Henry Acting & Performing

I am currently appearing live on stage at quite a few Open Mics in the Santa Monica / Venice Beach areas of LA reading Love Poetry by a range of poets from Chen Chen and ee cummings to Shakespeare and Rumi.

(1) SANTA MONICA - Every Tuesday between 7.30 and 10 pm (usually after 8.30) At KAVAHANA’s Hawaian bar, 306 Pico Blvd, Santa Monica.

(2) VENICE BEACH - Every First Saturday at 12 noon at ALANAS VENICE Cafe, 2524 Pacific Ave.

(3) MAR VISTA - Every 2nd Friday from around 8pm at ALANAS MAR VISTA 12511 Venice Blvd, Mar Vista, Los Angeles. (4)

VENICE BEACH - Every third Wednesday from 7.30ish to 10. instagram.com/wordonthestreetvenice at 239 Horizon Avenue, Venice Beach.

So happy to receive this Best Actor award. I played Old Feller in 'The Darkness Between Dreams' by Jonathan Samarro in the One House Productions’ Ten Minute Play Festival.

Here is the video of the play and my acceptance speech:

I have been having a blast acting my Zoom socks off over the last six and a half years, most often live streaming on Facebook or You Tube.

As a member of more than 10 wonderful online actors’ groups I have performed in well over 1,500 Zoom plays long and short, old and new, particularly loving playing Lear (three times), Richard III, Iago, Prospero, Falstaff, Sir Toby Belch, Margaret (Richard III), Dogberry, Hamlet, Polonius, Gertrude, Claudius, Scrooge (twice plus Muppet version), Henry in 'The Lion in Winter', Mary Ann in 'Constellations', Estragon in ‘Waiting for Godot’ & Old Feller in a new play festival for which I won Best Actor.

In my teens and early 20s I was a member of the National Youth Theatre in the UK and I acted and directed with the Oxford University Dramatic Society. Between them I played in many stage runs in the UK and tours of Europe, including playing Agamemnon at the ancient Greek Theatre in Delphi to audiences of 3,000 each performance.

I chose the offer of a producer/director traineeship at the BBC as a career choice over the offer of joining a repertory theatre as actor. I am a BAFTA nominated director for a British TV comedy series 'Rory Bremner - Who Else?'. From 2013 I ran a Play Reading and Performance group in Los Angeles, where I have been living for the past 30 years, and, come the pandemic, launched into that acting career I put on hold last century.

Comments from actors:

Thank You for carrying the torch for Laurence Olivier - For me, you are him - Congratulations on your wonderful acting successes - J.B. - Los Angeles.

I so appreciate your compelling commitment to Lear's descent into madness. It's easy to play with such a generous actor as you! - R.B. - Nashville.

Thank you, Henry! I so enjoyed your Richard today. You are delving so deeply now into that character I don't think I can ever again think of Richard III without thinking of you. - P.U. - S. California.

Thank you so much for everything last night. Such amazing grounded work that we can all learn from.- R.M. - NYC

You always bring something unique to every role you play. G.L. - UK

Exceptional work tonight, as always. K.M. - Nashville.

Can I just say, I think you're an amazing actor. S.E.F. - Houston.

I have had such a mystical nearly 7 years acting online. I have been trying to figure where the characters I play come from. Well out of the writing of course but when I prepare I just start reading the role out loud and the character most often just pops in with a voice and an attitude. Then as I read through more times it becomes emotionally deeper and more real, even with the funny guys. It is such a joy to experience this and to be able to convey who this character is, what makes them tick, by, in effect, channeling their Being.

Recently I was cast just a couple of days before a reading, as Falstaff in Henry IV Part 2. I started to read it through and I just couldn't get a sense of who this was at all.