Ian Frost & Bill Studdiford

Bringing Byron to Budleigh

Ian Frost’s one man shows have been performed in New York City, in London, at the Edinburgh and Piccolo Spoleto Festivals, at the Luxembourg National Theatre, on tours of major cities in the U.S., the U.K., Netherlands, Denmark, Belgium, Germany, France, Switzerland, Italy and Greece, and for Cunard in the Mid-Atlantic, the Caribbean, and twice through the Panama Canal!

After training at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School and the Royal Court Actors Studio, Ian appeared with leading repertory theatres in England, including seasons at Plymouth, Perth, Farnham, Colchester, Birmingham and Coventry. His many television credits include ‘Z Cars’, ‘Dr. Who’, ‘The Poet Herrick’, ‘Ivanhoe’ and, for BBC Open University, Rousseau in ‘Dinner at Holbach’s’ and Guardiano in ‘Women Beware Women’: from a man with too many principles to one with none at all.

Productions in the London Fringe include ‘The Sitwells’, ‘Plague Wind’, ‘Pythagoras’ and ‘The Provoked Wife’. During a break in the one-man show performances, he returned to London to appear on stage in the premiere of ‘Screamers’ and in the TV sitcom ‘Girls on Top’.

Ian’s professional association with Lord Byron began several years ago. A founder-member of ATC-London, he created the part of Byron/Narrator in its award-winning production of ‘Don Juan’ at the Edinburgh Festival. The company then toured extensively through England and Scotland and was invited to the Avignon Festival. The Byron connection continued with ‘Byron: In Words & Music’ for the British Council in Amsterdam and at the Edinburgh Festival, and the BBC Radio series, ‘Byron’s Last Letters’. Ian then decided his next Byron project must be a solo performance: both the man and the poet had so much to say about life, love and the human condition that this was the only way to attempt to do justice to such a remarkable character.

Bill Studdiford spent five delightful seasons at the Bremerton (Washington) Community Theatre as actor, director, designer, stage manager, and playwright before joining IBM for 26 years, working in 12 countries on four continents, with a special two-year leave of absence to help found the Children’s Museum of Manhattan.

Bill majored in journalism at Pacific University in Oregon and started writing for the theatre at that time. Bill enjoyed writing and adapting the three plays making up the Byron Trilogy, compiling ‘Byron in Venice’, and touring in the U.S. and Europe as stage manager, sound and light technician, stagehand and chauffeur – but welcomed the opportunity to become acquainted with John Keats and to write about him.

With both Byron and Keats on the boards, it was almost inevitable for Shelley to follow. Once that play was completed, he couldn’t help but wonder why he had made Shelley wait so long?

But then it was back to Lord Byron once again and his wonderful use of words, with an adaptation of his delightful poem, ‘Beppo’. Then it occurred to him – after exploring each of the poets individually, it was time to compare, contrast, and enjoy the three of them together. The result – ‘Three Romantics: Byron, Keats & Shelley’, with the American playwright joining the English actor in presentation. This was followed by another collaboration on stage with new material in ‘Extraordinary Friends, Byron & Shelley’.

Budleigh Salterton Literary Festival Appearance
N.B. All dates / times are provisional and subject to final confirmation

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LINKS

www.byronetc.com