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stefankarlfanblog · 2 years ago

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Big brother leaves home

Original article written for Dagblaðið on the 29th of May 1999, credited to þhs, photos credited to þók: https://timarit.is/page/2985006?iabr=on#page/n8/mode/1up

Actor Stefán Karl Stefánsson has just graduated from the Drama Academy. However, he is more experienced than many, as the theatrical bug took root in him in his early childhood. In the near future, two works in which he will play will be premiered. The Little Shop of Horrors in the Borgarleikhúsið, where he plays eight roles, and the solo play Thousand Island Sauce in Iðnó.

"My biggest dream was to become a fisherman. I hung down on the ridge all day long and day in and day out with the fishermen who sometimes allowed me to come out to sea with them, " says actor Stefán Karl Stefánsson when he is asked to think about his youth as he sits in the café down in Iðnó. "I even took a test (30 ton skipper's license) and spent a whole summer fishing with my friend Sigurður, who is now a shark fisherman in Australia. It was a great adventure. The sea has always attracted me too. I have long had the dream of being Robinson Crusoe for a short time, living on a tiny island out in the Baltic Sea with palm trees and screaming monkeys. “

Nuns in the snowball fight

Stefán Karl is a 24 year old from Hafnfjörður. He finds it wonderful to live in Hafnarfjörður and says he can not think of leaving, as Hafnarfjörður is his region.

For the first few years of his life, he lived in the old town but then moved to the suburbs where he had a view of the monastery. "We kids had a lot of contact with the nuns and often jumped over the wall to them, even though it was not allowed. We went and gave them chives and vegetables that we had grown in the schoolyards and instead gave us pictures of Jesus and rosaries. Then they sometimes played the guitar for us. "

Stefán says that the nuns were always happy. They went out in the yard on cold winter days and were in the snow like little girls. In the spring they played volleyball and football. He always thought it was so funny because it was not what people think of nuns in their free time. But when did he make the decision to be an actor?

"The decision was not made immediately but I was still always acting. I have pictures of myself at the age of four where I have stuffed myself with a pillow, have a ketchup bottle as a bottle of alcohol and I was playing a drunk. I was a very happy young child and sang and played for everyone who came to visit. At one point, I got into a conversation with my old elementary school teacher and said that I was naturally overactive as a child. "No, no, no," he said. "But you were very meticulous."

You're at the top of the world, you idiot!

"While my friends were learning to smoke, drink and ride, I took milk in a SodaStream bottle and buttered bread down to Hafnarijarður's theater to watch. I had tried to get into the theater company by showing different tricks to the chairman to show what I was capable of. It did not work because children were denied access. "

Stefán Karl says that he acted in all the school plays he came across. He played Nilsson the monkey, Arí (a little eight-year-old third child) and the ever-popular young doctor. When he was thirteen years old, a youth department was operated within the theater company for the first time. A play was staged called This is all nonsense, Snjólfur directed by Guðjón Sigvaldason. With that, the dream of joining the theater company became a reality.

"The following year, we worked with Davíð Þór Jónsson, who had made a breakthrough in the directing of Fúsi Froskagleypir a little earlier. Then we staged the play You are at the top of the world, you idiot!, where I played five teachers. That same year I played in Hrói Höttur in the older theater company and 'from that time I had no choice but to play, play and play. "Did you learn anything in this acting world?

"No, that's exactly the funny thing about it," says Stefán Karl and laughs. "I made many attempts to learn something general, but nothing worked. I did badly in the 10th grade and then went to the Vocational School. I left after one semester because there was so much to do in the theater company. I started in computer science, went to Flensburg, to the Vocational School in Hafnarfjörður but gave up everywhere for the same reason. " In 1994, Stefán Karl got a job on Television voicing for a puppet in Stundin okkar. Then in the autumn he got to play an extra in the Áramótaskaup, which was directed by Guðný Halldórsdóttir. With that, his fate was decided.

Played Sigurður G.Tómasson

"It was Skaupið where things went wrong," says Stefán Karl. "I even played in one episode that was completely banned." Why did everyone go crazy again?

