Thursday, 8 September 2011
Home Acting Tuition
Inspired by a combined 26 years working in the industry and with young people, husband and wife team, Ben Murray-Watson and Jane Lesley set up HAT in order to provide a service for all 9 - 19 year olds who are passionate about acting and performance. We are dedicated to providing affordable and invaluable one-on-one and one-on-two (bring a friend) classes that will enhance the great work already done by youth theatres, schools and colleges.
Monday, 28 March 2011
Saturday, 6 March 2010
Being an Actor Again
It's been a while since I've written anything of consequence. Not because nothing has really happened but mainly because I feel that I have something mildly amusing to share. Odd contemplations and updates. Also, it gets me writing which is something that I'm really beginning to enjoy but also something that I struggle to remain disciplined in.
I finished my first ever short film and actually I think it's quite good. Now I have to figure out how to get it made!
Also, I've recently finished shooting two films. Here's the fun part.
So Sunday - a manipulative scientist, torturing a poor human specimin. Wrapping at 4pm - train across London and onto set for the romantic lead in a short film called Solitude. Now isn't this ridiculous. Our job to go from 0 - 100. GO! And that was it. Off the train, into makeup and costume, onto set before the light fades completely. It's the saddest moment of the film, a close up. I'm watching a girl that I'd just had a dreamy romance with. But she's gone. I'm deciding whether to go into her flower shop or leave her forever. And action...thanks very much...walk away...cut....and back to unit base for the next scene.
Love it love it love it.
That feeling that you're expected to get on and do your job. You are a professional actor. YES. YES I AM. And it feels so good to be treated like that and respected as that. And I love it. I feel totally relaxed and real and myself on set. So much fun and yet so focussed. A wonderful energy.
The final shot was by a canal at 22.30, a location smelling of piss. Lights. Everyone tired but loving it. First AD mad at running over. And Judith Musil, a wonderful actress, and I sharing a new bottle of vodka for the final scene. Ah man. Good times.
So now comes a web series which I'm shooting next weekend. Rachel Welch who wrote Involution has written a mini-series and I'm playing a small support to the group of girls that it follows.
Also, looking to begin work on a musical that has been collecting dust for the past 10 years.
And keep enjoying my marriage and life in Brighton and Hove whilst trying to earn some much needed green stuff.
I finished my first ever short film and actually I think it's quite good. Now I have to figure out how to get it made!
Also, I've recently finished shooting two films. Here's the fun part.
So Sunday - a manipulative scientist, torturing a poor human specimin. Wrapping at 4pm - train across London and onto set for the romantic lead in a short film called Solitude. Now isn't this ridiculous. Our job to go from 0 - 100. GO! And that was it. Off the train, into makeup and costume, onto set before the light fades completely. It's the saddest moment of the film, a close up. I'm watching a girl that I'd just had a dreamy romance with. But she's gone. I'm deciding whether to go into her flower shop or leave her forever. And action...thanks very much...walk away...cut....and back to unit base for the next scene.
Love it love it love it.
That feeling that you're expected to get on and do your job. You are a professional actor. YES. YES I AM. And it feels so good to be treated like that and respected as that. And I love it. I feel totally relaxed and real and myself on set. So much fun and yet so focussed. A wonderful energy.
The final shot was by a canal at 22.30, a location smelling of piss. Lights. Everyone tired but loving it. First AD mad at running over. And Judith Musil, a wonderful actress, and I sharing a new bottle of vodka for the final scene. Ah man. Good times.
So now comes a web series which I'm shooting next weekend. Rachel Welch who wrote Involution has written a mini-series and I'm playing a small support to the group of girls that it follows.
Also, looking to begin work on a musical that has been collecting dust for the past 10 years.
And keep enjoying my marriage and life in Brighton and Hove whilst trying to earn some much needed green stuff.
Thursday, 4 February 2010
New Website and Showreel
So I'm well and truly seeing 2010 as the year to enter into the digital business age. The way I see it is that the acting business is all about profile. The internet is massive in that. So many thanks to castingcallpro for launching their new hosting service for actors.
Do feel free to let me know what you think:-
www.benmurraywatson.com
Do feel free to let me know what you think:-
www.benmurraywatson.com
Tuesday, 8 December 2009
TheatreWorld Magazine Review of A Christmas Carol 2009
Charles Dickens’
A CHRISTMAS CAROL
Now playing at the King’s Head Theatre
As lavish a production as you’re ever likely to see shoehorned onto the Kings Head’s tiny stage, Phil Willmott’s musical adaptation of Dickens’ A Christmas Carol is one of several current stage and screen versions in and around the capital this festive season.
