10 questions for 10 years – Rosie Wyatt

She’s been acting less time than I’ve been blogging but I can’t hold that against Rosie Wyatt, an actress whose name you should know

I’m not saying that Rosie Wyatt in the sole reason I like monologues now but her captivating performance in Bunny went a long way to convincing of the merits to the form that up until that point, I had mostly resisted. So much so she was nominated for a prestigious fosterIAN award for Best Actress.

So it was great to hear it was a positive time for her too:

“I have loads of nice memories of Bunny. Rehearsals with Joe Murphy remain one of my happiest, creative periods to date. Waiting to go in to the Fringe Awards to collect our Fringe First and being totally overwhelmed and Jack Thorne teasing me. And my Dad coming out to New York, his first and only solo trip abroad, to see me perform.”

  • Where were you 10 years ago?

    10 years ago I was living in Cardiff and in my second year at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama. When I look back, I feel as though I’m an entirely different person now.

  • Best show you’ve seen in the last 10 years?

    I’m too fickle and forgetful for a best show in the last 10 years but favourites that spring to mind – Fleabag upstairs at Soho, Herons at the Lyric, John at the National, Emilia at the Globe, Three Kingdoms at the Lyric, Dance Nation at the Almeida, Mess by Caroline Horton at Traverse, Vanity Bites Back by Helen Duff at the Vaults, So It Goes by Hannah Moss at Underbelly, umm and Wicked and Come From Away and the Van Hove View From a Bridge.

  • What has been your professional highlight of the last 10 years?

    My professional highlight of the last ten years (I’m only 9 years in to my career, mind) is touring Spine by Clara Brennan around the UK. It’s the most connected I’ve ever felt to the audience’s response to a play and every venue was a joy to visit.

  • Top flavour of interval ice-cream?

    Interval ice cream?! You think I’m made of money?!

  • What show do you wish theatres would give a rest for a few years?

    The Shakespeare Play starring Famous Man format can be put to bed.

  • Name someone who you think is a really underappreciated talent (in the world of theatre)?

    Anna Hunscott, Sarah Stott, Shannon Martin, Nik Haffenden-Green – Deputy Stage Manager is their title but by god they go above and beyond; these are four of the best. They each got me through when I couldn’t have got through on my own.
    Also Tommo Fowler who directed Mumburger is one of the best directors I’ve ever worked with; we clicked creatively in an instant. He should be employed non-stop. He is kind and generous and a fantastic dramaturg.
    And Andrew Thompson’s debut In Event of Moone Disaster is one of the most extraordinary plays I’ve read in years (and reading for multiple competitions, I’ve read a lot!) and I was so lucky to get to play Sylvia. Where is his next play, please? Commission him!

  • Elphaba or Glinda?

    ELPHABA. I only saw Wicked for the first time last year. My talented friend Iddon Jones was playing Boq and I watched it at a packed out Birmingham Hippodrome. As the curtain fell I turned to my boyfriend and said “I want to watch that again – now!”

  • What is one thing that you think would help theatre survive and/or thrive the next ten years?

    How will theatre survive? If we get a new government and they start funding the arts again. It’s harder and harder for producers to take risks and fewer and fewer shows are being made as multiple buildings have to pool their funds. Until we get more Arts Council funding we’ll have to keep watching Famous Man in that same Shakespeare Play. Having said that… I’m not too worried. There’s a lot of exciting, ferocious, young theatre makers out there who aren’t going to be held back by anything and I want in on that fire!

  • Which is your favourite theatre?

    Favourite theatre space is the Royal Exchange main house – god I’d love to play that space. Or The Swan. They’re actors’ spaces.

  • Can you say anything about what’s to come for you, (in the next ten years or otherwise)?

    Here’s what’s next for me – Aesops Fables at the Unicorn – can’t wait!

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