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Gareth Armstrong | |
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| Born | 26 June 1948 |
Gareth S. Armstrong (born 25 June 1948) is a British actor, director, teacher and writer.
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Gareth Armstrong | |
|---|---|
| Born | 26 June 1948 |
Gareth S. Armstrong (born 25 June 1948) is a British actor, director, teacher and writer.
Armstrong began his career by acting in school plays at the Bishop Gore School, Swansea. At the age of 16 he joined the National Youth Theatre; and went on from there to study drama at Hull University. [ citation needed ]
On stage he has played leading roles in most of the UK's regional theatres including Birmingham Rep., Nottingham Playhouse and the Bristol Old Vic where parts ranged from Mamet to Molière. He has specialised in Shakespearean theatre where roles have included Romeo, Richard III, Oberon, Macbeth, Shylock and Prospero. As a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company he worked in Stratford and London and has performed in the West End in plays by Noël Coward, Tom Stoppard, Agatha Christie and most recently in Yes, Prime Minister (2013). He played at Shakespeare's Globe in 2008, 2010, and 2011.
Armstrong's television credits include: Z-Cars , Doctor Who (in the serial The Masque of Mandragora ), Blake's 7 , The Professionals , Terry and June , One Foot in the Grave , Casualty and EastEnders and Birds of a Feather .
Armstrong provided the voice for the character of Sandy in the Japanese television series Saiyūki, released in English-speaking countries as Monkey . He has recorded hundreds of audiobooks and has embarked on recording all of Georges Simenon's Maigret novels for Audible. For Black Library he has narrated novels and audio dramas at Games Workshop.
On radio, Armstrong has played three recurring roles in The Archers on Radio 4, including Sean Myerson, the publican of the Cat and Fiddle and the serial's first regular gay character. [1] He also starred in an episode of Fear on Four, titled "The Edge", which was first broadcast in 1991. [2]
Armstrong is noted for his own one-man show Shylock, in which Shakespeare's principal Jewish character is seen from the viewpoint of Tubal, Shakespeare's only other male Jewish character and Shylock's only friend in the original play. [3] Armstrong began performing the play in 1998 and was still staging it in 2024, when the play was characterised as "a metatheatrical exploration of Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice [...] a compelling meditation on Shylock, tracing both the plot and performance history of Shakespeare's Merchant and the dark details of Jewish persecution in Europe from the twelfth century". [4] Armstrong has toured the play in over fifty countries and across the United States.[ citation needed ] The play has won awards in New Zealand, Canada, Spain and Germany and been translated into Catalan, Spanish, Italian, French and Russian as well being performed on Dutch television and Romanian radio.[ citation needed ]
In 2015, Armstrong wrote a five-handed comedy called Fondly Remembered which premiered in London, and was subsequently published by French's Acting Editions.[ citation needed ]
Armstrong's play A Critical Stage, about the theatre critic James Agate, received its premier in June 2023 at London's Tabard Theatre.[ citation needed ]
As a director he was a founder of The Made in Wales Stage Company, an artistic director of Cardiff's Sherman Theatre and an Associate Artist at the Salisbury Playhouse. As a freelance he has directed all over the UK, as well as in Europe, and the United States. He has more recently specialised in directing solo shows, which include My Darling Clemmie by Hugh Whitemore and performed by Rohan McCullough, Sherlock Holmes- The Last Act by David Stuart Davies, performed by Roger Llewellyn, and Shakespeare's The Rape of Lucrece performed by Gerard Logan which won the Edinburgh Fringe Stage Award for Best Solo performance in 2012. He and Logan also collaborated on Armstrong's dramatisation of Oscar Wilde's De Profundis in the play called Wilde Without the Boy. His most recent production of Hugh Whitemore's play Sand in the Sandwiches stars Edward Fox as the poet John Betjeman and is programmed to tour the UK and play at London's Haymarket Theatre.[ citation needed ]
In 2004 Armstrong published his account of presenting his solo play in A Case for Shylock – Around the World with Shakespeare's Jew. [5] His So You Want To Do A Solo Show is an instructional book for professional actors, published by Nick Hern Books.[ citation needed ]
Armstrong has lectured and taught on campuses across the US and taken workshops and masterclasses in India, Sri Lanka New Zealand, Italy and all over the UK. He has been a guest director at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama and at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School. He is an Examiner in Speech and Drama for Trinity College London.[ citation needed ]
The Merchant of Venice is a play by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1596 and 1598. A merchant in Venice named Antonio defaults on a large loan taken out on behalf of his dear friend, Bassanio, and provided by a Jewish moneylender, Shylock, with seemingly inevitable fatal consequences.
Kate O'Mara was an English film, stage and television actress, and writer. O'Mara made her stage debut in a 1963 production of The Merchant of Venice. Her other stage roles included Elvira in Blithe Spirit (1974), Lady Macbeth in Macbeth (1982), Cleopatra in Antony & Cleopatra (1982), Goneril in King Lear (1987), and Marlene Dietrich in Lunch with Marlene (2008).
Sir Peter Reginald Frederick Hall CBE was an English theatre, opera and film director. His obituary in The Times declared him "the most important figure in British theatre for half a century" and on his death, a Royal National Theatre statement declared that Hall's "influence on the artistic life of Britain in the 20th century was unparalleled". In 2018, the Laurence Olivier Awards, recognising achievements in London theatre, changed the award for Best Director to the Sir Peter Hall Award for Best Director.
