Archive for the ‘Interviews’ Category

10 Questions: An Interview with Michael Davoren

Thursday, July 22nd, 2010

Today we chat with handsome Australian actor Michael Davoren who plays Basil in Faulty Towers The Dining Experience.  Organised chaos ensues with all the best gags and a three-course meal.  Loosely-scripted from the ‘13th episode’ of the TV series, you dine at your pleasure and enjoy this treasure of a show.   So let’s chat with Michael….

Michael DavorenHat

1.    What inspired you journey into the Arts?

As a child growing up in Australia, I found myself gravitating towards all things British and BBC related. Fascinated by great comic actors such as (obviously) John Cleese, Jon Pertwee and Rowan Atkinson (to name but a few) I found myself mimicking and creating my own characters and voices myself.

2.    What’s your show about and where are you taking your show after the Edinburgh Fringe?

Faulty Towers The Dining Experience” does what it says on the tin. The word “Homage” is bandied about far to liberally these days. However, this show IS just that. It does not pretend to be anything it isn’t. It pays tribute to the genius of John Cleese and Connie Booth’s writing in the most affectionate way. Audience members have the opportunity to dine at Faulty Towers and interact with the characters they love.

After Edinburgh the show heads continues to tour the UK, Australia and the Netherlands.

3.    What are you most proud of?

I am particularly proud of the attention to detail this show pays. Every nuance, every gesture is a deliberate attempt to transplant the world of the television series into the real world. The level of appreciation the interactive show has achieved in the UK is something to be proud of. Particularly when some audience members refuse to believe that the actors are Australian.

4.    If you had a chance to work with anyone of your choosing, who would it be?

Peter Serafinowicz, Shaun Micallef, Julia Zemiro , the Doctor Who Production Team and Barry Humphries!

5.    What kind of questions do you most like to be asked about your work and why?

Have you met John Cleese?  Because it means there might be a chance he could come to the show!

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6.    Do the reviewers of Fringe shows do a good job?

They all do the most wonderful job, especially the reviewers coming to our show this year…I just wish I knew what to put in their fruit baskets?!

7.    What do you feel about the current state of Arts funding available?

There should be more of it. It is just as important as sport!

8.    Which three famous people would you invite to dinner and why [dead celebrities included]?  And what tasty treat would you prepare?

Stephen Fry, Richard Dawkins and the late Carl Sagan because the conversation would be so interesting people would not notice that I ordered Thai instead of cooking!

9.    What do you do to relax?

Sailing in Australia! NOTHING on Earth matches the natural beauty of Australia!

10.    What would be your dream come true?

To play a Doctor Who villain!

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10 Questions: An Interview with Rosie Wilby

Wednesday, July 21st, 2010

I last chatted with Rosie Wilby at the 2009 Edinburgh Fringe and managed to pop along to see her show The Science of Sex.   I found her easy demeanor and sparkling banter makes for a pleasurable hour of enlightened comical wit about SEX.  A little less known are her sultry vocals which we will learn more about later.

Rosie is taking to the stage with Rosie’s Pop Diary at the 2010 Camden Fringe in London on the 2nd and 3rd August.   Thereafter she heads up north to the 2010 Edinburgh Fringe for a three week stint sequelling:  Further Science of Sex. You can see Rosie Wilby at the Underbelly Delhi Belly from the 5th to 29th August at 4.15 pm each day throughout the duration of the Fringe.

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1.    Since we interviewed you in August 2009, what have you been doing since then?

I’ve been touring my 2009 Edinburgh show The Science Of Sex, taking it to comedy festivals including Liverpool, Leicester and Cambridge, as well as lovely theatre shows in Bath, Exeter, London and more. My radio show on Resonance FM also had a great review in The Guardian and I’ve appeared on Womans Hour and Loose Ends on Radio 4.

2.    I see you have written a sequel to last year’s show, now called “Further Science of Sex” and recently premiered  a brand new show called “Rosie’s Pop Diary” at the Camden Fringe – do tell us more about your two shows?

Further Science Of Sex is a more developed version of The Science Of Sex, edited and reworked. A show changes over time and it certainly did while I was taking it around the country.

