Christopher Tester

professional actor & voice-over artist

Links

 

Performing Reference:

Actor Blogs from Shakespeare's Globe

 The Globe's 'adopt an actor' scheme has allowed various performers to post about their experiences rehearsing and performing in Globe productions.

Royal Shakespeare Company - Exploring Shakespeare

RSC productions shown in rehearsal and performance, including insightful interviews with cast and crew.  Further productions are now being logged in similar fashion here.

Cheek by Jowl - 'The Changeling' Podcast

Cast and crew give interviews concerning the company's Barbican production in mp3 form.

Bent Video Diary

Interviews and rehearsal footage from Trafalgar Studio's production of Martin Sherman's play.

 

Theatre Companies:

Fail Better Productions

Exciting collective of up-and-coming theatre artists.

Kandinsky Theatre

New and already critically lauded theatre company that creates work bridging the gap between art and science.

The Factory

DryWrite

Theatre Delicatessan

Theatre de Complicite

Cheek by Jowl

 

Organisations:

Equity

An excellent website full of information, plus a necessary contact for any actor in the profession.

Spotlight

Where performers advertise themselves for work, whether represented by an agency or not.

The Actors Centre, London

Offers lots of workshops for professional actors and those in training, covering a huge number of aspects.

The Actors Temple

Offering in-depth courses in Sanford Meisner's acclaimed technique.

 

Acting Discussion Forums:

Stagetalk

Useful forum for questions both general and specific.  Particularly useful for auditionees, drama school students and their recent graduates.  Just be prepared to take the majority of opinions with a pinch of salt!

What's On Stage

Useful resource in a similar vein to The Stage.

Theatre Voice

Audio driven forum discussing theatre in London and beyond.

 

Theatres:

 

National Theatre

Royal Shakespeare Company

The Royal Court

Soho Theatre

Donmar Warehouse

Barbican

Shakespeare's Globe

Young Vic

Meiner Chocolate Factory

Southwark Playhouse

Guardian Link to all major London venues

 

Actors Photographers

Actors, Directors and other people's blogs/websites:

Postcards from the Gods

Blog by Andrew Haydon, theatre editor for culturewars.org.uk, occasional interviewer for theatrevoice.com, and am a regular guest on Culture Clash.

New Terminology for Dramaturgy

Discussing the theory and practise of playwriting. 

Rogues and Vagabonds

Great sight for news,  reviews, information and opinion on all reaches of the current British theatre scene.

The Bootcamp Diaries

An account - commencing fully from September 2006 - of experiences training at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama by an anonymous student on the school's BA Acting programme. 

Simon Dunmore

Director and tutor of acting, with invaluable advice about entering the industry.

Irene Musumeci

Blog from a creative artist and dircetor.

Andrew Piper

Graduate actor of Bristol Old Vic, including reflections on his training experiences as well as a professional website.

The Reduced Michael Billington

An alternative look at the work of one of Britain's most established theatre critics.

Paul Rudelhoff

Actor-Comedian's website.

 


Selected articles on performance:

20 Questions...

Interviews with various actors, directors and producers from whatsonstage.com.

An interview with Edward Norton

The star of such films as American History X, Fight Club and Primal Fear talking about his career and approach to his craft.  Not massively indepth but still worth reading.

Guardian National Film Theatre Interviews

An index of interviews printed in the Guardian and conducted at London's NFT - including actors, directors and many more.

The Neverending Stories

Performers reflections on dealing with long-running productions - mainly Musical Theatre based.

Writing Workshops - "Mine are Rubbish" by Mark Ravenhill

Reflection on the difficulties of 'teaching' dramatic writing by one of Britian's leading playwrights - who attempted to grope me once at the National Student Drama Festival.... I don't bare grudges.

Fail Again, Fail Better - Michael Gambon

Interview with the last active member of Oliver's original National Theatre.

The Scavengers

Katie Mitchell reflects on her production of Chekhov's The Seagull.

Is Edinburgh Really Necessary?

An objective (if brief) assessment of the the most notorious fringe festival in the UK.

Guardian Online Current Theatre Articles

Simply because it's the most active British newspaper in keeping tabs on developments in theatre.

 

Other:

British Theatre Guide

Offers lots of information and links to both shows and artists - worth browsing.

Doollee.com

A database of plays - including character listings, play profiles and contact details for performance rights.

Ian Fisher

In-depth information on the works of Steven Berkoff, Athol Fugard, Sarah Kane and Ken Russell.

In-Yer-Face Theatre

Alez Sierz's website devoted to British dramatists of the mid-1990's.  Accompanies his book of the same name.

The Meisner Center

US-based actor training that focuses exclusively on Meisner's technique.  Some interesting resources.