Drawing: Charlotte Edwards

Posted on September 18, 2015 by Mark Winter / Chicane

charlotte edwards

Described as the first lady of English-and world-cricket, Charlotte Edwards is considered the best in the business. England have played 481 matches since women’s internationals started in Brisbane in 1935, Lotte has played in 298 of them, 209 as captain spanning all three formats of the game.Making her debut as a sixteen year-old in 1995, she has scored more runs in limited-over internationals than anyone else and only one player, Janette Brittin has made more test runs. Last year she was named one of Wisden’s Cricketers of the Year, only the second woman to claim that honour and won the ICC Woman’s Player of the Year in 2008.

Having already claimed five Ashes series, Charlotte and her team found the Australians a lot tougher in 2015 and lost the series for the first time in twelve years. Despite having her hands full she was able to fit in a pen and time to sign my sketch during the four-day test at Kent’s Spitfire Ground last month.

Drawing: Felicity Ward

Posted on September 17, 2015 by Mark Winter / Chicane

felicity ward

And now for a bit of toilet humour. It’s September. All the comedians who took the Edinburgh Fringe hiatus last month are back on the London comedy circuit, including Australian comic Felicity Ward. Leading up to the Festival, everyone was performing work- in-progress gigs in preparation for it, including Australian comic Felicity Ward. I did a quick, ‘young’ sketch of her, based on an old pic but missed getting it signed at the Leicester Square Theatre in the frantic funny foreplay that sums up July. It stayed in my folder for some reason…which became apparent on Saturday evening. Heading home from a successful stalking session, one is apt to have to ‘spend a penny’ or in Central London it’s usually 30p(ee) at the Charing Cross Station lavatory. To avoid such extravagent expenditure, one can detour via certain accessible, user-friendly establishments and go for free. One such haven is The Comedy Pub. Lo and behold, who should have just finished headlining a show on such esteemed premises but the Australian comic, Felicity Ward. By way of a back-story, her Edinburgh run was called What If There’s No Toilet? because she used to perform her sharp, upbeat, self-mocking routine while simultaneously suffering from panic attacks and needed to go to the ‘dunny’ -to use a colloquial Aussie term and it rhymes with funny-four times an hour.”Anxiety can be cruel, but very,very funny.” she said.’IBS is the sexiest of all syndromes” and her show is about irritable bowel syndrome and the search for the nearest toilet. So there you have it. Anyway back to the story. My ablutions sorted I approached a security person and asked if the Australian comic Felicity Ward was still in the house. She was and he asked me if I was a friend. I pulled out the ‘young from an old photo’ drawing, ‘cos that’s what friends do. He recognised the likeness and took me to her ‘Wow…thanks I look so young…thank you for using an old photo.’ I didn’t see much difference, but I said it was the least I could do for a fellow antipodean. Relief all-round really.

Drawing: Matthew Bourne

Posted on September 16, 2015 by Mark Winter / Chicane

Widely regarded as the UK’s most popular and successful choreographer and director, TIME magazine extends the boundaries on that accolade, “Matthew Bourne is the world’s most popular living dance maker.”

For the past 30 years, Matthew has been choreographing and directing dance for musicals, opera,theatre and film. The five-time Olivier Award winner is the only British director to have won the Tony for both Best Choreographer and Best Director of a Musical with Swan Lake in 1999.

I did this sketch of Matthew directing rehearsals for The Car Man sometime ago and since I have had great success getting sketches signed from Sadler’s Wells through the mail, I decided to continue with that process. oddly enough I had just slipped it into the postbox when the man himself walked past me.