Rosie’s Pop Diary is still at an experimental stage. I want to develop that show and tour it next year – but its really my attempt to bridge the gap between my former music career and my current comedy one by telling the story of my band which I fronted in the mid 90s. I wrote a monthly confessional column at the time in a now defunct music mag called Making Music and its based on that.

3.    How do you go about changing the static setup of your written comedy routines to making it a dynamic tour de force for your audience?

I have always enjoyed interacting with an audience (if they’re up for it). They are what make each show different.

4.    You are particularly interested in the concept of contradiction in your comedy routines, where has this observational skill come from?

Watching people in South London where I live – full of lots of great characters!

5.    When you look at the world of comedy, what are you most optimistic about?

I’m glad that slowly but surely there is a little more diversity, more women, gay acts, black acts, disabled acts all talking about their experiences.

RosieWilby-2010-flyer-Small6.    You are also a singer-songwriter and your voice has been compared to the   immortal Patsy Cline.  Do tell us more about your musical career?

It was all catalogued in Rosie’s Pop Diary so you can hear the story there. You can also hear some of the songs at www.myspace.com/rosiewilby.

7.    Which three famous people would you invite to dinner and why [dead celebrities included]?  And what tasty treat would you prepare?

My cooking leaves a little to be desired. They may well become dead celebrities by the end of the meal. So in all honesty I would be unlikely to throw a dinner party.

8.    What’s the medium you like the most – books, movies, gaming, TV etc?

I love world cinema.

9.    What kind of questions do you most like to be asked about your work?

I’m always glad when people know about my musical career as well. A lot of people only know me as a comic and didn’t realise I’d done any performing before that.

10.    If the Arts Council granted you £1 million, how would you use this grant money?

I’d be very surprised if they did! Could I buy a house and argue that was a part of an Arts project? I’d love to start a radio channel and include the diversity of programming and music we used to have on the BBC and on GLR before it became BBC London. Although I do love 6 music, it still sounds like a boys club where girls aren’t that welcome.

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10 Questions: An Interview with Andrew Hobbs

Tuesday, July 20th, 2010

The job sounds easy but it isn’t, as Artistic Director of A Season Before the Tragedy of Macbeth, Andrew Hobbs chats with us and tells us about this most elusive of processes.   As Executive Producer of Facsimile Productions and Artistic Director of the British Touring Shakespeare Theatre Company, The Bard of Avon is forever inspiring.   The show will be playing at the Camden People’s Theatre from Wednesday the 4th to Sunday the 8th of August each evening at 9.15pm as part of the 2010 Camden Fringe Festival.

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1.    As Artistic Director of the British Touring Shakespeare Theatre Company, how do you see your role going forward?

The ethos of BTS as a company is all about trying to take Shakespeare back to being performed in its original spirit. Most people’s contemporary perception of how Shakespeare ought to be performed stems from the Victorians – people in pseudo-authentic Elizabethan outfits stood around declaiming in very big voices. This is the reason that a lot of people have this idea of Shakespeare being elitist and boring, and when it’s done well it’s really not at all – it should be something that anyone can enjoy, be they children or adults and no matter what background they are from. There has been a pleasing movement in recent years towards recapturing the original spirit of the plays, particularly from organisations like the Globe, and I see the mission of my company as being to make these great plays accessible and enjoyable for as many people as possible around the world.

2.    How did you become involved in directing Gloria Carreño’s new play, “A Season before the Tragedy of Macbeth”?

My other theatre company Facsimile Productions specialises in new writing, both from myself and our other resident writers as well as from other talent across the world, so we get sent a lot of plays for our consideration. Gloria’s piece stood out as being a wonderfully fresh take on a well known classic, and obviously has the Shakespeare connection, so it was something I really wanted to look at for BTS.

As well as keeping Shakespeare’s work alive for modern audiences, we are always on the lookout for new writing which can augment and enhance our understanding of his work, so when the opportunity came up for BTS to stage the world premiere of this play at the Camden Fringe Festival, we naturally jumped at the chance.

3.    As the Artistic Director of “A Season before the Tragedy of Macbeth” what do you think we can we learn from Shakespeare to help us understand the world around us?

