From the category archives:

Actors and Performers

143 post(s)

Jonathan Slinger talks about his RSC Macbeth

27 May 2011

in Actors and Performers, Shakespeare and Renaissance Drama

INTERVIEW: JONATHAN SLINGER The actor, who made his name appearing at the Royal Shakespeare Company, especially in substantial roles in the Histories – Richard II and Richard III – talks to Heather Neill about his greatest challenge to-date, playing Macbeth for Michael Boyd.

Epic: a show that spans the 20th century!

25 May 2011

in Actors and Performers, Directors, Live Art, Playwrights

INTERVIEW: LUCY FOSTER and CHLOE DECHERY Diana Damian talks to the theatre-makers about their show Epic (Soho, and touring), and about Brecht, staging history, merging the small with the big and the challenges of an epic show.

David Slack of Manchester’s 24:7 Festival

23 May 2011

in Actors and Performers, New Writing, Playwrights, Regional Theatre

INTERVIEW: DAVID SLACK The Executive Producer of the 24:7 Theatre Festival, an event that focuses on new writing in Manchester and is now in its eighth year, chats to David Chadderton about the origins, significance and influence of the festival, which runs annually in late July.

Interview with fast-rising actress Jessica Raine

30 April 2011

in Actors and Performers, New Writing

INTERVIEW: JESSICA RAINE The fast-rising star – who has made waves in David Hare’s Gethsemane, Simon Stephens’ Harper Regan and Punk Rock and is now making a splash as the glamorous, Marilyn Monroe-esque secretary Cleo in the National Theatre’s revival of Clifford Odets’ Rocket to the Moon – talks to Carole Woddis about her dynamic career.

Royal Court roundtable tribute to Ken Campbell

8 April 2011

in 1970s Drama, Actors and Performers, Theatre People

KEN CAMPBELL: ROUNDTABLE DISCUSSION Royal Court roundtable in honour of Ken Campbell (1941-2008): his daughter Daisy Campbell joins the ventriloquist-comedian Nina Conti, the actor Jim Broadbent, the actor-comedian John Sessions and the director Sir Richard Eyre to share their memories of the man with Ken’s biographer, the critic Michael Coveney.

Playwright David Eldridge on his brilliant new play

31 March 2011

in Actors and Performers, Playwrights, Theatre People

INTERVIEW: DAVID ELDRIDGE The playwright talks to Aleks Sierz about his very well received new play, The Knot of the Heart (Almeida), which he wrote specially for actor Lisa Dillon, and which is directed by the venue’s artistic director Michael Attenborough. Recorded at the Almeida.

Matthew Kelly talks about his acting career

22 March 2011

in Actors and Performers, Comedy, Theatre People

INTERVIEW: MATTHEW KELLY Heather Neill pops backstage at the Duchess Theatre to talk to the erstwhile TV presenter, best-known for Stars in Their Eyes, who has returned to his theatrical roots, undertaking a remarkable range of roles – the latest being the engineer Frank in Tim Firth’s comic two-hander Sign of the Times.

The Kings of England explore memory at Spill 2011

12 March 2011

in Actors and Performers, Live Art, Theatre People

SPILL FESTIVAL 2011: KINGS OF ENGLAND Diana Damian talks to company members Simon Bowes, Alex Eisenberg and John Pinder about their show, In Eldersfield: An Elegy for Paul Dirac, and their plans for a 10-year cycle of works dedicated to invoking forgotten moments of the twentieth century. Recorded at the Espace studios.

Actors Shelley King and Jamila Massey on The Usual Auntijies

10 March 2011

in Actors and Performers, Asian Voices, Comedy

Asian voices: Shelley King and Jamila Massey. Two of the stars of Paven Virk’s The Usual Auntijies (Belgrade, Coventry) talk to Suman Bhuchar about this bitter-sweet comedy, directed by Barry Kyle, and discuss current issues in the growth of South Asian theatre. Recorded in Coventry.

Roundtable discussing the experimental Sprint festival

3 March 2011

in Actors and Performers, Live Art, Reviews and Roundtables, Site Specific

SPRINT FESTIVAL SPECIAL Diana Damian talks to Matt Ball, artistic director of Camden People’s Theatre, and Sprint artists Hester Chillingworth (Getinthebackofthevan with External) and Oliver Lamford (Thisnowthis with Anemone) about creating experimental work and the place of audience engagement in contemporary theatre. Recorded in the occasionally noisy foyer of Camden People’s Theatre. More info: www.cptheatre.co.uk/sprint.php.

Simon Callow on Twelfth Night and Sir Toby Belch

18 February 2011

in 20th-century Drama, Actors and Performers, Shakespeare and Renaissance Drama

SHAKESPEARE: TWELFTH NIGHT Heather Neill talks to the award-winning veteran actor and author Simon Callow about playing Sir Toby Belch for 80-year-old Sir Peter Hall in Twelfth Night, which is currently at the National. He also discusses the broader cultural context of postwar theatre. Recorded at the National.

