On An Average Day.

Nigel is an experienced actor, director and teacher. He was born in Bolton, Lancashire in 1951 and comes from a theatrical family. Some of his earliest memories involve hearing his parents' lines for plays they were appearing in at the Little Theatre, or watching dress rehearsals on Sunday afternoon. He was not bitten by the acting bug at that stage and an unsuccessful performance in a class play at school turned him off the theatre for many years.

He became interested in acting during his first teaching job. The school had a tradition of staging joint Staff/6th Form productions so he found himself playing two parts in Brecht's "Caucasian Chalk Circle".

His real stage "apprenticeship" started when he moved to Cumbria in 1977 and got involved with a theatre group at The Brewery Arts Centre in Kendal. At his first audition for Gogol's "Government Inspector" he convinced the director that he had a lot of experience, so had to "put his money where his mouth was" when given the leading role of Khliestakov. Having "got away with it" (the first of many!), the roles followed thick and fast over the next 10 years.

He played everything from Lysander in "A Midsummer Night's Dream" to Mike TV in "Charlie and The Chocolate Factory". He achieved celestial rank when playing God in an outdoor production of the medieval morality play "Everyman". This was counterbalanced by playing the devilish title role in a large scale community show specially commissioned for Kendal in 1981 called "The Bogeyman". He also appeared in two professional productions for the small touring theatre company Pocket Theatre Cumbria, which was based at the Arts Centre.

His directorial career began in 1984 with a one-acter by Stephen Jeffreys (who wrote "The Libertine") called "Clearing House". Having got a taste for overall control, he went on to direct "Bazaar & Rummage" by Sue Townsend, "Shadow of a Gunman" by Sean O'Casey, Arthur Miller's "American Clock" and a double-bill of David Hare plays: "Bay At Nice" and "Wrecked Eggs".

In 1988 he moved abroad to take up a post as Head of English and Drama at an international school in Milan. As well as his teaching duties and directing school productions, he co-founded a small company Teatro Falloppio, which unfortunately only did one show: "Skirmishes" by Catherine Hayes.

On his return to Cumbria in 1991 he resumed theatre work at The Brewery directing "The Loves of Cass McGuire" by Brian Friel, the Jacobean revenge tragedy "The Changeling" by Middleton&Rowley, Thomas Hardy's "The Day After The Fair" and playing Canon Throbbing in "Habeas Corpus", The Miller in Michael Bogdanov's modernised "Canterbury Tales" and Henry in Stoppard's "The Real Thing".

The pinnacle of his time in Kendal came in 1994 when he adapted, directed and played two small roles in a production of "Hamlet" which toured to Mumbai and Goa in India.

He rounded off his time in Kendal by directing "Two" by Jim Cartwright and playing Gerry Evans in a touring production of "Dancing At Lughnasa" by Brian Friel for Freehold Theatre Company, Lancaster.

On moving to Kent in 1996 he joined Playcraft in Canterbury and played Mr Smith in Ionesco's "The Bald Primadonna" followed by the title roles in "Macbeth" and "An Inspector Calls" at The Gulbenkian Theatre. It was whilst playing Lucky in Playcraft's 2001 production of "Waiting For Godot" that he met Brian Ross and Caroline Lamoon and along with Alan Pope, whom he already knew, the nucleus of what would become AshCan Theatre Company was formed.

Since AshCan's first show "Someone Who'll Watch Over Me" in which he played Michael, he has taken the roles of George in "Duck Variations" by David Mamet and Gerardo in "Death and The Maiden" by Ariel Dorfman.

In 2004 he moved back up to Kendal for personal and family reasons. The following two years were theatrically fallow, so when he returned to Kent in 2006 the urge to resuscitate AshCan was irresistible. He directed Pinter's "Old Times" in June 2007, played Yvan in "Art" in March 2008 and, most recently, directed "On An Average Day" by John Kolvenbach in February this year.

When not acting or directing, Nigel supports lost causes i.e. Bolton Wanderers F.C. and Lancashire and England Cricket teams!

