Pam Gems ( Iris Pamela Price; 1 August 1925 – 13 May 2011)Lyn Gardner Obituary: Pam Gems, The Guardian, 16 May 2011 was an English playwright. The author of numerous original plays, as well as of adaptations of works by European playwrights of the past, Gems is best known for the 1978 musical play Piaf.
Personal life Iris Pamela Price was born in Bransgore, Hampshire, and had her first play – a tale of goblins and elves – staged when she was eight by her fellow pupils at primary school. She studied psychology at Manchester University from which she graduated in 1949. She was in her forties when she started to write professionally. She is best known for her 1978 musical play Piaf about French singer Édith Piaf.
She was nominated for two Tony Awards: for Stanley (Best Play) in 1997, and for Marlene (Best Book of a Musical), starring Siân Phillips as Marlene Dietrich, in 1999. Gems adapted works by dramatists ranging from Henrik Ibsen, Federico García Lorca and Anton Chekhov to Marguerite Duras.
Family In 1949, she married wax model manufacturer (the family firm, Gems Wax Models, established in 1885, has supplied models to Madame Tussauds) and former architectQueer Mythologies: The Original Stageplays of Pam Gems, Dimple Godiwada, Intellect Books, 2006 Keith Gems; the couple had four children.
Filmography Year Title Role Notes1984 Nineteen Eighty-Four The Washerwoman
List of works Early plays (1972–1976) Source:
(work, year, place first produced) Betty's Wonderful Christmas (1972), Cockpit Theatre, London My Warren And After Birthday (1973), Almost Free Theatre, London Miz Venus and Wild Bill (1973), Almost Free Theatre, London After Birthday (1973) The Amiable Courtship Of Miz Venus And Wild Bill (1974), Almost Free Theatre, London Go West Young Woman (1974), The Roundhouse, London Up In Sweden (1975), Haymarket, Leicester My Name Is Rosa Luxembourg (adaptation), (1975) Up In Sweden (1975) Rivers and Forests (adaptation), (1976) Dead Fish (aka Dusa, Fish, Stas And Vi, 1976), Edinburgh Festival Guinevere (1976), Edinburgh Festival The Project (1976), Soho Poly, London
Middle plays (1977–2000) Franz Into April (1977), ICA, London Queen Christina (1977), Other Place, Stratford-on-Avon Piaf (1978), Other Place, Stratford-on-Avon Ladybird, Ladybird (1979), The King's Head, Islington, London Sandra (1979), London Aunt Mary (1982), Warehouse Theatre, London The Treat (1982), ICA, London The Cherry Orchard (adaptation) (1984) Variety Night (1982), London Camille (adaptation) (1984) Loving Women (1984) The Danton Affair (1986) Pasionaria (1985), Playhouse Theatre, Newcastle upon Tyne Arther and Guinevere (1990), Edinburgh The Seagull (adaptation) (1991) The Blue Angel (1991), Other Place, Stratford-on-Avon Deborah's Daughter (1994), Manchester Ghosts (adaptation) (1994) Marlene (1996), Oldham Stanley (1996), London At the Window (1997) The Snow Palace (1998) Ebba (1999)
Late plays (2000–2009) Girabaldi, Si! (2000) Linderhof (2001) Mrs Pat (2002), Theatre Royal, York Yerma (adaptation) (2003), Royal Exchange Theatre Manchester Not Joan the Musical (2003) The Lady From The Sea (adaptation) (2003), Almeda Theatre London The Little Mermaid (adaptation) (2004), Greenwich Theatre, Riverside Theatre, London Nelson (2004), Nuffield Theatre, Southampton Broadway Lady (2007) Piaf (2008), Donmar Warehouse, London Winterlove (2009), The Drill Hall, London Despatches (2009), The Drill Hall, London
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