I just finished reading a book of letters from the National Theatre archives (Dramatic Exchanges: The Lives and Letters of the National Theatre, edited by Daniel Rosenthal), which I found out about via the NT podcast, on which actors did a dramatic reading of some of the letters in the book. The section on the "Nick Hytner years" is relatively ( Read more... )

An interview with Samuel Barnett, who is currently in Kiss of the Spider Woman at the Menier Chocolate Factory:

Most of Barnett’s twenties were taken up by playing Posner in the History Boys, a “gay, small, Jewish” sixth-former from Sheffield trying to get into Oxbridge. He never gets bored of talking about it ( Read more... )

I wound up doing a bit of early Christmas shopping this weekend, but as I did that shopping in a bookstore, I didn’t escape without also buying something for myself: Balancing Acts, Nicholas Hytner’s new memoir about being artistic director of the National Theatre in London (which came out in the UK earlier in the year, but has just come out here ( Read more... )

https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2017/nov/10/boy-with-the-topknot-sacha-dhawan-why-didnt-do-this-sooner-actorRead more... )

So I happened to turn on PBS to find an episode of DCI Banks on, and who should run up - and spill coffee all over the main character - but Samuel Anderson as a new detective constable joining the unit!

Then Vicious aired after that - not the episode Sam Barnett is in, but there was still a millisecond of him in the behind-the-scenes featurette ( Read more... )

The pictures of Jamie Parker from various productions (including a rather nice one of him and Samuel Barnett in the barrel from Rosencrantz and Guldenstern Are Dead) are delightful ( Read more... )

Just posting so I can find it later: All of the Guardian's Shakespeare Solos videos on YouTube ( Read more... )

Look, Sacha Dhawan filmed one of the Shakespeare Solos videos, and he's being such a delightful cad:http://www.theguardian.com/stage/video/2016/feb/29/sacha-dhawan-shakespeare-parolles-are-you-

Okay:

Hattie Morahan has apparently recently been in not one, but two Sherlock Holmes-related properties: Mr. Holmes, the film starring Ian McKellen; and Arthur and George, the miniseries starring Martin Clunes (and also featuring Charles Edwards, who has played Benedick and Richard II for Shakespeare's Globe, and was also on Downton AbbeyLooking ( Read more... )

Jamie Parker's Hamlet recording (BBC Radio 4), which I tragically missed when it was available on BBC iPlayer, is now available for purchase on audible.com and iTunes!!!

There are no words for how excited I am to listen to this. Of course, I have to wait until I do all of my quarter grading and comments, but what a lovely reward it will be...