29 September 2006
Posted by Bonnie on 29 September 2006 at
12:00
Rachael Stirling, 29, who starred in "Tipping the Velvet", is performing in the 24-Hour Plays at the Old Vic on 8 October. In flu gala, introduced by Kevin Spacey, the Old Vic's artistic director, theatre professionals write, rehearse ana perform six l0-minute plays within 24 hours. Stirling is the daughter of Dame Diana Rigg.
On performing in the 24-Hour Plays…
I'm looking forward to doing it. The kick bollock scramble of it all appeals to me greatly.
The character I'd most like to play is…
Cleopatra. The fervour, the passion, the drama and the glory of the language!
If I weren't talking to you right now I'd be…
Reading a script or playing with my pals.
A phrase I use far too often is…
"Ooh, heaven".
A common misperception of me is…
That I'm Martine McCutcheon. Don't ask me why.
I wish people would take more notice of…
The fact that politicians are trying to turn the population of this country into opinionless hamsters treading the wheel of the nanny state.
The most surprising thing that ever happened to me was…
Being offered 20 chickens for my hand in marriage by a stallholder in Cairo when I was 11.
I'm not a politician but…
The broadening of the congestion charge zone is the stupidest idea I've ever come across.
I'm good at…
Backgammon.
But I'm very bad at…
Networking.
The ideal night out is…
Dinner at J Sheekey's with friends after having done a good show and discovered something new about the character in the performance that night.
In moments of weakness I…
Reach for a Silk Cut Ultra Light.
You know me as an actor, but in a truer life I might have been…
An art historian. It's what I studied at university.
On performing…
Be brave, take chances and let it all hang out. Get it really right or get it really wrong, but for God's sake don't dip a toe in, just take the plunge.
The best age to be is…
I like them all the older I get so I couldn't tell you. Next year is probably the best age to be.
In a nutshell, my philosophy is this:
It is better to be the person who tries, falls arse over tits in the process, than the person who sits back and observes. Grab life by the balls.
No Comments
24 September 2006
Posted by Bonnie on 24 September 2006 at
08:09
I apologise for taking so long to do a full update — the last one was two months ago! For a while I had nothing new to report, but I can't use that excuse for the past month or so. I've just been busy. We've been away a few times, and lately I've been preoccupied with wedding planning (yes, we're getting married — July 12th, 2008!) and job-hunting. For the most part, though, I've lacked motivation. I really am sorry.
Today I took the opportunity to do a full update of all sections of the site:
As you will be able to see, Rachael has recently mentioned that there is a new play coming up in February, and then a new film in September 2007. I'm looking forward to finding out more about them! She has also been linked to two charity events recently. The John Betjeman Gala, celebrating the poet's centenary, was where she met Prince Charles (see photo) and performed on stage in a variety show. You can see some photos from the gala in the gallery. The other charity event will take place on October 8th at London's Old Vic, and is organised by The 24 Hour Plays group.
We are very much looking forward to Rachael's latest television appearance in The Haunted Airman, which will star Harry Potter actor Robert Pattinson. If rumours are true, it should air on BBC Four in the UK on Halloween night. This production was originally entitled The Haunting of Toby Jugg, and is based on the Dennis Wheatley novel of that name.
A number of articles have also been added to the site today. Thank you to Horatio for sending me a copy of a new interview that appeared in the Bath Chronicle. I had missed this particular interview, but it's a nice one, and mentions "a fan website set up in her honour" — I wonder which one! 
Then, of course, there are the numerous reviews of Look Back in Anger, the play in which Rachael recently starred at the Theatre Royal, Bath. Unfortunately, we were unable to make it down to Bath to see this particular play, but we'll be sure to catch it if it moves to the West End. The reviews were mixed, but on the whole seemed positive as far as Rachael's performance went, describing her as "terrific", "magnificent", "superb", and "excellent". Not too bad then, Rach.
I've tidied up the message board, removed the spam which had been there for over a month (!), and also deleted a large number of spambot members. From now on, I will have to approve any accounts that come through the system. It's a shame I have to take such measures, but spammers have been all over the site recently. There were over 2,000 pending members at the fanlisting, and over 2,000 of them were spammers! It took forever to get rid of them all!
I think that's it! Ooh, and we reached a 200,000 visitor count earlier this month! 
Soon we'll be at a quarter of a million! :O
3 Comments
22 September 2006
Posted by Bonnie on 22 September 2006 at
12:00
Jennifer Aniston, Rosie Perez, Kevin Spacey, and Patrick Wilson are among the celebrities who will participate in a pair of benefit events — one in London and one in New York — to be presented by The 24 Hour Plays, a group that creates and stages new works in just one day.
On October 8, a benefit at London's Old Vic will be introduced by Oscar winner Spacey, artistic director of the Old Vic, and will be hosted by actress Catherine Tate. Scheduled participants include Clare Higgins, Patricia Hodge, Nichola McAuliffe, Tamzin Outhwaute, Clarke Peters, Greta Scacchi, Rachael Stirling, Dominic West, and Alicia Witt.
