After finishing a run of CYRANO DE BERGERAC at the Royal Exchange theatre last year, playing Rageneau, Clive went on to play Guy Jones in Ayckbourn's A CHORUS OF DISAPPROVAL at The Mill at Sonning theatre. This was followed by another Ayckbourn play, A SMALL FAMILY BUSINESS, at the Watford Palace theatre, playing Desmond Ayres. 2007 was rounded off by a production of JACK AND THE BEANSTALK for graduating actors from the Bristol Old Vic theatre school which Clive re-wrote and directed, and a few performances in London of his Flanders and Swann cabaret - WHO DROPPED THE HAT?
This year he has played Ross, John Merrick's manager, in a Sheffield Theatres Production of THE ELEPHANT MAN, and Sir Andrew Aguecheek in TWELFTH NIGHT at the Open Air Theatre in Regent's Park. He is currently finishing a new script of ALADDIN for the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School which he will direct at the end of the year. Over the summer he will be performing cabaret shows for Swan Hellenic cruises on HMS MINERVA. This is a busman's holiday, really - no financial remuneration, but a free cruise, and as importantly, a free bar! In September he will be appearing in THE SHAKESPEARE REVUE, for one night only, at five theatres around the country. (dates to be confirmed on the website).
If ever a Salopian is in the audience do please come and say, " hello!"
Painting
Zander Lassen is an emerging artist in Manhattan who paints portraits and landscapes predominantly in oils. Please view his artwork and contact him online at: www.zanderlassen.com
Tom Mence (RT 88-93)
A final reminder for 'This England', an exhibition of paintings inspired by the Engish Countryside.The perfect antidote to the January blues!
20th - 25th January, at The Gallery, 54 Shepherd Market, London
Further details on www.tommencepaintings.co.ukHis next exhibition will be in Worcestershire, December 2009. Details yet to be confirmed.
‘To me England is the country, and the country is England’,
Stanley Baldwin, May 1924
Music
Simon Smart (R 75-77) now lives and works in New York under the name Sonanaut. He has worked in the US and Europe as a recording and mix engineer, with artists, bands and for TV and film soundtracks. A significant volume was done at Abbey Road Studios. He has written music for commercials and documentaries and his work includes the UK Channel 4 Station Ident. Simon’s first album as Sonanaut was released on IVSI Records at the end of 2007. It’s a collection of works based on his response to his life in New York. The style is Ambient Electronica. The album is now part of an exhibition called Sonic-Self at the Chelsea Art Museum in New York. The exhibition’s world tour includes Manchester in the UK & we hope to get details of that later. For more news & contact info see www.sonanaut.com where you can sign up for his newsletter.
Stephen Wood (M 98-03) has been appointed to the music staff of the Welsh National Opera after Post Graduate study with the Royal Academy of Music.
Fergus Macleod (Rt 01-06): - At Cambridge founded Ensemble CB3 which in two seasons has worked with composers such as David Horne, Paul Patterson, Robin Holloway and Elliot Schwartz giving 10 world premieres as well as works by composers such as Schoenberg, Turnage, Lindberg, Britten and Woolrich. Fergus conducted the inaugural opera of Fitzwilliam Chamber Opera, a production of Handel's Xerxes. After a sell-out run in Cambridge it went to the recently reopened Theatre Royal at Bury St Edmunds playing to full houses. In January he makes his professional debut conducting a programme of Debussy: Prelude a l'apres-midi d'un faune, Chopin: Piano Concerto No.1 (Takashi Yamamoto),Tippett: Ritual Dances, and Stravinsky: Firebird Suite (1919) with the Tokyo Philharmonic http://www.tpo.or.jp/english/index.html , with future engagements to include a concert with the Netherlands Radio Chamber Philharmonic. He is now managed by Harrison Parrott Artists