"It was made fun of too many things. Ólafur G. Einarsson. It seemed like a long way off when President Vigdis was shown ordering a pizza and saying that we were mocking our head of state. But, of course, we were then sharing the pizza craze that was sweeping the country. I find this a shining example for the Icelandic nation; what we always think we're but we are so completely humorless often. "

Guðný then asked Stefán Karl to take on some speaking roles in Skaupið. He says that he was shaken by the bones over it, but found it indescribably wonderful to play against Bessi Bjarnason, Gísli Rúnar and Edda, Eggert Þorleifsson and other such actors. Along with all the actors he found funny, these people were idols of his. He got to play with the national team and he remembers his roles well.

"I played Sigurður G. Tómasson, Einar Thoroddsen wine taster and made an attempt to play Páll Óskar. Last but not least, I then played the man who could not sing the national anthem. Sang the Icelandic national anthem to the tune of When the Robbers Came to Cardamom Town. That scene was banned. I still have photographs of it at home and I would like to have it on tape, but it has probably been deleted from all films, "says Stefán Karl and coughs terribly. "This is smoking. It is naturally absurd to be an actor and a smoker as the voice is the actor's means of livelihood. As Gunnar Eyjólfsson said in his speech at our graduation, it should be a condition of admission to the Drama Academy not to smoke. Smoking should also be a reason for expulsion. Although I have become addicted, I agree with him in many ways. "

The best year of my life

The entrance exam for the Drama Academy was taken by Stefán Karl in 1995 and he got into the first attempt. It is a condition to be 19 years old and have a good command of the Icelandic language, in addition to which you should be able to read the material in two other languages. It stood at least in the application.

"I almost had no good knowledge of any language, but still managed to deal with it," says Stefán Karl. "I also think that if you have sincerity and acting ability, that's what matters." "These are the best years of my life," say many experienced actors today. "To be in an environment where you get time to think your way around and look at yourself. For me, it was great. I was also incredibly lucky with my class

We are 8 individuals who all aim to become actors and we become like a big family. Something comes up and people quarrel and are ashamed and embrace and love again. There is an exchange of good and bad as in all families, but usually it was just good with us. Now the graduation is over and it's hard to break away from this solid form. So much has changed. It's like a big brother leaving home. Nothing is the same. "

Is your group no less protected than previous year groups where you have acted so much outside of school? "Acting school students have always been able to get exemptions for acting outside of school. The reason we got into the discussion was that so many of us from one class did this. When we got up, it did us good. I am also in favor of people being allowed to play, as long as it does not come down to school. "

For everyone who has flown

Now Stefán Karl has graduated with his schoolmates. Their graduation project, Krákuhöllin, has received a lot of attention and Stefán says that there has not been a similar attendance at the Student Theater for decades. The graduating students are happy with the idea of being able to hold Lindarbær until the end of June so that they can continue to show the piece. "It is based on an agreement reached between the Minister of Finance, who directs Statistics Iceland, and the Minister of Education, who controls us. At the moment, the Ministry of Finance is doing its job, but the Ministry of Education is not doing it. This must all be stranded on some housekeeper who hires and has hired a contractor to start work on June 1st.

Stefán Karl is back in Iðnó, but last summer he played there in Waiter in the soup, a work that has also been well received. In the near future, there will be a premiere of a solo play that he used at the Drama Academy. "We are working on an individual project in the third year of my studies and I asked Hallgrím Helgason to write a work for me. We decided to let the work take place in an airplane and a Thousand island sauce was created. Hallgrímur then submitted the play to a play competition here in Iðnó and we came in second place. It will now be shown in the Hádegisleikhúsið under the direction of Magnús Geir Þórðarson. "

Getting in touch with the sadist

For now, Stefán says he hasn't started to think much about the future. The little shop of horrors will premiere in just a few days and there he will play 8 roles. Including the role of the sadistic dentist that Laddi played so memorably at Héma that year. Stefán doesn't use the same wig and palate that Laddi used, since his character creation is very different. He goes on to say that it is not difficult to get in touch with the sadist himself: “We are more or less sadistic. What is teasing, for example, other than low-level sadism? ”When Stefán Karl is asked about the future, he says he still lives with his parents, but this autumn he intends to move to his own home. The umbilical cord breaks late in his case, but now he is holding out in the cruel world.

