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(I have updated this page with entirely new information: including a complete list of plays at Giles Havergals Glasgow Citizens Theatre from 1970-1996 and elsewhere)
 
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'''Laurance Rudic''' was born into a musical, theatrical family in [[Glasgow, Scotland]], 1952. His father was classical violinist and his mother a semi-professional light-opera singer.
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'''Laurance Rudic''' (born 10 September 1952) is a British theatre artist best known for his long association as a leading member of the [[Glasgow]] [[Citizens Theatre]] company.  
  
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Laurance appeared in his first play when he was eight years old, and went on to play Tom Sawyer in a school play when he was 10. In 1967, intent on pursuing a career as a professional actor, he left school at the age of fifteen and got a job as an office boy at BBC Glasgow. While working at the BBC he attracted the attention of the director Pharic McLaren who had seen him acting in staff amateur drama plays. McLaren asked him to audition for a ‘Wednesday Play’ he was about to direct, called The Boy Who Wanted Peace (BBC1969). Rudic was cast in the name role of Percy Phinn, and left the BBC staff to begin actor training at The Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama. During this time, he became the pupil of the mime performer, Lindsay Kemp, who was then based in Edinburgh. Kemp accepted him as a student and through his own example encouraged Rudic to think of theatre as a magical and living art. He acted with Kemp in his early productions of “Flowers”, based on Jean Genet’s novel, Our Lady of the Flowers; and Georg Buchner’s, Woyzeck. Both productions were shown at The Old Traverse Theatre in Edinburgh in 1970 and 1971.
+
For 34 years, (1969-2003) 'The Citz' as it came to be known, was run by a trio of maverick geniuses - [[Giles Havergal]], [[Philip Prowse]] and [[Robert David MacDonald]]. Under this triumvirate the company quickly gained fame and notoriety for its glamorous and ofttimes outrageously decadent European-style treatment of rarely-performed European and English classics. New works such as ''[[Camille (play)|Camille]]'', ''[[Chinchilla]]'', ''[[A Waste of Time]]'' and ''[[Webster (play)|Webster]]'' were regularly written for the company by its resident playwright, dramaturg and translator, R.D. McDonald. For many years, the Citz was proving-ground and creative home to young actors who passionately eschewed existing English literary and mechanistic acting conventions in order to develop their own very individualistic approach. Famous actors who started their careers there include [[Tim Curry]], [[Pierce Brosnan]], [[Gary Oldman]], [[Rupert Everett]], [[Sean Bean]], [[Tim Roth]], [[Celia Imrie]] and [[Ciarán Hinds]].
  
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While still at drama school, Rudic was developing a relationship with the newly formed Glasgow Citizens Theatre Company ‘The Citz’ (1969 – 2003) and its triumvirate of directors: Giles Havergal, Philip Prowse, and Robert David McDonald. On leaving RSAM&D, he was invited to join the company whose actors were all under the age of 25 and he was also one of only three Scots actors to be accepted into the mainly English company. His first role was as Celebinus in Keith Hack’s production for the Edinburgh International Festival of Christopher Marlowe’s, Tamburlaine the Great. He stayed with the company for the next four seasons, playing a variety of roles.
+
Rudic was born into a musical, theatrical family in [[Glasgow]], Scotland. His father was a [[violin]]ist, his mother a semi-professional singer, and his aunt was the Scottish actress and [[broadcaster]] Edith Ruddick.
  
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Curious about the very different everyday-life he had witnessed in Morocco and Egypt, in 1975 he traveled alone overland to India via Iran and Afghanistan, in order to meet refugee Tibetans and to look for clues in this more holistic environment to the development of his own approach to acting. In the Himalayas, he was invited by the Dalai Lama’s Private Secretary to teach acting to the young performers of the Tibetan Institute of Performing Arts (T.I.P.A.) who were preparing for the first Tibetan-in-exile cultural tour of Europe and America.
+
==Career==
 +
Rudic began acting in amateur dramatics at an early age and working as a dresser when he was twelve years old in [[Jimmy Logan]]'s [[Metropole Theatre]] in Glasgow. This early experience of the world of [[variety]] and [[music-hall]], created a deep and enduring fascination with theatre's potential as a space for expressing the immediacy of human existence beyond conventional approaches to text-based theatre. Intent on becoming an actor, he left school at the age of 15 and worked as an office boy at the [[BBC]]. While acting in a staff play he was chosen by director, [[Pharic McLaren]], to play the name role in ''[[The Boy Who Wanted Peace]]'' (1969), part of the BBC's ''[[Wednesday Play]]'' series.
  
