Difference between revisions 98780540 and 128410230 on enwiki

[[image:Girlfriend_in_a_Coma.png|thumb|right|Delaney was featured twice on [[The Smiths|Smiths]] record sleeves, including this one for their 1987 single, "Girlfriend in a Coma."]]
'''Shelagh Delaney''' (born [[November 25]], [[1939]]), is a [[United Kingdom|British]] [[playwright]] of [[Ireland|Irish]] descent,  best known for her debut work, ''A Taste Of Honey''.

Born in [[Salford]], [[Lancashire]], [[England]], she attended three primary schools, apparently enjoying the change from one to another. After failing the eleven-plus examination to qualify for grammar school, she moved on to Broughton Secondary School, where she saw her first stage production, an amateur performance of [[William Shakespeare|Shakespeare]]'s ''[[Othello]]''. She was twelve at the time and the play made a lasting impression. 

Delaney proved to be a late developer, and she finally transferred to the local grammar school, where she had a record of fair achievement. She left school at seventeen for a succession of jobs in [[Salford]], which included shop assistant, milk-depot clerk, and usherette. Her driving ambition always was to write.

At age seventeen, Delaney began ''[[A Taste of Honey]]'' as a [[novel]] but soon realised that it would work better as a [[play]]. It focuses on a teen aged [[working-class]] girl who refuses to conform to her dreary surroundings. The play portrays the lives of typical workers in the north of England in an inventive way.
[[image:1965 Shelagh Delaney.jpg|thumb|left|Shelagh Delaney in 1965]]
''A Taste of Honey'' was accepted by [[Joan Littlewood]], [[theatre director|artistic director]] of the [[Theatre Workshop]], who strongly believed that plays should be about ordinary people. It opened at the [[Theatre Royal Stratford East]] in [[London]] on [[May 27]], [[1958]], and on [[February 10]], [[1959]], transferred [[Wyndham's Theatre]] in the [[West End theatre|West End]], where it enjoyed a long run and won several awards.  On [[October 4]], [[1960]], the play opened at(contracted; show full)
[[Category:1939 births|Delaney, Shelagh]]
[[Category:British dramatists and playwrights|Delaney, Shelagh]]
[[Category:Living people|Delaney, Shelagh]]
[[Category:People of Irish descent in Great Britain|Delaney, Shelagh]]
[[Category:People from Salford|Delaney, Shelagh]]

[[de:Shelagh Delaney]]