SAM PARRY
Invited to come aboard as a Producer/Director for the Fairfax Town Players, RELATIVITY—The Musical is Sam’s first full-length staged musical, for which he wrote the book, lyrics and composed the music. Between leaving a British boarding school in Darjeeling in the Himalayas at age 16, and today, Sam has had a varied life as nightclub singer, pilot, university professor, clinical child and research psychologist, writer, poet, sculptor, and occasionally, an independent film producer/director. He is a published author of 17 books, encompassing academic works, novels, short stories and poetry, in addition to 12 screen and stage plays as well as numerous magazine and newspaper articles. He is a member of the American Screenwriters Guild and The Dramatists Guild of America. His first production was at aged 17, when he wrote and starred in the one-man play, HELL HITLER! He also wrote, produced, directed and acted in Homlette (a satire on Shakespeare's Hamlet), Down from the Hills, A Fortune in War, A Martial Art, Dharuma, Metamorphosis, The Magic Sword and Novus Annus. He produced, directed and played Algernon Moncrieff in The Importance of Being Earnest (eight different times!). While still in his teens he directed the then Calcutta-based Maccabean Theatre Company’s productions of Henry V, Macbeth and A Merchant of Venice. He wrote the screenplay, produced and directed the film Sweetpeas (in post production) based on a short story he had written for a London magazine. Currently, he is working on a comedy screenplay, Gulli and Dunda, an anti-war, one-man play, I Was There, and writing his father’s biography, titled Two Walks With My Father. A martial artist and scholar of 50 years, Sam captained the victorious British Team in the 1976 World Karate Championships held in Florence, Italy, winning two gold, two silver and a bronze medal. Now an 8th Degree Black Belt Martial Arts Master he is the founder of Bushido International and Bushido Dojos. A 16-year Fairfaxian, he is co-Artist-in-Residence with fellow artist and wife, Shoshana Parry. He likes all manner of music (especially classical), reads a lot (mostly science and history), and plays the recorder (‘very badly!’) His favorite sayings are, “Walk the talk!”—“Move forward, life is short.”—”It will be okay in the end, if it’s not okay...it’s not the end!” He sincerely hopes you enjoy the show.