Drawing: Sarah Miles

Posted on September 15, 2015 by Mark Winter / Chicane

sarah miles

I had always been meaning to draw British actress Sarah Miles. Probably for the past twenty years, maybe longer, but kept putting it off. Then, two weeks ago when I was reading an article on one of my favourite directors, David Lean, I decided to do it! Known for towering cinematic achievements such as The Bridge on the River Kwai, Lawrence of Arabia, and Doctor Zhivago, it is his much-maligned and critically savaged Ryan’s Daughter that remains my favourite. I first saw it at my hometown cinema, having just crossed into purity and instantly fell in love with Sarah, who played Rosy Ryan, the film’s titular character. Because of the critical reception, Lean stopped making films for years afterwards, even though it was nominated for four Academy Awards, including one for Sarah. This part of the article was accompanied by a pic of her as Rosy, which prompted me to take the 4B and start sketching as my mind meandered down memory lane. I had always wanted to see Sarah on stage. She played Ann Kron in Well at London’s Trafalgar Studios in late 2008, transferring to the Apollo and ending four days before I arrived in the UK. Bummer. I added a quick rendering of her from the play to complete the screen and stage composition before placing it in the capable hands of the Royal Mail. Less than a week later, it arrived back, signed and dedicated with a note saying I had captured her perfectly and requesting one for her scrapbook.

Drawing: Richard O’Brien in The Rocky Horror Show

Posted on September 14, 2015 by Mark Winter / Chicane

richard o brien

The cult classic The Rocky Horror Show returned to the West End this week for a limited, and already extended season at the Playhouse Theatre before embarking on a UK tour.

Also returning is the shows creator. Richard O’Brien, this time as the Narrator. When it premiered in the 63-seat upstairs ‘working space’ at the Royal Court Theatre in London’s Sloane Square in June 1973, Richard played Riff Raff, handyman to Tom Curry’s mad transvestite scientist, Frank N Furter. Both reprised their roles for the 1975 film adaption, The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Riff Raff is a parody of Frankenstein’s servant Igor.

Considered ahead of its time in terms of attitudes towards gender, Richard is proud that it “made the climate for people who feel marginalised and lost in their journey as far as gender is concerned.” in a recent interview, discussing his ‘gender spectrum’ theory, he said, ‘It’s my belief that we are on a continuum between male and female. There are people who are hardline male and there are people who are hardlined female, but most of us are on the continuum. I think of myself 70% male and 30% female.”

I was pleased to meet him (and 30% her) at the Playhouse stage door before Saturday’s first of two evening performances. Extremely genial and accommodating with the die-hard fans and usual riff raff graphers alike. Like me has duel British-New Zealand nationality, so our converstion was more the citizenship spectrum than gender as he signed my drawing.

Drawing: Aga Radwanska

Posted on September 12, 2015 by Mark Winter / Chicane

aga radwanska

Twenty six year old Polish tennis ace and former World Number 2 Agnieszka ‘Aga’ Radwanska has won fourteen career singles titles and reached the 2012 Wimbledon final. Prior to joining the WTA tour in 2006, she won both the Wimbledon and French junior titles. Her prowess on the court is matched off it, being voted WTA’s most popular player for four consecutive years (2011-2014), She was also listed as the ninth highest earning female athlete in the world according to American magazine Forbes in 2012.

As a practising Roman Catholic, Aga was part of the Polish Catholic campaign, “I’m not ashamed of Jesus!” and arranged her tennis balls so that they read out “Jezus”. After posing nude for the 2013 ESPN magazine’s The Body Issue she was disqualified from the campaign.

I missed getting Aga at Wimbledon this year, so sent this quick sketch of her to a fellow Californian-based autograph collector who specialises in sports sigs.

He caught up with Aga at the Bank of the West Classic in Stanford, in early August. She told him she really liked the sketch and was happy to sign and dedicate it.

Drawing: Hayley Mills in Ladies in Lavender

Posted on September 11, 2015 by Mark Winter / Chicane

hayley mills

Hayley Mills returned to the stage in 2012 as Ursula in the world premiere of Ladies In Lavender, which toured the UK, including a season at London’s Richmond Theatre Adapted by Shaun McKenna from the popular film starring Maggie Smith and Judi Dench, the stage version is based on Charles Dance’s screenplay and William Locke’s original story. Set in a remote Cornish village, the lives of two spinster sisters (Hayley and Belinda Lang) are turned upside down by the arrival of a young Polish violinist. While most actors say that the script is the deciding factor for taking on a play, Hayley said it was the music, taken from the original score by Nigel Hess and performed by virtuoso Joshua Bell that swayed her. She said it immediately became her favourite piece of music as soon as she heard it. The Northampton Chronicle and Echo review said “Mills is stunning as Ursula, imbuing her with a girlish youth which makes her unrequited feelings ever poignant.”

