User:ProfessorRusty/Robert Anthony Wynne-Simmons

Robert Anthony Wynne-Simmons (born August 18, 1947 in Sutton, Surrey, UK) is a film director, screenwriter, playwright and composer.

His career began in 1970, when he wrote the original screenplay of the British horror film Blood On Satan's Claw (Tigon British/Chilton Films - directed by Piers Haggard ). In the 1970s he also worked as a film editor for the BBC, and for RTE in Dublin, Ireland.

In Ireland he began to work professionally as a film director, with his own screenplays, Double Piquet for RTE, and then, in 1982,  The Outcasts (with Mary Ryan, Mick Lally, and Cyril Cusack ), one of the first productions to be funded by the Irish Film Board (winner of "Best Film" at Brussels Fantasy Festival, "Best First Feature" at San Remo, "Critics' Prize" at Oporto, and 5 other awards.)

He also directed part of the children's series The Booktower for Yorkshire Television, and wrote and directed for the supernatural drama series When Reason Sleeps for Strongbow/Channel Four UK. He also wrote and directed the short film, Scherzo, at Barrandov Studios, Prague.

1998 saw the first performance of his song cycle, The Vagrant Muse, at the Blackheath Concert Halls, London, (Lyrics by John Clare, sung by the tenor Alastair Thompson ), which was his professional debut as a composer.

Beginning in 2005 at St Paul's Cathedral, London, and St Alfege's church, Greenwich, he gave performances (sometimes with his own music) of the authentic texts of the dramatic poems of the 14th Century Pearl Poet, including Pearl, Saint Erkenwald,  Gawain And The Green Knight, and The Warres Of Alexander.

Recently he directed his own play The Deluge (based on the work of Karen Blixen ) at Edinburgh, Scotland, with Susannah York in the leading role. His dramatic monologue Kurtz (after Joseph Conrad) received its first performance in London in 2007.

He is currently based in Wiesbaden, Germany where he continues with his screen writing and his composition for the musical theatre.

...