It is when you think about it quite an amazing achievement that plays that were written so long ago can still resonate with the everyday concerns of ordinary people today. There are parts of Shakespeare’s work which don’t necessarily work for a modern audience, specifically some of the humour which makes reference to topical issues or wordplay whose comedy the English language has moved on from, but at the heart of these plays are human emotions that have not changed one bit. The reason that these plays are so enduring is that Shakespeare understood the human psyche in a depth that few other writers have ever achieved. When you compare it to the equivalent mainstream entertainment of today, you have to wonder if children in schools will be studying scripts from Eastenders or the cinema of Jason Statham in schools in five hundred years time? Appealing as I find the notion of an A-level class being taught on the use of imagery in Transporter 3 it seems somewhat unlikely!

4.    How do you go about changing the static setup of reading a play to making it a dynamic tour de force for an audience?

That’s a very interesting question, and I think the answer lies in the fact that a play script is not a piece of literature to be sat and read, any more than a piece of sheet music gives you any realistic idea of how a song will sound when it is performed. There’s so much more to a theatrical performance than simply the words, and you just don’t get that from reading the script. As a side note, I think that’s why the teaching of Shakespeare and other dramatic works in schools can be so uninspiring. I used to hate Shakespeare at school because it was treated as an academic literary text – you need to see it as a production up on stage in order to understand it.

5.    When you look at the world of theatre, what are you most optimistic about?

The fact that the fringe in London is currently doing very good business. Mainstream West End commercial theatre is currently in a very stagnant position, much like Broadway was in the early 90s. If you look at what’s on, you’ll seriously struggle to find anything that isn’t either imported from America or based on pop songs or a film that people already know. This is largely because big commercial producers in the current economic climate are wanting guaranteed success which makes them fairly unlikely to take a punt on anything new or different. I suppose at least it’s good that these shows based on films or well known songs are getting people into theatres and keeping the art form alive, but if we are to keep up our country’s reputation as the creative home of theatre then there needs to be something of a renaissance. For me the fringe is a much more exciting place, not only for the quality and originality of the work, but also because it is real theatre that requires the use of the audience’s imagination which is, as the Chorus in Henry V so eloquently tells us, what theatre’s supposed to be about. So many big West End shows are presented as pretty much films on stage with all of their spectacular effects that I think this important element of theatre has been lost to mainstream audiences. I don’t know whether the current boom in fringe ticket sales is down to a credit crunch effect of people being unable to afford expensive West End tickets, or whether people are genuinely getting a little bored of uninspiring blockbuster shows and wanting to seek out something exciting and new, but either way it’s got to be a good thing for theatre in general.

6.    What do you feel about the current state of Arts funding available?

It’s a difficult time for Arts funding, particularly due to the upcoming London Olympics, which have diverted a lot of the funding that has historically been available for the arts from sources such as the Lottery. I know a lot of companies that are very reliant on this have gone under as a result, which is a terrible shame, so perhaps we are fortunate that we have never really gone down this route and have generally funded things independently but it is certainly difficult. For the reasons I’ve outlined in my answer to the previous question it is difficult to get mainstream commercial producers interested in original creative work, and a lot of Arts funding perhaps quite rightly tends to have a bias towards work focused on issues or communities, so if you’re working on something that’s pitched as entertainment but is original and creative new writing then you can often find yourself caught in the middle with no ready source of funding available.

I’d like to give a mention here to Chris Mellor of Camden Council, who is doing a lot of good work at the moment to support independent creative producers who are staging work in the borough of Camden. He’s been an invaluable support to my company and many others, and if more council arts officers start following his lead then we may yet see the creative renaissance we so desperately need in this country. Do check out the website Chris has set up www.camdentheatres.com which is helping creative producers get funding for their work.

7.    Do the reviewers of Fringe shows do a good job?

Only if they give us a good review! But seriously, as a theatre practitioner I tend to not to take a huge amount of notice of reviews be they good or bad. I think the duty of a reviewer is simply to comment in as unbiased and professional a way as possible on whether or not they would recommend seeing the show in question. It is always a little uncomfortable when you see a review turn into a personal attack on the person responsible for the work, although of course perversely a really bad review can often sell as many tickets as a glowing one. It is clearly in the interests of both theatre practitioners and theatre reviewers that people continue to be interested in theatre and go and see it, so I think a well written review is one that speaks constructively and objectively about the work pointing out what works well and what doesn’t.