Born in Southampton in 1967 and raised in the seaside town of Deal, Mike embarked on a love of the Arts at very early age, with the Cinema just down the road from his home and a family TV that for the most part was always available to him. The eldest of 3 kids to a single hard working mum he was left pretty much to his devices. Like a lot of kids at that time the films of Steven Spielberg and George Lucas were a constant source of entertainment and for Mike, inspiration.

In 1983 at the age of 15 the School he sometimes attended was putting together the first ever stage version of Alan Parker's Movie Musical ‘Bugsy Malone’ and Mike was awarded the role of Fat Sam Staccetto. The performance he gave is still mentioned to him to this day and the enthusiasm he received from people made him want to do a whole lot more, yet as he turned 16 and left the family home commitments to work and constantly changing his address restricted his ability to commit to the roles that came up in the local Dramatic groups.

It wasn’t until 1999, when he returned to his hometown of Deal that he was able to really get into a more regular pattern of drama, switching between the towns two rival groups he found himself performing in a lot of comedy farce and one or two pantomimes. In 2001 the town had a new group emerge and the chance to do some more dramatic work presented itself and Mike soon found himself performing in plays by authors like Harold Pinter, Debbie Isitt and Eugene O’Neil.

Having lived in the village of Ash since 2003 he has been working with Canterbury Players for much of that time and recently performed a play with Ashcan Theatre Company. He still gets the same buzz backstage now as he did way back in the summer of ’83 and is always looking forward to the next exciting challenge to present itself.

Selected work from the past:

On An Average Day 2009
The Accrington Pals 2007
Roleplay 2005
My Boy Jack 2005
Lord Arthur Savile’s Crime 2004
Hobson’s Choice 2003
Whose Life Is It Anyway? 2003
The Woman Who Cooked Her Husband 2002
Betrayal 2001
Abigails Party 2001
Bugsy Malone 1983

Brian Ross.

Brian was born and grew up in the U.S. in the greater Boston area, attending a Boston university for two years before joining the Navy as a medical corpsman. After discharge, he continued in the health care field as an Orthopaedic Physician’s Assistant, eventually moving to the mid-coastal region of Maine . This area is unique not only for its physical beauty, but for an exceptional mix of visual and performance artists and Brian found himself, relatively late in life, being drawn into this new and exciting world. Initially intending to contribute on the technical side with set construction, etc., he soon found himself acting and singing in musicals such as Fiddler on the Roof, Music Man, and Oliver.

While his urge to sing was eventually satisfied performing with a male a cappella sextet called The Testostertones, it was an association with the Maskers Theatre in Belfast, Maine which allowed him to continue to grow as an actor. Over several years he played such roles as Henry Ford in Camping with Henry and Tom, Cleante in Tartuffe, Don John in Much Ado About Nothing, Lt. Clarke in Our Country’s Good, and Clem in Middle aged White Guys.

A continued interest backstage manifested itself in a variety of positions as stage manager, set builder, set designer, producer, member of the board of directors, and eventually house manager. Over time he also began to work with other regional theatres as both actor and set builder and about this time obtained his first professional role in Moliere’s School for Wives with the Penobscot Theatre Company in Bangor.

In the spring of 2000, Brian moved to the UK to be married and became involved in the Kent theatre scene. After appearing twice in Canterbury at the Gulbenkian Theatre, (When Suddenly and Waiting for Godot) , and a trip back to the States for One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest, he joined up with some talented, like minded friends to found the Ashcan Theatre Company. Brian is immensely proud of the powerful, thought provoking theatre being produced by this group.

Besides yearly trips to the States which frequently are combined with stage work there, Brian has designed and built all of the Ashcan sets for its productions, as well as acting in many of them, including Adam in McGuinness', Someone Who’s Watching Over Me , Jerry in Albee's Zoo Story, Leroy in Miller's Last Yankee, Deeley in Pinter's Old Times, Serge in Reza,s Art, and recently Jack in Kolvenbach's On an Average Day.