Speak The Speech by Bell Shakespeare

Desdemona from Othello Act 4, Scene 2 performed by Lisa McCune  This week, for our final episode of Season 3 of Speak The Speech, we are joined by one of Australia’s most popular and successful screen and theatre actors, Lisa McCune. Lisa performs Desdemona’s speech from Act 4, Scene 2 of Othello and delves into the language of the piece. She also talks about playing Gertrude in Bell Shakespeare’s 2020 production of Hamlet, the difference between performing on stage and screen, and what she’s learned across her acclaimed career.    Lisa McCune has earned an impressive collection of awards as an actor, including four Gold Logies for Most Popular Personality on Australian television. She recently starred in Girl from the North Country, as well as the Network Ten comedy series How To Stay Married and Bell Shakespeare’s production of Hamlet.    After graduating from the WA Academy of Performing Arts, she landed the role of Maggie Doyle in the police drama Blue Heelers, which went on to become one of the most popular and enduring programs on Australian television, making her a household name. Her other screen credits include The Potato Factory, Ex PM, It’s A Date, Sea Patrol, Rake, MDA, and Hell Has Harbour Views.    On stage, she’s starred as Maria in The Sound of Music, which she followed with her Green Room Award-winning performance as Sally Bowles in Cabaret. She earned a Helpmann nomination for her performance in The King and I, and has also appeared in Shane Warne The Musical, South Pacific, Into The Woods, and Guys and Dolls. 

Julius Caesar from Julius Caesar Act 2, Scene 2 performed by Greg Doran   “If theatre holds a mirror up to nature, and you don’t see yourself reflected in that mirror, then why should you engage with it?”  This week on Speak The Speech, we are joined by “one of the great Shakespeareans of his generation” [Sunday Times], Artistic Director Emeritus of the Royal Shakespeare Company Gregory Doran. Gregory talks about his extensive and acclaimed body of work with the RSC, his long personal and professional partnership with Sir Antony Sher, and his commitment to diversity of voices in creating Shakespeare for everyone.   Gregory Doran has spent 35 years with the Royal Shakespeare Company, the last 10 as Artistic Director. His directing highlights include King Lear, starring Antony Sher, The Tempest starring Simon Russell Beale, and his world-renowned production of Julius Caesar for the World Shakespeare Festival. In 2021 he directed the Henry VI Part 1 Open Rehearsal Project, which for the first time invited audiences to observe the RSC’s full rehearsal process. In 2016 he took the company to mainland China for the first time, with the Henry IV plays and Henry V. In 2012 he directed David Tennant in Richard II, the first RSC production to be broadcast live in cinemas. He’s won an Olivier award, a Sam Wanamaker Award from Shakespeare’s Globe, and received numerous honorary doctorates. In 2023, as Artistic Director Emeritus, he will direct Cymbeline, his 50th production for the RSC. 

Oberon from A Midsummer Night’s Dream Act 2, Scene 1 performed by Laura Murphy  "This is the type of show that could be seen anywhere and could speak to anyone, or at least that’s what my hope, that’s my dream.”  This week on Speak The Speech, we are joined by performer, writer and composer Laura Murphy. Laura shares how she came to discover Shakespeare and her journey dissecting and adapting A Midsummer Night’s Dream into the new Australian pop musical THE LOVERS. She talks about finding those “musical moments”, developing the characters and the creative process in writing a new musical.   Laura Murphy is a performer, writer and composer whose latest project, The Lovers, will premiere at the Sydney Opera House in October 2022, produced by Bell Shakespeare. She was lyricist and composer for the critically acclaimed Australian musical The Dismissal and the “fierce and fabulous” immersive dance musical Qween Lear.  She began writing and composing in 2009, creating the music and lyrics for the Channel Nine TV series William and Sparkle’s Magical Tales, in which she also starred as Sparkles the Fairy. She went on to write and compose for several TV programs including Magical Tales: Surprises, Imagination Train and I Am Me. Laura's latest original work, Zombie! The Musical will be presented as part of Hayes Theatre Co's 2023 season.  Laura’s performance credits include the Australian Tour and World Premiere production of Muriel's Wedding The Musical; Cry Baby with LPD Productions; the Australasian tour of Grease and Hayes Theatre Co's You're A Good Man, Charlie Brown for which Laura received a Sydney Theatre Award.  THE LOVERS is playing at Sydney Opera House until 20 November 2022. Get your tickets: www.bellshakespeare.com.au/the-lovers

