Claire Benedict
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Claire Benedict
Claire Benedict (born 28 July 1951) is a British actress known for her work in classical productions on the British stage, but best known for portraying the principal character Mma Ramotswe in the continuing radio adaptations of '' The No 1 Ladies' Detective Agency''. She won a ''Time Out'' Award for Best Performance for her portrayal of Sophia Adams in Errol John's ''Moon on a Rainbow Shawl'', directed by Maya Angelou. She lives in Manchester. Early life Benedict was born in Antigua and began to act at Norwood Secondary School for Girls, then Kingsway Further Education College on Gray's Inn Road, London. After two years at Kingway College, she gained entrance to the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA). After leaving LAMDA, Benedict worked with Theatre in Education (TIE) in London then trained with the Black Theatre Workshop of Montréal. Career In her first ten years after completing her training, Benedict worked on the British stage in leading roles for s ...
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Antigua
Antigua ( ), also known as Waladli or Wadadli by the native population, is an island in the Lesser Antilles. It is one of the Leeward Islands in the Caribbean region and the main island of the country of Antigua and Barbuda. Antigua and Barbuda became an independent state within the Commonwealth of Nations on 1 November 1981. ''Antigua'' means "ancient" in Spanish after an icon in Seville Cathedral, "" — St. Mary of the Old Cathedral.Kessler, Herbert L. & Nirenberg, David. Judaism and Christian Art: Aesthetic Anxieties from the Catacombs to Colonialism'' Accessed 23 September 2011. The name ''Waladli'' comes from the indigenous inhabitants and means approximately "our own". The island's perimeter is roughly and its area . Its population was 83,191 (at the 2011 Census). The economy is mainly reliant on tourism, with the agricultural sector serving the domestic market. Over 22,000 people live in the capital city, St. John's. The capital is situated in the north-west ...
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Clare Higgins
Clare Frances Elizabeth Higgins (born 10 November 1955) is an English actress. Her film appearances include ''Hellraiser'' (1987), '' The Worst Witch'' (2017 - 2020) '' Hellbound: Hellraiser II'' (1988), ''Small Faces'' (1996) and ''The Golden Compass'' (2007). A six-time Olivier Award nominee for her work in the theatre, Higgins received her first nomination in 1984 for her role as Stella Kowalski in ''A Streetcar Named Desire''. She has since won the Olivier Award for Best Actress three times; for ''Sweet Bird of Youth'' in 1995, ''Vincent in Brixton'' in 2003 and ''Hecuba'' in 2005. She made her Broadway debut in 2003 in ''Vincent in Brixton'', receiving a Tony Award nomination for Best Actress in a Play. She returned to Broadway in the 2014 revival of '' A Delicate Balance''. Early life Higgins, the second of five children, was born in Bradford, to Paula Cecilia (née Murphy) and James Stephen Higgins. Her parents were from working class Irish Catholic backgrounds,
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BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. It broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history from the BBC's headquarters at Broadcasting House, London. The station controller is Mohit Bakaya. Broadcasting throughout the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands on FM, LW and DAB, and on BBC Sounds, it can be received in the eastern counties of Ireland, northern France and Northern Europe. It is available on Freeview, Sky, and Virgin Media. Radio 4 currently reaches over 10 million listeners, making it the UK's second most-popular radio station after Radio 2. BBC Radio 4 broadcasts news programmes such as ''Today'' and ''The World at One'', heralded on air by the Greenwich Time Signal pips or the chimes of Big Ben. The pips are only accurate on FM, LW, and MW; there is a delay on digital radio of three to five seconds and ...
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Lenny Henry
Sir Lenworth George Henry (born 29 August 1958) is a British actor, comedian, singer, television presenter and writer. Henry gained success as a stand-up comedian and impressionist in the late 1970s and early 1980s, culminating in ''The Lenny Henry Show'' in 1984. He was the most prominent black British comedian of the time and much of his material served to celebrate and parody his African-Caribbean roots. In 1985, he cofounded the charity Comic Relief with the comedy screenwriter Richard Curtis. He has appeared in numerous other TV programmes, including children's entertainment show ''Tiswas'', sitcom ''Chef!'' and '' The Magicians'' for BBC One, and in his later years has transitioned toward acting roles in stage and screen. He appears in the Amazon Prime series '' The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power''.Otterson, Joe (3 December 2020)"'Lord of the Rings' Series at Amazon Adds 20 Actors to Cast" Variety. .Retrieved 4 December 2020. Henry is the Chancellor of Birmingham ...
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Alby James
Alby James OBE FRSA (born 24 May 1954) is a British theatre director and a producer for film and television drama, screenwriter, script consultant and trainer, whose career spans more than four decades. Committed to promoting diversity and inclusion in the industry, he has worked with broadcasters such as the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) and the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC), as well as being involved with other development and mentorship schemes for writers, directors and producers. From its inception in March 2017 he led the Diverse Directors' Workshop at the National Film & Television School, with the aim of improving access to the mainstream and professional independent sector for women, ethnic minorities and those with disabilities. Recognition that James has received for his work include being appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 2019 for services to film, theatre and broadcasting. Biography Born in north London, James ...
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BBC Radio 3
BBC Radio 3 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It replaced the BBC Third Programme in 1967 and broadcasts classical music and opera, with jazz, world music, Radio drama, drama, High culture, culture and the arts also featuring. The station describes itself as "the world's most significant commissioner of new music", and through its BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artists scheme, New Generation Artists scheme promotes young musicians of all nationalities. The station broadcasts the The Proms, BBC Proms concerts, live and in full, each summer in addition to performances by the BBC Orchestras and Singers. There are regular productions of both classic plays and newly commissioned drama. Radio 3 won the Sony Radio Academy UK Station of the Year Gold Award for 2009 and was nominated again in 2011. According to RAJAR, the station broadcasts to a weekly audience of 1.7 million with a listening share of 1.3% as of September 2022. History Radio 3 is the ...
