British actors taking country by storm, landing at OSU

Five British actors from the prestigious Royal Shakespeare Company and other acting companies are at Ohio State for a weeklong residency, teaching and performing Shakespeare and British Theatre. The actors from the London Stage are traveling each week to a different city in the United States for two months with a program called A Center for Theatre, Education, and Research (ACTER). ACTER is based in London and at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Mairead Carty, Paul Greenwood, John Kane, Patrick Miller, and Stephen Simms are the actors who travel and participate in lectures from Theatre 100 to graduate-level seminars, as well as workshops with students and faculty. The actors will also perform Shakespeare’s “The Tempest” this weekend at Thurber Theatre. Patrick Miller, who toured with ACTER in 1995, finds the residency successful, both for himself and the students he teaches. “It’s been terrific so far,” Miller said. “We develop relationships with students and faculty. Our (teaching) approach is from an actor’s point of view, not academic. We take it very practically.” Being on the tour, Miller finds working with the students personally rewarding as an actor: he finds his own personal approach to performing. “What it (the tour) does is hold a mirror to your own work. You find out what you have to offer as a performer,” Miller said. Mairead Carty is finding her first tour with ACTER to be very exciting yet incredibly tiring due to their full schedule. Although Carty has acted in numerous productions on stage and television, she has never taught acting. “Preparing classes is quite daunting, especially in the first week,” Carty said, “but teaching is performing as well. You’re standing up in front of a bunch of people and you have to interest them and make them want to listen. It’s hard, but it can be very rewarding. We’ve gotten some great feedback.” So far, the tour had taken these five remarkable actors to North Carolina, Virginia, and Tennessee. While in Tennessee, they visited Graceland. Carty found Graceland to be one of her favorite stops. “It’s like a piece of history, really,” Carty said. “I found it moving.” Paul Greenwood, another first-time ACTER, liked Graceland as well. He also finds the work very hard and demanding. “Every week it’s a different place, but people are so nice and welcoming,” Greenwood said. John Kane has toured five times with ACTER. On this trip, he was surprised to be reunited with Vincent Landro, a professor in the theater department at OSU. Kane and Landro worked together 20 years ago at Oberlin College, along with fellow actors Ben Kingsley and Charles Keating. The fifth actor, Stephen Simms, has performed in many Royal Shakespeare Company productions and has also performed for other companies on stage, television and film. The British Actors’ productions of “The Tempest” have been well received at previous stops. Since there are only five actors for the whole play, each actor plays the parts of two characters, sometimes three. “I play Caliban, Gonzolo, and Iris. It’s fantastic!” Greenwood said. “I go off as one character, and come back on as another. And some (actors) have to talk to themselves because their characters are on stage at the same time.” Carty’s characters, Ariel and Miranda, are on stage at the same time. “I’ve been lucky, I’ve had some really great parts,” Carty said about her acting career. “In ‘The Tempest,’ it is different. I’ve got not one great part, but two great parts!” Performances of Shakespeare’s “The Tempest” will be Thursday, Oct. 8, at 7:30 p.m., Friday Oct. 9, at 8:00 p.m., and Saturday, Oct. 10, at 2 p.m. Ticket prices are $6.50 for students, $9 for OSU faculty, staff, Alumni members, and senior citizens, and $12 for the general public. Call 292-2295 for more information.

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