Shakespeare’s Globe International Actor’s Fellowship 2015

NZ ACTOR FELLOWS SELECTED FOR THE GLOBE 

Natalie Beran and Jean Sergent were chosen as New Zealand’s 2015 Shakespeare’s Globe International Actors’ Fellowship.  After reducing the local applicants for this year’s (SG IAF) through the SGCNZ Professional Theatre Advisory Group to a shortlist, the Globe Theatre personnel running this scheme selected, through Skype interview / audition, as this year’s Fellows from here. The standard was high and it came down to mix of the international group of 24 chosen for the 3 week course in September/October.

With the Globe to Globe season pre-the London Olympics having brought theatre troupes from 36 different countries to perform at the Globe a play each in their own languages, and the Globe to Globe Hamlet tour having at the time visited about half of the 205 countries around the globe on its two year mission to visit them all, the Globe’s outreach is huge. A
s a result, our two well-known female theatre practitioners joined actors from Australia, Canada, France, Georgia, Germany, Kiribati, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Singapore, South Korea, USA, and other countries!

“Growing up in a family of actors, Shakespeare and other classical plays, including the Greeks, have long been a mainstay of my cultural life,” said Jean. “The opportunity for such specialised and yet expansive training as that offered by The Globe is the stuff dreams are made on….”
Jean is a Wellington theatre maker of multiple talents. She has worked professionally as an actor with many of the city’s leading theatre companies and has produced and directed for her own company, School For Gifted Children. Awards include Fringe Award for Best Comedy (Corner Diary) 2013 and the Chapman Tripp Wildcard Award (The Bacchanals) 2013. Jean is also a sociologist who researches the dynamics between gender and sexuality and fiction.

Natalie Beran commented: “I had heard of the programme several years ago through industry friends who have previously participated in either the SG IAF and teaching versions and I have heard nothing but praise of the experience. ..I am involved in professional theatre as a producer (Mercury Jane Productions, Northern Lights Theatre, Galatea Theatre) and actor. I also work in the radio industry and have a wide contact base and connection to other audiences, which I hope I will be able to utilise to help promote SGCNZ and its programmes.”