One of my favourite tennis players is the Spaniard David Ferrer. Last month he reached the World Number 3 spot. He signed my sketch at the O2 yesterday night, before playing his second match at the ATP World Tennis Finals.
Tennis player Rafael Nadal signed my sketches yesterday, as he left the O2 Arena in London after winning his opening match at the Barclays ATP World Tennis Finals, beating fellow Spaniard David Ferrer.
Laura Carmichael, best known for her role as Lady Edith Crawly in the Golden Globe and Emmy award winning historical drama Downton Abbey, made her West End debut in the new production of Uncle Vanya at the Vaudeville Theatre.
She joined Kim Stott, Anna Friel and Samuel West.
Laura’s other television and film credits include The Heart of Thomas Hardy and Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy.
2012 was certainly the year of Uncle Vanya revivals. A very funny and mercurial account of Chekhov’s great tragicomedy of wasted lives, directed by Lucy Bailey at the Print Room, and a more melancholic take from Jeremy Herrin at Chichester. In November, opening within days of each other, two ‘Vanyas‘ hit the West End. A version from Moscow based Vakhtangov Company at the Noël Coward Theatre and Lindsay Posner’s rendering at the Vaudeville, based on a sharp, ruefully witty translation by Oscar Winner Christopher Hampton.
Theatrical titan Sir Peter Hall enjoyed the evening and Laura’s performance immensely, but had to apologise to her for an outburst during the poignant closing speech, during the opening night. “Being rather aged I dropped off for a moment and on being woken up by my wife I was briefly disorientated.”
The production generally garnered positive reviews with the 25 year old Laura’s performance as Vanya’s niece Sonya singled out for praise for its sensitivity.
Mary-Louise Parker is no stranger to screen and stage acting awards – in 2003 she won both a Golden Globe and an Emmy for Supporting Actress in Angels In America. She won a Tony Award for Proof in 2001 and in 2006 another Golden Globe for Best Actress in Needs.
Proof is a 2000 play by American writer David Auburn. It won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and a Tony Award for Best Play. It premiered off Broadway in May 2000, before transferring to the Walter Kerr Theater in October that year.
Mary-Louise played Catherine, the daughter of a deceased mathematical genius and Professor at the University of Chicago, who struggled with mental illness. After his death, one of his students finds his ‘proof’ for a paradigm shift involving prime numbers. Catherine has to prove her father is the author amongst fears of following in her father’s footsteps, both mathematically and mentally.
Mary-Louise signed my sketch at the European Premiere of Red 2, Empire Cinema in Leicester Square, London, on the 22nd July 2013.
A couple of years ago I entered a t-shirt design competition at Spunky, and this design was made into t-shirts:
Here are my other entries:
American actress Laurie Metcalf played Jackie Harris in the sitcom Roseanne, which ran for 221 episodes from 1988-97. She won three consecutive Emmy Awards (1992-94) and was nominated for two Golden Globes for her performance in the role. She has also appeared in Desperate Housewives, The Big Bang Theory. She has won both a Theatre World Award and an Obie Award for her work on stage.
In 2012, she joined David Suchet in Eugene O’Neills Long Day’s Journey Into Night at London’s Apollo Theatre.
Laurie signed my sketch at the Apollo Theatre stage door in July 2012.
When Brooke Shields was only 5 days old, her mother, Teri, openly stated that she was grooming her for show business. Eleven months later, Brooke modelled for Ivory Soap. As a twelve year old she won critical acclaim in Louis Malle’s film Pretty Baby, playing a child prostitute. In 2009 a naked photo of her, taken when she was 10 was included in an exhibition of works by Richard Prince at the Tate Modern. It was removed after a police warning. By the time she was 16, Brooke was one of the most recognisable faces in the world, due to dual careers as a provocative fashion model and as a child actress.
In 1983, she abandoned her acting and modelling to complete a Bachelor’s degree in French literature a Princeton University. She returned to acting in the 1990s, including a four season run in the titular role of the TV sitcom Suddenly Susan (1996-2000), for which she was nominated for a Golden Globe Award.
Brooke has appeared in several Broadway productions, including revivals of Grease (1999), Cabaret (2001), and as Roxie Hart in Chicago (2005), a role she previously played at the Adelphi Theatre in London’s West End a year earlier.
Brooke signed my sketch at Barnes and Noble Tribeca in New York on 24 June 2008. She was doing a signing for her book Welcome to Your World, Baby.
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