−
He returned to the Citizens for a final season, and in 1976, left Glasgow to explore the London market place. The same year he was chosen to play a young Friar Lawrence in James Rhoose-Evans’ production of Shakespeare’s, Romeo and Juliet. The production at the Shaw Theatre, also featured Mickey Feast, Angela Pleasance, Brian Sterner, and making her second appearance as an actress, the renowned Prima ballerina, Svetlana Beriosova, who played Lady Capulet. He had seen her dance in Glasgow and was somewhat flabbergasted to find himself working with her.
+
Rudic completed three years of formal actor training at the [[Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama]] in Glasgow (1969 – 1972). At the same time he began performing in the dream theatre of the iconoclastic theatre artist and mime, [[Lindsay Kemp]], whose approach introduced him to what Rudic refers to as ''Dynamic Meditation'' - a heightened state of [[sensory awareness]] in which intuition and spontaneity within the moment of the performance play a major role. Kemp's physical theatre work had its root in many inspirations including the [[Corporeal Mime]] of [[Etienne Decroux]], [[Marcel Marceau]], and also the classical [[Noh]] theatre of Japan, in which time is non-linear and of the moment.
  
−
That same year, London was host to the Festival of Islam and the whole city was given over to a variety of singers and dancers and musicians from Islamic cultures, who again reaffirmed in Rudic his belief that inspiration for the development of his own process lay in those more traditional cultures with their living approach to storytelling and performance.
+
His work with Kemp in ''Flowers'' and ''Woyzeck'' at the [[Traverse Theatre]] in [[Edinburgh]] led to his being accepted as a company member of the newly established Glasgow Citizens Theatre company ('The Citz') (1969-2003), run by [[Giles Havergal]]. At that time (1972) he was one of only three Scots actors to be accepted into the young company who were predominantly English. Rudic continued to work there intermittently until 1996.
  
−
In 1978, the Kathakali actors of Kerala, South India, made their first-ever appearance in London at The Sadlers Wells Theatre. Rudic applied for and was accepted as a student at the Kerala Kalamandalum. At Kerala Kalamandalum he became disillusioned by the mechanized drilling techniques of the teachers. He lasted a little under six months, and left Kerala to return to the Tibetans in the Himalayas.
+
==Travels in the East==
 +
Throughout his years at the Citz, Rudic travelled frequently to cultures beyond Europe in order to understand more about holistic process in the oral tradition. In 1975, on his first visit to the [[Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama|Dalai Lama]]'s refugee headquarters-in-exile in the [[Himalayas]], he was invited by the Dalai Lama's private office to teach acting to the young refugee performers of the [[Tibetan Institute of Performing Arts]] (T.I.P.A.) who were preparing for the first Tibetan cultural tour of Europe and the Americas. He also experienced life as a [[Kathakali]] acting student at the leading school for Kathakali actors in Kerala, South India - the [[Kerala Kalamandalum]]. These travels contributed greatly to his understanding of his own transient process.
  
−
In 1979 he returned to the UK and was invited by John McGrath, playwright and founder of the 7:84 Theatre Company, to appear in his new play, ''Blood Red Roses''. Laurance subsequently returned to his old company, The Glasgow Citizens, to play the role of Socrate in a new play by Robert David McDonald, ''Chincilla''.
+
In 2000, intent on developing himself as a ‘stand-up’ theatre artist, he was awarded a [[Ford Foundation]] Grant to travel to [[Egypt]] and observe the dying tradition of epic storytelling. As part of his research, he based himself with [[El Warsha Theatre Company]], a group of young Egyptian actors, dancers and singers, working in downtown [[Cairo]]. Through the company he got to know the old generation of traditional performance artists such as Sayed El Dowwi, the improvising epic storyteller from [[Upper Egypt]], and Hassan Khanufa, a traditional street performer and [[Aragoz]] puppeteer from [[Cairo]], who died in 2005 at the age of 74.
  
