Guyan, Alexander
Playwright and actor
His career seems to have begun with the 1963 Otago University Caping Review in which he worked with Michael Noonan and Bill Southgate.
The Elmwood Players performed his one act play Conversation with a Golliwog in July 1964, and it was subsequently adapted for radio by the NZBC and broadcast 15 January 1965. Descibed as a psychological drama which probes a young woman’s relationships with her mother, brother, and boyfriend — and the extraordinary connection she has with Boswell, a very large golliwog. More recent performances usually substitute as less problematic soft toy, such as a lion.
He wrote a serial play Life with Fred for NZBC radio and had serval television dramas produced for the NZBC as well (see below)
He was part of the Kohatu Players production of O, New Zealand: Where the Māori Speaks at the Christchurch Repertory Theatre on March 6th, 1965. - Nelson Photo News
Radio plays for the N.Z.B.C. included:
The Arrangement for Thursday (2 December 1966)
Pop Goes the Rat (18 March 1967)
Do You Love Me? Of Course I Do (23 August 1968)
The Magician (27 August 1976)
At some stage he moved to the UK where he continued writing including Radio scripts for the BBC including
Sparrows (Wed 11th Oct 1967)
Rex Radio - A serial chronicling The extraordinary adventures of Captain Radio and his glamorous assistant Passion-flower versus the wicked Krakov, with NIGEL LAMBERT PAT KEEN and GARARD GREEN for BBC Radio 4 as part of Saturday afternoon programme for children Fourth Dimension (1970-74) and the school holiday show The Orange-coloured Peppermint Humbug Holiday Show (1971)
The Penny Programme (serial) (1971)
He wrote the ‘Fowler’s Day’ episode of the ATV anthology Happy Ever After (1969/70) featured struggling playwright Joe Fowler (Anthony Jackson) who suddenly – to his own great surprise – finds success within his grasp. But his professional progress is complicated by a zany domestic experience.
Sources suggest he died in 1991.
His New Zealand small screen work included:
