#royal central school of speech and drama

[safedistancefrombeingsmart]

London’s Central drama school axes audition fees to end elite grip on the arts

Martin–as a former graduate– chimes in. 🙂

“None of us want drama schools to be the preserve of the well off. Ideally, they are places where people from all backgrounds can come together and learn from each other,” said Freeman, a Central graduate and star of The Responder, Sherlock and The Office. “Without my grant from Richmond council many years ago, I would never have been able to enjoy my three years at Central. That seems to have become harder and harder in recent years; who knows how many young actors are lost to us, due to lack of funds. I hope this inspires others to follow suit in trying to make attending drama school fairer for all.”

[speculativism]

NEW WRITING!!!!!!

[highly-flammable]

Charlie Vickers went to the Andrew Garfield school of acting. No, literally. They are from the same alma mater and it just makes so much sense. The insane ability to disappear into roles and the layers and layers in the performances - they are truly teaching something special in that place.

[neil-gaiman]

hi neil! i’ve recently been accepted onto the writing for performance course at royal central school of speech and drama (london), and i’m petrified to have my writing scrutinised. i’ve always been ‘the writer’ - i currently attend a film school for sixth form and there aren’t many writers - so it’s going to be weird for me.

i know getting scrutinised is what will make me a better writer, but i’m still a little nervous about the thought of it. do you have any advice on how to receive criticism about writing without it feeling too personal?

thanks :)

When the actors at Central are getting criticised, they are being criticised for their performance and that’s them standing there doing something. You have it much easier. If someone criticises something you’ve written they aren’t criticising you.

Learn from them. Get good.

[theholmwoodfoundation]

THE HOLMWOOD FOUNDATION PILOT EPISODE CAST/CREW - PART ONE

REBECCA ROOT - MADDIE TOWNSEND/MINA HARKER

Rebecca trained at Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts. Theatre credits include A Midsummer Night’s Dream at Shakespeare’s Globe, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time for the National Theatre (UK and Ireland tour); Rathmines Road for Fishamble at the Abbey Theatre, Dublin; Trans Scripts at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and American Repertory Theater in Cambridge, Massachusetts; The Bear / The Proposal at the Young Vic; and Hamlet at the Gielgud Theatre and Athens International Festival. TV, Film and Video Game credits include Monsieur Spade, This Is Christmas, Irvine Welsh’s Crime, Hogwarts Legacy, Horizon Forbidden West, Heartstopper, Annika, The Rising, Sex Education, The Gallery, The Queen’s Gambit, Finding Alice, Creation Stories, Last Christmas, The Sisters Brothers, Colette, The Danish Girl, Flack, The Romanoffs, Moominvalley, Hank Zipzer, Boy Meets Girl, Doctors, Casualty, The Detectives, and Keeping Up Appearances.  Radio credits include Clare In The Community, Life Lines, The Hotel, and 1977 for BBC Radio 4. Guest appearances include Woman’s Hour, Front Row, Loose Ends, Saturday Live, and A Good Read.  She plays Tania Bell in the award-winning Doctor Who: Stranded audio dramas. Rebecca has also recorded numerous documentary narrations, audiobooks, and voice-overs. Rebecca is also a voice and speech coach, holding the MA in Voice Studies from Royal Central School of Speech and Drama.

SEAN CARLSEN - JEREMY LARKIN/ JONATHAN HARKER

Born in South Wales, Seán trained at the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama. He has worked extensively in audio drama, television, theatre and film.  Seán is perhaps best known to Doctor Who fans as Narvin in the Doctor Who audio series Gallifrey and has appeared on TV in Doctor Who - The Christmas Invasion and Torchwood. Recent TV credits include Mudtown (BBCiplayer/S4C), Dal y Mellt (Netflix), His Dark Materials (BBC1), All Creatures Great and Small (Channel 5), A Mother's Love (Channel 4) and Series 5 of Stella (Sky1).  Films include supporting leads in Boudica - Rise of the Warrior Queen, cult horror The Cleansing,  the lead in Forgotten Journeys and John Sheedy’s forthcoming film ‘Never Never Never’