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In 1981 he performed once more with 7:84, in a revival of a play by Ena Lamont Stewart: ''Men Should Weep''.  That winter he appeared as Friar Tuck in the Citizens’ annual pantomime ''Babes in the Wood'', written by John Byrne of ''Slab Boys'' fame, and also starring newcomers, [[Gary Oldman]] as Daniel the Dog, and [[Robbie Coltrane]] as Little John. Rudic embarked on three more successful seasons, playing his usual diverse selection of roles.
+
==Recent Projects==
  
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In 1985, [[Sir Peter Hall]] invited [[Sir Ian McKellan]] to start a new company at the Royal National Theatre and Rudic was asked to join the company which included Roy Kinnear, Eleanor Bron, Ian McKellan, Edward Petherbridge, Sheila Hancock, Hugh Lloyd, Jonathan Hyde and Greg Hicks. The company presented four plays in the UK and also toured to Paris, Aberdeen and Chicago.
+
In 2006, working with Scottish theatre practitioner [[Andrew McKinnon]], he returned from Cairo to Glasgow to perform a solo improvising "Stand-Up Theatre" piece - ''And God Created'' - at his old theatre, 'The Citz'. The entertainment, improvised around a theme of  autobiographical stories about acting and travel, deals with universal themes such as Time, the search for identity beyond society and culture, and the role of thought and memory in consciousness.
  
−
Preferring theatre to films and TV, he returned regularly to the Glasgow Citizens throughout the late 80’s and 90’s. In 1993, curious to discover yet more about his own process in theatre, he returned once more on an extended visit to India and The Tibetan Institute of Performing Arts in the Indian Himalayas, where he was invited to work with a new generation of young Tibetan performers. He returned to the UK in late 1993 and accepted a season at Pitlochry. In 1995, he returned to the Citizens under its old regime for the last time, playing the role of James Tyrone in Eugene O’Neill’s, Long Day’s Journey Into Night.
+
In October 2008, he returned once again to Glasgow, this time to direct and feature in ''[[The Parade]]'', an early work by the American Playwright, [[Tennessee Williams]]. The actors were encouraged to work within the action through an ongoing use of sensory awareness. There was no fixing of character and throughout the twelve performances, the life between the text was always in a state of flux, which meant that each night was considerably different from the other. This was the European and UK premiere of the work which was played at the [[Glasgow Citizens Theatre]] in the Circle Studio.
 +
 
 +
==Theatre==
 +
 
 +
====[[Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama]]====
 +
*[[Anton Chekhov]] ''[[Uncle Vanya]]'' '''Vanya''' Chandler 1971
 +
*[[William Shakespeare]] ''[[King Lear]]'' '''The Fool''' De Souza 1972
 +
 
 +
====Giles Havergal's Glasgow Citizens Theatre Company====
 +
;1971
 +
* [[Jean Genet]] ''[[The Balcony]]'' '''The Tramp''' Havergal
 +
;1972-1973
 +
* Shakespeare ''[[Timon of Athens]]'' '''Lucullus''' Hack [[Abbey Theatre]]Festival
 +
* [[Jean-Baptiste Molière]] ''[[Tartuffe]]'' '''M. Loyal''' Havergal [[Edinburgh International Festival]]
 +
* [[Peter Weiss]] ''[[Marat/Sade]]'' '''Karl''' Dartnell
 +
* Miles Rudge/John Gould ''[[Puss in Boots]]'' '''Puss''' Havergal
 +
* [[Christopher Marlowe]] ''[[Tamburlaine the Great]]'' '''Celebinus''' Hack [[Edinburgh International Festival]]
 +
* [[Nikolai Gogol]] ''[[The Government Inspector]]'' '''Bobchinski''' McDonald
 +
* [[Jack Gelber]] ''[[The Connection]]'' '''Leech''' Dartnell
 +
 
