Last week Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts held a rather swanky breakfast in an upstairs room at the Groucho Club. It was a chance for agents and casting directors to meet the team at Mountview to hear – and help shape – their plans for the future. Attenders included Shane Collins from Shane Collins Associates, Ellie Collyer-Bristow who is associate casting director at ATG, and reps from Curtis Brown and Waring & McKenna.

Principal Sue Robertson talked us through some of the school’s news, including its exciting move (announced last year) from Wood Green back its original home, Crouch End, where Hornsey Town Hall is being refurbished and kitted out with two new theatre spaces. For the first time in a long time Mountview students will be able to stage shows on site.

As part of this re-location, the school aims to deepen its relationship with the local community – a relationship which Roberston believes is hugely important to drama schools, especially when links with the acting industry are also strong. These key relationships allow schools to operate as a fulcrum between the two worlds, with the potential to bring local talent to professional attention.

Robertson took the opportunity to introduce some of the many new faces in the Mountview team, a few of whom have joined them from LAMDA. These included Stephen Jameson, the newly-appointed Director of Performance, who reiterated some of the guiding principles of Mountview’s teaching, and its commitment to being at the forefront of developments in the industry. All Mountview students, Jameson insisted, whatever course they are on, are trained to perform to the highest standards, with musical theatre students being given the opportunity to perform a healthy mix of repertoire that prepares them for the full gamut found in the current industry.

Rigour and depth are qualities on which Mountview prides itself. I chatted to Deputy Principal William Harris, who told me about the school’s small, very international, theatre directing course, as part of which directors are given the chance to participate in actor training classes alongside their own work. It is testimony to a supportive environment that this is an offer directors take them up on.

But this kind of cross-disciplinary training is what the school is all about: as Robertson was keen to point out, Mountview produces “actors who actually sing rather well, and musical theatre performers whose acting is formidable”.

With plenty of plans opened up for discussion, there was certainly more than just the (delicious) apricot croissants for agents and casting directors to get stuck into.

Image: Homemade croissants

The Royal Shakespeare Company is renowned for its innovative re-imaginings of Shakespeare’s work, and this summer they have taken on one of the Bard’s greatest political plays, Julius Caesar. Actor Jude Owusu, playing the part of Cinna the poet in the play, tells us more.

Focusing on the true events of Roman history, Julius Caesar is a gripping tale of conspiracy and assassination; friendship and betrayal. While the RSC have stayed true to these themes, the company has also added a twist. “This particular adaptation is set in Africa,” Owusu explains. While giving a fresh perspective on the classic, this setting highlights the political issues we face today: “If you look back at the history of Africa it’s littered with despotic kings, people that cling onto power for a bit too long – there’s the classic case of Mugabe in the Middle East and at the moment you have the problems in Syria and the Arab Spring – all these different things just seem to make the play so relevant and so necessary”.

However, while the concerns of the play are reflected in modern African politics, Owusu argues, “I don’t particularly think it was meant to make a political point, because you could set Julius Caesar anywhere that’s had a conflict and it would just be incredibly apt”. Instead, the decision to set the play in Africa has other influences. “I think one of the main reasons behind it was that Greg Doran, the director of the piece, is a massive fan of Nelson Mandela”. Owusu shares a story that he and the other actors were told in rehearsals: “The complete works of Shakespeare were smuggled in to Robben Island where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned, and all of the different prisoners highlighted a passage that was really poignant to them and that really inspired them, and under Nelson Mandela’s name he’d signed a passage from Julius Caesar where Caesar says: “Cowards die many times before their death, The valiant never taste of death but once”. So it’s from that inspiration that Doran really wanted to set the play in Africa”. As well as this, “a lot of Africans find Julius Caesar to be their African Shakespeare play – of all the collection of his works, it’s the one that most Africans really find tangible and they can really relate it to their lives”.