"I also have a lot of dreams that I want to make come true. For example, I would like to create something with music and humor. Although new and new entertainers appear here in Iceland, they are all the same. Stand-up. The bands are also all about some variation of Greifabönd. I feel like something is missing and I want to do something about it. Not just falling into the ruts of the others but creating my own. "

#stefan karl stefansson #stefan karl #stefán karl #stefán karl stefánsson #personal life #1999 #little shop of horrors (1999)#1000 island sauce (2000)#Þú ert í blóma lífsins fíflið þitt! (1990)#hrói höttur (1990)#þetta er allt vitleysa snjólfur! (1988)#fúsi froskagleypir (1985)#áramótaskaup #stundin okkar #waiter in the soup (1998)#krákuhöllin (1999)

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stefankarlfanblog · 5 years ago

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To be yourself

Written by Hildur Einarsdóttir for Morgunblaðið on 14.10.2001 https://timarit.is/page/3419572?iabr=on#page/n0/mode/1up

Photographs by Golli/Kjartan Þorbjörnsson, Jim Smart and Jón Svavarsson.

Stefán Karl Stefánsson is one of our young rising actors. Last weekend, the play Water of Life was premiered in the lead role. He is currently in three roles in the National Theater and is practicing for the fourth. Hildur Einarsdóttir talked to him about the job and bullying, but Stefán Karl has worked to present its dire consequences. He himself was bullied as a child and teenager.

"My golden moment is seeing happy theater guests," says actor Stefán Karl Stefánsson. Photo taken by Golli for Morgunblaðið.

The National Theater is dark and gloomy as the Icelandic mountains, so it comes as no surprise when Stefán Karl says as he grabs the door handle on the back of the house: "I always feel like I am disappearing into a coffin when I walk into the National Theater." He opens the door and we get inside. Leave the everyday show play outside and get us into the elf hall that Guðjón Samúelsson, the master of the house, created around the play… This bizarre phenomenon that has occurred for the human need to have fun, learn, deceive and forget themselves.

"Have you visited the National Theater?" he asks as we arrive. I admit that it is only occasionally. Unfortunately, there is no time for it right now. We hurry towards his dressing room. When we get in there, he starts by shoveling stuff that is on the table in front of the second "makeup" mirror and hangs it on the next chair, otherwise the room he shares with Rúnar Freyr Gíslason, his schoolmate from the Icelandic Drama School, is very tidy. – and also he’s his golf partner.

Stefán Karl offers a seat in one of the chairs in front of the mirror. He himself sits down by a narrow window at the end of the room. "You started acting young, didn't you?" says a journalist and looks questioningly at the actor, who is looking at him with confused eyes because he doesn't know what to expect from this unknown person who intends to pull out his yarn.

"Yes, that's right, I first started doing school plays in Hafnarfjörður primary school where I grew up. When I was 12 years old I started playing with the Hafnarfjörður Theater Company. The first play I acted in with classmates was "This is all nonsense, Snólfur" and we talked about the kids at school. A special youth department had been set up within the theater, and we co-wrote this play with Guðjón Sigvaldason, director and actor, ”he says and continues to recount his first experiences in a “real” theater.

"The youth club of the theater group compiled another play called “You’re at the top of the world, you idiot!” The play has been shown extensively by amateur theater companies in recent years. When I met David Þór, he was playing as Fúsi Froskagleypir when he was in the youth group, happy memories, we have sometimes talked about rewriting the play and putting it up because the idea of it is fun work. It deals with the life of the person from birth and until they enter the labour and have to take responsibility for their own lives, what then. "

I've heard that you've been in the theater almost 24/7 over the years?

"Yes that is correct. I left home in the morning with a packed lunch and maybe worked until the night, building sets and setting up lights. I also worked at the ticket office and selling sweets in the store, taking jackets and coats in the coat rack and vacuuming before and after shows.

"When I went to the Iceland Academy of the Arts in 1995, I had played in many plays with the Hafnarfjordur Theater Company, such as "Robin Hood", "Mómó" and "Hansel and Gretel".

On a beach in Denmark, just over one year. - Stefán Karl 8 years old but at that age he started to feel the bullying.