SAM CLEMENS - ARTHUR JONES

Samuel Clemens trained at the Drama Centre London and is an award-winning director with over twenty years’ experience. Samuel has recently written and directed his debut feature film ‘The Waterhouse’ with Take The Shot Films & Featuristic Films and represented by Raven Banner Entertainment, which is due for release this coming year.  In addition, he has directed fourteen short films, winning awards all over the world including shorts ‘Surgery (multi-award winning), A Bad Day To Propose (Straight 8 winner 2021), Say No & Dress Rehearsal’. Samuel also directs critically acclaimed number one UK stage tours and fringe shows (Rose Theatre Kingston, Swansea Grand, Eastbourne, Yvonne Arnaud, Waterloo East Theatre) and commercials include clients JD Sports, Shell and Space NK. Samuel is also a regular producer and director for Big Finish Productions & Anderson Entertainment. He has cast, directed, produced and post supervised numerous productions of ‘Doctor Who – (BBC), The Avengers (Studio Canal), Thunderbirds, Stingray (Anderson Entertainment), Callan, Missy, Gallifrey’& Shilling & Sixpence Investigate’ and many more. Samuel has directed world class talent such as, Sir Roger Moore, Ben Miles, Tom Baker, Sylvester McCoy, Alex Kingston, Frank Skinner, Rita Ora, Rosie Huntingdon-Whiteley, Rufus Hound, David Warner, Celia Imrie, Samuel West, Youssef Kerkour, Sophie Aldred, Ian McNiece, Colin Baker, Olivia Poulet, Stephen Wight, Jade Anouka, Mimi Ndwendi, Michelle Gomez, Peter Davidson, Paul O’Grady and many more. Samuel is one of the founding members and directors at Take The Shot Films Ltd and is Head of Artistic Creation and Direction. Lastly, Samuel is a regular tutor at The London Film Academy, The Giles Foreman Centre for Acting & The Rose Youth Theatre and is a member of The Directors Guild UK. As for upcoming projects, Sam is currently in pre-production on his next feature film “On The Edge of Darkness”, which is based on his dad’s stage play “Strictly Murder”.

ATTILA PUSKAS - DRACULA

Attila Puskás is a native Hungarian Voice Actor born in Transylvania – Romania, so Romanian is in his bag of tricks too, but most of his work is done in English, in a Transatlantic Eastern European Accent, but is quite capable of Hungarian, Romanian and International Eastern European accents, plus Standard American. His voice range is Adult to Middle Aged (30-40+) due to his deep voice. Vocal styles can range from authoritive, brooding to calming and reassuring and much more. He’s most experienced in character work, like Animations and Games, but his skills encompass Commercials to Narration as well. He’s received training through classes and workshops, pushing him to the next level to achieve higher standards. Now on a journey to perfect these skills and put them to good use!

PART TWO: HERE

PART THREE: HERE

[scotianostra]

Happy Birthday actress Sara Stewart, born on June 28, 1966 in Edinburgh.

Sara’s parents were from the US and she spent some of her childhood, there before joining the illustrious Royal Central School of Speech & Drama, in London, whose former pupils include, Laurence Olivier, Vanessa Redgrave, Judi Dench and Harold Pinter.

Sara is a very hard working actress, as well a theatre work she has starred in so many well known TV series I can’t name them all but they include, Taggart (of course), Drop the Dead Donkey, EastEnders, Fresh Meat, Holby City, Monarch of the Glen, Rebus, Unforgotten, Doctor Foster and Ashes to Ashes.

Perhaps her most famous role is that of Stella in the Channel four drama series Sugar Rush which ran for two seasons in 2005 -2006.

Of late Sara has been in Shakespeare & Hathaway, La Fortuna and Father Brown as well as two crime series Grace, with the excellent John Simm and Dalgliesh. Last year she appeared in Mrs Sidhu Investigates

Next up for her is an adaptation of the BBC Radio 4 play Mrs Sidhu Investigates

On stage Sara has played leading roles at the National Theatre, RSC, Donmar Warehouse, the Old Vic, and the Royal Court. In the West End she played Esther in The Price, Myra in Hay Fever and Claudia in Enron. She has just finished appearing in Murder on the Orient Express, directed by Jonathan Church, at Bath Theatre Royal.

