After another really busy start to 2020, obviously the picture has changed for the whole industry, so the first half of the year has already felt like a period of two halves.

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January and February provided a number of opportunities but sadly a number of the jobs clashed. That said, I was still able to undertake  blocks of roleplay work for The Judicial Appointments Commission, Her Majesty's Prison Service and The United Nations, as well as a number of small voice recording jobs.

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March saw me return to working with Clio's Company to once again perform as Flavian in their educational interactive promenade show, Lundenwic. Sadly, outside events impacted significantly on how many kids we could connect with, inspire and introduce to Saxon London. Quite apart from a re-working of the show due to someone having to pull out at the last minute, we suddenly found ourselves caught up in the UK epicentre of the global pandemic, and unsurprisingly much of the latter part of the run of the show was cancelled. But we still got to work with a number of different groups from different schools, and the work was as challenging and rewarding as ever!

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Inevitably the pandemic and lockdown has hit the acting industry hard. Potential work I had lined up has all fallen by the wayside, and even now there is precious little work either currently possible or being commissioned for the near future, which is of course, in the grand scheme of things, the right approach.

Like many performing artists, I've been using the time to have meetings and script readings over zoom, and making preparations for when things open up again. My chief activities have been setting up a completely new home studio recording space and cutting together different versions of my updated acting showreel. 

There have, of course, been some opportunities for creativity. I shot a 'lockdown special' scene for 'Self-Tapers' for Canonbie Productions, and will soon be recording the fruits of my research for Theatre Lab Company's 'Love Letters' project. There has been a continuing trickle of voice work, with recordings for StudyPortals & Dynamic Lock among others, which have included zen fables and meditation scripts, and a podcast radio play, 'London's Lost Garden' by Jack Lowerson, highlighting some of the issues around property development in the capital.

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Looking forward, the future remains uncertain, but optimism is part of my nature, and vital in this profession, so the hope is to use the time as an opportunity. There are other potential projects in the pipeline, so watch this space!

2019 was the busiest year to date in my acting career.

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In 2019, I performed in three full theatre productions: Othello at the Union Theatre, directed by Phil Wilmott, where I filled the title role. Transposed to the British Raj in India a century ago, this production marked the centenary of the Amritsar Massacre. With excellent audiences, a slew of 4 and 5 star reviews and several nominations for the Off West End Awards, the production was an undoubted success. 

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My second production of the year was Great Expectations at the Geffrye Museum for Free Theatre UK, again directed by Phill Wilmott, in which I played Magwitch, Joe Gargery and Mr Wemmick. This open-air production was free to watch for the public, with the intention of allowing those with restricted access to theatre and classical literature to be able to experience it in a welcoming and convenient location and atmosphere. Despite some battling with the great British summer, the production was a great success, with lovely reviews all round.

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Finally, in December, I performed in a very different production and adaptation of Great Expectations. This was with long time collaborators Theatre Lab Company, in a suitably dark and gothic production at the Playground Theatre, in which I reprised the role of Joe. With 4 and 5 Star reviews across the board, and a short run commendation from the Off West End Awards, this was a third successful production of the year.

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Beyond full theatre productions, I filmed a couple of short films for the central film school, recorded some ADR sessions for BBC's Silent Witness, and had a short festival run of a new short play 'If my heart were a camera". I also took part in a couple of R & D sessions for new work, and have other projects in development.

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Elsewhere, I continued to develop my roleplay career, with further assessment excercises for the Judicial Appointments Commission and the Prison service, as well as a day filming an assessment video for the Probation Service. Excitingly, 2019 also saw me participate in three different assessment centres for the United Nations.

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2019 also saw a wide range of voice projects, ranging from internal instruction videos for Deloitte and training courses for teachers to case studies for the EU and Fender. Elsewhere, I completed 2 years as managing director of Anderson Cavendish Management, with our co-op now stable and thriving after a period of growth and consolidation. 

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More projects lined up for 2020, with sadly four all wanting the same month's availability, but more news on here soon!

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As with the first half of 2018, the rest of the year was extremely busy.

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October saw a return to working with Clio's Company with a short run of three-hander 'After Aphra' at the Hen and Chickens Theatre in Islington, This partly devised production was the first iteration of an evolving piece touching on the life of Aphra Behn, her work and the tumultuous world in which she lived. We will be continuing to develop this as part of a wider Aphra Behn project in 2019.

