Throwback Thursday to Damian Lewis at the Royal Shakespeare Company

Spot a certain ginger among a bunch of young actors playing in a celebrity football tournament around 1995/96!

It was Damian’s pal Jonsel Gourkan  who tweeted the picture. Both he and Damian were playing football for Royal Shakespeare Company and it is clear from the tweet that the competition on the football field was real! Well, we all know Damian knows his footie, don’t we?

So how about traveling back to mid 1990s today and talk about young Damian being as serious about theatre as he was about football? Continue reading “Throwback Thursday to Damian Lewis at the Royal Shakespeare Company”

Throwback Thursday to Damian Lewis in Cymbeline

Hang there like a fruit, my soul,
Till the tree die!

Posthumus, Cymbeline

source: damianista
Cymbeline, Stage at Delacorte Theater, Central Park, NYC source: damianista

Having grown up in Turkey, I am not coming from a deep Shakespeare culture. We read translated excerpts from Romeo and Juliet and Hamlet in our literature classes but I really believe one has to read Shakespeare in his language to understand and love it… That’s why my relationship with the great man really started as we moved to NYC and started doing Shakespeare in the Park, a New York tradition combining two great things about the city: It’s Theater in Central Park… And, hey, it’s FREE, too! The only thing you have to do is go early in the morning and get in the line for free tickets distributed at noon. And, believe me,  waiting in line is half the FUN… You have people sleeping on their blankets, playing board games, reading the evening’s play together as a group… Continue reading “Throwback Thursday to Damian Lewis in Cymbeline”

Damian Lewis on Stage: The Royal Shakespeare Company Years

“My heroes were all in the theatre. I wanted to be part of that great tradition that ran back to Garrick and Macready and Kean. That’s what I wished for, when I was asleep and dreaming.” – Damian Lewis in an interview with Telegraph

Damian Lewis in Hamlet (1994) at Open Air Theatre, Regents Park, London

For those of you that are not familiar with these names, and I confess I was not, Damian is talking about David Garrick, Edmund Kean and William MacReady, celebrated British Shakespearean actors of the 18th and 19th century that had substantial influence on the interpretation and understanding of Shakespeare. Continue reading “Damian Lewis on Stage: The Royal Shakespeare Company Years”

Throwback Thursday to Damian Lewis in Cymbeline

Hang there like a fruit, my soul,
Till the tree die!

Posthumus, Cymbeline

source: damianista
Cymbeline, Stage at Delacorte Theater, Central Park, NYC source: damianista

Shakespeare in the Park is a New York tradition combining two great things about the city: It’s Theater in Central Park… And, hey, it’s FREE, too! The tradition has been going strong for 53 years now in which Public Theater produces and stages two plays every summer at beautiful Delacorte Theater in Central Park. The productions are impressive that some of them move to Broadway once Central Park run is over, e.g. The Hair Musical in 2008 and Merchant of Venice in 2010. And, topping it all is it’s FREE! The only thing you have to do is go early in the morning and get in the line for free tickets distributed at noon. You may have to go really early if some big name is in a production though; for example we were in the line at 5am when Al Pacino did Merchant of Venice in 2010 and were among the last batch of people that could get tickets… Some people had arrived a night before with their camping equipment 😀 But, believe me,  waiting in line is half the FUN… You have people sleeping on their blankets, playing board games, reading the evening’s play together as a group… Continue reading “Throwback Thursday to Damian Lewis in Cymbeline”