Greetings, friends, readers, and fellow Actors In Search Of!
1) I realise it’s been a (long) while.
2) I also realise this absence has been in direct violation of all blogging etiquette known to man (serve your readers by delivering REGULARLY and OFTEN – “because they’re worth it”…). But –
3) I do hope you will forgive me, because…
4) My disappearance into the blogosphere void has been due to a no-holds-barred exploration of my own personal tagline aspirations. Results will be fully reported in due course, but in summary they comprise: several audiobook recordings by yours truly (a disproportionate number featuring plucky, young, West Country-accented heroines); various semi-successful attempts at useful, normal activities including admin and volunteering; and the grassroots stirrings of an interest in complementary therapy training (inspired by visions of a recovery sanctuary for burnt out actors…). But before I enlighten you on my voyage of discovery, I want to assure you that –
5) I return to your service as committed to your tagline fulfilment as ever.
Thus, it only seems right and fair to break my blogging fast (and the knees must be decidedly wobbly after such an extended one) with a nice juicy interview featuring my latest Actor In Search Of Inspiration, the multi-taglined and all-round talented dude,
James Phillips, Writer-Director-Photographer…
“But wait!” I hear you cry, “Where’s the Actor in that tagline?! False advertising! Outrageous!”
“Well,” I reply, calmly and good-naturedly (for this Actor In Search Of is nothing if not devoted to customer service), “firstly, James started out as an aspirant actor at university, and worked professionally as both actor and director before launching into his writing-directing career. Secondly, I think if you’ll just permit this wee divergence from our standard formula, you might find some seriously groovy nuggets of wisdom from a seriously inspiring chap.”
[Pause for digestion.]
“Are you with me…?”
Let’s crack on.
[Reset to First Positions. Roll camera… TAKE 2.]
Introducing…
James Phillips, Writer-Director-Photographer:
Mr Phillips, of Great Portland Street(ish), London is perhaps best known for his debut play, ‘The Rubenstein Kiss’, which premiered in 2005 at the Hampstead Theatre, featuring a cast including Samantha Bond, Will Keen and Gary Kemp, and which garnered Phillips the John Whiting Award and the TMA Award for Best New Play. ‘Rubenstein’ has since been translated into three languages and performed around the world. All of which must have been terribly exciting for a first-time playwright.
Hence:
Katherine Press (That’s Me): So James, I think it’s fair to say that this reception must have been terribly exciting for a first-time playwright. How did the project come about?
James Phillips (Cool Dude): Well Katherine, I was an actor and director at university [Oxford – he’s modest as well as a cool dude], and had no interest in writing whatsoever! Once I was out in the big wide world, directing seemed to be going quite well [an understatement – James nabbed gigs working with Michael Grandage and John Caird], and ended up taking over from the acting. ‘Rubenstein’ was the result of an idea I’d had for a play [based on the story of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, an American-Jewish couple found guilty of attempting to pass US nuclear secrets to the Soviet Union], but I couldn’t find anyone to write it. So I wrote it myself.
KP: Practical and ultimately rather fortuitous! Did the writing come naturally?
JP: I wrote ‘Rubenstein’ in Sweden whilst directing a production of ‘Twelfth Night’ in Swedish…! It took about four months, writing around rehearsals, but yes it did come fairly naturally. Once I had a draft up and running, I called in some favours from some [rather well-known] pals called Christopher Eccleston and Rosamund Pike, and held a lunch-time reading at Wyndham’s Theatre. About 18 months later, after a number of false starts – unavoidable in this game – we opened at the Hampstead Theatre.
KP: And, as they (didn’t ever) say, “a writer was born”.
JP: Yes! After that, commissions started coming in and the “Writer” tagline overtook the “Director” one. On the basis of time allocation and, crucially, financial compensation(!), it’s definitely Writer-Director-Photographer, although of course the focus and relative time spent on each shifts around according to current projects. And that actually works rather well, because whilst I’m waiting (and there’s a lot of that!) for a script to come back from a producer, I might be directing something else, or, more recently, working on a photography project.