I sent this sketch of Hayley as Ursula to her London agent and she returned it signed and dedicated within a week.

Drawing: Nicole Kidman in Photograph 51

Posted on September 10, 2015 by Mark Winter / Chicane

Nicole Kidman

Nicole Kidman returned to the West End after seventeen years absence in Anna Ziegler’s Photograph 51 at the Noel Coward Theatre on Saturday night. Directed by Michael Grandage, it revolves around the story of molecular biologist Roselind Franklin and one of the twentieth century’s greatest achievements, the discovery of the DNA double helix or what scientists called ‘the secret of life.’ Central to the narrative is ‘Photo 51’, the name given to an x-ray image taken by one of Franklin’s researchers at King’s College in London, which revealed the double helix shape of deoxyribonucleic acid, a crucial starting point for research by Francis Crick, James Watson and Maurice Wilkins who identified how DNA was structured. All three men received the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1962, four years after Franklin’s death of overian cancer at the age of 37. Debate about the amount of credit due to her still exists, but in his memoirs, Watson stated that ‘Photo 51’ provided the vital clue to the double helix. Many believe she should have been posthumously honoured by the Nobel Committee.

After receiving a standing ovation at the conclusion of Saturday night’s opening performance, Nicole graciously meet the huge throng waiting at the stage door barriers and did her best to sign and pose for more than 51 photographs as possible. Nicole’s signature probably has 51 plus variations. The common denominator is the downstroke of the first capital ‘N’ with a curl at it’s base, the rest can resemble multiple helixes, where sometimes you can make out a her name in various calligraphic contortions or a flourished line, as I got on this sketch. A glance around others who managed to get her graph confirmed this. Not one of them, apart from the said “N” looked the same. I guess you could say that everyone is truly original. Given the situation and the fact that she was only signing show material, I was pleased with the result.

Drawing: Aisling Bea

Posted on September 9, 2015 by Mark Winter / Chicane

Aisling Bea

Friends call her ‘a tart for a laugh’ which pretty much sums up Irish actress, comedian and writer Aisling Bea’s motive for doing comedy. ‘I’m just addicted to making people laugh,” she told Alice Jones for The Independent, before embarking on her second Edinburgh Fringe gig with Plan Bea during the entire month of August. The “Irish motormouth with an alarming range of rubbery facial expressions”, as Alice described her, has built up an impressive comic CV over the three years she has been doing stand-up with appearances on all the mainstream shows, including QI, Live At The Apollo, Never mind The Buzzcocks, Would I Lie To You and Celebrity Squares. Last year she collected the British Comedy Award for Best Female TV Comedian after winning the So You Think You’re Funny Award at Edinburgh the previous year. The Irish Tattler even named her it’s Entertainment Women of the Year in 2013.

Prior to her stint in Edinburgh, Aisling did some Fringe foreplay at London’s Leicester Square Theatre, where I left this sketch for her to sign.’Bea’ is actually her stage name, a homage to her late father-B for Brian-which she adopted at drama school because their was already an Aisling O’Sullivan. If you want to catch her live, ‘bea’ at the Leicester Square Theatre on Monday 14 September when she joins Jo Brand, Mae Martin, Kerry Godliman, Sara Pascoe and a host of others in Funny Ha Ha for the Live Life Safe campaign and the Suzy Lamplugh Trust or two days later in the Big Top at the Greenwich Comedy Festival.

Drawing: Rob Brydon in Future Conditional

Posted on September 8, 2015 by Mark Winter / Chicane

Welsh comedian and ‘fully fledged light entertainment personality’ Rob Brydon is currently starring in Future Conditional, the first production at the Old Vic theatre under its new artistic director Matthew Warchus, who has taken over from Hollywood actor Kevin Spacey. The play tackles the challenges of the British schooling system – a subject I have a close working knowledge of- written by Royal Court director-turned-writer Tamsin Oglesby. Rob plays an English Teacher, God held him. And it was the good Lord who was uttered as he saw this sketch when I stopped him whizzing out of the Old Vic stage door on Saturday night. I think it was an exclamation of admiration rather than a call to the almighty for help. “Oh my Lord,” he gasped followed by “Yes,yes.yes.”- the holy trinity of confirmation to my signing request.