Getting Lucky: The Education of a Mad Poker Player
Richard Sparks has written over sixty hours of broadcast TV worldwide (among others, The Famous Five, Not the Nine o’Clock News, The Worst of Hollywood, Valentine Park, The Optimist, The Flying Kiwi.)   On stage, a dozen plays for companies all over the U.K., such as the Welsh National, the Chichester Festival and the West Yorkshire Playhouse, and London theatres including the Victoria Palace, the Latchmere, the Orange Tree, Greenwich, Hampstead and the Bush. It was at the Hampstead Theatre that the then-unknown Rowan Atkinson (Mr. Bean) performed Richard's Schoolmaster sketch, which launched him to stardom in John Cleese’s show/film The Secret Policeman’s Ball. He is now living in the U.S., and writing many opera libretti for leading companies such as the National Symphony (Washington D.C.) and the Los Angeles Opera -- four of which have their world premieres in 2006. p; He has even written an opera for puppets, in the New Line film The Adventures of Pinocchio, with composers Lee Holdridge and Brian May of Queen.  A lifelong poker afficionado, he used to play in a home game in London that included poker authors A.Alvarez, David Spanier and Anthony Holden.