This latest take on the old story is presented through the eyes of Dickens himself (the engaging Nigel Lister) who has just 90 minutes to persuade his disinterested publisher (and the characters in and around Paul Burgess’s versatile Victorian inn) that his new tale deserves a wider public.
From the outset, audience and actors co-habit within the same boisterous space, the aisles delineated by ‘cobblestones’, carol singers lustily celebrating the season of goodwill and various ‘authentic’ Dickensian characters coming and going about their everyday business before the evening proper begins in the on-stage pub.
The large cast – on occasion a bit too uncomfortably large for even director Joe Fredericks to effectively contain within the confines of this pocket-handkerchief performing space – brings to life a multiplicity of characters that range from Victorian waifs to grave robbers and merchants in scenes that variously invigorate or tug at the heartstrings. Singing an eclectic score with conviction and admirable clarity (Phil Willmott’s own lyrics are cleverly matched to popular carols and a variety of tunefully-classical sources), each player assumes a number of parts and, by and large, fills them convincingly. The small band is made up of peripatetic ensemble members tootling, bowing, plucking or banging as they move in and around the auditorium.
The main characters are all eminently watchable; Kilke Van Buren’s amiable Ghost of Christmas Past and Richard Delaney’s effervescent Christmas Present are effectively augmented by puppet apparitions, with Tiny Tim taking on the mute mantle of the spirit of things to come, whose own death is presaged in a movingly-staged candlelit vigil to a touching rendition of Silent Night.
At the heart of it all is, of course, Ebenezer Scrooge. Love him or hate him – and we do both during the course of this evening – he must always be believable as a character rather than a caricature.
Looking like a dyspeptic turkey all too aware of his imminent fate, Jonathan Battersby provides a multi-faceted portrayal of a man whose emotionally-stunted childhood has fashioned the adult he was to become: unapproachable, defensive, self-centred and yet, beneath it all, touchingly and imperfectly human. To see his eyes cloud over as he watches his life disintegrate in front of him is to share a well of unfathomable sorrow.
At the start of this enjoyable evening, Dickens expresses the sentiment that “London needs Christmas more than ever.” In these difficult times, we certainly do and this invigorating production succeeds in encouraging us all to re-consider our lives and evaluate what Christmas should mean to us and our fellow men. This gloriously-timeless story is as universally relevant today as it ever was.
Box Office: 0844 209 0326 Website: www.kingsheadtheatre.org
Performance Schedule – check press for holiday matinee and other details
Ticket Prices: £20 Premium Reserved, £18 adults, £15.50 children, £58 Family ticket (2 adults & 2 children)
Reviews by Clive Burton for Theatreworld Internet Magazine
A CHRISTMAS CAROL
Now playing at the King’s Head Theatre
As lavish a production as you’re ever likely to see shoehorned onto the Kings Head’s tiny stage, Phil Willmott’s musical adaptation of Dickens’ A Christmas Carol is one of several current stage and screen versions in and around the capital this festive season.
This latest take on the old story is presented through the eyes of Dickens himself (the engaging Nigel Lister) who has just 90 minutes to persuade his disinterested publisher (and the characters in and around Paul Burgess’s versatile Victorian inn) that his new tale deserves a wider public.
From the outset, audience and actors co-habit within the same boisterous space, the aisles delineated by ‘cobblestones’, carol singers lustily celebrating the season of goodwill and various ‘authentic’ Dickensian characters coming and going about their everyday business before the evening proper begins in the on-stage pub.
The large cast – on occasion a bit too uncomfortably large for even director Joe Fredericks to effectively contain within the confines of this pocket-handkerchief performing space – brings to life a multiplicity of characters that range from Victorian waifs to grave robbers and merchants in scenes that variously invigorate or tug at the heartstrings. Singing an eclectic score with conviction and admirable clarity (Phil Willmott’s own lyrics are cleverly matched to popular carols and a variety of tunefully-classical sources), each player assumes a number of parts and, by and large, fills them convincingly. The small band is made up of peripatetic ensemble members tootling, bowing, plucking or banging as they move in and around the auditorium.
The main characters are all eminently watchable; Kilke Van Buren’s amiable Ghost of Christmas Past and Richard Delaney’s effervescent Christmas Present are effectively augmented by puppet apparitions, with Tiny Tim taking on the mute mantle of the spirit of things to come, whose own death is presaged in a movingly-staged candlelit vigil to a touching rendition of Silent Night.
At the heart of it all is, of course, Ebenezer Scrooge. Love him or hate him – and we do both during the course of this evening – he must always be believable as a character rather than a caricature.
