Friday 14 November 2014

Where to begin!!!

Well, obviously I haven't blogged for about 20 months. "Once" was fantastic, met some amazingly talented people along the way. But it was time for me to move on, so I said bye to my Dublin family. 


Had some new headshot done:








Thanks Nicholas Dawkes : 
http://www.nicholasdawkesphotography.co.uk


Tuesday 19 February 2013

Dublin

So it's been very quick and a bit of a stressful time but, it's official I start rehearsals for Once on Friday.


Loads more to follow but check out the show website and find out what all the noise is about, opps that's STOMP marketing ...


Laters


Saturday 16 February 2013

Back in the room

It's been a long time I know but a lot has been happening, more about that in the next few weeks.  First just finished work on a new feature for Bold Turtle, written by Matt pitt and directed by Gut Pitt.


Starring Alec Newman and featuring the legend that is Jack Shepherd, I play Steve ... the landlord ... I know it's either bent detectives, russian mafia or landlords at the moment.

Don't knock it. Watch this space for updates.


Okay another exciting development is that Groovesync Media is up and running













Now there are lots exciting things happening here, again watch this space.

I'm off to dance now ...

Laters

Wednesday 8 February 2012

The Coaly Tyne


It's a strange old job this actoring lark. We spend our days slogging away with castings, learning sides and trying to keep the tools sharp, but every now and then all the hard work pays of and you get the chance to work on a unique project.


Got a call from my wonderful agent Mia Thomson saying I had a meeting for a weeks workshop up in Newcastle, working on a new project "The Last Ship". It was for a casting director I've worked for before, and oh yeah and it was being written by Sting. You can imagine, one minute your playing Henry VIII and the next you auditioning for a bloke who wrote the sound track to your youth.

Did I mention the learning sides thing, half a rain forest came over the email, thankfully Rehearsal 2 on the ipad has saves me so much printing, fantastic app.

Long story short, recalled, got the gig playing Mickey. Up to Newcastle and the Live Theatre

Through the whole casting process I did catch myself thinking, holy crap .. that's Sting.

He and the producer Jeffery Seller had assemble an astounding creative team, Brian Yorkey on book, Rob Mathes as musical supervisor, his wonderful assistant Dan Lipton and the great Joe Mantello directing. Wonderful.

The cast wasn't half bad either, Emma Williams, Jimmy Nail, Val McLane and Julian Forsyth and those were just a few I hadn't worked with before. At this point I have to send shout out to Hal Fowler, GSA reunion and Mark Roper who played the Governor in Jailhouse Rock, fantastic to see you again boys.

The intensity of work was crazy, by 20:00 on the first day we had learned the show musically and by dinner time on day two we had table read the script and were getting down to cutting and rearranging. This sort of process is why I love what I do, everyone on the project working their arses off to see a fledgling project grow and take wing.

To be honest, during the week I'd occasionally look across the floor and see Sting just sitting there, riffin away on his guitar, WOW. 

Then the band turned up on day 3, Ira Coleman his current bass player, the astounding Kathryn Tickell on pipes and violin. Peter and Mike also joined the line up and the amazing Julian Sutton on squeezebox.

The week culminated in two "Script in Hand" development performances to an invite only audience. 

It worked! 

The story was clear and engaging, the songs soared and everyone was wrapped up in this story of love and struggle set against the backdrop of the Wallsend shipyard closure in the 1980's.

Where it goes from here, who knows, but what a privilege to have worked on it with such wonderful people.

the scenery on the way back wasn't half bad either,


Laters.




Saturday 24 December 2011