One of the ways in which the audience is transported to Africa is through the live music incorporated into the production. “The music is a massive part of the whole piece, it gives a real sense of Africa. The group is called The Vibes of March, which is a play on words of the “Ides of March” Caesar is warned about. They play loads of original African instruments – they’ve even got an unexploded bomb shell they use as an instrument as well. So there’s just a wonderful soundscape created”. The use of a bomb shell again evokes the conflicts Africa faces, not to mention the giant statue that dominates the set. For Owusu, “it reminds me whenever I see it of – do you remember the image of Saddam Hussein’s statue being toppled? It’s kind of similar to that. It’s a statue of Caesar, and during Brutus’s moment when he’s revisited by the ghost of Caesar, the statue collapses”. Nothing quite screams tyrannous dictator like a giant statue of yourself. As well as this, the costumes try and give a sense of modern African fashion, as well as issues of class. “I think the aim behind the costumes was to give a sense of the different hierarchies within the country. So you’ve got the likes of Caesar wearing very smart African suits, which are actually kind of half-western suits, and for the plebeians you’ve got just normal, functioning African attire, so they’ve taken into consideration the heat and humidity of Africa”.

While these contrivances of clothes and music strive to bring Africa to the theatre, the production also features an all-black cast. “That’s not to say there aren’t any white people in locations in Africa – but in terms of African hierarchy, government and things like that, I think it is predominantly black, and in Julius Caesar there are a lot of senate scenes”. For Owusu, who would hesitate to see a play purely on the basis that it had a cast of one particular group, this casting can definitely be seen to have positive effects. “As a black person and as a young black actor, I do think there is some merit and some worth in having productions that show the audience a representation of themselves, because I think that’s what inevitably inspires somebody. If you inspire someone it’s not someone who’s a superhuman doing something incredible, it’s inspiring because it’s somebody like you, somebody similar to you doing something extraordinary, and that’s what encourages and inspires. So say if you had an all female version of Julius Caesar, on the one hand it could be wonderful because it would inspire loads of young girls to go ‘wow, that person’s just like me, I’d like to do something like this’”. Despite this, Owusu maintains that the colour of the actors’ skin is not relevant to the art of theatre. “I don’t think it’s an issue at all, I mean I don’t ever go and watch a Chekhov play and go ‘oh my god, that was an all white cast’ – it doesn’t really matter, it’s just what it is”.

Another way in which the RSC has breathed new life into Julius Caesar is in its use of volunteer actors for the chorus during the play’s run in Stratford-upon-Avon. “They were fantastic!” enthuses Owusu, who feels they not only invigorated the play, but also the professional actors they were working alongside. “It was marvellous to have them there because there were so many of them, and they gave a real sense of vibrancy. Their energy reminded the actors that what they’re doing is a great job. Sometimes when you’re doing your dream it feels like a job, and to see their enthusiasm and their love of working with the RSC was just inspiring, and I think it rubbed off on everyone else”. Unfortunately, the company won’t be able to use volunteers while performing in London. “I think it was down to the space of the theatre, we just couldn’t fit them on the stage. And I think it was something to do with Equity as well – you’d have to pay all of them money to be on the stage and I don’t think that was in the budget”.

While the London volunteers may not be able to live their dream of performing with the Royal Shakespeare Company, for Owusu this dream has become a reality. Fresh on the scene, having graduated just two years ago, this is Osuwu’s first time performing with the company, and so far he has been thrilled with the experience. “It can be a little nerve-wracking working with these people, but actually the higher up you go the fewer egos there are. Everyone’s been so professional, and it’s been fantastic”. In his first part with the company, he plays the small but significant role of Cinna the poet. “Cinna the poet is a wonderful character. He leaves his house because he has a dream, and in his dream he’s having dinner with Caesar. He turns to the audience and says ‘but that dream is slightly twisted, it doesn’t feel right. I have no reason why I’m even outside here, but there’s this thing that’s leading me forth outside my house’, and it’s that curiosity that he has that unfortunately leads him into the mob who then kill him”.

While his character dies within a short number of lines, Owusu argues that “it’s a beautiful piece because just in the scene before that, Mark Anthony has turned the mob around using speech, the power of rhetoric, and Shakespeare ironically in the following scene allows the mob to murder a man of words, a man who uses speech”. Like the rest of the play, the scene with Cinna the poet reverberates with modern concerns, both political and day-to-day. “I remember watching the London riots, and there was this one image of this guy on a bike who was attacked. He actually had nothing to do with the riots, he was just minding his own business, and there was this immediacy of ‘it could be anything it could be anyone’, he was just in the wrong place at the wrong time”. It’s through imagery such as this that we realise how relevant Shakespeare still is in our time – a relevancy that the RSC brings to the fore in this production.

