From the category archives:

Actors and Performers

173 post(s)

Pulitzer Prize winner Ayad Akhtar talks about his debut play Disgraced

21 May 2013

in Actors and Performers, Asian Voices, New Writing, Playwrights

ASIAN VOICES: AYAD AKHTAR The Pulitzer Prize winning playwright, script-writer and actor talks to Amardeep Sohi about his debut play, Disgraced, which is currently being staged at the Bush Theatre, and which explores the experience of American Muslim professionals in the wake of 9/11.

Award-winning actor Richard McCabe talks about his role in The Audience

6 May 2013

in Actors and Performers, Playwrights, Political theatre

INTERVIEW: RICHARD McCABE The Olivier winning actor talks to Heather Neill about playing Harold Wilson in The Audience, Peter Morgan’s superb new play about the Queen’s audiences with her Prime Ministers (Gielgud Theatre), and which stars Helen Mirren as Her Majesty.

Actor Hattie Morahan discusses A Doll’s House for today at the Young Vic

5 May 2013

in 19th-century Drama, Actors and Performers, Playwrights

INTERVIEW: HATTIE MORAHAN The award-winning actress tells Sophie Reynolds about the Young Vic’s recent production of Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House, directed by Carrie Cracknell, in which she starred as Nora.

Edward Petherbridge and Paul Hunter examine My Perfect Mind

29 April 2013

in Actors and Performers, Playwrights, Shakespeare and Renaissance Drama

INTERVIEW: EDWARD PETHERBRIDGE and PAUL HUNTER The two performers of My Perfect Mind, a Told by an Idiot show, written by Kathryn Hunter, Paul Hunter and Edward Petherbridge, and currently at the Young Vic, talk to Heather Neill about the story behind the play, Petherbridge’s stroke and how he remembered the entire role of King Lear despite his illness.

Little Bulb look back at their 1930s Orpheus

27 April 2013

in Actors and Performers, Edinburgh Festival and Fringe, Greek Drama, Musicals

INTERVIEW: LITTLE BULB Matt Trueman meets Alexander Scott, Dominic Conway and Claire Beresford of Little Bulb Theatre to discuss their production of Orpheus, set in a 1930s Parisian music hall with virtuosic guitarist Jean ‘Django’ Reinhardt taking the lead role. The young company talk about the centrality of music in their work and why they love the plucky amateurism of the theatrical naif.

Fourth Monkey’s Steve Green discusses Project Colony

18 April 2013

in Actors and Performers, Directors, London Fringe, Site Specific

INTERVIEW: STEVE GREEN Ella Parry-Davies meets the artistic director of theatre company and training institution Fourth Monkey, along with performers Lauren Young, Abbey Gorton and Euan Forsyth. The company’s latest production, Project Colony, is an immersive, site-sensitive response to Franz Kafka’s In the Penal Colony in London’s Docklands, devised by a 45-strong cast. The group discuss their devising process and the rewards of working in a site that can become a character in its own right.

Actor Goldy Notay reports on Kali’s My Daughter’s Trial

16 April 2013

in Actors and Performers, Asian Voices, New Writing

ASIAN VOICES: GOLDY NOTAY The actor talks to Suman Bhuchar about her latest role for Kali theatre company, Parveen the ambitious Muslim lawyer in Jabine Chaudri’s My Daughter’s Trial (Brown’s Courtrooms, London, then touring). This site-specific work is about Parveen’s dilemma about whether to section her own mentally sick mother.

Northern Broadsides’ Barrie Rutter on tour with Rutherford and Son

2 April 2013

in 20th-century Drama, Actors and Performers, Directors, Regional Theatre

INTERVIEW: BARRIE RUTTER The artistic director of Northern Broadsides theatre company talks to Judi Herman about his current role, starring in the touring production of Githa Sowerby’s Rutherford and Son (1912), directed by Jonathan Miller. He sets the play in the context of early twentieth century Northern drama, talks about being directed by Miller and about his long career, from the National Youth Theatre to Northern Broadsides.

Actor Paul Rhys explores Complicite’s The Master and Margarita

21 March 2013

in Actors and Performers, Books, International, Russian Drama

INTERVIEW: PAUL RHYS After seven years away from the stage, Olivier award nominee Paul Rhys returned as the Master and Professor Woland in Complicite’s staging of Mikhail Bulgakov’s The Master and Margarita (Barbican, and tour). He tells Matt Trueman about sticking with a show for 18 months and why director Simon McBurney brings out the best in him.

Rufus Norris and Kobna Holdbrook-Smith pick apart Feast

25 February 2013

in Actors and Performers, Black Voices, Directors, International, New Writing

INTERVIEW: RUFUS NORRIS & KOBNA HOLDBROOK-SMITH Director Rufus Norris and actor Kobna Holdbrook-Smith talk to Matt Trueman about Feast, a staged celebration of the Yoruba culture and belief system at the Young Vic. The production, the final part of World Stages London’s first programme, is a multi-authored project incorporating distinct scenes into a whole united by song, dance and spectacle to chart the spread of Yoruba culture from Africa around the world.