Looking like a dyspeptic turkey all too aware of his imminent fate, Jonathan Battersby provides a multi-faceted portrayal of a man whose emotionally-stunted childhood has fashioned the adult he was to become: unapproachable, defensive, self-centred and yet, beneath it all, touchingly and imperfectly human. To see his eyes cloud over as he watches his life disintegrate in front of him is to share a well of unfathomable sorrow.
At the start of this enjoyable evening, Dickens expresses the sentiment that “London needs Christmas more than ever.” In these difficult times, we certainly do and this invigorating production succeeds in encouraging us all to re-consider our lives and evaluate what Christmas should mean to us and our fellow men. This gloriously-timeless story is as universally relevant today as it ever was.
Box Office: 0844 209 0326 Website: www.kingsheadtheatre.org
Performance Schedule – check press for holiday matinee and other details
Ticket Prices: £20 Premium Reserved, £18 adults, £15.50 children, £58 Family ticket (2 adults & 2 children)
Reviews by Clive Burton for Theatreworld Internet Magazine
British Theatre Guide Review of A Christmas Carol 2009
A Christmas Carol
By Phil Wilmott
MokitaGrit Productions
Kings Head Theatre
Review by Howard Loxton (2009)
Phil Wilmott's adaptation of Charles Dicken's novella sets it in a London pub. There is a raucous scene in progress on stage with someone pounding on the old Joanna almost drowning out the carol singers further back in the audience belting out the familiar tunes. Here, when the lights go down, Dickens himself arrives, giving some money to beggar children outside who, when wished 'a Merry Christmas', tell him that's OK for the rich but they don't have much chance. Inside the pub he finds an equal lack of Christmas spirit: 'It's a time for paying bills with money you haven't got.' One person tells him. He responds by promptly thinking up a story which, he bets his publisher, will convert them all to the idea of Christmas cheer.
Of course he converts them, and the theatre audience too (if any of them aren't already with him), for this is decidedly a feel-good show. His tale of the miserly old Ebenezer Scrooge who is taken back to look at how he lost his own sense of joy and generosity by the appearance of the ghost of his older partner Marley and the spirits of Christmas past, present and future is given a musical treatment that draws on familiar carols and popular musical hall and classical tunes.
With a cast of eighteen, most of whom also double as instrumentalists or puppeteers as well as actors and singers, Joe Fredericks' lively production packs the place with people as well as energy, especially in the joyful scenes at the home of Mr and Mrs Fezziwig (Andrew Williams and Judith Street) where Scrooge (Oliver Paterson, in youthful contrast to the watching Old Scrooge) makes the fateful choice that decides the path is life will take. Adam Stone makes a pleasant, ever-hopeful Bob Crachit with Heather Saunders as his missus. Jonathan Battersby makes a cantankerous Old Scrooge slowly seeing the light as he watches his own past and future on the trips organised by a female Christmas Past whom he sees as a tattered version of the Princess Cinderella of his childhood (Kilke van Buren), the mellifluous Welsh voiced Christmas Present (Richard Delaney) and Tiny Tm as Christmas Yet to Come (Finn Bennett at the performance I saw).
There is some clever puppetry, some sprightly dancing (choreography by Racky Plews) and the whole is stylishly dressed and mounted - though I don't think that even the reformed Ebenezer would go into the street or out to Christmas dinner in his night shirt. There are some scary moments that may frighten you as much as Scrooge but the tone is largely upbeat and while not lacking sentiments thankfully avoids sickly sentimentality.
A very popular show last year, this revival will put you in a splendidly Christmas mood, and the music sound so familiar that you almost feel you've had a singsong and certainly will have a warm glow, even without a glassful of mulled wine. I reckon Nigel Lister's ever present Mr Dickens certainly wins his bet if the audience has any say in deciding it.
At King's Head Theatre Tuesday - Sunday until 10th January, 2009
By Phil Wilmott
MokitaGrit Productions
Kings Head Theatre
Review by Howard Loxton (2009)
Phil Wilmott's adaptation of Charles Dicken's novella sets it in a London pub. There is a raucous scene in progress on stage with someone pounding on the old Joanna almost drowning out the carol singers further back in the audience belting out the familiar tunes. Here, when the lights go down, Dickens himself arrives, giving some money to beggar children outside who, when wished 'a Merry Christmas', tell him that's OK for the rich but they don't have much chance. Inside the pub he finds an equal lack of Christmas spirit: 'It's a time for paying bills with money you haven't got.' One person tells him. He responds by promptly thinking up a story which, he bets his publisher, will convert them all to the idea of Christmas cheer.
Of course he converts them, and the theatre audience too (if any of them aren't already with him), for this is decidedly a feel-good show. His tale of the miserly old Ebenezer Scrooge who is taken back to look at how he lost his own sense of joy and generosity by the appearance of the ghost of his older partner Marley and the spirits of Christmas past, present and future is given a musical treatment that draws on familiar carols and popular musical hall and classical tunes.