8.    Which three famous people would you invite to dinner and why [dead celebrities included]?  And what tasty treat would you prepare?

I’d obviously choose William Shakespeare as my first. We know so little about his life, so it would be a great chance to fill in all the gaps and find out if I’ve got things right in trying to present his work in the spirit in which it was written.

For my other two I think I’d choose the main characters in my two most recent plays. Bacchus, the god of wine who features in Bacchus In Rehab which I wrote with S P Howarth and which has its premiere at the Etcetera Theatre last year, and Grigori Rasputin, the mad monk who features in rock musical Rasputin Rocks! which I wrote with Alistair Smith and which had its premiere at the Kenton Theatre, Henley-on-Thames in 2008. Both of these shows will soon be making a comeback, and if any of your readers are interested in learning more about them or helping with funding them then they should visit www.camdentheares.com or our company website www.facsimileproductions.co.uk.

Not sure what I’d cook, but I’d definitely stock up on wine and vodka to kick off a drinking competition between Bacchus and Rasputin. Don’t know who my money would be on to win, but it would be a lot of fun to watch.

9.    Tell us 5 interesting and unknown facts about yourself!

As well as my theatre work, I’m a performance poet and will shortly be appearing as a special guest at the Estonian International Poetry Festival.

I nearly became a lawyer when I left school and then thought better of it and ran away to the theatre.

I’m a big rock fan and my favourite band is The Wildhearts. Ginger is the finest song writer the English language has ever known (including the Beatles and Dylan!) and I would urge any of your readers not familiar with their work to check them out.

My favourite writer is Iain Banks and I one day hope to adapt one of his early novels Walking On Glass for the stage.

My girlfriend Lucyelle Cliffe is half Hungarian, and is appearing in two exciting new musicals called Piramania and Plague at the C Venue in Edinburgh this summer which are well worth seeing if anyone gets the chance.

10.    What would be your dream come true?

I would love to have my own regional rep theatre to run with sufficient funding for me to be able to put whatever I liked on with no commercial pressures of how many tickets I need to sell. Maybe one day…

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10 Questions: An Interview with Gloria Carreño

Monday, July 19th, 2010

Coming to this year’s 2010 Camden Fringe is the highly accomplished Scottish/French playwright Gloria Carreño.    A Season Before the Tragedy of Macbeth is an exciting new play set in a time preceding the infamous regicide of the Scottish King.  It’s that delicious examination of the Tipping Point when events build up to that magical threshold and the dynamics explode.

I first met Gloria at the 2006 Edinburgh Fringe when I popped along to see  “Filles de Kronos” at the Bedlam Theatre.   As a writer ever exploring ‘la condition humaine’ “her work is always fascinating…

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1.   What inspires your writing and why do you prefer to write for the theatre?

It’s a combination of different factors really and depends on each play. This time I’d put it down to terminal insanity! But we’ll go into that later!

I prefer to write for the stage because you do actually see the characters come to life, which is one of the most joyful moments a playwright can experience!

2.   What’s your new play about and why did you choose to premier your work at the Camden Fringe?

Well, first of all I wanted to write pure tragedy as a change from previous work. I adore Shakespeare and wondered a lot about Lady Macbeth who is always portrayed as a totally unsavoury, heinous villain. History, however, tells us otherwise! Hence I wondered if it would be possible to use historical fact to chart the course of the play until the struggle for personal and political power reaches that point of urgency where either History might run its course or Shakespeare’s tragedy might indeed begin. It was a fascinating experience as a writer, to work Shakespeare from the inside, so to speak! An amazing journey.

It was the wonderful British Touring Shakespeare and their Artistic Director Andrew Hobbs who chose the Camden Fringe to showcase the play…. before it goes on tour, hopefully. It’s very exciting to be in London for the first time.