Sara is a breast cancer survivor and advocates for causes that promote awareness of and fighting the disease. Her best pal in nursery and primary schools in Edinburgh was Shirley Manson of Goodbye Mr MacKenzie and Garbage.

[ca-suffit]

https://www.tumblr.com/ca-suffit/759917664545243136/im-not-anon-so-i-can-send-you-this-but-if-you?source=share

This is very true. People often praise British actors for being trained or having a theatre background but the big drama schools have a connections monopoly and are also notoriously racist and anti working class. It is very hard to be successful in the upper echelons of acting in the UK and not have been to drama school, and even if you do as a poc you'll still start way at the bottom once you graduate Vs your white peers.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-52968493

https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2020/jun/06/drama-schools-accused-of-hypocrisy-over-anti-racism-statements

https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/news/guildhall-drama-school-racism-report-b2393229.html this one is from just last year.

(post link)

thank u sm for sharing more info!!

[olympic-paris]

THIS DAY IN GAY HISTORY

based on: The White Crane Institute's 'Gay Wisdom', Gay Birthdays, Gay For Today, Famous GLBT, glbt-Gay Encylopedia, Today in Gay History, Wikipedia, and more …

September 7

48 BC – Albius Tibullus is born near Rome (d.19 BC). Known primarily as a love elegist, his poems tell of his lust for the handsome Marathus but alas, he never gets him.

1933 – Robert Chetwyn (d.2015), was a British director and actor, known for Westbeach (1993), God's Chosen Car Park (1986) and That Uncertain Feeling (1985), and who championed Joe Orton’s outrageous farces and saw promise in a young Ian McKellen.

He was born Robert Suckling on September 7 1930 in London, the son of a chauffeur and a cook, and trained as an actor at Central School of Speech and Drama – changing his name in the process. On graduation, in 1951, he spent more than a decade acting for rep companies.

In 1967 he directed There’s a Girl in My Soup, a farce by Terence Frisby. The show ran for six years in the West End, a record at the time.

Success breeds success in the theatre. Chetwyn was now the comedy director of choice in London and the following year he directed Flora Robson as Miss Prism in The Importance of Being Earnest, and the world premiere of Tom Stoppard’s The Real Inspector Hound. In 1969, Chetwyn brought his precise style to bear on the unruly work of Joe Orton, staging What the Butler Saw for the first time.

The 1970s were bracketed for Chetwyn by two productions with Ian McKellen. In 1971, he directed the actor in Hamlet at the Nottingham Playhouse. The critics were underwhelmed, and on the first night Chetwyn overheard in the lavatory his production being dismissed as "damned teenage twaddle".

It may have seemed like twaddle for middle-aged critics up from London, but for the younger generation of theatre-goers McKellen was an electrifying presence – their Olivier – and Chetwyn’s production spoke directly to them.

At the decade’s end the director and actor paired up again for Martin Sherman's ground-breaking drama, Bent, a play about the Nazi persecution of homosexuals. Chetwyn later recalled that "reading Bent was a powerful experience – shamefully, as a gay man, I knew nothing of the Nazi persecution of homosexuals." He sent the script to McKellen, who agreed to play the lead. Bent had a sold-out run at the Royal Court and then transferred to the West End.

In 1983 he returned to the stage to direct Eastward Ho!, a musical updating of a play by Ben Jonson and the product of a collaboration between the ex-pat American writer Howard Schuman and the composer Nick Bicat. Once again, Chetwyn demonstrated his eye for recognising talent: a young Mark Rylance delighted the audience with an acrobatic singing number.

He carried on working into his seventies and as retirement approached continued to focus on young talent, directing productions at Rada. Chetwyn first met Howard Schuman in 1967 and the pair almost immediately set up home together in Ecclestone Square, London, entering a civil partnership in 2006. Robert Chetwyn died in 2015. Howard Schuman survives him.

1956 – Michael Feinstein is an American singer and pianist, and an interpreter of and anthropologist and archivist for the repertoire known as the Great American Songbook. The Library of Congress elected him to the National Sound Recording Advisory Board, an organisation dedicated to safeguarding America's musical heritage.

Feinstein was born to Jewish-American parents in Columbus, Ohio. At the age of five, he studied piano for a couple of months until his teacher became angered that he wasn't reading the sheet music she gave him, since he was more comfortable playing by ear. As his mother saw no problem with her son's method, she took him out of lessons and allowed him to enjoy music his own way.