 +
;1973-1974
 +
* [[Bertholt Brecht]] ''[[Happy End (musical)|Happy End]]'' '''Wilbur''' McDonald
 +
* [[John Whiting]] ''[[The Devils]]'' '''Mannoury''' Havergal
 +
* Miles Rudge/John Gould ''[[Dick Whittington]]'' '''King Rat''' Havergal
 +
* Shakespeare ''[[The Taming of the Shrew]]'' '''Baptista''' Havergal (Hamburg Festival)
 +
* [[Robert David McDonald]] ''[[Camille (play)|Camille]]'' '''Dr Korev''' Prowse
 +
* [[Edward Bond]] ''[[Early Morning]]'' '''Disraeli''' Prowse
 +
* Bertholt Brecht ''[[St Joan of the Stockyards]]'' '''Criddle''' McDonald
 +
* Shakespeare ''[[Coriolanus (play)|Coriolanus]]'' '''Scicinius'''
 +
 
 +
;1974-1975
 +
* [[Arthur Koppit]] ''[[Indians (play)|Indians]]'' '''Chief Joseph of the Nez Percés''' McKay
 +
* [[Tennessee Williams]] ''[[Camino Real (play)|Camino Real]]'' '''Esmeralda''' Prowse
 +
* Nikolai Gogol ''[[The Government Inspector]]'' '''Inspector Of Schools''' McDonald
 +
* John Webster ''[[The Duchess of Malfi]]'' '''Rodrigo''' Prowse (Belgrade, Ljubljana, Zagreb)
 +
* Shakespeare ''[[Romeo & Juliet]]'' '''Benvolio''' Hayman
 +
* Robert David McDonald ''[[The De Sade Show]]'' '''The Bishop''' McDonald
 +
 
 +
;1975-1976
 +
* Shakespeare ''[[Hamlet]]'' '''Rosencrantz''' Prowse
 +
* [[Falkland Cary]] ''[[Sailor Beware]]'' '''Carnoustie Bligh''' Havergal
 +
* Robert David McDonald ''[[The De Sade Show]]'' '''Madame de Martaine''' Prowse
 +
* [[Carlo Goldoni]] ''[[Mirandolina]]'' '''Conte de Albafiorita''' McDonald
 +
* [[George Buchner]] ''[[Woyzeck]]'' '''Karl''' McDonald
 +
 
 +
;1981-1982
 +
* [[John Byrne]] ''[[Babes in the Wood]]'' '''Friar Tuck''' Havergal
 +
* Robert David McDonald ''[[Chincilla]]'' '''Socrate''' Prowse (Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague)
 +
* Robert David McDonald ''[[A Waste of Time]]'' '''Jupien''' Prowse (Caracas)
 +
* Shakespeare ''[[Hamlet]]'' '''Guildenstern''' McDonald
 +
* [[John Dryden]] ''[[Marriage à la mode (Restoration Drama)|Marriage à la mode]]'' '''Alexas''' Havergal
 +
* Bertholt Brecht ''[[Mr Puntila and his Man Matti]]'' '''The Attaché''' Havergal
 +
 
 +
;1982-1983
 +
* Jean Genet ''[[The Balcony]]'' '''The General''' Prowse
 +
* Jean Genet ''[[The Screens]]'' '''The Arab Voice''' Prowse
 +
* Jean Genet ''[[The Blacks (play)|The Blacks]]'' '''The General''' Prowse
 +
* [[Philip Massinger]] ''[[The Roman Actor]]'' '''Aretinus''' Prowse
 +
* [[Sean O'Casey]] ''[[Red Roses for Me]]'' '''Rev. Clinton''' Havergal
 +
* Bertholt Brecht ''[[The Mother (play)|The Mother]]'' '''Rybin''' McDonald
 +
* Carlo Goldoni ''[[The Impresario of Smyrna]]'' '''Ali the Impresario''' (Turin) McDonald
 +
* Shakespeare ''[[The Merchant of Venice]]'' '''Gratiano''' (Turin, Parma) Prowse
 +
* [[George Bernard Shaw]] ''[[Arms and the Man]]'' '''Major Petkoff''' Havergal
 +
* [[Le Marquis de Sade]] ''[[The Philosophy of the Boudoir]]'' '''Dolmance''' Prowse (Parma)
 +
* [[Noel Coward]] ''[[Sirocco (play)|Sirocco]]'' '''Angelo''' Prowse
 +
* Robert David McDonald ''[[Webster (play)|Webster]]'' '''Jeeper''' McDonald
 +
 
