Drawing: Stockard Channing in Apologia

Posted on August 14, 2017 by Mark Winter / Chicane

Stockard Channing has made a successful return to the London stage after a ten year absence in Jamie Lloyd’s revival of Alexi Kaye Campbell’s family drama APOLOGIA at the Trafalgar Studios. The 73 year-old Tony and Emmy award winning actress plays the celebrated art historian, activist and ‘monstrous matriarch’ Kristin Miller who is at odds with her two sons and their partners who gather to celebrate her birthday. Central to the story is the debate about ‘bad’ sixties mothers and their abandoned-feeling offspring which surfaces when her recent memoir that omits her sons becomes a touchy subject. Quite brilliant,” wrote Ann Treneman in her Times review, Dominic Cavendish headlined his Telegraph review with “Stockard Channing is a contemptuous treat,” and ” Stockard Channing is in top form,” said Tom Wicker in The Stage.

I was very fortunate to see the play thanks to the generosity of Nick, a fellow ‘grapher, who I met at the stage door as we waited to meet Stockard prior to last Saturday’s performance. He had a spare comp ticket, which he kindly offered me. She popped out after the matinee to sign for us including this drawing and was very chatty and complimentary. So I got to see her on and off the stage – bonus!

Drawing: The Girls

Posted on August 8, 2017 by Mark Winter / Chicane

The Award-winning THE GIRLS has just finished its West End run at the Phoenix Theatre. Based on the 2007 hit film CALENDAR GIRLS, this musical stage adaption was written by Take That’s Gary Barlow and Tim Firth who also scripted the film’s original screenplay based on a true story of a group of spirited, middle aged Yorkshire housewives who strip for a calendar to raise money for a cancer charity. I left this montage sketch of the cast-Joanna Riding, Claire Moore, Claire Machin, Sophie-Louise Dann, Michele Dotrice and Debbie Chazen- at the stage door and it came back signed in the final week. A UK tour is planned for next year.

Drawing: Peter Firth in Equus

Posted on August 4, 2017 by Mark Winter / Chicane

British actor Peter Firth will be known to TV viewers as Sir Harry Pearce in the BBC spy series SPOOKS – the only cast member to appear in every episode of its ten series. My favourite role however was his stage and subsequent film appearance as the disturbed equine-worshipping teenager Alan Strang, who blinds the eyes of horses in Peter Shaffer’s EQUUS, which ran at the National Theatre in London in 1974 and transferred to Broadway the following year, earning him a Tony nomination.

In 1977 he reprised the role for the film adaption, opposite Richard Burton who played the psychiatrist Dysart attempting to find the root of Alan’s equine worship. He won a Golden Globe Award and was nominated for an Academy Award. EQUUS is one of my favourite plays and I had the honour of meeting its author and the privilege of directing it in New Zealand many moons ago. I left this sketch of Peter as Alan with London agent and was very pleased to get it back signed.

Drawing: Pauline Collins in Shirley Valentine

Posted on August 3, 2017 by Mark Winter / Chicane

British actress Pauline Collins rose to prominence as the maid Sarah Moffat in the popular TV series UPSTAIRS DOWNSTAIRS during the early 70’s, but it was her portrayal of the title character in Willy Russell’s SHIRLEY VALENTINE that won her all the accolades.

Pauline played Shirley on stage and screen, originating the role with the West End production at the Vaudeville Theatre in 1988, reprising the part a year lateral the Booth Theatre on Broadway and in the film version. She won the Laurence Olivier, Tony and Drama Desk Awards for her theatrical performance and the BAFTA for her screen adaption as well as Oscar and Golden Globe nominations.

I left this drawing for Pauline at her London agents office for her to sign which she kindly did.

Drawing: Chukwudi Iwuji

Posted on August 2, 2017 by Mark Winter / Chicane

Nigerian-born British actor Chukwudi Iwuji (usually shortened to Chuk), was sent to an English boarding school at age 10 while his parents worked for the UN in Ethiopia. He studied economics at Yale University before going to drama school then returned to the UK and became a stalwart of the Royal Shakespeare Company. His one ambition was to play HAMLET with them, but that opportunity came last year when he played the Danish Prince at New York’s Public Theatre in a three-week run after a tour of prisons, homeless shelters and senior citizen’s venues. The previous year he was also in the Big Apple in Christopher Marlowe’s TAMBURLAINE THE GREAT at the Theatre for New Performance. Both roles were captured in my sketch which Chuk signed for me at the Barbican while he was appearing in OBSESSION opposite Jude Law.

Drawing: Clare Halse in 42nd Street

Posted on August 1, 2017 by Mark Winter / Chicane

English newcomer Clare Halse has been winning acclaim and applause for her performance in the pivotal role of Peggy Sawyer in the ‘mother of all showbiz musicals’, 42ND STREET at London’s Theatre Royal Drury Lane. The Telegraph’s Dominic Cavendish gave the “achingly beautiful revival of an American classic” five stars and called Clare a “resplendent Peggy”.

Like her starry-eyed character, the nervous but enthusiastic new chorus girl, Clare who’s brief stage career includes stints in WICKED and SHREK said the 42ND STREET experience is “fun and also terrifying”. I just missed Clare at the stage door a few weekends ago so left it there and it came back signed.