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Rufus Norris
Rufus Norris (born 16 January 1965) is a British theatre and film director, who is currently the Artistic Director and Joint Chief Executive of the National Theatre. Life and career Norris grew up in Africa and Malaysia, attended North Bromsgrove High School and Kidderminster College of Further Education, and later trained as an actor at RADA before turning to directing. In 2001 he won the Evening Standard Award for Outstanding Newcomer for his production of David Rudkin's ''Afore Night Come'' at the Young Vic. In 2004, Norris won another Evening Standard Award, a Critic's Circle Award and an Olivier Award nomination for Best Director, for his production of ''Festen''. In 2006 he made his National Theatre debut directing ''Market Boy'' by David Eldridge. From 2002 to 2007 Norris was an Associate Director at the Young Vic, where his productions have included ''Feast'' by Yunior Garcia Aguilera, Rotimi Babatunde, Marcos Barbosa, Tanya Barfield and Gbolahan Obisesan (2013), ' ...
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Royal National Theatre
The Royal National Theatre in London, commonly known as the National Theatre (NT), is one of the United Kingdom's three most prominent publicly funded performing arts venues, alongside the Royal Shakespeare Company and the Royal Opera House. Internationally, it is known as the National Theatre of Great Britain. Founded by Laurence Olivier in 1963, many well-known actors have performed at the National Theatre. Until 1976, the company was based at The Old Vic theatre in Waterloo. The current building is located next to the Thames in the South Bank area of central London. In addition to performances at the National Theatre building, the National Theatre tours productions at theatres across the United Kingdom. The theatre has transferred numerous productions to Broadway and toured some as far as China, Australia and New Zealand. However, touring productions to European cities was suspended in February 2021 over concerns about uncertainty over work permits, additional costs and ...
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Phyllida Lloyd
Phyllida Christian Lloyd, (born 17 June 1957) is an English film director and producer, best known for '' Mamma Mia!'' (2008) and '' The Iron Lady'' (2011). Her theatre work includes directing productions at the Royal Court Theatre and Royal National Theatre, and opera director for Opera North and the Royal Opera House Covent Garden. Life and career Lloyd was born and raised in Nempnett Thrubwell, Somerset, south of Bristol. After graduating from the Department of Drama and Theatre Arts at Birmingham University in 1979 (BA, English), she spent five years working in BBC Television Drama. In 1985 she was awarded an Arts Council of Great Britain bursary to be Trainee Director at the Wolsey Theatre, Ipswich. The following year she was appointed Associate Director at the Everyman Theatre, Cheltenham, then in 1989 Associate Director of the Bristol Old Vic, where her production of ''The Comedy of Errors'' was a success. She moved on to the Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester where sh ...
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Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester
The Royal Exchange is a grade II listed building in Manchester, England. It is located in the city centre on the land bounded by St Ann's Square, Exchange Street, Market Street, Cross Street and Old Bank Street. The complex includes the Royal Exchange Theatre and the Royal Exchange Shopping Centre. The Royal Exchange was heavily damaged in the Manchester Blitz and in the 1996 Manchester bombing. The current building is the last of several buildings on the site used for commodities exchange, primarily but not exclusively of cotton and textiles. History, 1729 to 1973 The cotton industry in Lancashire was served by the cotton importers and brokers based in Liverpool who supplied Manchester and surrounding towns with the raw material needed to spin yarns and produce finished textiles. The Liverpool Cotton Exchange traded in imported raw cotton. In the 18th century, the trade was part of the slave trade in which African slaves were transported to America where the cotton was gr ...
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Death And The King's Horseman
''Death and the King's Horseman'' is a play by Wole Soyinka based on a real incident that took place in Nigeria during the colonial era: the horseman of a Yoruba King was prevented from committing ritual suicide by the colonial authorities. In addition to the intervention of the colonial authorities, Soyinka calls the horseman's own conviction toward suicide into question, posing a problem that throws off the community's balance. Soyinka wrote the play in Cambridge, where he was a fellow at Churchill College during his political exile from Nigeria. He has also written a preface to the play, explaining what he sees as the greatest misconceptions in understanding it. In particular, he says that the play should not be considered as "clash of cultures." Rather, the play demonstrates the need for interaction between African and European cultures, as per Soyinka's post-Biafran cultural philosophy. Plot ''Death and the King's Horseman'' builds upon the true story on which Soyinka base ...
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Wole Soyinka
Akinwande Oluwole Babatunde Soyinka (Yoruba: ''Akínwándé Olúwọlé Babátúndé Ṣóyíinká''; born 13 July 1934), known as Wole Soyinka (), is a Nigerian playwright, novelist, poet, and essayist in the English language. He was awarded the 1986 Nobel Prize in Literature, for "in a wide cultural perspective and with poetic overtones fashioning the drama of existence", the first sub-Saharan African to be honoured in that category. Soyinka was born into a Yoruba family in Abeokuta. In 1954, he attended Government College in Ibadan, and subsequently University College Ibadan and the University of Leeds in England. After studying in Nigeria and the UK, he worked with the Royal Court Theatre in London. He went on to write plays that were produced in both countries, in theatres and on radio. He took an active role in Nigeria's political history and its campaign for independence from British colonial rule. In 1965, he seized the Western Nigeria Broadcasting Service studio and b ...
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