What shows or projects have you done with ETT?
Reasons to Stay Alive
Finish the sentence: Touring is important because…
It is such a pleasure to bring a story to different regions of the country; especially if it is a story that really resonates with audiences.
Where is home for you?
Bristol
Where is your home away from home?
Macclesfield
How did you bring home with you on tour?
By ensuring I stayed in digs where I had full use of the kitchen and having my laptop, so that i could write wherever I was.
Which city was your favourite to visit on tour with ETT?
Tough call… great to play the Theatre Royal in my present home city, wonderful that so many friends and family came to see me in Manchester. Loved sharing digs in York and Leeds. Loved Newcastle.
What gem did you discover on tour with ETT (could be a landmark/park/cafe/pub etc)?
The Cumberland Arms in Newcastle. Traditional pub – great food, great ale, wonderful live music
What are your touring essentials?
Laptop, marmite, home made pesto.
What’s your go-to recipe whilst on tour?
Seafood and homemade pesto linguini
It is such a pleasure to bring a story to different regions of the country; especially if it is a story that really resonates with audiences.
If you have a story, get out and tell it, as far, as wide and as loud as you can. Especially in the present political climate, we need live interaction, we need to educate...and we need to shine a little love and light wherever possible.
Which artist(s) do you most admire and why?
David Bradley springs to mind… seen him perform often and I think he is a genius.
What music inspires you?
A wide variety…if pushed I love the Beatles, classical. Big into Stone Roses at the moment… not sure why
What image or video inspires you?
Rothko – Blue Green and Brown Ash
What piece of writing or quote inspires you?
Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale.
What, for you, makes a good piece of art?
You can lose yourself in it
What have been your career highlights so far?
Playing all but one of the Shakespeare clowns, working with one of the team from the ‘Carry On’ films
If you were cast away on a desert island, which 5 plays would you take with you and why?
The Winter’s Tale… it’s a rollercoaster!
King Lear… it’s epic.
The Three Sisters… it’s perfect
Bent…. it’s heartbreaking
The Woman In Black… just loved the simple storytelling
Please can you tell us what you would say to emerging artists to encourage them to take their work on the road or join an ETT tour?
If you have a story, get out and tell it, as far, as wide and as loud as you can. Especially in the present political climate, we need live interaction, we need to educate…and we need to shine a little love and light wherever possible.
Window or aisle seat?
Window
Favourite way to travel?
Train
If you could have any superpower, which would you choose?
Flight
Chris Donnelly’s biog:
Chris trained at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School.
Theatre includes: Bent (Courtyard Theatre); Road (Southwark Playhouse); Darkness Darkness (Nottingham Playhouse); The Country, Billy Liar, One Flea Spare, Abigail’s Party, Bedroom Farce, Time and Time Again, Trap for a Lonely Man, The Edge of Darkness, Peril at End House, Friends and Neighbours, The Grass is Greener, Sweet Revenge, Gaslight (UK tours); Treasure Island (Tobacco Factory Theatres);Twelfth Night, Macbeth, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Taming of the Shrew (Actors from the London Stage); Treasure Island (Tobacco Factory Theatres);Othello, The Winter’s Tale, Two Gentlemen of Verona, The Tempest, Measure for Measure, The Taming of the Shrew, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Changeling, Troilus and Cressida, Henry V (Shakespeare at the Tobacco Factory); The Tempest, Orpheus and Eurydice, Macbeth (Insane Root Theatre Company).
Film and Television includes: No Offence; Fat Friends; Silent Witness; Wire in the Blood; The Musketeers; The Derren Brown Show; Vital Signs; Casualty; Wycliffe; Eastenders.
Radio: Chris has performed in over thirty radio plays for BBC Radio 4.
Chris also directs projects and teaches acting and improvisation at his old drama school, runs workshops when available and is about to complete his master’s degree course in Creative Writing with the Open University.