I was also the conductor in "Bugsy Malone", which was put on by the youth department of the theater company, in that show I played the piano even though I never learned to play that instrument," he adds, and finds this incident a bit funny and absurd when he recalls it. "It just so happened that I had been playing the piano that the theater company had, since I had studied organ a little with Karl Möller.

Guðjón Sigvaldason, director of "Bugsy Malone", came to me and asked if I wanted to be the conductor of the show. I was so bold I agreed to it.

I had to play over ten songs in the show. I learned them so I listened to the songs off the tape as well as learned to read the chord notes.

Then I made my own notes that I wrote down on a piece of paper, but no one can read except me. Then I used these notes to play along. After that, I got so interested in piano playing that I bought myself a piano for my summer vacation, so my career as a piano player began! "

You have then learned a great deal about the noble art of playing when you went to the Iceland Academy of the Arts. How did you like the study?

"In drama school, students get the peace to practice drama, learn to know themselves and develop." He explains this in greater detail: . To do that, we need to be able to open ourselves emotionally and the school helps us to do that. The school, therefore, does not create actors as many think, but rather it helps theater students to develop and teach acting techniques so that they can utilize what they have in the field. "

When Stefán Karl graduated from the Iceland Academy of the Arts three years ago, he immediately got a permanent position at the National Theater. Since then, he has been involved in many challenging tasks. He has played the title role in “Glanni Glæpur í Latabæ”, played the drinker, the father of the boys and Paul apostle in "The Golden Gate", played Philostratus and Puck in "A Midsummer Night's Dream", as well as playing the role of Simeon Panteleyitch Ephikhodof in "Cherry Orchard". He played the dentist in the "The Little Shop of Horrors" at the City Theater, where he was lent to that occasion, played the "1000 Island Sauce" solo and directed "Games" at the Iðno Luncheon Theater. He now plays one of the lead roles in "Singin’ in the Rain" and in the play "Stones in his Pockets."

Illugi charms the higher citizens with his ideas. Tinna Gunnlaugsdóttir, Marta Nordal, Valdemar Flygenring and Stefán Karl Stefánsson. Photo by Jim Smart

Just over a week ago, the play Water of Life was premiered, where he plays the lead role as well as starring in the Christmas play of the National Theater, "Cyranó". After this list it should be unnecessary to ask whether he is happy with the roles he has received since graduating. "Yes, I am very happy and grateful to have had the opportunities I have been given," he says without hesitation. "I humbly think about how lucky I am to be able to do what I love most - to stand on the stage and play."

You are a permanent employee at the National Theater and must be strictly taken on the roles that are right for you. What do you think of that?

"It's not like that in this house that people are ordered to do something they don't want to do at all." There is no tyranny here. Assignments to roles are decided in consultation with the respective actors, directors and theater managers. Sometimes, of course, it happens that we have to play something that we are not really excited about, but then we have to do it with integrity. If an actor has moral or religious reasons, he has the discretion to refuse a role. However, I think it has only happened once in the 50-year history of the National Theatre."

Is there a lot of fighting about the roles here internally?

"No, there is a lot of solidarity between the people who work here."

Do actors go to the director of the National Theater and try to influence which roles they get?

"If an actor is interested in a certain role, it's normal for him to go to the theater manager and ask 'can I?' It would be abnormal to sit in a corner and wait but fuss and whine if the person doesn't get the role."

In the role of the young visionary in the Water of Life. Photo by Jim Smart

Now you are playing the lead role in Benony Ægisson's serious play, "Water of Life". The play takes place at the turn of the century and you play a young idealist who fights for progress in a conservative society. You haven't done many serious roles since you started your career.

"No, that's right. I played one of these in the Student Theater, "Krákuhöllin", by Einar Örn Gunnarsson, the director was Hilmir Snær. I'm now getting the chance to play, what can you say, a regular character."

How do you like it? "Very well but it is difficult. Because I'm very energetic and sometimes have a tendency to get ahead of myself and have to slow down a bit."

How do you go about it? "I do that by approaching the work which is very down-to-earth. The character I play doesn't offer any fooling around. There is a completely different concentration that goes into my head when dealing with a role like this than, for example, "Stones in his pockets". I need to dig a little deeper into myself to get that focus that is needed."