Julius Caesar plays at the Noel Coward Theatre until 15th September and then tours the UK until the end of October, visiting cities including Norwich, Salford and Cardiff. For more information and to buy tickets, visit www.rsc.org.uk/whats-on/julius-caesar.

Image credit: RSC

Be it the summer or the winter holiday season, it’s the time everything slows down. However frustrating for the self-employed it it might be to take days off, taking time off to chill is important.

I love being busy. Call me a workaholic, but weekend or holidays, if I have something to do I’m capable of spending the entire day working on it. Even though I feel charged by doing what I love, I’ve recently experienced feeling burnt out too, because I went through a lot during the first half of this year. That’s when I realised how important it is to have a work-life balance.

Perhaps it’s only natural that when we really want something, and want to succeed, we take it very seriously. Like any other craft, acting needs you to put in the hours of practice. With experience comes confidence – something I’ve come to realise over time.

Yet there is one more thing I learned quite recently: what a difference having fun with it makes. But when you are burnt out, you obviously aren’t having fun. So I took some time off and travelled and stayed out of social media for a while. I started taking online courses, watching TV series and studying from behind the scenes. I started working on my own projects and I took a part-time job at a charity organisation. I’m also spending much more time with my family and friends doing fun stuff.

What a change it all made! By having things to do in between auditions and acting jobs, I no longer feel burnt out. It also stops me from beating myself up over auditions and prevents me from feeling frustrated about how slow things are during the holiday season (in Czech Republic, some theatres close during this period and casting agencies seem to hold fewer auditions too).

I’ve learned that taking time off from acting doesn’t hurt me or make me a worse actor. Doing everything else I also love and having fun with it makes me a happier person, and therefore a happier actor too.

Image: Lenka travelling in Venice

Our preview is imminent. Like, really imminent. As in, one week.

A preview is something that most companies taking shows to the Fringe will be doing. It’s the first time to try what you have out in front of an audience, and an excellent way to gain some (mainly) insightful and objective feedback. It’s also a great way of spotting what is Olivier-worthy and what you wouldn’t subject your deaf and blind dog to. I know that both Theatre 503 and the Tristan Bates theatre are doing mini-seasons of previews. We are performing at the fantastic Trinity Theatre in Tunbridge Wells. Our ever-wonderful producer is an employee of this establishment and they have done us the favour of letting us perform in their 230 seater converted-from-a-church theatre, for free.

Now, I am going to talk about the show that you can all see next Saturday, but I would first like to provide an update of our current state of affairs. After all, we promised you both high and lows. Due to scheduling conflicts, Alex has had to pull out of the show, but he has been replaced by the lovely, if uncompromisingly sports mad Gareth Saunders. Wimbledon has become a consistent backing track to our rehearsals. None of our props have been found. Nor has most of our costume. We’re using commercial music because the soundtrack isn’t finished yet. Our set, though extremely minimal, is yet to be completed. Francesca has started jumping up and down…

Rehearsals, however, are going swimmingly – something that provides some much needed relief to our otherwise screaming brains. We have made quite some progress from our ostriches of a month ago, however, the biggest challenge remains the choreography. This is often mainly to do with its nature. Without giving too much away, this is certainly not a dance piece and no dancing takes place, nor is it a case of having a scene of dialogue and then a scene of physical theatre. The choreography is based far more upon day to day physicality writ large, and therefore it is less about being able to pirouette on demand and more about remembering on what line you perform a sequence that involves nodding, scratching your left ear and picking up a coffee cup in perfect unison. Not only that, but the blocking for all of this has to be learnt twice. Our venue at Zoo Southside in Edinburgh is thrust and will have a very special seating arrangement, whereas Trinity is a standard proscenium arch. In all fairness to the cast, they have attacked this challenge head on, though there have been threats of violence if asked to repeat a certain scene one more time.

Anyhow, the thing is, we’re really quite excited. Panicked, but excited. This is an open invitation to you all to come along on Saturday 14 July to the Trinity Theatre at 7pm. It’s only a half hour journey from Waterloo to Tonbridge. There will be a Q & A session straight after where we’d love to hear your thoughts and any constructive criticism. We’d also just like to say “hey”. Alternatively, just come along to see if we’ve managed to pull it all together in time.

Written by Chi-San Howard.

Image: Rush Theatre’s Gareth Saunders and Jacques Parker.

Find out more about Rush Theatre by visiting its Twitter page or website.