The first RSC productions in the World Shakespeare Festival are three plays cast from one acting company, looking at migration, exile, and the discovery of brave new worlds. Actors Nick Day and Ankur Bahl share their experiences in rehearsal for The Tempest, Twelfth Night and The Comedy of Errors.
Nick has beached on the shores of the RSC for the fifth time. Having drifted about in a variety of theatre, TV and film roles over 40 years the winds and tides have given him good passage into our waters a little more often lately. He loves it here and has absolutely no desire to be taken off this magic isle.
After spending his youth on the international jump rope circuit, Ankur arrived in Britain six years ago as a postgraduate studying migration and diaspora. Shipwrecked in London, he began performing in theatre pieces about the people he was studying.
August 16, 2012
Just before the second preview, I arrived backstage left ready to go on as Curio, when I heard 'Ow. Shit. Oh God. Shit.'
Not good.
Bruce was sitting on the floor, clutching his arm. Wincing with pain, he said to get the stage manager—he had dislocated his shoulder.
I am Bruce's understudy.
by Ankur Bahl
| 2 comments
|
Read this entry
August 6, 2012
This was our final week of rehearsals in Clapham, and personally and professionally it was the most hectic week yet.
by Ankur Bahl
| No comments yet
|
Read this entry
July 27, 2012
Learning to replicate an accent is almost like learning a new language; though you recognise the words on the page, you have to override you natural inclinations for how to pronounce them.
by Ankur Bahl
| 4 comments
|
Read this entry
July 24, 2012
Our trilogy is back in Stratford. It's strange how the atmosphere in the company has immediately changed.
by Nick Day
| 1 comment
|
Read this entry
July 17, 2012
Intelligent Life magazine asked the women of the acting company 'Which decade of fashion best suits you?' If they'd asked me, I would have said the 1930s. Give me a pair of high-waisted pleated trousers that gently billow towards the shoe, and I'm a happy camper.
by Ankur Bahl
| 2 comments
|
Read this entry
July 10, 2012
We have had a mysterious footwear phenomenon going on. People's shoes have been disappearing and turning up in odd places.
by Nick Day
| No comments yet
|
Read this entry
June 25, 2012
We opened our shows at the Roundhouse, so most days we can now get to grips with all the stuff that has been on our domestic ToDo lists since the beginning of the year.
by Nick Day
| No comments yet
|
Read this entry
June 12, 2012
Today was my theatrical bar-mitzvah-by-fire. In a public understudy run I played Dromio of Syracuse and Dromio of Ephesus in the RST. I went from being the actor with the fewest lines in The Comedy of Errors to the one with the most.
by Ankur Bahl
| 13 comments
|
Read this entry
June 6, 2012
As a lover and a user of the Thames, I took my family off to see the thousand boat Jubilee flotilla. Our sovereign and her floating followers were showered with love, praise, respect... and rain.
by Nick Day
| 2 comments
|
Read this entry
June 1, 2012
We arrived at the rehearsal room in Clapham for a 10am start. The stage management team had been in earlier to clear all set and prop pieces for a movement session.
by Ankur Bahl
| No comments yet
|
Read this entry