You are singing and dancing most of the time in "Singin’ in the Rain". Does it work for you? "Yes, and I get to have a great physical and mental outlet. I also really enjoy being in a show where people are having a good time. Having a room full of people laughing and having fun is the most wonderful thing about the theater. And every time after a show when I come up to the dressing room I look out the window.” He turns a little from where he sits and looks out. "I can see right out to the parking lot behind here." It's the golden moment for me to see happy theatergoers walking out to their cars, laughing, some singing the songs from the play, others maybe dancing."

Your relationship with the audience seems very close… "Without an audience, there is no play. It may be a cliché to say, but I love the audience and care about their well-being very much. If I'm playing a joke and the audience is depressed, I take it to heart. I wonder if there is something wrong with my performance and during the break I rethink my plan."

Have you learned to sing and dance? "No, I wasn't taught. I was in the Óldutún school choir when I was little. I have never learned to sing except at Elín Sigurvinsdóttir's drama school. She taught me a lot about vocal use in singing. The conversation is interrupted by a mobile phone ringing. "Oops," he says, reaching for the phone in his pants pocket. Hello, yes hello, just fine ..." When the conversation ends, he continues to talk about the song.

"I really like singing, but I've learned even less to dance apart from what I learned at drama school. My mother took me to Heiðar Ástvaldsson's Dance School at a young age, but I was there for half a winter.

I was told by the teachers at the drama school that I was good at dancing. And I've decided to ...” he hesitates ...

“To go to ballet”, I interject.

He laughs. "I saw the movie about Billy Elliot the other day, that movie is really great. I sometimes saw myself in this boy when I was little. But no, I would like to learn ballroom dancing and I am determined to take my future wife to dance school to learn ballroom dancing and tap, but I learned tap dancing slightly for the role in "Singin' in the Rain".

A Midsummer Night's Dream as Puck

You've sung the Stuðmenn song "Sigurjón Digri" on a record together with Land og Synir, have you sung with a band? "No, my reputation at school was such that I'm not sure it would have been much listened to if I had started singing in a band. It was a very enjoyable experience to be able to sing this thriller, which was a much rougher version of "Sigurjón Digri" than the previous one. Since then, I have performed with Land og Synir and the Stuðmen themselves on Broadway.

So we return to the theater. In the play "Stones in his pockets", you and Hilmir Snær each play seven roles, doesn't it require a lot of concentration to constantly change characters like that?

"Sure, the play is based on certain acting techniques that the director Ian McElhenney taught us, but he staged the play in the West End and Broadway and made it easy for us to learn the roles. He has developed a certain approach to the work that we drew into our scripts. Hilmir Snær and I were just laughing the other day that we have never written as much into a script as this.

Ian spoke about "the map", as you can say that the show has been mapped. When we had learned the map by heart, we started to shape the characters and connect the text to them. The repetition means that you no longer have to think in advance about every single move or response, and the game becomes almost automatic. In such conditions, concentration must be even greater. Therefore, there is a risk that once the actor has learned the role, his concentration will decrease."

Isn't there something you tell yourself before you go on stage that helps you tackle difficult roles?

"What you have to say to yourself is, 'Now I part with the world.' I part with the disaster in the United States ...” and even if the actor's house burned down an hour before the performance, he must leave his thoughts about it in the dressing room and enter the world that is on the stage and there he must be. The rehearsal period is to create this world and make it so strong and big that the actor cannot get out of it. If not, he's also done as an actor."

You went with "Stones in his Pockets " on a tour of the country. "Yes, we went on a two-week trip which was great ... hell it was fun ..." he exclaims, "... It was sad to go home. We went to thirteen places. There you met some joy, positivity and gratitude from people living on land. In these places, everyone knows each other and people are therefore more reluctant to let go of shows. When people come to the theater, it can scrape away the formalities which is reflected in this attitude of many people: "Now I am in the theater and want to see a great cultural event," instead of saying to the actor: "Have fun!" Because I stand up on stage and want the guests to have a good evening. "

Did you know any of the people yourself? "Yes, slightly. We had 24 hours at each point of arrival. We arrived, installed the gadgets, maybe presented ourselves for a show and then drove back around the night or the morning after.