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Hot on the heels of this, I worked again with Clio's Company, reprising the role of Gnaeus Munatius Aurellius Ursus in their interactive promenade production, Ultima Britannia. With 15 performances and workshops, we entertained, engaged with, and in some cases inspired over 400 seven and eight year olds.

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Elsewhere the autumn saw me work twice with long-term collaborators Bang-Rae-Moreno of Canonbie Productions, initially as minor part in their TV pilot for comedy series 'Vultures' and then as the main role in one of the episodes of their 'The Self-Tapers' web-series (see the video to the left).

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December saw me working again with Able Archer, shooting episode 4 of the web-series 'Negotiations', charting the journey of the civil servants trying to make sense of the Brexit chaos. The greatest challenge was not the filming, but trying to adapt the script when the political landscape its based on is built on shifting sands, and the incompetence of those involved parodies itself!

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Lastly, there have been lots more voice-overs, including  a series of teacher training videos for Guide Education, further role-play in a range of locations for HMPS & the Judicial Appointments Commission, and a return to the role of Cuban party host Emilio for Revolucion De Cuba launch events.

Somehow I have been even busier since my last update than i was before it!

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April saw the shooting for 'Air Crash Confidential' for World Media Rights, where I had the unique experience of filming in both a real aircraft cockpit, and whilst flying in a state of the art flight simulator, playing the role of Captain Eric Schrieber. It has aired in Australia, and is being lined up for transmission in the UK in the coming months.

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In July, I had the pleasure of working with the wonderful Guerilla Science on their pop-up interactive experience, the 'Intergalactic Travel Bureau'. Working as a travel agent, it was my job to help hundreds of customers choose their ideal space holiday (at this stage strictly speaking intra-galactic), whilst helping them to think and learn about space travel and our solar system. As well as being great fun, and an extremely effective way of engaging people, I got to hang out with real space travel experts, including people involved in the forthcoming missions to Mars!

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The biggest and most exciting project I have been involved in, however, has been voicing the lead character for the upcoming animated feature film version of the international mutli-award winning short 'Schirkoa'. As a creative adventure and technical challenge, this has been one of the most exciting, involving and rewarding projects of my career to date. The final film is probably a couple of years away, but its creator Ishan Shukla is an inspirational person to work with. 

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Elsewhere I shot part of a pilot episode of a TV series (that I'm not yet allowed to talk about!), and have continued weeks of roleplaying as a range of characters for HMPS. I have also completed a different roleplay project for the Judicial Appointments Commission, for the assessment of prospective Deputy High Court Judges. Alongside this, I had two months of a weekly radio show slot on London-wide Love Sport Radio, and will probably be returning to work with them in the not too distant future, judging by recent discussions. And as ever, the weird and wonderful array of random voiceovers continued!

The 6 months since my last update have probably been the busiest of my career to date.

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Since then, I finished shooting the three episodes to date of the web-series 'Negotiations' with Able Archer, all three of which are now released and online on YouTube.

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The next significant project was Jamaica Inn with long time collaborators Theatre Lab Company, which enjoyed a four week run at the Tabard Theatre in Chiswick, culminating in full houses and very positive reviews, including 5* from The Spy in the Stalls, and 4* reviews from London Theatre 1, Stage Review and Remotegoat among others.

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Either side of that I have worked twice with award winning musical ensemble, Daemonia Nymphe. Firstly on the launch of their new album, 'Macbeth', performing in the title role, and then as a performer and co-director of a site-specific immersive musical and theatrical experience, 'Psychostasia II - The Ritual' that took place at the Asylum Chapel in Peckham. This sold-out event combined live acoustic music and song with dance, theatre, poetry, fire performance and audience interaction. See the gallery for event photos.

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Early 2018 also saw the launch of Toxic Games' 'Q.U.B.E.2' to widespread critical acclaim, where my voice gave life to the role of The Entity, the surprise element of the game's three characters. Having worked previously with some of the team on 'Hue', and recorded different segments of the game in late 2016 & 2017, it was incredibly exciting to see the culmination of so many people's efforts, particularly as it was so successful, and the team are such a lovely group of guys.

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A suitably broad range of other voice work has taken place over the same period, with clients such as Deloitte, Strudel and Guide Education, and I am currently in discussions regarding an animated feature film.

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Beyond that, I have also undertaken seven weeks worth of role-play work for HMPS once more, and have another short project with JAC lined up. And this week saw me shoot a couple of days for TV documentary series 'Air Crash Confidential'...watch this space for more on that! 

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A very busy few months since my last update.