Actor Lucian Msamati on Clybourne Park

17 February 2011

in Actors and Performers, American Drama, Black Voices

INTERVIEW: LUCIAN MSAMATI The actor, director and writer chats to Carole Woddis about his role in Bruce Norris’s Clybourne Park (Wyndhams), a satirical drama about race in Chicago which has just transferred to the West End from the Royal Court. He also talks about theatre in Zimbabwe, where he grew up, and his role as artistic director of Tiata Fahodzi.

The first British-Asian Hamlet makes the bard popular

26 January 2011

in Actors and Performers, Asian Voices, Shakespeare and Renaissance Drama

ASIAN VOICES: DHARMESH PATEL The first British-Asian Hamlet talks to Suman Bhuchar about making his Shakespearean debut in the RSC’s 70-minute young people’s version of the play, which is touring Britain and will arrive at the Swan Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon, in February. Recorded at the Roundhouse, where he is also playing in the RSC’s The Comedy of Errors and As You Like It.

Pete Postlethwaite remembered… by Greg Hersov

5 January 2011

in Actors and Performers, Regional Theatre

PETE POSTLETHWAITE REMEMBERED Greg Hersov, artistic director of the Royal Exchange Theatre in Manchester (in tandem with Braham Murray & Sarah Frankcom), pays tribute to the recently deceased actor (1946-2011) with whom he worked on two major productions (The Homecoming and The Tempest). He also recalls earlier encounters both at the Exchange and in Bristol. Interview by Dominic Cavendish.

Actor Mark Wakeling advocates an alternative to drama school

20 December 2010

in Actors and Performers, Directors

INTERVIEW: MARK WAKELING The actor and managing director of the Actors Temple talks to Aleks Sierz about how his actors’ training centre offers an alternative, or supplement, to drama school, and how the techniques of Sanford Meisner have inspired him and his colleagues. Recorded at the Actors Temple, London.

Actress Cora Bissett on devising, directing and performing

5 December 2010

in Actors and Performers, Edinburgh Festival and Fringe, New Writing

INTERVIEW: CORA BISSETT The multi-talented actress chats to Philip Fisher about creating and performing in David Greig and Gordon McIntyre’s 2009 smash hit Midsummer, currently playing at the Tricycle, and also about devising and directing the Amnesty Award-winning Roadkill, last seen earlier in the year at Edinburgh and which will tour in 2011. Recorded at the Tricycle.

Writer and performer Michael Laurence on Krapp, 39

27 November 2010

in Actors and Performers, London Fringe, Physical and Visual theatre

INTERVIEW: MICHAEL LAWRENCE After a brief extract from the work, the writer and performer talks to Matt Boothman about his new play, Krapp, 39 (Tristan Bates Theatre), which is an autobiographical piece in which Laurence, a Samuel Beckett fan and inspired by Krapp’s Last Tape (1958), creates a diary using video, a laptop and audio recording on his 39th birthday. Recorded at Tristan Bates.

Actor, writer and comedian Meera Syal interviewed

30 October 2010

in Actors and Performers, Asian Voices, Comedy

ASIAN VOICES: MEERA SYAL The actor, writer and comedian talks to Suman Bhuchar about her role in Willy Russell’s 1986 classic Shirley Valentine (Trafalgar Studios), her film and writing career, and her advice to aspiring actors. Recorded in her dressing room, Trafalgar Studios.

The Two-Character Play by Tennessee Williams discussed

22 October 2010

in Actors and Performers, American Drama, London Fringe

INTERVIEW: CATHERINE CUSACK and PAUL McEWAN The two actors, who are appearing together in a rare revival of The Two-Character Play by Tennessee Williams at the Jermyn Street Theatre, join the production’s director, Gene David Kirk, to discuss the challenges of this experimental piece. Dominic Cavendish quizzes.

Rory Kinnear plays Hamlet at the National

19 October 2010

in Actors and Performers, Shakespeare and Renaissance Drama

SHAKESPEARE: HAMLET Actor Rory Kinnear gives Heather Neill an in-depth analysis of the central role in Nicholas Hytner’s critically lauded production, which is currently running at the National Theatre (it will be broadcast as part of NT Live on 9 December). Recorded at the National.

Edinburgh 2010: Issy van Randwyck interview

19 August 2010

in Actors and Performers, Edinburgh Festival and Fringe

EDINBURGH 2010 Versatile performer Issy van Randwyck discusses her Edinburgh show, Brian Parks’ Imperial Fizz (Assembly Rooms), and chats about balancing family and theatre work, and her varied career. Interview by Philip Fisher.

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