Frank Allen (playwright)
Frank Allen is a Dublin born playwright, screenwriter, director and teacher.[1] His latest work, Twelve Days in May was shown at the Liberty Hall Dublin during November 2009. The play is about the last twelve days of James Connolly.[2] Allen has completed a screenplay for a movie about the life of James Connolly with film producer Tom Stokes.[3]
Biography
EARLY LIFE
Francis Richard Allen was born on November 17, 1954 in Dublin, Ireland, to James and Kathleen Allen. Frank's father James Allen was a horse trainer and his mother Kathleen (née Halpin) worked as a seamstress. Frank grew up in a loving, close knit, traditional Irish family with his four brothers; Matthew, Joseph, Gerard, and James, and his two sisters Mary and Philomena. Francis attended Drimnagh Castle School for Boys in 1960 and continued his education there under the tutelage of the Christian Brothers up until the early 1970s. Frank showed a keen interest in sports from a young age and played both Gaelic Football and Soccer throughout his school years. As a teenager he played gaelic football and hurling with Good Counsel GAA Club and went on to play Soccer at a League of Ireland level for his beloved Shamrock Rovers F.C once he had finished school in 1973. Having spent a year playing for the Football Club, Frank went on to attend University College Dublin in the mid-1970s to study in the Arts of English, History and Economics. He received his Bachelor of Arts with Honours from U.C.D and went on to qualify as a teacher, beginning his early career in Pearse College from 1980–1982 and St. Kevin's College Dublin from 1982-1990. In 1984 Frank Allen was appointed as the Chairman of The Dublin Branch of the Teachers Union of Ireland and has always been a strong advocate for the protection of workers and their rights. Between 1980- 1986 Frank was also involved in the Irish Anti Apartheid Movement and spent time travelling around South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe in particular. The playwright's love of history inspired much of his later work and he references historical underdogs namely James Connolly, Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandela as people who inspire him and influence his work. Throughout this time Frank continued to maintain his love of sport and turned to athletics as a past time completing six Dublin Marathons between 1983 and 1989.
Works
- Caffrey-Memoirs of a Dub (1996)
- Café Slices (1998)
- Give us a break (1999)
- Concert Pitch (2000)
- The Methadone Actors (2002)
- Oh When The Hoops (2004)
- On Tilt (2008)
- Twelve Days in May (2009)