Laurance Rudic
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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. 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 McDonald. 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, Chincilla, 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 actively encouraged to eschew existing English literary and technical acting conventions and encouraged to develop their own very personal approach. Famous actors who started their careers there include: Tim Curry, Pierce Brosnan, Gary Oldman, Rupert Everett, Sean Bean, Tim Roth and Celia Imrie.
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[edit] Early life
Laurance was born into a musical, theatrical family in Glasgow, Scotland, 1952. His father was a violinist, his mother a semi-professional singer, and his aunt, the Scottish actress, Edith Ruddick.
[edit] Early career
He began acting at an early age, and when he was twelve years old, he was working at Jimmy Logan’s New Metropole Theatre where he was a dresser to The Alexander Brothers, a Scots singing duo. This early experience of variety theatre was to play an important part in his later development as an actor. At the age of 15, while working at the BBC as an office boy, he was chosen to play the name role in The Boy Who Wanted Peace, a ‘Wednesday Play’ directed by Pharic McLaren (1969).
He completed 3 years 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 living improvisational theatre of the iconoclastic theatre artist, Lindsay Kemp who introduced him to the world of physical theatre from France as well as Noh and Kabuki theatres of Japan.
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 them intermittently until 1994.
[edit] Eastern experience
During that time he played many and various roles which gave him the plenty of opportunity to continue exploring and developing a very personal and creative approach to acting and theatre communication. This exploration was stimulated by frequent visits to Central Asia, India and the Middle East. 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.
[edit] Return to Britain
He returned to ('The Citz') for a final season, and in 1976, left Glasgow to explore the London market place. Intrigued by his recent experience in the Dalai Lama's headquarters-in-exile in Dharmsala, James Rhoose-Evans cast him as a very young Friar Lawrence in his 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.
In 1978, he enrolled as a student at the Kalamandalum school for Kathakali actors in Kerala, South India, after which he returned once again to the UK via the Himalayas where he continued to explore the Tibetan's problems of maintaining a living culture in exile.
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 1981 he performed once more with 7:84, in a revival of a play by Ena Lamont Stewart: Men Should Weep, directed by Giles Havergal. 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.
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.
Preferring theatre to films and TV, he returned regularly to the Glasgow Citizens throughout the late 80’s and 90’s. In 1990, he appeared as Cook to Glenda Jackson’s, Mother Courage, at The Mermaid Theatre in London’s West End. 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 on the problem of revivifying a performing arts culture for a generation who had grown up in exile in India. He returned to the UK in late 1993 and accepted a season at Pitlochry Festival Theatre. 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 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 artists such as Sayed El Dawy and Hassan Khanufa.
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. The communication with the audience is direct and spontaneous.
[edit] Theatre
Royal Scottish Academy of Music & Drama
Uncle Vanya Vanya 1970
King Lear The Fool 1971
CITIZENS THEATRE
1971
The Balcony The Tramp
1972-1976
Timon of Athens Lucullus Abbey Festival
Tartouffe M. Loyal Edinburgh International Festival
Marat Sade Karl
Puss in Boots Puss
Tamburlaine the Great Celebinus Edinburgh International Festival
The Government Inspector Bobchinski
The Connection Leech
1973-1974
Happy End Wilbur
The Devils Mannoury
Dick Whittington King Rat
The Taming of the Shrew Baptista (Hamburg Festival)
Camille Dr Korev
Early Morning Disraeli
St Joan of the Stockyards Criddle
Coriolanus Scicinius
1974-1975
Indians Chief Joseph
Camino Real Esmeralda
The Government Inspector Insp. Of Schools
The Duchess of Malfi Rodrigo (Belgrade, Lljubliana, Zagreb)
Romeo & Juliet Benvolio
The De Sade Show The Bishop
1975-1976
Hamlet Rosencrantz
Sailor Beware Carnoustie Bligh
The De Sade Show Madame de Martaine
Mirandolina Conte de Albafiorita
Woyzeck Karl
1981-1982
Babes in the Wood Friar Tuck
Chincilla Socrate (Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Den Hague)
A Waste of Time Jupien (Caracas)
Hamlet Guildenstern
Marriage a La Mode Alexas
Puntilla & His Man Matti The Attachē
1982-1983
The Balcony The General
The Screens The Arab Voice
The Blacks The General
The Roman Actor Aretinus
Red Roses For Me Rev. Clinton
The Mother Rybin
The Impresario of Smyrna Ali (Turin)
The Merchant of Venice Gratiano (Turin, Parma)
Arms and the Man Major Petkoff
The Philosophy of the Boudoir Dolmance (Parma)
Sirocco Angelo
Webster Jeeper
1983-1984
The Last Days of Mankind A Man of Iron (Edinburgh Festival)
Der Rosenkavalier Herr von Faninal (Edinburgh Festival)
Juno and the Paycock Needle Nugent
Oroonoko Aboan
Private Lives Louis
The Machine Wreckers Jim Cobbitt
Altona Franz
She Stoops to Conquer Diggory
A Woman Of No Importance Mr Kelvill MP
Judith Tiresius
French Knickers Bob
1986
An Ideal Husband
The Representative The Doctor
1987
Joan Of Arc Charles VII
A School For Scandal
1988
‘Tis Pity She’s A Whore Friar
Lady Windermere’s Fan Cecil Graham
The Way Of The World
1989
The Alchemist Face
Mary Stuart Burleigh
A Tale Of Two Cities Dr Manette
1990
Mother Courage Cook Mermaid Theatre
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)
[edit] Other Theatre
LINDSAY KEMP, Traverse Theatre 1969-1972
Flowers
Woyxeck 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
7:84 SCOTLAND 1980/81
Blood Red Roses John
Men Should Weep Alex
SCOTTISH THEATRE COMPANY 1981
Animal
Sir Ian McKellan-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 & 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