It was a lot of fun," he repeats, "especially on Seyðisfjörður, where I have relatives and have stayed sometimes during the summer. It was my birthday the day we showed there and we were also showing the eightieth show of "Stones in his pockets". There was a great atmosphere at the show and after it the audience stood up and sang me happy birthday. After that, we were invited to my aunt's house, who had cooked a delicious seafood soup, a la Aunt Sigga, that's the name of the soup. What made that day even more fun was that one of my cousins over there in Seyðisfjörður had a little girl on my birthday."

Stefán Karl is currently rehearsing for the lead role in the National Theatre's Christmas play, "Cyranó", by the French playwright Edmond Rostand. The play is about the big-nosed adventurer Cyrano de Bergerac, and the play was very well received when it premiered in Paris in 1898.

The play, which is a heroic comedy, has been staged in many parts of the world with great popularity. Movies have been made about it. One of them, Cyrano de Bergerac, starred the French actor Gerard Depardieu, while a modern version of the work, Roxanne, starred Steve Martin as Cyrano.

Stefán Karl has therefore been studying for the fourth role he plays this season. So it is no hope that a journalist asks if it is not difficult for actors to keep roles separate? "No, I don't think so. However, it could be if the roles were similar, "he says. "But nothing can go from" Singing in the rain "to" Stones in his Pockets "because I have made a completely different word about these shows that it is impossible to get mix together."

But isn't there a risk when there are so many people that they simply burn up? "No, I'm not worried about that, because I'm so new to playing. I hear this from people. "You have to be careful not to burn out," he mimics, making a look of concern. "And I'm just saying, 'Do you think I'm that boring, do you want to get rid of me?” He belly laughs.

"Of course, this is something you have to think about," he says, and has become serious. "I thought about it this winter when I was wondering if I was moving too much. There are actors here at the house and elsewhere who have been in several roles over the winter. These actors have been working for 8-10 years and they can't be seen burning up. It is also a question of how things are done and whether the viewers are comfortable with what the actor is doing. If so, they want to see more.

Rather, there are opportunities outside the theater that can tire the actors out as if they are appearing in numerous advertisements, at the entertainment, in Áramótaskaup or working in films. " Speaking of movies, you played a role in the movie Regína last summer.

"Yes, I was there in a small, sweet role, there I got to play cops with my uncle Maggi (Magnús Óláfsson). It's my first time playing in a real movie. ”You also starred in the student theater graduation project, the TV movie" God exists ... and love ", made by Illugi Jökulsson's script? "Yes, it was very instructive and Hilmar Oddsson who directed the film is a great teacher. The movie was reocrded in Flatey, where we stayed for ten days. However, I missed the third play that the Student Theater usually puts up.

”Maybe you want to do more for the theater? “No, no, not at all. Based on the little experience I have, I know it’s good for me to be in movies. It's a world that is unexplored on my part and I hope I get to explore it."

In order to be able to do his job and withstand the pressure of acting five nights a week as well as training for new roles, Stefán Karl must take good care of his physical health. He works out most mornings, but he has a personal trainer who has designed a special exercise program for him and also gives him advice on diet. But how does he mentally prepare himself for his work?

"I do what I enjoy doing in my free time. I'm with my family a lot. I've been learning to fly and like to fly for an hour or two but I'm aiming for a private pilot's license. I play golf and hike. I also like being alone with myself."

"I've also been learning to fly and pilot a private pilot in the near future," says Stefán Karl, who is here to take off the makeup after a show at Singin' in the Rain.

You were relatively just out of drama school when you had the opportunity to direct a new play, "Games," by Bjarni Bjarnason in Iðnó. How was your debut as a director? "It was a very enjoyable experience."

Have you shown interest in this job? "I mentioned to Magnús Geir, the theater director of the Icelandic Theater Company, in passing and jokingly that I was interested in directing. He just decided to strike and allow me to try because he had good faith in me. "

You were a good director. "I went the traditional way to the work and got actors Jakob Þór Einarsson and Nanna Kristina Magnúsdóttir to play in the work. Jakob was my teacher at the drama school and Nanna Kristín is my classmate.” You haven't been hesitant to direct your ex-teacher? "Sure, a little bit at first, but we've always been good friends and Nanna Kristín is also a good friend so this went well." Are you interested in getting more involved as a director? "Yes, I am very interested in it. It might be put into words that I'm interested in everything that concerns theater. " How do you think the relationship between director and actor should be? "The partnership must be good. A director and an actor need to adjust their wavelengths, IE. decide on which channel they are going to be. The director proposes with an idea a certain method that the actor and everyone working on the show in my opinion should have an opinion and need to approve. Sometimes the author comes into this partnership too. "

What happens if an actor and director disagree? "Of course it can happen, but then these parties need to talk more than usual. Sometimes the actor has hot ideas because he already has mold the character, give it flesh and blood. He may want to justify it and say to the director or the author, "No, I would never say that." The goal of both is to create a solid and good show.”