Ariel from The Tempest Act 1, Scene 2 performed by Rachael Maza  “As much as I struggled with the works themselves in terms of these broader themes, and I guess what was important to me; I do love the art. The craft of getting your mouth around Shakespeare. I love the language.” This week on Speak The Speech, we are joined by award-wining actor, director, and dramaturg Rachael Maza. Rachel talks to us about working with John Bell and Jim Sharman on The Tempest for Bell Shakespeare in 1997, her work as Artistic Director of ILBIJERRI Theatre Company and taking First Nations works overseas, and how she feels Shakespeare sits alongside First Nations theatre and the reclaiming of language. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander listeners are advised that this podcast episode contains the names of people who have died. Rachael Maza is Yidinji, Meriam and Dutch. She is an award-winning actor, director and dramaturg, and has been Artistic Director of ILBIJERRI Theatre Company since 2008. A Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts graduate, her outstanding performances have been acknowledged with a Green Room Award and a Sydney Theatre Critics Circle Award. She’s worked as a presenter for ABC’s Message Stick program, and has appeared in major Australian productions such as the feature film Radiance and the stage production of The Sapphires. Her directing credits include Stolen, Jack Charles V The Crown, Foley, Which Way Home and Heart is a Wasteland. She currently sits on the board of Force Majeure and on the ACMI Indigenous Advisory Group.  She is a Member of the Order of Australia and has also received a Touring Legend Drover Award, an Australia Council of the Arts Award for Theatre, and an Honorary Doctorate from Edith Cowan University.

Leontes from The Winter’s Tale Act 1, Scene 2 performed by Ben Crystal   This week on Speak The Speech, we are joined by actor, author and creative producer, Ben Crystal. Ben performs a speech from The Winter’s Tale and shares his knowledge of received and original pronunciation in Shakespeare’s works. He also talks about Shakespearean rehearsal and production practices, examines the evolution of Shakespeare’s verse over his career, and discusses the process of creating his acclaimed co-authorship of Shakespeare’s Words.   Ben Crystal is an actor, author and creative producer, and explorer of original practices in Shakespeare rehearsal and production. He is the co-author of Shakespeare’s Words, The Shakespeare Miscellany and An Illustrated Dictionary of Shakespeare. He also wrote the Springboard Shakespeare series for Arden, and his first solo book, Shakespeare on Toast was shortlisted for the Educational Writer of the Year Award. From 2014 to 2016 he was invited with his father, David Crystal, to explore original pronunciation (OP) in the newly finished Sam Wanamaker Playhouse at Shakespeare's Globe.   He is a special advisor to the Shakespeare North Playhouse, a patron of Shakespeare Week and the founder of the international Shakespeare Ensemble, which makes full-scale productions in 5 days or less. He’s travelled the world teaching and performing Shakespeare, and has delivered speeches for the British Council, TEDx, and universities worldwide. 

Polonius from Hamlet Act 1, Scene 3 performed by Sarah Blasko   This week on Speak The Speech, we are joined by Australian singer, songwriter, musician, and record producer Sarah Blasko. Recorded live in Sydney in June 2022, in this episode Sarah gives us a sneak peek into her work composing for our 2023 production of Twelfth Night, discusses how her upbringing influenced her artistry, the process of collaborating and writing music for stage, and even performs some songs! Sarah Blasko has released six studio albums as a solo artist, including What the Sea Wants, the Sea Will Have, As Day Follows Night, and I Awake, all of which reached the top 10 in the ARIA album charts. She is a three-time ARIA Award winner – for Best Pop Release, Best Female Artist and Best Adult Alternative. As Day Follows Night also won Triple J’s Album of the Year and is listed at No. 19 in the book 100 Best Australian Albums. In 2008 she wrote the music for Bell Shakespeare’s production of Hamlet directed by Marion Potts. In 2023, she will write the music for Bell Shakespeare’s 2023 production of Twelfth Night, directed by Heather Fairbairn.   