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As I mentioned then, August saw me fill the role of Phillip in Rising Damp for Michael Friend Productions in Broadstairs, which turned out to be very popular with the audiences on the Kent coast. 

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Immediately after that I ran 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' themed workshops at both LeeFest and Into The Wild Festival for Purple Ostrich, a theatre company run by the Wonderful Kerry Fitzgerald. In between the two festivals, I participated in a script development day for the JAC (part of the Department of Justice) for the month long roleplay element for the assessment of entry level judiciary, which took up most of my time in September. This was a very positive experience, and happily they seem keen to hire me again in the future. Fingers crossed.

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Both before and after my work for the JAC I have been shooting episodes of the Brexit themed Web-Series 'Negotiations' for Able Archer, playing the role of cynical civil servant Archie Thurman. One more shoot day and then the first three episodes are in the can and the edit can get underway. I'm excited to see it come to life.

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On top of that, I have now been elected as a Director of my Co-operative Agency, Anderson Cavendish Management, and am getting my teeth into the strategic planning, as well as the day to day operations, in what is an exciting time of development for us.

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September also saw my first full foray into the world of audiobooks, building on smaller projects I have undertaken in the past. I was narrator (and as such all the characters as well) of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's 'A Study in Scarlet' for asian audio producers Shanbay Content.

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Looking forward, I am now in rehearsals for Theatre Lab Company's next project, Jamaica Inn, which will take place at the Tabard Theatre in Chiswick, 8th November-2nd December. I will also be involved in the forthcoming launch event for previous collaborators Daemonia Nymphe's  new music album, Macbeth.

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As ever, there have also been the usual raft of voice overs, including two for the Centre for Human Drug Research, the first of which you can see adjacent. Its not often one gets asked to voice a professorial kidney...

The last three months have been more concerned with laying foundations than anything else, but I've still had plenty of opportunity to perform!

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"Io Restored", which was part of the Metamorphoses Festival at the Bread and Roses Theatre got nice write-ups, where my performance of Prometheus was described as "...an angry socialist, deflecting Zeus's kronies with an acerbic wit...", which given subsequent events seems quite fitting.

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A few weeks later I was in Miskolc in north-eastern Hungary for an invited performance of last year's Arcola sell out "Maria De Buenos Aires", which was performed to another full house. We had reviewers from as far afield as Italy and Russia as well as Hungary itself, and google translate suggests they were suitably positive!

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The next day I found myself rushing from Heathrow to Fulham Palace for another, more polished, rehearsed reading of 'The Widow Ranter' with Clios Company, and enjoyed working with old friends and making new connections. 

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Since then I've undertaken more voice projects, including more work as Agent Muldoon and Force Marshal Lanark in the upcoming game 'Welcome to Orochi Park' - see the trailer on the left. There have also been voiceovers for charity fundraisers, scientific research animations, and an international art installation about housing in the future, among others.

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Looking ahead, from the 3rd-6th August I shall be in Broadstairs, performing in the original play of 'Rising Damp' at the Sarah Thorne Theatre for Michael Friend Productions. A new company for me, but happily a job I was recommended for. 

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After that there will be a month of role-play for the Judicial Service, extending my experience in this field, and there are four other projects I am waiting for confirmation on. If they all happen, I'll have a very busy 2017!

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An incredibly busy and productive three months since my last update!

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The end of January saw the opening of Theatre Lab Company's London revival of Oscar Wilde's Salome at Hoxton Hall. Having previously performed to sell out houses at the Avignon Festival and in Thessaloniki, it was a joy to re-join such a strong theatrical family and revisit the role of Jokanaan back home, and particularly to such large and enthusiastic audiences. We got a lovely 4* write up in The Stage and a 5* review from West End Wilma, and The Telegraph's one to watch for the run, all of which is a great achievement for a relatively short run.

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While performing in Salome, I was confirmed to return to the role of Romano-British mercenary Flavian for Clio's Company's interactive adventure through middle Saxon London, 'Lundenwic'. Working with children is always a joy for me, and having to improvise around a tight structure with seven to ten year olds certainly keeps you on your toes! A combination of working with old friends and gaining new ones only added to the experience.

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At the same time, I also had the pleasure of changing representation, joining the books of Anderson Cavendish Management, a new agency with an exciting talent base and ethos. I'm enjoying my time with them so far, and hopefully it leads to great things!

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Shortly after finishing my month in 'Lundenwic', I teamed up with exciting new production company Elysium Films in the principle role in their new short film 'Juicy Fruit'. Watch this space on that one!

