Welcome to the blog’s new home! It’s now on a WordPress “platform”, which is more flexible and more accessible than the Google “Blogspot” one we were on before. You can send in comments much more easily – just click on the word “Comment” next to the date above – and we can now be read in more parts of the world. Please don’t hesitate to get in touch.
This blog is in association with www.teachyourselfacting.com providing access to an amazing range of presentation and performance skills training.
I’m often told that a famous Chinese curse runs “May you live in interesting times”. I don’t know if this is actually is a famous Chinese curse – I must ask one of my Chinese Friends. Oh, and Happy New Year, by the way. Especially to all monkeys. If you were born in a year ending around this date in 1933,45,57,69,81,93 or 2005, then congratulations, monkey, this is your year! If you are due a baby this year, I am reliably informed – well by Wiki, so it must be reliable, just ask at the Ecuadorian Embassy – that she or he will be a Fire Monkey. For the implications of this, please ask a Chinese friend….
And talking of whom, here is one of mine, the remarkably talented Lin Li, known to her English pals as Milly – who on Wednesday graced once more the UK Chinese Students Association New Year Gala, this time at the O2 Arena, with a bravura display of Guzheng music, accompanied on drums by Tong Jiaxing – the musicians post-grads at King’s London and Oxford Universities respectively. If you don’t know what a guzheng sounds like, at the bottom of the page there’s a link to a Youtube video of Milly playing with a young orchestra in China.
To move from Oriental celebrations to more domestic festivities, regular readers will know that I rejoice in dual identity, having spent my childhood years in South Wales and my teenage ones in East Yorkshire. So let us salute the approach of St David’s Day with a nod to the daffodils as they cautiously appear in my still-wintery garden, having survived the succession of tempests which recently swept these islands. Is it just me, or have the storms taken on added ferocity since the Met Office took to giving them names? Storm Imogen was especially boisterous, clearly revelling in her name’s epic Shakespearian associations – I quake at the thought of a Storm Goneril, or Heaven forfend, a Storm Margaret….
And up in storm-tossed Humberside, there are more cautious green shoots. At the KC football stadium Chief Coach Brucie and the lads of Hull City may just be looking to return to the Premier League next season, and elsewhere in the town credentials are being polished ahead of the sunburst which will be Hull, City of Culture 2017. The slogan at the head of this blog-post is a quote from the business vanguard of these events, ignited last week by a visitation from the slightly faded New Labour deity, Lord Mandelson. This is of course entirely fitting, as previous political leaders in those parts celebrated the centenary of the region’s greatest modern literary resident – the poet Philip Larkin – by decorating parts of the city with specially-commisioned sculptures echoing his poem “Toads”.
Why should I let this toad work
Squat on my life? Philip Larkin – The less Deceived (1955)
I’m not sure this fits with the thrusting business ethic of the “forward-thinking collective” which is the 2017 Hull Business Club. But hey, the lads in the snug at the Lord Prescott Arms, and all we who nursed cracked mugs of Bovril on chill Bunkers’ Hill watching the F.A. third division Tigers in the days those words were written, we know what he was on about, eh lads?
Meanwhile my life between the London theatre and academic zones is gathering momentum with the new theatre season and the new term. Following Kenneth Cranham’s entirely appropriate award as Best Actor from the Critics’ Circle, Florian Zeller’s play “The Father” returns to the West End for a limited five week run at the Duke of York’s Theatre, and once again I shall be happily in attendance as Ken’s understudy, which as I reported before Christmas is both a great privilege and enormous fun. In the spring we’re going on tour, so if you’re in the UK, keep a look out for us at your nearest regional venue. Photo: Simon Annand And if you’re going to be in London between Feb 24th and the end of March and haven’t seen this fine production of this remarkable play, then hasten to grab tickets via the link at the bottom of the page. And by no means fail to click on the link to Ken’s comments about the play on Youtube.
These last few weeks have been punctuated with sad news of wonderful people leaving us – much has already been written and band-wagon jumping is not edifying, so just briefly to say that Alan Rickman was as supportive, thoughtful and kind a Vice-chair as Nick Barter and I could ever have wished for in our days as Principal and deputy at RADA. There were too many instances of unsolicited kindness to record, but my daughter Cressida I know will forever cherish having been one of many colleagues’ children who were invited to spend a day on one of “Rickman’s tours” of the Harry Potter sets at Leavesden Studios, having lunch with Alan and the other stars and meeting, oh best of all – the owls. Another dear colleague from those days whom we mourn this week has been the great director, Bill Gaskill – whose reputation for striking fear into actors’ hearts was belied in his later, mellow years by his endlessly patient, caring direction of the Gower St students.
Until “The Father” moves into St Martin’s Lane I’m busy catching up on theatre fare elsewhere in London. On the “to see” list is our Gemma Arterton as “Nell Gwyn”, Simon McBurney’s Edinburgh Festival triumph “The Encounter”, and Florian Zeller’s companion-piece to “The Father” playing at the Tricycle Theatre, unsurprisingly called “The Mother”. So please stay tuned, as they used to say on Radio Luxembourg.
Last night to the Bush Theatre, and “Pink Mist” by Owen Sheers. Fine, full-on tough work co-produced with the Bristol Old Vic company. Before we’re next asked to send soldiers to fight in distant lands, send your MP to see this .
Photo: Manuel Harlan
This last week I’ve also seen the matchless Claire Skinner and an immaculate cast deliver an arresting, moving, award-winning American play, “Rabbit Hole” at Hampstead, and accompanied a party of New York University students to the Royal Court for Caryl Churchill’s “Escaped Alone“. This latter is one of those haunting plays which stay with you, and you keep thinking about for days afterwards – four women sit talking in a garden, and one of them intermittently steps out to address the audience, to tell a tale echoing the underscore of global disaster ever-present beyond our private lives, in these depressingly interesting times. The American students were utterly engrossed. It has a superb cast and is beautifully directed by James Macdonald. Before anyone points it out, yes Claire Skinner was the daughter in the last run of “The Father” and yes, James Macdonald directed it. In amongst all the hype and the fuss, there’s so much quiet talent about in this city. Another quietly brilliant and charismatic performer, Amanda Drew, is taking Claire’s place in “The Father” alongside several other exciting cast changes – more reports soon on this and other intriguing London events.
May St Valentine this day bring you all you desire. But be careful what you wish for….
LINKS:
Tickets for THE FATHER at the Duke of Yorks Theatre
Kenneth Cranham on receiving the Critics’ Circle Best Actor Award for THE FATHER
Shall we? with Lord M and the Business Club
Guzheng music:
IF YOU WOULD like to respond, if you disagree with any of the above, or would like to add a comment or two, I’d love to hear from you – you can do so anonymously, if you like – and I’ll happily publish your views. Just click on the word “Comment” at the top of this entry next to the date – or you can e-mail me via ellis@teachyourselfacting.com
This blog comes to you courtesy of www.teachyourselfacting.com. If you need help with voice-training, presentation preparation, getting ready for an audition or access to classes and advice from some of the best trainers in the UK, just click on the link.
STAY INFORMED – JOIN THE TYA MAILING LIST! Just send your email address to info@teachyourselfacting.com. We’ll send you instant alerts to exclusive special offers on training courses at our and related training sites, and of course to the next blog post.
By the way, all the previous entries to this blog still exist. You can catch up on them just by clicking www.teachyourselfacting.blogspot.co.uk, and click on any of the dates for eartlier posts.
teachyourselfacting 