 +
;1983-1984
 +
* [[Karl Kraus]] ''[[The Last Days of Mankind]]'' '''A Man of Iron'''McDonald (Edinburgh International Festival)
 +
* [[Hugo von Hoffmansthal]] ''[[Der Rosenkavalier]]'' '''Herr von Faninal''' Prowse (Edinburgh International Festival)
 +
* Sean O'Casey ''[[Juno and the Paycock]]'' '''Needle Nugent''' Havergal
 +
* [[Thomas Southerne]] ''[[Oroonoko]]'' '''Aboan''' Prowse
 +
* Noel Coward ''[[Private Lives]]'' '''Louis''' Prowse
 +
* [[Ernst Toller]] ''[[The Machine Wreckers]]'' '''Jim Cobbitt''' Havergal
 +
* [[Jean-Paul Sartre]] ''[[Les Séquestrés d'Altona|Altona]]'' '''Franz''' McDonald
 +
* [[Oliver Goldsmith]] ''[[She Stoops to Conquer]]'' '''Diggory''' Havergal
 +
* [[Oscar Wilde]] ''[[A Woman of No Importance]]'' '''Mr Kelvill MP''' Prowse
 +
* [[Rolf Hochhuth]] ''[[Judith (play)|Judith]]'' '''Tiresius''' McDonald
 +
* [[Jacques Offenbach]] ''French Knickers'' ([[La Vie Parisienne]]) '''Bob''' Prowse
 +
 
 +
;1986
 +
* Oscar Wilde ''[[An Ideal Husband]]'' '''Vicomte De Nanjac''' Prowse
 +
* Rolf Hochhuth ''[[The Deputy|The Representative]]'' '''The Doctor''' McDonald
 +
 
 +
;1987
 +
* [[Friedrich Schiller]] ''[[The Maid of Orleans (play)|Joan of Arc]]'' Charles VII McDonald
 +
* [[Richard Brinsley Sheridan]] ''[[The School for Scandal]]'' McDonald
 +
 
 +
;1988
 +
* [[John Ford]] ''[['Tis Pity She's a Whore]]'' '''Friar Bonaventura''' Prowse
 +
* Oscar Wilde ''[[Lady Windermere's Fan]]'' '''Cecil Graham''' Prowse
 +
* [[William Congreve]] ''[[The Way of the World]]'' McDonald
 +
 
 +
;1989
 +
* [[Ben Jonson]] ''[[The Alchemist (play)|The Alchemist]]'' '''Face''' McDonald
 +
* Friedrich Schiller ''[[Mary Stuart (play)|Mary Stuart]]'' '''Lord Burleigh''' Prowse
 +
* [[Charles Dickens]] (adaptation) ''[[A Tale of Two Cities]]'' '''Dr Manette''' Prowse
 +
 
 +
;1990
 +
* Bertholt Brecht ''[[Mother Courage]]'' '''Cook''' Prowse ([[Mermaid Theatre]])with [[Glenda Jackson]]
 +
* [[Nicholas Rowe]] ''[[Jane Shore]]'' '''Richard III''' Prowse
 +
 
 +
;1991
 +
*''[[The Rivals]]''
 +
* [[Eugene O'Neil]] ''[[Mourning Becomes Electra]]'' '''Ezra/Orin''' Prowse
 +
* Noel Coward ''[[A Design for Living]]'' '''Ernest''' Prowse ([[Theatre Royal Richmond]])
 +
 