On October 23, at the American Airlines Theatre in New York, The 24 Hour Plays will present its annual benefit for Working Playground. Aniston, Perez, Wilson, Rachel Dratch, and Elizabeth Berkley-Lauren are among the actors who will perform works by Adam Rapp, David Lindsay-Abaire, and other playwrights.
No Comments
21 September 2006
Posted by Bonnie on 21 September 2006 at
12:00
Clare Higgins, Patricia Hodge, Greta Scacchi and Tamzin Outhwaite are among those confirmed to participate in the Old Vic's 24 Hour Plays Celebrity Gala on 8 October, hosted by comedienne Catherine Tate.
The annual gala event at Kevin Spacey's Old Vic sees well-known actors, playwrights and directors come together to write and rehearse six short plays and subsequently perform them on the Old Vic stage, all within 24 hours.
Laurence Olivier Award winner Higgins (Hecuba, Sweet Bird Of Youth, Vincent In Brixton), Hodge (TV's Rumpole Of The Bailey), plus film and television actresses Scacchi (Emma, Presumed Innocent) and Outhwaite (Eastenders, Red Cap, Hotel Babylon) are joined in this third annual celebrity gala by Alexander Armstrong (TV's Beast, Life Begins), Tom Hardy (Layer Cake), Adrian Lukis (Cloaca at the Old Vic), Nichola McAuliffe (Kiss Me Kate, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, The Night Of The Iguana), Clarke Peters (Mourning Becomes Electra, the forthcoming Porgy And Bess), Rachael Stirling (TV's Tipping The Velvet, Theatre Of Blood at the National), Dominic West (The Voysey Inheritance) and Alicia Witt (currently in Piano/Forte at the Royal Court).
The esteemed actors team up with writers including Simon Farquhar (Rainbow Kiss), Bryony Lavery (Frozen), Colin Teevan (The Walls) and Sally Wainwright (TV's At Home With The Braithwaites), and directors Nikolai Foster (resident director at Sheffield Theatres), Josie Rourke (a previous participant of The 24 Hour Plays) and Bijan Sheibani (Laura Wade's Other Hands at the Soho).
"The 24 Hour Plays is a hugely challenging and energising event for everyone involved," commented producer Kate Pakenham. "It thrilled me to see what wonderful plays were written in such a short time last year, and with a team of this calibre I am extremely excited to see how they will rise to the challenge this year."
All proceeds from the gala event go to Old Vic New Voices, a programme created to nurture new talent and develop new work, which also organises the non-celebrity version of The 24 Hour Plays, aimed at budding theatre professionals aged 18-25.
Artistic Director of the Old Vic Spacey, who will introduce the gala event, said: "The actors are in for a hell of a time and we're incredibly grateful to them for supporting Old Vic New Voices' vital work to develop new writing and young talent at our theatre."
No Comments
11 September 2006
Posted by Bonnie on 11 September 2006 at
12:00
Tributes do not come more classy than this. The late poet laureate John Betjeman died in 1984, but the calibre of performers at last night's celebration of his work, in the presence of the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall, spoke volumes about the esteem in which he is still held in fields as diverse as soaps and rock music.
They came from all aspects of the arts to pay homage. Hugh Grant, looking the epitome of bespoke cool in black suit and crisp white shirt, chipped in with Betjeman's paean to his Cornwall home, Trebetherick ("sand in the sandwiches, wasps in the tea"). Bill Nighy, running Grant a close second in the sartorial elegance stakes, bagged a peach of a piece, A Subaltern's Love Song, featuring the seductive Miss Joan Hunter Dunn, "furnish'd and burnish'd by Aldershot sun".
Almost every participant had a Betjeman connection. Peter Baldwin and Thelma Barlow — Mavis and Derek from Coronation Street — were a reminder of the poet's love of the northern soap. Ronnie Corbett in blue tartan trousers — "my wife bought them for me in the sales … at Mothercare" — harked back to his beloved music hall. The evening's host, Barry Humphries, forged an intimate, lasting friendship with Betjeman in 1960 after writing an admiring letter to his hero.
When there was not a tangible connection there was an emotional one. Suggs's band Madness shared the Laureate's fascination with Metroland's underbelly. The singer confirmed his interest in the dark side by delivering On A Portrait Of A Deaf Man, with its bleak, comically cadaverous images: "In Highgate now his finger-bones/stick through his finger-ends."
Nick Cave, another musician drawn to the offbeat, though not immediately associated with a heritage-heavy world of tea, vicars, steam trains and lumpy marmalade, added sublimely moving piano to the lustful, lyrical Senex — "the tennis-playing biking girl, the wholly-to-my-liking girl".
Despite a bill that also boasted Stephen Fry, Joanna Lumley, Richard E Grant, Rachael Stirling and an immaculately funny turn from Edward Fox, it was footage of Betjeman himself that stole the show. Whether hacking a golf shot or famously admitting that his greatest regret in life was not having had enough sex, that playful, avuncular smile was enough to melt the hardest of hearts.
Was anything missing? Perhaps Ricky Gervais reprising his recital of "Come, friendly bombs, and fall on Slough" in The Office. But maybe that would have been too much of a glorious thing.
No Comments
Look forward to the US release of both films.