3.   As the writer of “A Season Before The Tragedy Of Macbeth” what do you think we can we learn from Shakespeare to help us understand the world around us?

Gloria Carenno-2010-1SmallIt’s commonplace to talk about the universal truths in Shakespeare but I’m not sure we really do stop long enough to note that  he writes about  power, authority, love, treachery, injustice, empowerment of women, ambition, madness, manipulation, superstition and perhaps .. witchcraft… Jo Rowling has brought the latter back into fashion, and we should thank her for that. … or should we?  Scary stuff!

Another thing often overlooked is the humour in Shakespeare’s plays, heavily draped in sarcasm in many cases. A Season Before The Tragedy Of Macbeth has all of this too.  I had great fun writing it. Audiences aren’t used to seeing battlefields, beheaded corpses and vicious murders in my plays.

4.   How do you go about changing the static setup of reading a written play to making it a dynamic tour de force for an audience?

You’re absolutely right!  It is a feat! Firstly the director needs a good ear to really hear the dialogue plus the ability to conjure up settings, scenery and blood-and-bones characters. He develops a vision of the play in his mind and sets out to put that on stage.  Magic time!

5.   Of all the things you’ve written, what’s your favourite?

For any writer it’s always the latest play I think. And this one gave me so much work with research that I can’t but love it .. to death!

6.   When you look at the world of theatre, what are you most optimistic about?

The fact that there are still audiences for theatre in itself is very promising!  I saw “The Habit of Art” by Alan Bennett at the National Theatre last month. It’s two and a half hours long which didn’t prevent a packed house!

Theatre is so often considered to be more ‘difficult’ than a movie, which in a way it is. But not painfully so. There is more of a challenge because questions are often left only partially answered. Also there isn’t a train being derailed on stage every five minutes to stop any dynamic thought process! A play has a different kind of pace and once you accept that then it really can be a thrilling communion with the actors. The involvement is completely different!

7.   If the Arts Council granted you 1 Million Euros, how would you use this grant money?

You mean after I’d come round? I was going to say I’d give half to charity but the Arts Council would never agree, would they?  So, if I were to be rather selfish I’d use it to tour the play and take it to schools all over the UK. I’d do workshops with the actors and schoolchildren and let the kids have a hands-on experience with those universal truths.

8.   Which three famous people would you invite to dinner and why [dead celebrities included]?

I’d invite Helen Mirren, Meryl Streep and Ghandi. Helen Mirren for her inside knowledge of acting Shakespearean drama, Meryl Streep because she can act anything and Gandhi for his reflections on universal truths. Plus, all three have / had a very good sense of humour!

…And what tasty treat would you prepare?

All I can make is cheese quiche and salads. However, I’d buy in the best ‘forêt noire’ (black forest gateau) the town can offer! I would also provide oodles of really nice French wine to go with it!

9.   What’s the medium you like the most – books, movies, gaming, TV etc?

The theatre by far, then books followed by films.

10.   Tell us 5 interesting and unknown facts about yourself!

I always hope you won’t ask this last question. “Unknown” is easy but “interesting” … Maybe I can manage two.

  • Let’s see… Well, first of all I have learned to make a mean quiche since our last conversation! I hope you noticed!
  • My last acting part in Scotland was in ‘La Cantatrice Chauve’ with ‘Les Escogriffes’ – the Edinburgh University French Department drama club. I was Madame Martin.
  • This latest play is about to come out in French ‘Une Saison Avant la Tragédie De Macbeth’. (Editions Persée).
  • Mmm, maybe, finally … “si tau poh” is my latest nickname. Yeah, I know, you’re thinking how obscure can that be! The Chinese in Hong Kong used it to refer to Queen Victoria (it means ‘boss lady’, strangely enough, which is really quite humorous for anyone who knows me at all well…)!

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10 Questions: An Interview with Sandra Risser

Sunday, July 18th, 2010

She’s eccentric not crazy, drives in the fast lane and can bench press 75 grams!  Yes, it’s Sandra Risser coming from the Bay Area of San Francisco to present two fantastic shows at this year’s 2010 Edinburgh Fringe as part of The Free Festival.  The two faces of Sandra Risser showcase Amy, Fate and Me and American Cougar of Comedy from the 5th to the 29th of August.  So let’s chat with this most charming and energetic sexagenarian….

