Rikki Beadle-Blair

Rikki Beadle-Blair MBE
Rikki Beadle-Blair, 2007
Born	1961 (age 62–63) Camberwell, London, England
Occupation(s)	Actor, film director, writer
Parent	Monica Beadle
Relatives	Gary Beadle (brother)

Richard Barrington "Rikki" Beadle-Blair MBE (born July 1961) is a British actor, director, and playwright.^[1] He is the artistic director of multi-media production company Team Angelica.^[1]

Early life

Beadle-Blair was born in Camberwell and raised in Bermondsey, both in south London, by a single mother, Monica.^[1] Rikki was brought up with a brother, Gary Beadle (also an actor, of Eastenders fame),^[1] and a sister.^[1] He attended Lois Acton's Experimental Bermondsey Lampost Free School^[1] and, later, Old Vic Youth Theatre.^[1]

Career

Beadle-Blair wrote the screenplay for the 1995 feature film Stonewall (dir. Nigel Finch, 1995).^[2] 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.^[3]

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.^[4] Beadle-Blair subsequently adapted it into a film (2010).^[5]

Beadle-Blair was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2016 Birthday Honours for services to drama.^[6]

Selected plays

• Kick-Off – January 2009, Riverside Studios
• Fit (Autumn 2008) adapted for film in 2010^[7][8]
• 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,^[9] 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.^[10] It won a 2002 Sony Best Feature Award.^[11]

Whoopsie (writer; directed by Turan Ali for Bona Broadcasting/Radio 4, 2021) - gay comedy-drama, 28 mins.^[12]

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.^[13]

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]} Their first book was Beadle-Blair's inspirational What I Learned Today.^{[citation needed]} They have since published gay Somali Diriye Osman's groundbreaking short story collection, Fairytales For Lost Children, which won the Polari prize in 2014,^[14] and Gordon's Drapetomania, favourably reviewed in the Financial Times,^[15] which won the Ferro-Grumley Award for Best LGBTQ Fiction in 2019.^[16] Most recently they published Larry Duplechan's memoir through his love of film, Movies That Made Me Gay (2024).^[17]

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

See also

• London Lesbian and Gay Film Festival

References

External links and sources

• Rikki Beadle-Blair at IMDb