After graduating from high school, he worked in local piano bars for two years, moving to Los Angeles when he was 20. Through the widow of legendary concert pianist-actor Oscar Levant, he was introduced to Ira Gershwin, who hired him to catalogue his extensive collection of phonograph records. The assignment led to a six-year musical excavation of Gershwin's home in Beverly Hills, preserving the legacy of not just Ira but his composer brother George Gershwin, who had died four decades earlier, as well. Feinstein's extended tenure enabled him to get to know next-door neighbor Rosemary Clooney, with whom he formed an intensely close friendship lasting until Clooney's death. He later would serve as musical consultant for My One and Only, a Broadway musical pastiche of Gershwin tunes.

Liza Minnelli helped sponsor his 1986 New York City debut, and his Broadway show, Isn't It Romantic, was a critical and commercial success. Three years later, he recorded his first CD, The MGM Album, a collection of tunes from some of the studio's most popular movie musicals. He followed this in quick succession with Live at the Algonquin and compilations of songs by Burton Lane, Jule Styne, and Jerry Herman.

The four-time Grammy Award-nominee has spent his entire adult life chronicling, cataloguing, preserving, protecting, and recording the work of various composers, including musical greats like the Gershwins and such lesser-known names as Hugh Martin, Jimmy Webb, Jay Livingston, Ray Evans, and Johnny Mercer.

Feinstein is the owner of the Manhattan nightclub, Feinstein's at the Regency, a showcase for cabaret performers. He himself performs there for a sold-out Christmas holiday stint each year.

Feinstein recently completed a six-part Warner Home Video series for television that depicts the history of the American popular song up to 1960.

In October 2008, Feinstein married his longtime partner Terrence Flannery. The ceremony was performed by famed family court and television judge Judith Sheindlin, also known as Judge Judy. Feinstein and Flannery have homes in New York and Los Angeles.

1957 – Jermaine Stewart (d.1997) was an American dancer and singer best known for the worldwide hit We Don't Have To Take Our Clothes Off.

Born in Columbus, Ohio, William Jermaine Stewart always loved to dance. At school, he would often give dance lessons to other children for a $1 a lesson. In 1972, the Stewart family moved to Chicago. It was here that Jermaine took his first steps towards a career in show business. He joined a local dance group, and went out on the road with The Chi-Lites and The Staple Singers. This was followed by stints on both American Bandstand and later Soul Train. By the early 1980s, he joined the classic Hewitt/Watley/Daniels line up of Shalamar on tour as a backing vocalist and dancer.

The next step was to launch his own singing career. He took his first tentative steps by providing backing vocals to several established acts such as The Temptations and notably, Culture Club. Jermaine can be clearly heard as a vocal support to Boy George on the track Miss Me Blind.

It was his work with Culture Club which lead to a solo recording contract with Clive Davis' Arista Records (10 Records in the UK), thanks to the help of Culture Club's Mikey Craig. His first single The Word Is Out in 1984, preceded an album of the same name the following year.

John "Jellybean" Benitez produced two highly danceable tracks on Jermaine's second album Frantic Romantic, but it was Narada Michael Walden, a hit recording artist in his own right, who penned and produced the song that would forever be associated with Jermaine Stewart, We Don't Have To Take Our Clothes Off. The song, supported by a strong video, became an international success. The album quickly went on to become a million seller, and a second single, Jody was released, the inspiration of the song being Jody Watley of Shalamar. Jermaine's third album, Say It Again, was probably his most successful internationally.

In 1992, Jermaine teamed up with Chicago producer Jesse Saunders for his last recorded work, entitled Set Me Free, a return to his earlier style. The title track was released as a single in the US, but found little success. The album remains unreleased. The rest of the 1990s saw Jermaine battling long term illness. He did, however, begin recording a new album in 1996, which remains unfinished and unreleased.

Jermaine Stewart died on 17 March from liver cancer caused by HIV/AIDS. Ironically, his biggest hit We Don't Have To Take Our Clothes Off, with its safe sex message, was one of the first mainstream pop responses to the AIDS crisis.