 +
;1992
 +
* [[Frank Wedekind]] ''[[Lulu (opera)|Lulu]]'' '''Dr Goll/Casti-Piani''' Pope
 +
* [[Craig Raine]] ''[[1953 (play)|1953]]'' '''Eberhard''' Prowse
 +
* Bertholt Brecht ''[[Edward II (play)|Edward II]] '''Edward II/III''' Prowse
 +
 
 +
;1996
 +
* Eugene O'Neil ''[[Long Day's Journey into Night]]'' '''James Tyrone''' Laing
 +
 
 +
;2006
 +
* Laurance Rudic ''[[And God Created…]]'' (solo show)
 +
 
 +
;2008
 +
[[Tennessee Williams]] ''[[The Parade]]'' '''Don''' Rudic European and UK premiere
 +
 
 +
==Other theatre==
 +
 
 +
*[[Lindsay Kemp]], [[Traverse Theatre]] 1971
 +
**''[[Woyzeck]]'' Karl
 +
 
 +
*[[Guildford Theatre Royal]] 1973
 +
**''[[A Measure for Measure]]'' Abwhoreson
 +
 
 +
*[[Welsh National Theatre]] 1976
 +
**''[[It Happened in Venice]]'' Beppe
 +
 
 +
*[[Shaw Theatre]] London 1976
 +
**''[[Romeo & Juliet]]'' Friar Lawrence
 +
 
 +
*[[Derby Playhouse]] 1977
 +
**''[[A Taste of Honey]]'' Colin
 +
 
 +
*[[Royal Court Theatre|Royal Court]] 1979
 +
**The Young Writer's Festival
 +
 
 +
*[[7:84]] Scotland 1980/81
 +
** [[John McGrath]] ''[[Blood Red Roses]]'' John
 +
** [[Ena Lamont-Stewart]] ''[[Men Should Weep]]'' Alex
 +
 
 +
*[[Scottish Theatre Company]] 1981
 +
**''[[Animal (play)|Animal]]''
 +
 
 +
*[[Ian McKellen]]-[[Edward Petherbridge]] Company at [[Royal National Theatre]] (Paris, Aberdeen, Chicago 1985/86)
 +
**''[[The Critic]]'' Mr Hopkins directed by [[Sheila Hancock]]
 +
**''[[The Duchess of Malfi]]'' Death directed by [[Philip Prowse]]
 +
**''[[The Cherry Orchard]]'' Trofimov directed by [[Mike Alfreds]]
 +
 
 +
*[[Mermaid Theatre]] London 1990
 +
**''[[Mother Courage]]'' Cook directed by Philip Prowse
 +
 
 +
*[[Richmond Theatre]] London 1991
 +
**''[[A Design for Living]]'' Ernest directed by Philip Prowse
 +
 
 +
*[[Almeida Theatre]] London 1993
 +
** [[Aleksandr Griboyedov]]''[[Chatsky]]'' Mr D directed by Jonathan Kent
 +
 
 +
*[[Edinburgh Festival]] 1995
 +
** [[Alasdair Gray]]''[[Lanark: A Life in Four Books|Lanark]]'' Lanark directed by Tony Graham
 +
 
 +
*[[Pitlochry Festival Theatre]] 1996
 +
**''[[Travels with My Aunt]]'' O'Toole et al directed by Richard Baron
 +
**''[[Flooers o’ Edinburgh]]'' Nabob directed by Clive Perry
 +
**''[[And Then There Were None]]'' Captain Lombard directed by Joan Knight
 +
**''[[Mr Bolfrey]]'' Cohen directed by Joan Knight
 +
 
 +
==Film and TV==
 +
 
 +
;BBC
 +
*''[[The Boy Who Wanted Peace]]'' Percy Phinn 1969 directed by Pharic McLaren
 +
*''[[The Spirit of Asia]]'' India documentary BBC 1978 directed by Michael McKintyre
 +
* [[Dennis Potter]]''[[Blackeyes]]'' Commercials Director BBC Directed by Dennis Potter
 +
*''[[Breast is Best]]'' Manager  BBC 1989
 +
*''[[Poppylands]]'' Johnny BBC 1989
 +
*''[[In Between the Lines]]'' Gilan
 +
 