Stephen David Daldry CBE is an English director and producer of film, theatre, and television. He has won three Tony Awards for his work on Broadway and an Olivier Award for his work in the West End. He has received three Academy Awards nominations for Best Director, for the films Billy Elliot (2000), The Hours (2002), and The Reader (2008).
Jennifer "Gemma" Jones is an English actress. Appearing on both stage and screen, her film appearances include Sense and Sensibility (1995), the Bridget Jones series (2001–2016), the Harry Potter series (2002–2011), You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger (2010), and Ammonite (2020).
The Cherry Orchard is the last play by Russian playwright Anton Chekhov. Written in 1903, it was first published by Znaniye, and came out as a separate edition later that year in Saint Petersburg, via A.F. Marks Publishers. On the 17th of January, 1904, it opened at the Moscow Art Theatre in a production directed by Konstantin Stanislavski. Chekhov described the play as a comedy, with some elements of farce, though Stanislavski treated it as a tragedy. Since its first production, directors have contended with its dual nature. It is often identified as one of the three or four outstanding plays by Chekhov, along with The Seagull, Three Sisters, and Uncle Vanya.
Samantha Jane Bond is an English actress. She played Miss Moneypenny in four James Bond films during the Pierce Brosnan era, and appeared in Downton Abbey as the wealthy widow Lady Rosamund Painswick, sister of Robert Crawley, the Earl of Grantham. On television, she played "Auntie Angela" in the sitcom Outnumbered and the villain Mrs Wormwood in the CBBC Doctor Who spin-off, The Sarah Jane Adventures. She also originated the role of "Miz Liz" Probert in the Rumpole of the Bailey series. She is a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company.
Sir Antony Sher was a British actor, writer and theatre director of South African origin. A two-time Laurence Olivier Award winner and a four-time nominee, he joined the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1982 and toured in many roles, as well as appearing on film and television. In 2001, he starred in his cousin Ronald Harwood's play Mahler's Conversion, and said that the story of a composer sacrificing his faith for his career echoed his own identity struggles.
Henry Goodman is a RADA trained British actor. He has appeared on television and radio, in film and in the theatre.
Alan Armstrong, known professionally as Alun Armstrong, is an English character actor. He grew up in County Durham in North East England, and first became interested in acting through Shakespeare productions at his grammar school. Since his career began in the early 1970s, he has played, in his words, "the full spectrum of characters from the grotesque to musicals... I always play very colourful characters, often a bit crazy, despotic, psychotic".
Michael Emerson is an American actor who is best known for his roles as Benjamin Linus on Lost (2006–2010) and as Harold Finch in the CBS series Person of Interest (2011–2016). Other prominent roles include Zep Hindle in the horror film Saw (2004) and the recurring role of Cayden James on Arrow (2017–2018). He currently stars as Dr. Leland Townsend in the Paramount+ thriller series Evil (2019–present).
Queensland Theatre, formerly the Queensland Theatre Company and Royal Queensland Theatre Company, is a professional theatre company based in Brisbane, Australia. It regularly performs in its own Bille Browne Theatre and the Queensland Performing Arts Centre's Playhouse.
David John Threlfall is an English stage, film and television actor and director. He is best known for playing Frank Gallagher in Channel 4's series Shameless. He has also directed several episodes of the show. In April 2014, he portrayed comedian Tommy Cooper in a television film entitled Tommy Cooper: Not Like That, Like This. In 2014, he starred alongside Jude Law in the thriller Black Sea. In 2022, he was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Leading Actor in a Play for his performance in the Martin McDonagh play Hangmen.
Southwark Playhouse is a theatre in London, located between Borough and Elephant and Castle tube stations.
Robert Marsden was an English actor, director, dramatic recitalist and teacher of drama at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, and elsewhere. He was also one of the earliest wartime members of the BBC Radio Drama Repertory Company, formed to meet the circumstances of World War II.
William Alexander Paterson known professionally as Bill Alexander is a British theatre director who is best known for his work with the Royal Shakespeare Company and as artistic director of Birmingham Repertory Theatre. He currently works as a freelance, internationally as a theatre director and most recently as a director of BBC Radio 4 drama.
Dominic Anthony Barber was an English theatre director.
Shylock is a fictional character in William Shakespeare's play The Merchant of Venice. A Venetian Jewish moneylender, Shylock is the play's principal villain. His defeat and conversion to Christianity form the climax of the story.
Guy Alexander Masterson is a British actor, writer, theatre director, producer and playwright widely known for his solo theatre performances of Under Milk Wood, Animal Farm, and Shylock by Gareth Armstrong. He is a regular producer at the annual Edinburgh Fringe Festival and responsible for several of its most notable productions including Twelve Angry Men in 2003, The Odd Couple in 2005 and Morecambe in 2009 – which transferred to London's West End and won a Laurence Olivier Award for Best Entertainment, and The Shark Is Broken in 2019 – which transferred to London's West End and won a Laurence Olivier Award nomination for Best New Comedy. It opened on Broadway on August 10, 2023 for a 16 week run.
Jennifer Stoller was a British actress. In a career spanning almost 40 years, she appeared in TV, film, stage and radio productions.
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