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1.   What inspired you to become a comedian and actor?

As far back as I can remember I wanted to be a comedian and actor. Unfortunately I couldn’t handle the rejection so I went into business and used the same skills for presentations. When I left the corporate world, I decided it was time. I began with amateur competitive bodybuilding and from there began acting and from there stand-up comedy. As a comic whether I’m good or not is solely my responsibility. I like that. I had a story I knew needed to be told. I wrote it as a one woman show for the same reason.

2.  What’s your show about and where are you taking your show after the Edinburgh Fringe?

Both my shows are essentially about me. My theatrical show “Amy, Fate and Me” is a character study of a woman who’s made bad choices in relationships her entire life but is always optimistic that “next time will be different”. Her modus operandi is to run away. She’s never been able to stand up for herself. The question is will she succeed when intuition and fate force her to?

In a humorous way my “American Cougar of Comedy” show depicts this same woman. I have some rehearsed material but the part the audiences seem to enjoy most is my answering written questions they submit. I never skirt personal, political or religious questions but attempt to humorously answer anything the audience asks.

After the Edinburgh Fringe I want to combine the two shows as “The Two Faces of Sandra Risser” and perform them as a single show. Since I live in the San Francisco, California area, I’ll probably begin there but hope to eventually perform them all over. In reality I’ll do the show wherever and whenever someone wants to book me.

3.  What are you most proud of?

I’m proud of so many things. The list includes my intelligence, my work ethic, my empathy with others, my acting, my comedy etc. If, however, I must choose just one thing I’m most proud of, egoistically speaking, I’d say my body. When I was 48 years of age I took up amateur competitive bodybuilding. Now at 69 years of age I still workout and lift weights 3 to 4 times a week. With age my skin has begun to sag but my muscles are still well defined. I’m definitely proud of the way I look. In fact I look really good “for my age”.

4.  If you had a chance to work with anyone of your choosing, who would it be?

I think it’s a toss up between Al Pacino and Meryl Streep. Both are superb actors who can become whoever they are playing. From everything I’ve read and heard, they are also good people. To work with either would be an honour. Hopefully I wouldn’t be so intimidated I became tongue tied or threw up.

5.   What kind of questions do you most like to be asked about your work and why?

SandraRisserExpandedSmallI like questions that make me think and dig deeper into myself. In the long run by answering the “tough” questions I learn more about myself and become a better comic and actor.

6.  Do the reviewers of Fringe shows do a good job?

Yes. I had 2 reviewers see my shows at the Brighton Fringe Festival. Both gave me a great review along with a wonderful article. They liked me, so they must be doing a good job.

7. What do you feel about the current state of Arts funding available?

I can’t speak to Arts Funding in the UK but in the US it is insufficient and often inefficient. Unfortunately with the massive government debt there are too many who think the Arts can take care of themselves or are unnecessary.  If it weren’t for private funding and donations, the Arts would suffer greatly.

8.  Which three famous people would you invite to dinner and why [dead celebrities included]?  And what tasty treat would you prepare?

Lucille Ball (I think she’s one of the funniest female comics ever. She was willing to do about anything.)  To spend an evening with her would be incredible.

George Washington or any of the other signers of the US Declaration of Independence  (I want to know their thoughts on how our Federal Government has grown since then, on how it has usurped the rights of the States and would they do it again or not?).

My great-grand parents (I’d just like to know them and to learn about my family’s history. How did they react when their children left Europe for America?).

FreeFrestivalLogoAs to what I’d prepare I think I’d make something unusual like sweet and sour short ribs with prunes and potatoes.

9.  What do you do to relax?

One of the things I do to relax is do open mics at comedy venues. The camaraderie of the other comics and listening to them perform is most enjoyable. When comedy stops being fun is when I’ll quit. Besides that I like to workout, read and watch junk television like “Desperate Housewives”.

10.  What would be your dream come true?

My dream come true would be to be in the Senior Olympics when I’m 120 years of age either that or to star in my own sitcom.

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