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As ever, there was the usual mix of voice work, with me adding the roles of Father Ignatius and Samuel the Innkeeper to that of Lord Adrianus for Out of Sight Games's 'A Hero's Call'. Other projects included flight safety instructions for Italian Helicopters, case studies for SPAR Denmark and advisory services for South African Expats.

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In addition to doing voice work via Fiverr, I have also joined People Per Hour to try to connect with more clients around the world...who knows what weird and wonderful things will happen as a result!

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Looking forward, I will be appearing as 'Prometheus' in "Io Revisited" at the Bread and Roses Theatre, London 15th-20th May as part of the Metamorphosis festival for Off The Cliff Theatre. 

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It also looks like last year's Operaview Argentinian Tango Opera, ' Maria de Buenos Aires' will be making an appearance at the Bartok Plus Opera Festival in Hungary on the 18th June, meaning I'll be donning my wings and goggles once again as The Duende brings magic and metaphysical poetry to the industrial city of Miskolc. 

Lots more little projects on the go, but the big news this month is that we have started rehearsals for 'Salome' by Oscar Wilde, which will be on at Hoxton Hall from Jan 31st to 11th February. It's a great pleasure to be returning to a much loved former show with fresh eyes, especially with Theatre Lab Company, with a director, creative team and cast I know so well and enjoy such a bond of trust with. 

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Having performed this play together at the Avignon Festival and in Thessaloniki (to great reviews and mostly sell out audiences), it is a joy to be able to share it in London and at such a great venue. As the prophet Jokinaan, the element of surprise keeps me out of the trailer, but it gives a flavour of the aesthetic!

Its been another busy 6 months!

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Following on from my last update, 'Maria de Buenos Aires' at the Arcola sold out it's short run, and artistically represented a very different creative process and challenge than I had previously experienced, largely due to it being my first venture into opera.

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This was then followed by a few more days of roleplay work for HMPS, and later the casting of a pool of actors for the project as it extends across the country. We are also looking at setting up casting & pre-training workshops for this in the near future.

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November saw another month of thoroughly enjoyable work for old friends Clio's Company, reprising the role of Ursus in Ultima Britannia. As someone who loves interactive performance, is fascinated with history and adores teaching and working with children, I thoroughly enjoyed every single performance.

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I also participated in a number of smaller theatrical projects, including a very enjoyable experience as 'Hazard' in a rehearsed reading of Aphra Benn's final play, the very rarely performed 'The Widow Ranter' at Fulham Palace (again with Clio's Company). I also participated in a range of rehearsed readings at Waterstones Picadilly for Green Ink Theatre in order to raise money for McMillan Cancer Research, one for Artistic Directors of the Future at the National Theatre, and performed a series of monologues for poet, playwright and director Natalie Katsou. There was also time to squeeze in a short piece for Theatre 503's Rapid Write Response programme.

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My voice work portfolio has continued to expand, with corporate projects ranging from training videos for TFL and online idents for various companies, to introducing an awards ceremony for the independent pharmaceutical industry. More creative projects have included contributions to art installations and short films, character voices for a trailer for a fantasy computer game for blind people, and recorded audio for live theatre. I have also completed my first year of a weekly sports podcast and the first part of an ongoing voice project for the teaching of poetry in high schools, which has the potential to be useful resource for students and teachers alike. There was also another particularly exciting project, that I am currently contractually forbidden from disclosing! Watch this space!

I can now announce that the my performance as 'The Duende' in the forthcoming production of ' Maria de Beunos Aires' will be taking place at the Arcola Theatre from 30th August to 3rd September as part of the Grimeborn Festival.

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Apart from the usual mix of improv workshops etc, I am continuing to develop my voice work portfolio. Sadly, an immediate outcome of the EU referrendum was the collapse of two projects for the EU parliament (UK accents no longer being politically expedient at the moment), but I've completed a project for internal use at Tesco, some narration for short films, and some work for computer games aimed at users with impaired vision. Following my experience working on the computer game 'Hue' (launching in August), I will be working with the same producers on another proejct (top secret!) in the winter, and am in advanced discussions with a major publishing firm about an app supporting educational books.

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Its been quite a gap since my last update! Thankfully this is mostly due to being busy.