1979 – Owen Pallett is a Canadian composer, violinist, keyboardist, and vocalist, who performs solo as Owen Pallett or, before 2010, under the name Final Fantasy. As Final Fantasy, he won the 2006 Polaris Music Prize for the album He Poos Clouds.

On his Final Fantasy releases, Pallett has collaborated with Leon Taheny, who is credited as drummer and engineer. Following the release of Heartland, Pallett has toured with guitarist/percussionist Thomas Gill and more recently with his former collaborators in Les Mouches, Rob Gordon and Matt Smith.

Pallett has been noted for his live performances, wherein he plays the violin into a loop pedal, a technique also used by musicians such as Andrew Bird, Jeremy Larson, Kishi Bashi, Emily Wells and Zoë Keating.

He believes his work is implicitly influenced by his sexuality, saying, "As far as whether the music I make is gay or queer, yeah, it comes from the fact that I'm gay, but that doesn't mean I'm making music about it."

Patrick Borjal, Pallett's boyfriend, began working as his manager in 2006, and formed the management company Boyfriend Management.

1988 – Max Emerson is an American actor, model, author, director and YouTuber. He is known for his modelling and social media profile, particularly on Instagram, and he wrote and directed the movie Hooked. He has appeared on TV in small roles, including the season 5 finale of Glee.

Emerson was born in Vero Beach, Florida and studied for a BFA in performance and directing at the University of Miami, from where he graduated in 2009. Emerson began modeling while he was a student.

He wrote, produced, co-directed and acted in two short films, DipSpit and Earwig, which were shown for the first time at the Miami Gay and Lesbian Film Festival on April 26, 2011. Earwig is a drama about a closeted gay college student, while DipSpit is a comedy about two straight male models who get kicked out and move in with a gay college student.

In October 2015, Emerson announced his intention to produce an independent film called "Hooked" for which he had written the story, telling the story of a homeless gay prostitute called Jack and addressing the problems faced by homeless LGBT youth. He aimed to raise $150,000 for the project via Indiegogo and give half of any profits made to charities benefiting LGBT people. The launch video for the Indiegogo campaign featured Todrick Hall and musician Tom Goss. As part of it he released a single with Goss called "Not Enough". The campaign was supported by Out magazine.

In October 2016, he posted the trailer for the new film. Hooked had its world premiere at NewFest: The New York LGBT Film Festival on June 26, 2017, and its European premiere at the 7th Homochron film festival in Cologne on October 20 the same year.

Emerson wrote an autobiography, Hot Sissy – Life Before Flashbulbs, describing his teenage years growing up in a "redneck" area of Florida. Hot Sissy was released as an e-book and in a limited print run of 500 hardcover copies in December 2014. The limited editions were each signed and came with an original Polaroid picture.

In 2015, Emerson described his move toward sobriety in an Instagram post.

In June 2016, he publicly introduced his boyfriend, Andrés Camilo, an officer in the US Army, in a YouTube video. Emerson has an active social media presence and posts regularly on YouTube where his username is "TheMaxVicious". As of December 2018, he has 1 million followers on Instagram (@maxisms) and 19,500 on Twitter (@TheMaxisms). On YouTube and on social media, Emerson is known for his humor and for showing off his body.

In May 2017, French comic TV presenter Cyril Hanouna used one of Emerson's torso pictures to set up a catfishing profile on a gay dating site, and tricked the men who responded to the profile into revealing sexual fantasies to him while he was live on his show Touche pas à mon poste!. The segment triggered nearly 20,000 complaints to regulators and condemnation from LGBT groups.

1988 – Paul Iacono is an American actor. He is best known for portraying RJ Berger in the MTV scripted series The Hard Times of RJ Berger.

Iacono was born in Secaucus, New Jersey to Italian American parents. Iacono went to Professional Performing Arts School in New York with friend and Fame co-star Paul McGill. At eight years old, Iacono was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia. He soon began receiving chemotherapy treatments and has been in remission since he was eleven years old.

Paul first gained wide notice for his numerous appearances on TV's The Rosie O'Donnell Show after Rosie O'Donnell discovered his unique talents for impersonating Frank Sinatra and Ethel Merman, at age 8.

