Rikki Beadle-Blair

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{{Infobox person

|name=Rikki Beadle-Blair

|honorific_suffix=MBE

|image=Rikkibeadleblair.jpg

|caption = Rikki Beadle-Blair, 2007

|birth_date= 25 July 1961 age 63

|birth_place=Camberwell, London, England

|parents=Monica Beadle

|relatives=Gary Beadle (brother)

|occupation=Actor, film director, writer

}}

Richard Barrington "Rikki" Beadle-Blair MBE (born 25 July 1961) is a British actor, director, and playwright. He is the artistic director of multi-media production company Team Angelica.

Early life

Beadle-Blair was born in Camberwell and raised in Bermondsey, both in south London, by a single mother, Monica.{{cite web|last=Okundaye|first=Jason|title=Rikki Beadle-Blair: the brilliant stage and screen writer who should be a household name|url=https://www.theguardian.com/society/2021/may/20/rikki-beadle-blair-brilliant-stage-screen-writer-should-be-household-name|website=The Guardian|date=20 May 2021|access-date=9 January 2024}} Rikki was brought up with a brother, Gary Beadle (also an actor, of Eastenders fame), and a sister. He attended Lois Acton's Experimental Bermondsey Lampost Free School and, later, Old Vic Youth Theatre.

Career

Beadle-Blair wrote the screenplay for the 1995 feature film Stonewall (dir. Nigel Finch, 1995).{{cite web|title=Screen Two: Stonewall|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p033cncb|website=BBC|access-date=10 January 2024}} He adapted his own screenplay of Stonewall for the stage and his production company Team Angelica, which he took to the 2007 Edinburgh Festival. He also directed, produced, designed both sets & costumes, & choreographed on the show. The play was nominated for "Best Ensemble" at The Stage Awards for Acting Excellence.{{cite web|url=http://www.thestage.co.uk/edinburgh/awards |title=The Stage / Edinburgh 2009 |work=The Stage |accessdate=18 March 2010}}

In Autumn 2007, FIT, a play for young people commissioned by the Manchester-based arts organisation queerupnorth and the gay equality organisation Stonewall, went on tour around the UK. The play was developed to help tackle homophobic bullying in Britain's schools.[https://web.archive.org/web/20080707225542/http://www.queerupnorth.com/news_detail.php?ID=562 Article] on QueerUpNorth.com, 2008 archive version. Beadle-Blair subsequently adapted it into a film (2010).{{Cite web |last=Walters |first=Ben |date=2010-11-02 |title=Fit |url=https://www.timeout.com/movies/fit |access-date=2024-06-10 |website=Time Out Worldwide |language=en-GB}}

Beadle-Blair was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2016 Birthday Honours for services to drama.{{London Gazette|issue=61608|supp=y|page=B16|date=11 June 2016}}

Selected plays

Kick-Off – January 2009, Riverside Studios
Fit (Autumn 2008) adapted for film in 2010{{cite web|author=Peter Bradshaw |url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/2010/nov/04/fit-film-review |title=Fit – review | Film |date=4 November 2010|work=The Guardian }}{{cite web |last=Nott |first=George |url=http://www.guardian-series.co.uk/leisure/theatre/9330153._It_represents_my_biggest_stretch____Rikki_Beadle_Blair_on_his_new_play__Shalom_Baby/ |title="It represents my biggest stretch" – Rikki Beadle-Blair on his new play, Shalom Baby (From East London and West Essex Guardian Series) |publisher=Guardian-series.co.uk |date=27 October 2011 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20140413142459/http://www.guardian-series.co.uk/leisure/theatre/9330153._It_represents_my_biggest_stretch____Rikki_Beadle_Blair_on_his_new_play__Shalom_Baby/ |archivedate=13 April 2014 |df=dmy-all }}
Home – Tristan Bates Theatre (June 2008)
Touch – Tristan Bates Theatre (June 2008)
Screwface – Tristan Bates Theatre (June 2008).
Familyman – Theatre Royal Stratford East (May 2008, directed by Dawn Reid). Text published by Oberon Books.
FIT (2007) – National Tour – adapted for film
Stonewall (2006/7) – stage adaptation of the BBC film.
Taken In (2005) – Set in a halfway house for homeless youths.
Bashment (2005) – explores the controversy around dancehall reggae music and the consequences of homophobic lyrics – Theatre Royal Stratford East. Text published by Oberon Books.
Totally Practically Naked in My Room on a Wednesday Night (2005) – a night in the life of 17-year-old Dylan, desperate to lose his virginity.
South London Passion Plays trilogy (Gutted,{{cite web|author=Lyn Gardner |date= 7 May 2013 |url=https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2013/may/07/gutted-review |title=Gutted – review | Stage |work=The Guardian }} Laters and Sweet) (2004) – Tristan Bates Theatre
Captivated (1997) – the story of a gay black man imprisoned for murder. Shane corresponds with an Asian pen pal who writes him as an act of charity. Shane's self-hatred turns into a soul-searching journey from cockiness to agonised self-reflection, and finally ultimate gratitude for his unseen friend.
Ask and Tell – homosexuality and the Army.
twothousandandSex – an ensemble play about sex and sexuality featuring 35 actors – at the Drill Hall Theatre.