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13 weeks of full-time role play for HMPS at Holloway turned into 31 weeks at three different prisons in different roles, which was not only sufficiently financially rewarding enough for me to invest in a superior voice over setup and photographic equipment, but was also a fantastic training experience. To be able to inhabit more than one character sufficiently to feel entirely relaxed about remaining totally in control of a partially improvised situation with a non-actor whose objectives may entirely oppose that of my character is wonderful preparation for future roles, particularly on screen. The discipline of repeating the same scripted improvisation scenarios without deviating from assessment criteria for approximately 700 times each is also a useful learning point.

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Following my last stint for HMPS, I returned to working with Clio's Company for a fourth time, this time playing the role of Flavian in the company's show about Saxon  Britain, "Lundenwic". As ever, interactive performance with the children was a blast, as were the workshops we ran for them, and even more satisfying was the fact that a number of the children remembered myself, the storyline and an impressive amount of factual information from the Roman's show they had seen previously in 2014.

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Apart from that, its been lots of voice work, with an ever increasing number of computer games, a couple of documentary trailers and the entire Qu'ran for an anti-extremism charity, as well as long-from character improv for several launch events for Revolucion De Cuba venues. I've also done a little role-play for a mediation company, a number of rehearsed readings for Green Ink, participated in exploratory workshops about masculinity for 'Deep Diving Men' and attended the last few of Scaffold Shakespeare's complete canon workshops. I've also been cast in the role of narrator for Operaview's forthcoming production, "Maria de Buenos Aires", taking place at the end of August.

As I said in my last update, I was undertaking a period of role-play work for HMPS, working in the recruitment and assessment of prospective prison officers at HMP Holloway. Things turned out rather well, ultimately leading to me working there full-time for 13 weeks, as well as covering a couple of days at other prisons in the South East of England. It was an intense, challenging and often fascinating project to be involved in for such a solid block, and hopefully will stand me in good stead for other similar work in the future. Of course it also had the benefit of allowing me the opportunity of spending three months in the company of the same character, and dealing with an endless range of unexpected interactions and responses in that role. I always find any form of truly interactive performance work exciting, so for the most part this was a very positive experience.

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Accordingly, this didn't afford much time for other projects (and indeed cost me a few job opportunities), but I did manage to squeeze in a day bringing the works of new writers and established authors to life, as part of Green Ink Cabaret, and will be participating in their next event on Tuesday 26th May. New writing is always a pleasure and a challenge to work with, senses that are amplified when the person penning the words is in the room with you!

Aside from that is the usual smorgasbord of voiceovers, ranging from short film narration, online promotional videos, audio guides, radio plays and even technological breakdowns of Italian armoured vehicles! One of the ones I have recorded recently has been attached to a suitably shiny video.

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A bumper update after a busy few months!

Following on from the success at the Avignon Festival (standing room only and 5 star reviews from local and regional press and prominent coverage in Liberation), Theatre Lab Company's 'Salome' found its way to Theatro Expo Apo Ta Teihi, Thessalonica for a week in October, where we had the luxury of selling out our run, and the additional performance we scheduled doing likewise within a couple of hours. Sadly my Greek is not sufficiently functional to share reviews! The welcome we received will stay a long time in the memory, as will the pleasure of teaching acting techniques to University of Thessalonica students. I (or my disembodied head) also had the good fortune to end up on the cover of the local equivalent of 'Time Out', which resulted in that rarest of phenomenons - a genuinely free lunch!

Before that, I enjoyed the pleasures of Guerilla Filmmaking, joining Fyrian Films and When Just Happened to shoot the short film 'Hunters', which was shortlisted for the One Shot Movie competition 2014, which premiered at the Prince Charles Cinema.

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November saw a much enjoyed return to working with Clio's Company on their well established project Ultima Britannia, reprising the role of Ursus (with an even better centurion's costume than in 2013!). As ever, site-specific, interactive and promenade elements are all right up my street, so it would have been a joy to return to, even without the added elements of excited primary school children and history!'

December saw a return to dealing with a backlog of voice work, with again a range of projects from corporate internal use, education, animation and most interestingly a anti-extremism project aimed at teenager in the Midlands.

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January allowed me to kick off 2015 in an interesting way. After much experience of the odd day here and there, I started a block of role-play work for HM Prison Service, as part of their nationwide recruitment drive. I'm excited to be doing this as it allows me to use my acting skills in a context more familiar with elements of my previous career. And anything that champions the value of play, experience and rehearsal in the professional world is a good thing in my book, particularly when applied in such an intelligent manner. Having previously helped recruit and audition performers for this programme, it's a great pleasure to have a long stretch of being involved at the coal face.