
Oscar.
Awards- Shaffer received the William Inge Award for Distinguished Achievement in the
American Theater in 1992. Two years later he was appointed Cameron Mackintosh
Visiting Professor of Contemporary Theatre at Oxford University.
In 1993, he was awarded an Honorary Degree (Doctor of Letters) by the University of
Bath.[5]
Honours-He was named Knight Bachelor in the 2001 New Year's Honours.
Selected works
The Salt Land (1954)
Balance Of Terror (1957)
The Prodigal Father (1957)
Five Finger Exercise (1958)
The Private Ear and The Public Eye
(1962)
The Establishment (1963)
The Merry Roosters Panto (1963)
The Royal Hunt of the Sun (1964), a
theatre piece on Atahualpa, the last
emperor of the Tahuantinsuyu.
Black Comedy (1965)
The White Liars (1967)
Shrivings (1970)
Equus (1973)
Amadeus (1979)
Black Mischief (1983)
Yonadab (1985)
Lettice and Lovage (1987)
Whom Do I Have The Honour Of
Addressing? (1990)
The Gift of the Gorgon (1992)
References[edit]
^ "Peter Shaffer Biography". Filmreference.com. 1926-05-15. Retrieved 2010-09-14.
^ "The Jewish Daily Forward". Forward.com. Retrieved 2010-09-14.
^ Stevens, Christopher (2010). Born Brilliant: The Life Of Kenneth Williams. John
Murray. p. 377. ISBN 1-84854-195-3.
^ "Naked stage role for Potter star". BBC News. 28 July 2006. Retrieved 2007-02-22.
^ "Honorary Graduates 1989 to present". bath.ac.uk. University of Bath. Retrieved 18
February 2012.