Macbeth from Macbeth Act 5, Scene 5 performed by David McInnis   “The play is a living, thriving organism that changes day to day.”  This week on Speak The Speech, we are joined by award-winning scholar, David McInnis. David performs an excerpt from Macbeth and discusses the dramatic convention of witches, what rehearsal and performance would have looked like Shakespeare’s time, analyses Shakespeare in comparison with other works of the time and his experience editing Shakespeare.  David is currently Associate Professor of Shakespeare and Early Modern Drama at the University of Melbourne. He is the author of Shakespeare and Lost Plays, for Cambridge University Press, and Mind-Travelling and Voyage Drama in Early Modern England, for Palgrave. He’s also edited Thomas Dekker’s Old Fortunatus for the Revels Plays series, and Dekker’s If this be not a good play, the devil is in it for the Routledge Anthology of Early Modern Drama. He is co-founder and editor of the Lost Plays Database and has edited a number of books including Lost Plays in Shakespeare’s England, Loss and the Literary Culture of Shakespeare’s Time, and Shakespeare and Virtual Reality. His work has been featured in The New York Times, The Guardian, the BBC and the Australian Book Review and he is currently editing Timon of Athens for the Arden Shakespeare 4th series. 

Othello from Othello Act 1, Scene 3 performed by Matu Ngaropo  This week on Speak The Speech we are joined by Matu Ngaropo. Matu performs and unpacks Othello’s speech from Act 1, Scene 3.  He shares how Māori culture and language influences his approach to Shakespeare, the experience of performing at Shakespeare’s Globe in traditional Māori dress and language, and the parallels between the musical Hamilton and Shakespeare’s plays and much more.  Matu Ngaropo is a graduate of Toi Whakaari, New Zealand’s premier drama school. On stage he’s played Othello for Centrepoint Theatre, Mercutio in Romeo and Juliet for Downstage Theatre, Guildenstern in Hamlet, Macduff in Macbeth and Angelo in The Comedy of Errors for the Pop-Up Globe, as well as Achilles in The Māori Troilus and Cressida at the Globe Theatre in London. He’s also appeared in Disney’s The Lion King and performed at Rugby World Cups in New Zealand, France and Japan. His musical act, The Modern Māori Quartet, has toured to China, Australia, London, Edinburgh and New York. His screen credits  Shortland Street, Korero Mai and Seven Periods with Mr Gormsby. He is currently playing George Washington in the Australian cast of the smash-hit musical Hamilton. 

Romeo from Romeo and Juliet Act 2, Scene 2 performed by Jess Chambers  This week on Speak The Speech, we are joined by voice, dialect and text coach Jess Chambers. In this episode, Jess discusses what drew her to voice and text coaching, what it’s like to prepare a company of actors vocally to perform in different circumstances, her work with children on Matilda the Musical, how studying speech pathology informs her practice, and her best pieces of advice for vocalising Shakespeare.   Jess Chambers works internationally as a voice, dialect and text coach. For Bell Shakespeare she has been the voice coach on over a dozen productions including Hamlet, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Much Ado About Nothing, The Miser and Richard III.   Her other voice coaching credits include Matilda the Musical in Australia and London, Alice In Wonderland, Sweet Charity, and Pygmalion for The Shaw Festival Theatre in Canada, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Real Thing and How To Rule The World for Sydney Theatre Company.  She was dialect coach on Moulin Rouge! The Musical, School of Rock, Jersey Boys, Les Miserables and The Sound Of Music. Her screen credits include Frayed and The Unlisted for the ABC, and the film Hacksaw Ridge.   

Thomas More from Sir Thomas More performed by Janine Watson   “The Comedy of Errors – the received perception of it is lightweight, thin, a bit of fluff, a diversion; actually it is quite the opposite... it is a play about people trying to find themselves, and connect to love. “  This week on Speak The Speech, we are joined by award-winning actor and director Janine Watson.  In this episode, Janine discusses directing and discovering the complexities, nuances and physicality of The Comedy of Errors. She shares the process of transitioning into directing from acting, how a cast recreates a performance night after night on tour and the balance between collaboration and leadership in the rehearsal room.  Janine is a graduate of the National Theatre Drama School in Melbourne and has trained with the SITI Company in New York and Zen Zen Zo Physical Theatre. For Bell Shakespeare she’s appeared in Antony and Cleopatra and The Dream, and directed a production of Romeo and Juliet for young audiences. This year she directed Bell Shakespeare’s national tour of The Comedy of Errors. In 2016 she won the inaugural Sandra Bates Directing Award at the Ensemble Theatre and went on to direct Unqualified, Nearer the Gods and Unqualified 2 for the company. In 2018 she won a GLUG Award for Best Supporting Actress for Red Line’s A View from the Bridge, and was also nominated for a Sydney Theatre Award. In 2020, she won the Sydney Theatre Award for Best Female Performer in an Independent Production for The Happy Prince, produced by Little Ones Theatre.