 +
;STV
 +
*''[[Journey's End]]'' Raleigh directed by Tina Wakerell
 +
*''[[Martha]]'' Doctor directed by Tina Wakerell
 +
*''[[Dr Finlay's Casebook]]'' Sewell
 +
 
 +
;FILM
 +
*''[[In Defence of the Realm]]'' Charlie 1985 directed by [[David Drury]]
 +
*''[[Being Human (film)|Being Human]]'' Solus 1992 directed by [[Bill Forsyth]]
 +
*''[[Savage Play]]'' Christopher Sykes 1994
 +
*''[[Ring of Truth]]'' Priest
 +
*''[[Knights]]'' Muslim Chronicler 1997
 +
*''[[The Guest]]'' by [[Albert Camus]] Monsieur Daru
 +
 
 +
==References==
 +
*[[Scottish Theatre Archives]] [http://special.lib.gla.ac.uk/sta/search/resultspd.cfm?NID=25011&EID=&DID=75399&AID=]
 +
*[[National Theatre Archive]] [http://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/8254/past-events/past-productions-19811985.html]
 +
*Laurance Rudic website including notes, photographs and reviews on his time at Giles Havergal's Glasgow Citizens Theatre between the years 1971-1996 [http://laurancerudic.wordpress.com]
 +
 
 +
 
 +
==External links==
 +
*[[Theatre Scotland]] [http://www.theatrescotland.com/Scottish-theatre-artists/Actors/R.html]
 +
*Unofficial Glasgow Citizens Theatre site [http://www.intute.ac.uk/cgi-bin/fullrecord.pl?handle=artifact6844]
  
−
Since that time, he has become increasingly interested in developing his approach to theatre as a living storyteller and in 2000 he was awarded a Ford Foundation Grant to travel to Egypt and observe one of the last of the old generation of improvising epic storytellers, Sayid El Dawy, whose approach has been compared by scholars to that of the old Homeric bards. As part of his research, he based himself with El Warsha Theatre Company, a group of young Egyptian actors, dancers and singers, working in an old apartment in busy downtown Cairo. He has remained with the company passing on his discoveries in theatre to them and at the same time preparing himself to move onto the next level of performance as an improvising storyteller. At present he is working on a one-man show with his friend Andrew McKinnon based on stories of his life as a traveler and actor, which he hopes to present in his native Scotland later in 2006.
 
  
−
Also see The Unofficial Glasgow Citizen’s Theatre site: http://www.members.aol.com/actorsite2/lr/lrhomepg.htm
 
  
 
{{wikipedia|Laurance Rudic}}
 
{{wikipedia|Laurance Rudic}}
  
 
[[Category:Artists]]
 
[[Category:Artists]]

Latest revision as of 00:35, 20 November 2009

Laurance Rudic (born 10 September 1952) is a British theatre artist best known for his long association as a leading member of the Glasgow Citizens Theatre company.

For 34 years, (1969-2003) 'The Citz' as it came to be known, was run by a trio of maverick geniuses - Giles Havergal, Philip Prowse and Robert David MacDonald. Under this triumvirate the company quickly gained fame and notoriety for its glamorous and ofttimes outrageously decadent European-style treatment of rarely-performed European and English classics. New works such as Camille, Chinchilla, A Waste of Time and Webster were regularly written for the company by its resident playwright, dramaturg and translator, R.D. McDonald. For many years, the Citz was proving-ground and creative home to young actors who passionately eschewed existing English literary and mechanistic acting conventions in order to develop their own very individualistic approach. Famous actors who started their careers there include Tim Curry, Pierce Brosnan, Gary Oldman, Rupert Everett, Sean Bean, Tim Roth, Celia Imrie and Ciarán Hinds.

Rudic was born into a musical, theatrical family in Glasgow, Scotland. His father was a violinist, his mother a semi-professional singer, and his aunt was the Scottish actress and broadcaster Edith Ruddick.

