Uranium Madhouse Associate Artist: Travis Shakespeare!

Posted in Travis Shakespeare, actor who is really really good on November 30th, 2010 by Andrew

More Big Fat Win for Uranium Madhouse: actor Travis Shakespeare has joined us as an Associate Artist. Regarde:

Travis Shakespeare started acting early on in theater as a teenager in his home state of Colorado. His first recognition as an actor came from his performance in Flowers Out of Season, a Williamsesque drama about a borderline psychopath in Waco, TX. The Denver Post called his work a “bravura performance,” which gave him all the reason he needed to head to NY to try for the big time.

After college Travis studied acting with Susan Grace Cohen and at The Actor’s Studio. He had a recurring role on The Guiding Light, and featured roles in Spike Lee’s Malcolm X and Woody Allen’s Celebrity. He appeared in many independent films & commercials, as well as over 20 New York stage productions. Ultimately he nabbed a leading role on Broaday in the Lincoln Center production C’est La Vie, in which he played a young artist vying for success in New York society.

That experience sent him on to Los Angeles in 2001. Critics singled him out in A Charlie Brown Commercial Xmas as “brilliant”(LA Weekly) and “outstanding” (LA Times). A year later Daily Variety, Access Hollywood & Extra! all featured Travis in the industry spoof hit Allyn McBeal.

In 2004 Travis started producing documentary television, which meant less time to pursue acting, but he never lost his love for performing. In 2008 he decided to start auditioning again, and was cast in the Swiss short Big Sur, which garnered much festival recognition and a Swiss Academy Award nomination. In 2009 Big Sur was remade as a feature film, set to debut in the Spring. He also signed with Innovative Artists for commercials.

how Shakespeare changes us

Posted in Uncategorized on November 30th, 2010 by Andrew

The Muse Daily FTW:

Shakespeare’s art is no more and no less than the supreme example of a mobile, creative and adaptive human capacity, in deep relation between brain and language. It makes new combinations, creates new networks, with changed circuitry and added levels, layers and overlaps. And all the time it works like the cry of “action” on a film-set, by sudden peaks of activity and excitement dramatically breaking through into consciousness. It makes for what William James said of mind in his “Principles of Psychology,” “a theatre of simultaneous possibilities.” This could be a new beginning to thinking about reading and mental changes.

Read the whole thing.

Uranium Madhouse Associate Artist: Cris D’Annunzio

Posted in Cris D'Annunzio, Uranium Madhouse, f*cking amazing resume on November 29th, 2010 by Andrew

I am exceedingly pleased to announce that actor Cris D’Annunzio has accepted my invitation to become a member of Uranium Madhouse. Ecce homo!:

Cris D’Annunzio was raised in a traditional East Coast nuclear family — in the sense that his grandparents, both Italian immigrants, lived in the house and there were always bombs going off! He survived to attend Princeton University, where he played football. Cris got his start in acting when he was ‘discovered’ by the John Houseman Acting Company while moving instruments for the symphony orchestra at Chautauqua Institute in upstate NY — his summer job during college. The experience of riding his bike to the theatre and performing stuck with him. After a brief stint in the NFL with the Buffalo Bills, Cris embarked on an acting and writing career that has taken him from the stage to the screen — both big and small. LA Stage appearances include Cobb at the Falcon Theater, award winning Cockroach Nation at LATC, and the World Premiere of Beth Henley’s Sisters of the Winter Madrigal. NY credits include Miss Julie at Manhattan Theatre Club. Selected film credits include Ridley Scott’s American Gangster and Chasing 3000 with Ray Liotta, which Cris wrote. Cris has had numerous TV roles which include appearances on Without A Trace, and Law and Order.

Welcome Cris!

Derek Jacobi on finally playing Lear, being gay, stagefright, and other stuff

Posted in Derek Jacobi, Lear on November 29th, 2010 by Andrew

Make friends with your fear. It isn’t going anywhere. Or, as Jacobi says in this great interview:

“I do get very nervous. Very nervous. And the pressures are much bigger now. There was a lovely actress called Dorothy Tutin and she always said that there were three categories of actor. The first one was “young and talented”, which is a great category to be in. You’ve got youth on your side, and you’re the rank outsider in the race. You’ve got everything to play for, nothing to lose. Then you become, if you’re lucky, “experienced and successful”. You’ve got work, you’re making a living, and you’re also getting wonderful experience. And then there’s the last one, which is “distinguished and acclaimed”. And that’s where the pressure is. Now you’re the favourite in the race, you have to win or come a good second. Now people are putting money on you to win.”

fascinating interview with creator of Doonesbury

Posted in BBC, Doonesbury, Gary Trudeau on November 27th, 2010 by Andrew

Gary Trudeau, on the BBC.