Laurance Rudic

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 oft-times 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 were encouraged to eschew existing English literary and technical acting conventions and instead 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 and Celia Imrie.

Rudic was born into a musical, theatrical family in Glasgow, Scotland, in 1952. His father was a violinist, his mother a semi-professional singer, and his aunt was the Scottish actress Edith Ruddick.

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 New Metropole Theatre in Glasgow. 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 clown, Lindsay Kemp, whose approach introduced him to living theatre.

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 ('The Citz') (1969-2003). At that time (1972) he was one of only three Scots actors to be accepted into the young company who were at that time predominantly English. Rudic continued to work there intermittently until 1994.

Eastern experience

In his early days at the Citz, Rudic began travelling to cultures beyond Europe in order to understand more about the oral performance traditions of India, Tibet, the Middle East and North Africa. 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 secretary 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 America. He also experienced life as a Kathakali acting student at the leading school for Kathakali actors in Kerala, South India - The Kerala Kalamandalum.

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 Dawy, the improvising epic storyteller, and Hassan Khanufa, a traditional street performer from Cairo who died in 2005 at the age of 74.

In 2006, working with Scottish theatre practitioner Andrew McKinnon, he returned from Cairo to Glasgow to perform a solo "Stand-Up Theatre" piece - "And God Created" - at his old theatre, 'The Citz'. The show, inspired by time spent with traditional epic storytellers in Egypt, is improvised around a theme of very personal stories which also deal with universal themes and the search for an ever-widening identity through theatre, travel and the universal nature of creativity.

Theatre

*Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama
*"Uncle Vanya" Vanya 1970
*"King Lear" The Fool 1971

Citizens Theatre

;1971
* Jean Genet "The Balcony" The Tramp;1972-1976
* Shakespeare "Timon of Athens" Lucullus Abbey Festival
* Moliere "Tartuffe" M. Loyal Edinburgh International Festival
* Peter Weiss "Marat/Sade" Karl
* Miles Rudge/John Gould "Puss in Boots" Puss
* Christopher Marlowe "Tamburlaine the Great" Celebinus Edinburgh International Festival
* Nikolai Gogol "The Government Inspector" Bobchinski
* Jack Gelber "The Connection" Leech

;1973-1974
* Bertholt Brecht "Happy End" Wilbur
* John Whiting "The Devils" Mannoury
* Miles Rudge/John Gould "Dick Whittington" King Rat
* Shakespeare "The Taming of the Shrew" Baptista (Hamburg Festival)
* Robert David McDonald "Camille" Dr Korev
* Edward Bond "Early Morning" Disraeli
* Bertholt Brecht "St Joan of the Stockyards" Criddle
* Shakespeare "Coriolanus" Scicinius

;1974-1975
* Arthur Koppit "Indians" Chief Joseph
* Tennessee Williams "Camino Real" Esmeralda
* Nikolai Gogol "The Government Inspector" Insp. Of Schools
* John Webster "The Duchess of Malfi" Rodrigo (Belgrade, Lljubliana, Zagreb)
* Shakespeare "Romeo & Juliet" Benvolio
* Robert David McDonald "The De Sade Show" The Bishop

;1975-1976
* Shakespeare "Hamlet" Rosencrantz
* Falkland Cary "Sailor Beware" Carnoustie Bligh
* Robert David McDonald "The De Sade Show" Madame de Martaine
* Carlo Goldoni "Mirandolina" Conte de Albafiorita
* Georg Buchner "Woyzeck" Karl

;1981-1982
* John Byrne "Babes in the Wood" Friar Tuck
* Robert David McDonald "Chincilla" Socrate (Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Den Hague)
* Robert David McDonald "A Waste of Time" Jupien (Caracas)
* Shakespeare "Hamlet" Guildenstern
* John Dryden "Marriage a la Mode" Alexas
* Bertholt Brecht "Mr Puntila and his Man Matti" The Attaché