Career[edit]

Rudic began acting in amateur dramatics at an early age and working as a dresser when he was twelve years old in Jimmy Logan's Metropole Theatre in Glasgow. This early experience of the world of variety and music-hall, created a deep and enduring fascination with theatre's potential as a space for expressing the immediacy of human existence beyond conventional approaches to text-based theatre. Intent on becoming an actor, he left school at the age of 15 and worked as an office boy at the BBC. While acting in a staff play he was chosen by director, Pharic McLaren, to play the name role in The Boy Who Wanted Peace (1969), part of the BBC's Wednesday Play series.

Rudic completed three years of formal actor training at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama in Glasgow (1969 – 1972). At the same time he began performing in the dream theatre of the iconoclastic theatre artist and mime, Lindsay Kemp, whose approach introduced him to what Rudic refers to as Dynamic Meditation - a heightened state of sensory awareness in which intuition and spontaneity within the moment of the performance play a major role. Kemp's physical theatre work had its root in many inspirations including the Corporeal Mime of Etienne Decroux, Marcel Marceau, and also the classical Noh theatre of Japan, in which time is non-linear and of the moment.

His work with Kemp in Flowers and Woyzeck at the Traverse Theatre in Edinburgh led to his being accepted as a company member of the newly established Glasgow Citizens Theatre company ('The Citz') (1969-2003), run by Giles Havergal. At that time (1972) he was one of only three Scots actors to be accepted into the young company who were predominantly English. Rudic continued to work there intermittently until 1996.

Travels in the East[edit]

Throughout his years at the Citz, Rudic travelled frequently to cultures beyond Europe in order to understand more about holistic process in the oral tradition. In 1975, on his first visit to the Dalai Lama's refugee headquarters-in-exile in the Himalayas, he was invited by the Dalai Lama's private office to teach acting to the young refugee performers of the Tibetan Institute of Performing Arts (T.I.P.A.) who were preparing for the first Tibetan cultural tour of Europe and the Americas. He also experienced life as a Kathakali acting student at the leading school for Kathakali actors in Kerala, South India - the Kerala Kalamandalum. These travels contributed greatly to his understanding of his own transient process.

In 2000, intent on developing himself as a ‘stand-up’ theatre artist, he was awarded a Ford Foundation Grant to travel to Egypt and observe the dying tradition of epic storytelling. As part of his research, he based himself with El Warsha Theatre Company, a group of young Egyptian actors, dancers and singers, working in downtown Cairo. Through the company he got to know the old generation of traditional performance artists such as Sayed El Dowwi, the improvising epic storyteller from Upper Egypt, and Hassan Khanufa, a traditional street performer and Aragoz puppeteer from Cairo, who died in 2005 at the age of 74.

Recent Projects[edit]

In 2006, working with Scottish theatre practitioner Andrew McKinnon, he returned from Cairo to Glasgow to perform a solo improvising "Stand-Up Theatre" piece - And God Created - at his old theatre, 'The Citz'. The entertainment, improvised around a theme of autobiographical stories about acting and travel, deals with universal themes such as Time, the search for identity beyond society and culture, and the role of thought and memory in consciousness.

In October 2008, he returned once again to Glasgow, this time to direct and feature in The Parade, an early work by the American Playwright, Tennessee Williams. The actors were encouraged to work within the action through an ongoing use of sensory awareness. There was no fixing of character and throughout the twelve performances, the life between the text was always in a state of flux, which meant that each night was considerably different from the other. This was the European and UK premiere of the work which was played at the Glasgow Citizens Theatre in the Circle Studio.

Theatre[edit]

Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama[edit]

Giles Havergal's Glasgow Citizens Theatre Company[edit]

1971
1972-1973
1973-1974
1974-1975
1975-1976
1981-1982
1982-1983
1983-1984
1986
1987
1988
1989
1990
1991
1992
1996
2006
2008

Tennessee Williams The Parade Don Rudic European and UK premiere

Other theatre[edit]

Film and TV[edit]

BBC
STV
FILM

References[edit]


External links[edit]


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