Alumnus of the Month – Marcus Lamb
Monday, July 1st, 2013 at 12:01 pm | Alumni Interviews, News & Events
Marcus graduated from the Two Year Full Time Intensive Actor Training Programme at the Gaiety School of Acting in 2004. He has just completed a tour of Japan of Beckett’s ‘Before Vanishing’ with Mouth on Fire Theatre Company and The New Theatre. For more information on Marcus’ future productions, visit marcuslambactor.com
1.Did you always want to work in the theatre/acting business?
Well I loved cracking jokes and doing impressions in school and I think from the age of about twelve I wanted to be stand- up comedian. I even wrote a whimsical letter to Spike Milligan asking him for advice but he never replied. I was obsessed with Groucho Marx, Morecombe and Wise but especially Tommy cooper in my teens (still am a bit) and I think I got into acting as a cowards way of doing comedy. It seemed a lot less frightening than making people laugh on the spot with your own material. In stand up there is nowhere to hide – if they don’t laugh you are crap but in theatre the response is at the end. I would still like to try stand-up but it I am glad that I did not try to be one because the psychological impact of having to be funny over many years would be too much for me. Anyway I now love playing straight parts just as much.
2.How did you start off in the business?
I joined a youth theatre in Dun Laoghaire at 16 and in retrospect I think that I had absorbed a sense of the craft of acting from seeing my parents act on stage and screen, as I seemed to take it much more seriously than the others in the group. Not that I was necessarily better but my desire to be good was stronger. And I loved it. My first performance was when I was 17 and I was already 6ft 2. I had to sing the Johnny Logan classic ‘Hold me now.’ The show was in Lambert puppet theatre, designed for 4 foot puppets not big freaks like me so I had to bow my head to be seen.
3.Any tips for aspiring actors?
In general, absorb and learn as much as you can from books, art, people, nature watching good actors and generally keeping alert to what is happening around you. You can take inspiration from anywhere as Anthony Sher’s terrific diary of preparing to play Richard III, called ‘The Year of the King,’ shows.
In terms of performance, I used to work myself up before going on but I have found that a very calm and relaxing vocal and physical warm up leaves me much more focused and open to spontaneity. Meditation and deep breathing is great. Also if something worked last night don’t try to recreate it, be open to new inspiration…be daring. Number one: Listen (in rehearsal and in performance).
4.What did you like most about being at The Gaiety School of Acting?
‘The chance,’ as Maureen White, our first year acting teacher, said, ‘to fail spectacularly.’ When you graduate you won’t be acting every day, even if you are successful, but the course allows you to act every day and to explore your instrument over two years of growing. It was so enjoyable – I just remember laughing every day. You get to play like a big kid but you have to put the work in too and self-monitor or you won’t be any good.
5.Favourite actor?
Jack Lemmon, Dustin Hoffman, Anthony Hopkins. At the moment Alec Baldwin and Miranda Hart but favourite performance? Jack Lemmon in ‘Glengarry Glen Ross.’
6.Favourite writer?
John Steinbeck.
7.Favourite play?
‘Death of a Salesman,’ by Arthur Miller but favourite Irish play: ‘A Whistle In the Dark,’ by Tom Murphy.
8.Who has been the most influential person in your life so far?
Probably my mother. Her kindness.
9.Earliest memory?
Playing cowboys and Indians with my downs syndrome sister Jenny at about the age of four.
10.What would be your idea of the perfect day?
A long run through a forest on a crisp morning then watching a good old film or two with friends, while eating a lot of cake and biscuits and drinking tea. Rarely has it happened.