With a cast of eighteen, most of whom also double as instrumentalists or puppeteers as well as actors and singers, Joe Fredericks' lively production packs the place with people as well as energy, especially in the joyful scenes at the home of Mr and Mrs Fezziwig (Andrew Williams and Judith Street) where Scrooge (Oliver Paterson, in youthful contrast to the watching Old Scrooge) makes the fateful choice that decides the path is life will take. Adam Stone makes a pleasant, ever-hopeful Bob Crachit with Heather Saunders as his missus. Jonathan Battersby makes a cantankerous Old Scrooge slowly seeing the light as he watches his own past and future on the trips organised by a female Christmas Past whom he sees as a tattered version of the Princess Cinderella of his childhood (Kilke van Buren), the mellifluous Welsh voiced Christmas Present (Richard Delaney) and Tiny Tm as Christmas Yet to Come (Finn Bennett at the performance I saw).
There is some clever puppetry, some sprightly dancing (choreography by Racky Plews) and the whole is stylishly dressed and mounted - though I don't think that even the reformed Ebenezer would go into the street or out to Christmas dinner in his night shirt. There are some scary moments that may frighten you as much as Scrooge but the tone is largely upbeat and while not lacking sentiments thankfully avoids sickly sentimentality.
A very popular show last year, this revival will put you in a splendidly Christmas mood, and the music sound so familiar that you almost feel you've had a singsong and certainly will have a warm glow, even without a glassful of mulled wine. I reckon Nigel Lister's ever present Mr Dickens certainly wins his bet if the audience has any say in deciding it.
At King's Head Theatre Tuesday - Sunday until 10th January, 2009
The Stage Review of A Christmas Carol 2009
A Christmas Carol
Published Monday 7 December 2009 at 14:00 by Francesca Whiting
Walking into the modestly-sized King’s Head Theatre is like walking back in time, into an atmospheric, Victorian London.
The small stage is bursting with activity as the actors, all dressed in traditional 19th-century costume, gather in a pub setting. Before long, Charles Dickens arrives to begin his tale of A Christmas Carol and so begins an hour and a half of lively song, music, puppetry and dance.
Displaying an impressive range of musical skills, from violin, flute and cello to trumpet-playing, the 16-strong cast make moving around such a small stage look easy and some of the choreography is excellent, in particular the scene when Scrooge is shown the future and the locals are celebrating his death.
Seven-year-old Harry Page makes an endearing Tiny Tim, hobbling around the stage on a crutch as big as him, and the scene when he dies, as the cast hold candles and sing Silent Night, is a real tear-jerker.
Scrooge, excellently played by Jonathan Battersby, is truly mean, while the ghosts - one a larger than life-sized puppet - provide some amusing and chilling action.
While Scrooge flies through the sky with the Ghost of the Christmas Past (Kilke Van Buren) there’s some imaginative use of props as the cast run around the stage with models of various London landmarks, including Big Ben and St Paul’s Cathedral, to conjure up the city below.
It’s impossible not to get into the Christmas spirit with this heart-warming and truly entertaining show, and it’s certainly one the whole family will enjoy.
Published Monday 7 December 2009 at 14:00 by Francesca Whiting
Walking into the modestly-sized King’s Head Theatre is like walking back in time, into an atmospheric, Victorian London.
The small stage is bursting with activity as the actors, all dressed in traditional 19th-century costume, gather in a pub setting. Before long, Charles Dickens arrives to begin his tale of A Christmas Carol and so begins an hour and a half of lively song, music, puppetry and dance.
Displaying an impressive range of musical skills, from violin, flute and cello to trumpet-playing, the 16-strong cast make moving around such a small stage look easy and some of the choreography is excellent, in particular the scene when Scrooge is shown the future and the locals are celebrating his death.
Seven-year-old Harry Page makes an endearing Tiny Tim, hobbling around the stage on a crutch as big as him, and the scene when he dies, as the cast hold candles and sing Silent Night, is a real tear-jerker.
Scrooge, excellently played by Jonathan Battersby, is truly mean, while the ghosts - one a larger than life-sized puppet - provide some amusing and chilling action.
While Scrooge flies through the sky with the Ghost of the Christmas Past (Kilke Van Buren) there’s some imaginative use of props as the cast run around the stage with models of various London landmarks, including Big Ben and St Paul’s Cathedral, to conjure up the city below.
It’s impossible not to get into the Christmas spirit with this heart-warming and truly entertaining show, and it’s certainly one the whole family will enjoy.
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