Four one-hour ensemble plays

Exposures
Street Art
The Grope Box
Fucking Charlie
Below the Radar – a straight guy/gay guy pair of roommates and their sexual misadventures in New Orleans.
Human – two terminally ill cancer patients get together for a final riotous love affair.
Prettyboy – described as a 'Dogma Style Musical" at the Oval House Theatre.
Gunplay (he did not direct)
Wild at Heart Riverside Studios (1988)

Radio/Audio

Roots of Homophobia (writer/presenter, Radio 4, 2001) an exploration of Jamaican homophobia.{{cite web|last=Usborne|first=David|title=BBC plays 'burn gays' reggae hit|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/bbc-plays-burn-gays-reggae-hit-9179453.html|website=The Independent|date=19 August 2001|access-date=9 January 2024}} It won a 2002 Sony Best Feature Award.{{cite web|title=Sony Awards 2002 - the winners|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pressreleases/stories/2002/05_may/03/sony_winners.shtml|website=BBC|access-date=10 January 2024}}

Whoopsie (writer; directed by Turan Ali for Bona Broadcasting/Radio 4, 2021) - gay comedy-drama, 28 mins.{{cite web|title=Whoopsie|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m00121b4|website=BBC Radio 4|access-date=9 January 2024}}

Scooters, Shooters & Shottas: a Curious Tale (director, written by John R Gordon, a Team Angelica/The Art Machine co-production, 2022) - a 40 minute podcast drama of raucous Black queer lives in 'the endz' of South London.{{cite web|title=Platforming the untold stories of black queer lives in London, New audio drama Scooters, Shooters and Shottas: a Curious tale announced|date=29 March 2023 |url=https://theatreweekly.com/platforming-the-untold-stories-of-black-queer-lives-in-london-new-audio-drama-scooters-shooters-and-shottas-a-curious-tale-announced/|access-date=9 January 2024}}

Team Angelica

In 2011 with long term creative partner John R. Gordon, Beadle-Blair founded Team Angelica Publishing, a queer-of-colour-centric press.{{citation needed|date=January 2024}} Their first book was Beadle-Blair's inspirational What I Learned Today.{{citation needed|date=January 2024}} They have since published gay Somali Diriye Osman's groundbreaking short story collection, Fairytales For Lost Children, which won the Polari prize in 2014,{{cite news|title=Somali author Diriye Osman wins Polari Prize|work=BBC News |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-latin-america-29636931|access-date=9 January 2024}} and Gordon's Drapetomania, favourably reviewed in the Financial Times,{{Cite news |url=https://www.ft.com/content/0e6cacfc-5cf9-11e8-ab47-8fd33f423c09 |title=Drapetomania by John R Gordon — north star rising |newspaper=Financial Times |date=June 1, 2018 |url-access=subscription}} which won the Ferro-Grumley Award for Best LGBTQ Fiction in 2019.{{cite web|title=The Ferro-Grumley Awards|url=https://publishingtriangle.org/awards/ferro-grumley-awards/|access-date=9 January 2024}} Most recently they published Larry Duplechan's memoir through his love of film, Movies That Made Me Gay (2024).{{cite web|title=Team Angelica Publishing signs Duplechan's Movies That Made Me Gay|url=https://www.thebookseller.com/rights/team-angelica-publishing-signs-duplechans-movies-that-made-me-gay|date=8 June 2023|access-date=9 January 2024}}

Publications

Bashment (playtext) Oberon Books 2005 {{ISBN|978-1840025828}}
Family Man (playtext) Oberon Books 2008 {{ISBN|978-1840028584}}
Fit (playtext) Oberon Books 2010 {{ISBN|978-1849430807}}
What I Learned Today (inspirational) Team Angelica Publishing 2011 {{ISBN|978-0956971906}}
Shalom, Baby (playtext) Oberon Books 2011 {{ISBN|978-1849432139}}
Reasons to Live (inspirational) Team Angelica Publishing 2012 {{ISBN|978-0956971920}}
Gutted (playtext) Oberon 2013 {{ISBN|978-1783190164}}
Black & Gay in the UK (co-editor) Team Angelica Publishing 2014 {{ISBN|978-0956971968}}
More Than (co-editor) Team Angelica Publishing 2016 {{ISBN|978-0956971999}}
Summer in London (playtext) Team Angelica Publishing 2017 {{ISBN|978-0995516229}}
Sista! (co-editor) Team Angelica Publishing 2018 {{ISBN|978-0995516243}}
Mother Country: Real Stories of the Windrush Children (anthology: contributor) Headline 2019 {{ISBN|978-1472261908}}
Oberon Book of Modern Monologues for Women: Teens to Thirties (anthology: contributor) Oberon 2022 {{ISBN|978-1350321847}}
Black British Queer Plays and Practitioners: An Anthology of Afriquia Theatre (anthology: contributor) Methuen 2022 {{ISBN|978-1350234567}}