How to play Money: The Gameshow — and survive the experience

20 February 2013

in Actors and Performers, Directors, Participatory & Interactive, Playwrights, Political theatre

INTERVIEW: CLARE DUFFY, LUCY ELLINSON and BRIAN FERGUSON The writer/director and performers of Money: The Game Show, produced by Unlimited Theatre and currently at the Bush Theatre, speak to Ella Parry-Davies. The show is an interactive piece about the human cost of financial crisis, and features £10 000 in real pound coins on stage, asking the participants to bet and hedge the futures of the characters.

Farah Karim-Cooper explores Renaissance indoor theatre at the Globe

23 January 2013

in Actors and Performers, Shakespeare and Renaissance Drama, Theatre buildings

INTERVIEW: FARAH KARIM-COOPER The head of research at Shakespeare’s Globe theatre in London talks to Heather Neill about the venue’s new indoor theatre space, the Sam Wanamaker Theatre, and about indoor performance during the Renaissance.

Shôn Dale-Jones introduces his alter-ego Hugh Hughes

5 December 2012

in Actors and Performers, Comedy, Digital theatre, Edinburgh Festival and Fringe, Physical and Visual theatre

INTERVIEW: SHÔN DALE-JONES The artistic director of Hoipolloi Theatre tells Matt Trueman about his alter-ego Hugh Hughes, an emerging artist from Wales, as his latest show Stories From an Invisible Town comes to the end of its UK tour. Just how does one give a fictional persona a fully-fledged off-stage life?

Shunt Associate Tom Lyall discusses his solo show DEFRAG_

5 December 2012

in Actors and Performers, Comedy, Digital theatre, London Fringe

INTERVIEW: TOM LYALL The Shunt Associate Artist tells Matt Trueman about his debut solo show DEFRAG_, part of Camden People’s Theatre’s Futureshock Festival, and the possibility that supercomputers could one day rule over and even replace us.

A Christmas Carol adapted by Dominic Gerrard and directed by Tim Carroll

22 November 2012

in Actors and Performers, Directors, Physical and Visual theatre

1 Comment

INTERVIEW: TIM CARROLL and DOMINIC GERRARD The director and actor talk to Heather Neill about their bicentennial one-man production of Dickens’s A Christmas Carol, which will be performed at the Waterloo East Theatre (3-15 December), with other London performances at the Dickens Museum and at the V&A Museum.

The importance of play: HalfCut discuss Shelf-Life

7 November 2012

in Actors and Performers, London Fringe, Participatory & Interactive, Site Specific

INTERVIEW: HALFCUT Dan Ball and Joe Iredale, two-thirds (with Astor Agustsson) of experimental theatre company HalfCut, tell Sophie Reynolds about Shelf-Life, their immersive, interactive, promenade piece which takes over all five storeys of Theatre Delicatessen, Marylebone Gardens, and fills the building with sand, balloons, pop-up show homes and unexpected deaths.

Jonathan Croall explores the wonderful world of John Gielgud (1/2)

19 October 2012

in Actors and Performers, Books, Theatre People

INTERVIEW: JONATHAN CROALL (1/2) The theatre historian and author talks to Heather Neill about his two recently published books, John Gielgud: Matinee Idol to Movie Star (Methuen) and Gielgoodies! The Wit, Wisdom and Gaffes of John Gielgud (Oberon Books), which together give a fully rounded account of one of the most important men of the theatre in the 20th century.

Jonathan Croall explores the wonderful world of John Gielgud (2/2)

19 October 2012

in Actors and Performers, Books, Theatre People

INTERVIEW: JONATHAN CROALL (2/2) The theatre historian and author talks to Heather Neill about his two recently published books, John Gielgud: Matinee Idol to Movie Star (Methuen) and Gielgoodies! The Wit, Wisdom and Gaffes of John Gielgud (Oberon Books), which together give a fully rounded account of one of the most important men of the theatre in the 20th century.

Actor Michael Pennington talks about playing Antony and about his latest book

30 September 2012

in Actors and Performers, Books, Shakespeare and Renaissance Drama, Theatre People

INTERVIEW: MICHAEL PENNINGTON The actor talks to Heather Neill about playing Antony in Janet Suzman’s current revival of Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra at the Chichester Festival Theatre, and about his latest book, Sweet William: Twenty Thousand Hours with Shakespeare (Nick Hern).

Shakespeare’s First Acts: Antony and Cleopatra

30 September 2012

in Actors and Performers, Shakespeare and Renaissance Drama

SHAKESPEARE’S FIRST ACTS: ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA Actor Michael Pennington discusses the first act of the play, in which he is playing Antony in Janet Suzman’s current revival at Chichester Festival Theatre, with Heather Neill. This interview is part of theatreVOICE’s new series for Olympics year 2012, looking at the beginning of each of Shakespeare’s plays.

The Place Prize: celebrating the best in contemporary dance

17 September 2012

in Actors and Performers, Directors, Live Art

1 Comment

INTERVIEW: DARREN ELLIS The choreographer speaks to Diana Damian about his piece Revolver, inspired by Ingmar Bergman’s seminal film Persona and featuring live music. The piece is competing in this year’s Place Prize Semi-Finals. Second part of our series about The Place Prize for dance Semi-Finals, which is at The Place, Robin Howard Dance Theatre, from 6–22 September 2012.

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