;1982-1983
* Jean Genet "The Balcony" The General
* Jean Genet "The Screens" The Arab Voice
* Jean Genet "The Blacks" The General
* Philip Massinger "The Roman Actor" Aretinus
* Sean O'Casey "Red Roses for Me" Rev. Clinton
* Bertholt Brecht "The Mother" Rybin
* Carlo Goldoni "The Impresario of Smyrna" Ali (Turin)
* SHakespeare "The Merchant of Venice" Gratiano (Turin, Parma)
* George Bernard Shaw "Arms and the Man" Major Petkoff
* Marquis de Sade "The Philosophy of the Boudoir" Dolmance (Parma)
* Noel Coward "Sirocco" Angelo
* Robert David McDonald "Webster" Jeeper

;1983-1984
* Karl Kraus"The Last Days of Mankind" A Man of Iron (Edinburgh Festival)
* Hugo von Hoffmansthal "Der Rosenkavalier" Herr von Faninal (Edinburgh Festival)
* Sean O'Casey "Juno and the Paycock" Needle Nugent
* Thomas Southerne "Oroonoko" Aboan
* Noel Coward "Private Lives" Louis
* Ernst Toller "The Machine Wreckers" Jim Cobbitt
* Jean Paul Sartre "Altona" Franz
* Oliver Goldsmith "She Stoops to Conquer" Diggory
* Oscar Wilde "A Woman of No Importance" Mr Kelvill MP
* Rolf Hochhuth "Judith" Tiresius
* Offenbach "French Knickers" Bob

;1986
* Oscar Wilde "An Ideal Husband"
* Rolf Hochhuth "The Representative"

;1987
* Friedrich Schiller "Joan of Arc" Charles VII
* Richard Sheridan "The School for Scandal"

;1988
* John Ford "'Tis Pity She's a Whore" Friar
* Oscar Wilde "Lady Windermere's Fan" Cecil Graham
* William Congreve "The Way of the World"

;1989
* Ben Jonson "The Alchemist" Face
* Friedrich Schiller "Mary Stuart" Burleigh
* Charles Dickens (adaptation) "A Tale of Two Cities" Dr Manette

;1990
* Bertholt Brecht "Mother Courage" Cook (Mermaid Theatre)
* Nicholas Rowe "Jane Shore" Richard III

;1991
*"The Rivals"
*"Mourning Becomes Electra" Ezra/Orin
*"A Design for Living" Ernest (Theatre Royal Richmond)

;1992
*"Lulu" Dr Goll/Casti-Piani
*"1953" Eberhard
*"Edward II Edward II/III

;1996
*"Long Day's Journey into Night" James Tyrone

;2006
*"And God Created…" (solo show)

=Other theatre=

*Lindsay Kemp, Traverse Theatre 1969-1972
**"Flowers"
**"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 1979
**The Young Writer's Festival

* Scotland 1980/81
**"Blood Red Roses" John
**"Men Should Weep" Alex

*Scottish Theatre Company 1981
**"Animal"

*Ian McKellen-Edward Petherbridge Company at Royal National Theatre (Paris, Aberdeen, Chicago 1985/86)
**"The Critic" Mr Hopkins
**"The Duchess of Malfi" Death
**"The Cherry Orchard" Trofimov

*Mermaid Theatre London 1990
**"Mother Courage" Cook

*Richmond Theatre London 1991
**"A Design for Living" Ernest

*Almeida Theatre London 1993
**"Chatsky" Mr D

*Edinburgh Festival 1995
**"Lanark" Lanark

*Pitlochry Festival Theatre 1996
**"Travels with My Aunt" O'Toole et al
**"Flooers o’ Edinburgh" Nabob
**"And Then There Were None" Captain Lombard
**"Mr Bolfrey" Cohen

Film and TV

;BBC
*"The Boy Who Wanted Peace" Percy Phinn 1969
*"The Spirit of Asia" India documentary BBC 1978
*"Blackeyes" Commercials Director BBC
*"Breast is Best" Manager BBC 1989
*"Poppylands" Johnny BBC 1989
*"In Between the Lines" Gilan

;STV
*"Journey's End" Raleigh
*"Martha" Doctor
*"Dr Finlay's Casebook" Sewell

*"In Defence of the Realm" Charlie 1985
*"Being Human" Solus 1992
*"Savage Play" Christopher Sykes 1994
*"Ring of Truth" Priest
*"Knights" Muslim Chronicler 1997

External links

* [http://www.members.aol.com/actorsite2/lr/lrhomepg.htm Unofficial Glasgow Citizen's Theatre]
* [http://www.laurancerudic.blogspot.com]