Stefán Karl, in a solo show by Hallgrímur Helgasson

You played solo in Iðnó in Hallgrímur Helgason's play 1000 Island sauce that he composed specifically for you. How did it come about? "I know Hallgrímur through Gunnar, his brother, and asked him to write me a solo piece that I showed in the third year at the drama school. This became a play that later received other prizes in the one-way competition of the Icelandic Theater Company. We were invited to perform the work at a drama festival in Leipzig, Germany. So it was here that the festival's director, Elizabeth Woolf, arrived. She found the work to be one of the more interesting exhibitions she saw here, and the exhibition is easy to install and cheap.

What Woolf found so remarkable was that she understood almost every word I said in the show, which was in Icelandic. The same was expressed in the criticism that appeared in the German press about the exhibition. The reason was said to be the structure of the piece and the gestures.

There was a proposal to use a text machine to convey the content of the play, but it was abandoned. However, a manuscript in German was on the table for those who wanted to read it."

"How were you as a kid? "You're going to ask my mom about this. I was sometimes called the guerrilla or, as someone told me, "My Stefán Karl, you are not hyperactive, you are just meticulous."

"Did you go to a doctor or psychologist like you do with hyperactive children?

"No, fortunately not. But I was, as I said before, publicly bullied in school and it was very difficult. I didn't realize until later that there was bullying and that I was bullying other kids because I did.

"How did you describe the bully you became?

"I was being teased because I had big ears. I was a very energetic kid and often played and fooled around. I might stand in the school corridor and sing loudly, and it affected me a lot. As a result, I was not invited to birthday parties or class parties. Older students locked me in an ash bin or stripped me bare in the library. I just laughed and made fun of the whole thing. But of course I felt really bad.

I used to like to go to the cemetery which was not far from where I lived and sit by my grandparents' graves and talk about myself and home and space. Most kids are familiar with having an imaginary friend that they talk to or they talk to their dolls or teddy bears. I did this and I think it kept me alive. In spite of everything, I didn't have a lot of self-confidence, but I went a long way with family stubbornness.

In an attempt to fit in, I myself took part in bullying others. It wasn't until I got to drama school and started looking inside myself that I realized that I had missed a certain level of emotional maturity. I think we humans do far too little trying to find out who we really are. What we know and can do. We also need to learn to respect ourselves.

It saved me to be in the Theater Company. If I hadn't been there, I would probably have started smoking, drinking and doping. ”In recent years, Stefán Karl has gone to school and shared his experience helping others who have been bullied and discussing the consequences. For this selfless job he has done in volunteering, Radio-X radio gave him recognition these days. What have his messages been to the kids?

"They are people who die from bullying and it is our fault. I could tell you many disastrous stories of kids, down to the age of 13, who have perished because they couldn't be what they were.”

Did you start thinking about taking your own life during this period? "Yes, that thought crossed my mind. Most of us think about it at some point, but how far we go varies."

Now there has been a transition in your life. You used to be hounded by the mob but now you're an admired actor, how does that feel? "As I've said so many times, I'm just a little guy from Hafnfjörður who went to acting school and, like everyone who goes there, hoped for the best," he says, looking away like a shy schoolboy. "Sometimes my life feels like a dream and I think to myself, this must be over."

What would you do if that were the case? "I'm not arrogant ... and I know acting isn't the only thing I can do." I've been doing a variety of other jobs these days. I've worked as a laborer down by the harbor, I was on a fishing boat for a while, I've worked in a store and in the town work, in Blönduvirkjun, in salt fish and herring, you name it. I found it instructive to try these jobs. I see that one job is not more significant than another."

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