Starting out as child actor in the NYC theater scene, Paul has appeared in over 100 theatrical productions. He has shared the stage with such greats as Mickey Rooney in The Wizard of Oz and Stephanie Mills in the original "Paper Mill Playhouse" production of Stephen Schwartz's Children of Eden. Iacono can be heard on the original cast recording. Other theatrical credits include Mame with Christine Ebersole, Noël Coward's Sail Away with Elaine Stritch and Marian Seldes, and John Guare's Landscape of the Body, with Lili Taylor and Sherie Rene Scott.

Paul's film career includes the MGM's remake of "Fame", "No God, No Master" with David Strathairn, and Darren Stein's teen comedy, "G.B.F."

Iacono is openly gay and a major LGBTQ activist, having publicly come out in Michael Musto's Village Voice Column in April 2012. He was named one of OUT Magazine's 100 most influential gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender people for 2013.

2001 The world’s first 24-hour LGBT TV network called PrideVision TV is launched in Canada. It is now called OutTV. Owned by Headline Media Group, it was Canada’s first 24-hour cable television channel targeted at LGBT audiences. It was also the second LGBT-focused channel to be established in the world, after the Gay Cable Network in the U.S., which shut down in 2001.

[jalwyn21]

Is it true that Joe’s exes still follow him? And that he’s in good terms all of them and Taylor made him unfollow one of them? 👀

Yup, Joe’s exes still follow him, some on instagram some on X, some on both. All but one.. 🙄 TS unfollowed him 🤭 So, yeah, it's safe to assume Joe is on good terms with all of them.. Don't think he's on good terms with TS though... 🤷‍♀️

To be fair I don't know if TS made him unfollow one of them, cause I don't know Joe personally 😅😅😅 but ... Back in 2020 Joe still followed her on insta, and during the first part of the lockdown he was stuck in California with TS. So, there was this online meeting with his former classmates from The Royal Central School of Speech & Drama. Celebrating 5 years since graduation or something... idk.. The ex was on that online chat too..

The next day Joe unfollowed her on insta. 😹😹😹 A bit suspicious, don't you think? So, yeah, I just assumed TS didn't want him following an ex on insta and made him unfollow her ... 😹😹😹 Like, why else would he just unfollow her in 2020? 😹😹😹 But, I don't know, you decide... 🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️

Do the girls back home follow you on instagram like I do? 😹😹😹😹😹

[lboogie1906]

Joseph Marcell (August 18, 1948) is a British actor and comedian. He is known for his role as Geoffrey Butler, the butler on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air (1990-96).

Born in Saint Lucia, he moved to the UK, when he was 9 years old and grew up in Peckham, South London. He lives in Banstead, Surrey.

He studied speech and dance at the Central School of Speech and Drama.

As a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company, he appeared in productions of Othello and A Midsummer Night’s Dream. He has appeared in feature films and on television in Britain. He serves on the board of the Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre in London where he is featured in a nationwide production of Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing and King Lear.

He played Gonzalo in Shakespeare’s play The Tempest at Sam Wanamaker Playhouse in May 2016. He played Solly Two Kings in the play by August Wilson, Gem of the Ocean at the Tricycle Theatre, in London, in January 2016. He began rehearsals as Titus Andronicus, in July 2017, for the La Grande Shakespeare Company, in La Grande, Oregon. He married Judith M. Midtby (1975-80). He married Joyce T. Walsh (1995). He has two children. #africanhistory365 #africanexcellence

[maximumwobblerbanditdonut]

Goodbye to Julian Sands, who was a lovely actor. Such a sweet man. You would have adored him, funny, generous and beautiful. 💔

British actor Julian Sands, known for his films like “A Room with a View” and “The Killing Fields,” has been found dead after going missing in the San Gabriel mountains in Southern California in January. He would have been 65.

A Room with a View (1985) It was with an impulsive kiss in an Italian poppy field that the late Julian Sands achieved his version of immortality. The scene is remembered as the most iconic moment in Edwardian society the most beloved English period piece of its era.

Sands, who was born, raised and began acting in England, worked constantly in film and television, amassing more than 150 credits in a 40-year career. During a 10-year span from 1985 to 1995, he played major roles in a series of acclaimed films.

