Cast Announcement: Shakespeare Republic welcomes new cast member – Christopher Kirby!
We are thrilled to welcome new Republic Member and our first American cast member: Christopher Kirby! Meet Chris … Chris is probably best known for his roles in numerous blockbuster films such as Daybreakers, Predestination, the Matrix sequels, Iron Sky, Star Wars III: Revenge of the Sith and many more. Chris began his career in his native USA before moving to Australia in the late 1990’s. US television roles include the series Quantum Leap, Space: Above and Beyond, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, The Lost World, BeastMaster, The Burning Zone, Nightmares & Dreamscapes and The Starter Wife, as well as the television special Blockheads for HBO. Australian credits include Marshall Law, Neighbours, Ocean Girl, Flipper and The Games. Chris’…
Cast Announcement: Shakespeare Republic welcomes new member – Wahibe Moussa!
We are delighted to welcome new Republic Member, the talented and delightful Wahibe Moussa! Meet Wahibe … Wahibe Moussa is an award winning actor, a writer and emerging dramaturg and director. Since graduating from Victoria University of Technology in 2000, she has appeared in ensemble and self-devised theatre productions, as well as television shows such as SBSi’s KICK, ABC’s The Librarians and Channel 9’s Stingers. In 2007 Wahibe received the Green room Award for Female Actor in an Independent Theatre Production for her performance as “Mahala”, in Tony Kushner’s Homebody/Kabul. She has collaborated on a number of theatre and television projects as script, cultural and language consultant. Wahibe has co-ordinated and collaborated in…
Cast Announcement: Shakespeare Republic welcomes new member – Shane Savage!
We are thrilled to welcome our first new Republic Member for 2016: Shane Savage! Meet Shane … After completing a bachelor of creative arts (Drama/Film) from Deakin University, Shane went on to study full time at the world renowned Howard Fine Acting Studio. Recent theatre credits include “Ricky” in Big Al at Chapel Off Chapel and “Marc Christian” in Playing Rock Hudson at the Malthouse Theatre. Recent screen credits include playing the lead roles of “Lindsay” in Anatomy (dir. Joe Betros), “Art” in Artemis (dir. Daniel Higgins), “Dean” in Nevyr Love a Vampyr (dir. Geoffrey Wright) and “Chris” in the webseries Chris & Josh (dir. Matt Smolen). Shane’s latest big screen venture,…
Michala Banas on drunk texting and boy trouble … it must be our penultimate shoot day!
Please Note: to our knowledge, Michala hasn’t actually drunk texted – not around us anyway! But as far as her character is concerned … well, you’ll just have to see the episode to see what we mean!! On one of the coldest nights in August in Melbourne, the Shakespeare Republic team embarked on our latest filming adventure – Michala Banas’ episode tackling the Bard! Filming in my and Billy Smedley’s lounge room in Melbourne, Michala gamely jumped in the deep end with both feet and brimming with some rather brilliant ideas. My strongest memory from Monday’s shoot will be the laughter. I do love all my Republic peeps, but especially when we’re…
Ben Steel in shirt and tie with a webcam … Day 4 is complete!
Before I write anything else, I’d like to say: Happy Birthday Juliet! Juliet’s birthday is one of the few exact birth dates Shakespeare gave us in the text of his works. According to his play Romeo & Juliet, she was born on “Lammas Eve at night” (August 1), so her birthday in Shakespeare’s play is July 31st … which is today! Day four of filming was actually our first night shoot of the season, filming the wonderful Ben Steel as he wrangled a laptop and webcam for his episode of Shakespeare Republic. Of course, I had the bright idea of trying to catch the dying light through the windows in the opening…
Updates: Billy Smedley in a Red Room, wearing a suit with a silver tea service … 50 Shades of Shakespeare, anyone?*
*DISCLAIMER: Sorry guys, the scene Billy shot yesterday has nothing to do with that other Red Room stuff … we just thought it was funny that he was in a suit in a Red Room with expensive silverware – completely by accident … but we’re not entirely convinced that Shakespeare is ready for that other kind of treatment … yet 😉 It was with great anticipation that we headed off yesterday morning to the north side of town to shoot our third episode for Shakespeare Republic, this time featuring Republic member, Billy Smedley in a suit, a red room and my rather leaky silver service (nothing that some gaffer tape couldn’t fix…
Updates: Rowena Hutson, five crew and a rubber duck … it must be our second day of filming!
As a rather chilly and very blustery Queen’s birthday Monday dawned, it found myself and several members of our extended Republic making our way down to the Mornington Peninsula for the second day of shooting. In a very beautiful bathroom, kindly provided by long time friend, Samantha Brown (we were around 5 years old when we first met. Who knew back then that one day I’d be filming Shakespeare in her bathroom!?), our crew gathered around to film Shakespeare Republic ensemble member Rowena Hutson – and a rubber duck. As you can see, a bath was involved, so that does somewhat explain the rubber duck – but you’ll have to wait until the episode…
UPDATES: Alan Fletcher, six crew and a bathroom … welcome to Day 1 of filming!
So, what do you get when you combine six crew members, a bathroom and the delightful Alan Fletcher? The first day of official filming for Shakespeare Republic! Our intrepid cast and crew made the journey out to Global Television Studios, who had very kindly provided us with the aforementioned bathroom to film, where we spent a very productive day filming Alan’s first Shakespeare piece. Huge thanks to Global for their generous support of the project and their assistance throughout the day, and to all the folk at Neighbours for accommodating us playing just up the hall. Also thanks to the fab team at Crankyfish for their loan of lights and equipment for…
UPDATES: Welcome to Shakespeare Republic
And so it begins! We are very happy to finally be speaking to you via the interwebs with our very first post here at Shakespeare Republic! We are looking forward to bringing you our web series, where we get to explore Shakespeare in a myriad of different settings and circumstances, but in the meantime we’ll be sharing photos, discussion posts about various aspects of Shakespeare and tidbits from our Behind The Scenes footage. We have begun the journey into the realms of Shakespeare and that infamous language, kicking off with a photo/interview session with all of our cast, filmed and photographed by the wonderful Yanni Dellaportas and Ben Steel, which…