Rikki Beadle-Blair facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Rikki Beadle-Blair
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Rikki Beadle-Blair, 2007
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| Born | 25 July 1961 age 63 |
| Occupation | Actor, film director, writer |
| Parent(s) | Monica Beadle |
| Relatives | Gary Beadle (brother) |
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
Blair was born in Camberwell and raised in Bermondsey, both in south London, by a single mother, Monica Beadle (who was born in 1944 in Jamaica). She had moved to Britain when she was 12 and was the first black child in her school in Peckham. Rikki was brought up with a brother, Gary Beadle (also an actor, of Eastenders fame), four years younger, and a sister, eight years younger. He attended Lois Acton's Experimental Bermondsey Lampost Free School.
Career
Beadle-Blair wrote the screenplay for the 1995 feature film Stonewall (dir. Nigel Finch, 1995). 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.
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. Beadle-Blair subsequently adapted it into a film (2010).
Beadle-Blair was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2016 Birthday Honours for services to drama.
Selected plays
- Kick-Off – January 2009, Riverside Studios
- Fit (Autumn 2008) adapted for film in 2010
- 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.
- South London Passion Plays trilogy (Gutted, 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.
Four one-hour ensemble plays
- Exposures
- Street Art
- 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. It won a 2002 Sony Best Feature Award.
Whoopsie (writer; directed by Turan Ali for Bona Broadcasting/Radio 4, 2021) - gay comedy-drama, 28 mins.
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.
Team Angelica
In 2011 with long term creative partner John R. Gordon, Beadle-Blair founded Team Angelica Publishing, a queer-of-colour-centric press. Their first book was Beadle-Blair's inspirational What I Learned Today. They have since published gay Somali Diriye Osman's groundbreaking short story collection, Fairytales For Lost Children, which won the Polari prize in 2014, and Gordon's Drapetomania, favourably reviewed in the Financial Times, which won the Ferro-Grumley Award for Best LGBTQ Fiction in 2019. Most recently they published Larry Duplechan's memoir through his love of film, Movies That Made Me Gay (2024).
See also
- London Lesbian and Gay Film Festival