After studying at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama in London, Sands embarked on a career in stage and film, playing small parts in films including “Oxford Blues” and “The Killing Fields.” He first gained international recognition playing British journalist Jon Swain in Roland Joffe’s far darker drama The Killing Fields (1984), set in Cambodia during the time of the Khmer Rouge’s genocide against its own people.

The film provided breakthrough roles for both Bonham Carter and Sands

He landed the starring role of George Emerson, who falls in love with Helena Bonham Carter's Lucy Honeychurch while on holiday in Tuscany, in the 1985 British romance, “A Room With a View.”

The film from director James Ivory and producer Ismail Merchant won the British Academy of Film and Television Arts award (BAFTA) for best film and was nominated for eight Oscars, winning three.

In the wake of its success, Sands moved to the United States to pursue a career in Hollywood.

RIP 💔

1958-2023

#JulianSands #ARoomWithaView #OxfordBlues #TheKillingFields #Edwardiansociety #Bafta #GeorgeEmerson #HelenaBonhamCarter #LucyHoneychurch #London #JamesIvory #OMioBabbinoCaro #KiriTeKanawa #Tuscany #IsmailMerchant

[shakespearenews]

On 23 April 2024, in commemoration of the English Language Day 2024 at the United Nations, the UN Movie Society of the United Nations Staff Recreation Council will inaugurate the “Shakespeare at the UN”– an exploration of how the timeless works of Shakespeare, in reflecting the human experience, can resonate with the core values ​​of the UN, such as promoting understanding of humanity and strengthening global connections. The project will be launched on the official global channels of the United Nations – UN Web TV and UN YouTube. 

--

Josette Bushell-Mingo OBE Principal and CEO of The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, University of London

Lady Macbeth's speech from Act I Scene 5, from Macbeth, by William Shakespeare ~ Performed in American Sign Language by Dawn Jani Birley with audio translation by Josette Bushell-Mingo OBE 

The Chorus' speech from Act III Prologue, from Henry V, by William Shakespeare ~ Performed in Mandarin Chinese by Diana Feng

Shakespeare's Sonnet 19, by William Shakespeare ~ Performed in Farsi by Lanna Joffrey, with translation from Farokh Soltani

King Lear's speech from Act III Scene 4, from King Lear, by William Shakespeare ~ Performed by Danny Sapani 

[denouncermedia]

Erika (@erikasandersonactor) trained at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama in London.

A highly versatile character actor, her stage career has spanned over three decades during which she has created a myriad of roles in a variety of genres from children's theatre to classical plays and musical theatre.

An award-winning voice actor, she can regularly be heard on The NoSleep Podcast, as well as appearing in other audio dramas and video games.

[scumbag-monthly]

Happy Birthday to Dawn French!

Born: 11th October 1957, in Holyhead

TV: The Comic Strip Presents...; The Young Ones; Girls on Top; French and Saunders; Murder Most Horrid; The Vicar of Dibley; Ted and Alice; Wild West; Jam & Jerusalem; Lark Rise to Candleford; Roger & Val Have Just Got In; The Wrong Mans; Delicious; The Trouble with Maggie Cole

Film: The Adventures of Pinocchio; Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban; The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe; Coraline; Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie; Death on the Nile

Theatre: A Midsummer Night's Dream; My Brilliant Divorce; Smaller; The Daughter of the Regiment; 30 Million Minutes

Books: Dear Fatty; A Tiny Bit Marvellous; Dear Sylvia; According to Yes; Me. You. A Diary; Because of You

Alma mater: Royal Central School of Speech and Drama

[ladyaislinn]

Though he has strained against being typecast in period pieces and dark dramas, British actor Rufus Sewell has found success in both.

The son of a struggling, artistic Welsh-Australian family in Twickenham, Sewell told Harper’s Bazaar last year that when he was at The Royal Central School of Speech & Drama in London, “my fear was that I would get stuck in the one thing that came naturally to me, which was comedy. I remember the first time I got offered to play a bad guy, it seemed like a wonderful opportunity to break away from the kind of brooding period drama characters that I always felt pigeonholed in. So I did it as an experiment and, low and behold, I was trapped in a new typecast.

“Now, I think people realize that what I’ve actually been doing all this time is acting, rather than just representing some ‘type’ that I am. And my career is panning out to be the one I kind of always wanted.”

wagmag 2019 and one of my favorite pics!