KP: Aha. Now that’s interesting, so the flexibility of your tagline is such that you have multiple outlets for the creative bug!
JP: Exactly. And they all call on different parts of the brain. Writing is in many ways quite personal, and, despite being about characters separate from yourself, there’s an element of baring the soul involved, whereas I see my photography as more documentary, presenting or questioning things outside myself. And directing uses a more “organising” part of the brain. So they’re all different, intellectually and creatively, and I enjoy that contrast.
KP: Fulfillment through multiple taglines. I like it! So we know that the writing came about somewhat incidentally – was the photography a more considered move?
JP: No! My career has been one of accidents, but accidents which give rise to more accidents! And in fact that’s what I’d say looking back, that you never know where you’ll end up – particularly in the creative fields. So if you just focus on whatever you’re creating or have the desire to create at that moment, then you’ll not only do your best work but you’ll be open to opportunities you’d never have been able to plan out. And then there’s a cross-fertilisation. My photography is a case in point. I was working on a play, ‘Hidden in the Sand’, about a refugee from the Turkish invasion of Cyprus [which ran at the Trafalgar Studios in 2013], as well as a feature film script, both of which had photographers as central characters. So I bought a cheap 1970s camera and started taking pictures in the name of research.
‘Hidden in the Sand’, Trafalgar Studios, October 2013
After some of my portraits were published in Greece [including those of Daphne Alexander, above, who starred in ‘Hidden in the Sand’], I was commissioned to document Nicosia, Cyprus, the last divided capital of the world. As a result of that project, combined with my writing, I was recently asked to address the All Party Parliamentary Group on Cyprus at the House of Parliament. So you never know where these things might take you…
A view over Nicosia – by James Phillips
A woman looking out over the UN abandoned Green Line in Nicosia – by James Phillips
KP: Fascinating stuff. So how do you manage your time with all these different things on the go?
JP: Well I’m not one of these writers who gets up at 6am and writes for 8 hours – that’s just not me. Of course when things are busier I need more of a schedule, and when I’m directing something obviously there’s the imposed structure of meetings, rehearsals and performance dates. But for me, writing requires a certain amount of relaxation, of letting go and allowing the ideas to germinate and “present themselves”, so it’s a very different way of working. Although deadlines tend to accelerate things!
KP: It sounds like a great combination of enterprises and opportunities. Variation and versatility.
JP: I’m very lucky to have such different things going on. And that my projects do complement and inform each other, as with the Cyprus connection. As a further example, I’m currently working on the next installment of ‘City Stories’, a series of monologues and music for the St. James’s Theatre. They’re basically a love letter to London, and the idea was partly born out of my London street photography. But ‘City Stories’ is as different as can be from ‘White Whale’, [a site-specific community theatre project for Slung Low up in Leeds, based on the Moby Dick tale], and both are completely different again from the Alexander McQueen play [coming soon]. And I’d love to fit in a second photography book taking a wider look at Cyprus.
‘City Stories’ publicity – by James Phillips
London street – by James Phillips
KP: And you have a feature script ready to go too! All very exciting, and wonderfully inspiring for those of us in search of our taglines. Any final words of advice?
JP: Looking back, it’s often the jobs you don’t get that have the biggest impact. Not in terms of things that you’re relieved to have avoided – although that can happen! – but in the sense that those things you don’t end up doing allow space for other, unforeseen opportunities. So just stay open and stay creative, and you never know where you might find yourself…
Well now. What did I tell you? Inspiring, informative and generally awesome.
Interestingly, James’s journey of “creative accidents” is in direct contrast to previous interviewee Michael Wharley’s approach to his transition from actor to photographer. In that post I reported on Michael’s detailed manifesto of creative and business goals, which have enabled him to build a hugely successful career as headshot photographer and advisor.
Both strategies clearly work for their owners – I wonder whether the approaches reflect the different nature of the activities involved, or simply the respective personalities of two different chaps?
Perhaps a little bit of both.
So whether you’re a “roll with the Universal forces” kind of a customer, or a goal-setting go-getter, it’s good to know that there’s room for all, and excitement aplenty, in this crazy game called “Tagline”.
Til next time…
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