Samuel West
"...the thinking girl's pin-up..." ~The Sunday Telegraph
"Nothing could upstage Samuel West, who provided the mellifluous, compelling narration" - The Guardian
Samuel Alexander Joseph West (June 19, 1966) is the son of acclaimed British actors Prunella Scales and Timothy West. He is currently playing Hamlet for the RSC at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford upon Avon, England. This extremely gifted and personable actor has yet to receive the amount of praise that is due him. Here is my own little tribute to this amazingly talented and charismatic actor.
In the style of James Lipton's Inside the Actor's Studio, here are the answers Sam reportedly answered at a recent dinner with some fans after a Washington D.C. event.
What is your favourite word ?
Underbelly
What is your least favourite word ?
Hypocrisy
What turns you on ?
Enthusiams
What turns you off ?
Repression
What sound do you love ?
A woman singing in the shower
What sound do you hate ?
A bad song
What is your favourite curse word ?
Arse
What profession other than yous would you like to attempt ?
DJ
What profession would you not like to participate in ?
Anythign to do with banking
If heaven exists what would you like God to say when you reach the
pearly gates ?
Normal service will be resumed as soon as possible.
Bonus question: Boxers or briefs ?
Depends on what SHE prefers.
Pandaemonium (Southey)
Jami's Sam West Page
Scriptorium of Sam
SamWest.Homepad
League of Obscure British Actors~Samuel West
RSC ~ Hamlet
Dr. Who Dimensions in Time part 1
Dr. Who Dimensions in Time part 2
After two years in the planning, I finally made it to London to spend
a semester abroad. I'd never been out of the country before, but
England was the natural choice since I am a theatre major, have a
profound interest in all things Shakespeare, and oh yeah~ I'm not yet
terribly fluent in other languages (I'm working on the Spanish... be
patient...) Just weeks before I left, some theatre email source sent
me a few trial issues of its service of reviews and schedules and
such of London theatre events. In one issue was a small description
of the Masterclasses. It sounded just like what I would be interested
in, at just the right price (free). My program wasn't at all theatre
related, so aside from my own thespian activities I'd planned (quite
a few), this was perfect. In the whirlwind of preparations, I'd
arrived in London, but I'd neglected to reserve a place in the
masterclasses. I finally was inserted into the line-up and I think I
eventually attended all but one on music writing or some other such
subject. (In the process I enjoyed a session with Jeremy Irons who
truly renewed my passion for theatre and also proved it was perfectly
possible for a theatre career and a family, which is unfortunately a
rare opinion in this business...)
But on to the subject for which we're all here~ How I came to know
about Sam West....
Well, this was the class I most wanted. As I said before, I really
enjoy Shakespeare. So "Shakespeare and Verse" enhanced by a workshop
environment was perfect. Now, I know it's difficult, but think back
to the days before you knew about Sam. This is where I was. I arrived
at the Theatre Royal Haymarket as always, and grabbed a seat House
Left about three rows back. I was sitting next to some guy my age who
apparently was very excited, or just outgoing, and we began to chat.
He asked me lots of questions and then I started my own. He
apparently had prepared one of the pieces to be workshopped. I then
threw my image to the wind and asked him who this "Sam West" was.
Truth be told, any expert who'd be teaching these classes, in my
mind, would be a bit older in years. I'd pictured a comb-over pot-
bellied man with a maroon plaid shirt. I don't know why. And the guy
tried to tell me who he was. And then shifted to describing the fact
he'd just been over in the hall on the left looking at photos on the
wall. (Photography~ A passion he and I apparently share.) I gave up
trying to imagine who he was, and soon after our session had the
traditional~ "hope you have fun and learn something, but don't you
dare take pictures, recordings" etc, etc, speech. At which point a
guy wandered onto stage behind her. I thought this guy was maybe the
event photographer or some other such person because of his seeming
to be only about 26, but he was incredibly attractive, so I was
definitely curious... And then the woman finished and turned it over
to "Mr. Sam West" who I expected to come from the wings~ only the
young guy walked forward. Whoa! There he stood in a somewhat tight
black long sleeve black V-neck which was pushed up on his arms, black
pants which flared just at the last second to allow his new black and
white Vans to peer out. His hair was curly and still seemed wet from
a recent shower or something. He had two fragile silver earrings in
his left ear and a silver pinky ring (quite a common thing on British
men.) And in the most fascinating Oxford accent, he began to speak.
[I'll include my notes from it in another post, as I tried to write
furiously, but at times, couldn't manage to do anything but sit spell-
bound by the wisdom flowing out of his mouth.] He did a few
exercises. (In one he chose a group to come up and show an expression
as a company going off to be heroes in the war. Freeze image for
photo. Then knowing that only 1 in 5 comes home alive. Freeze for
photo. Then knowing this fact, making the last photo mom will own.
The one which sits atop her piano when you don't come home. The
understatedness of that fear behind the smile was amazing...) But as
I said, I'll include what I have in notes later. But they were rather
insightful activities. And then we started the workshopping. The most
memorable to me being the time he had to get a male volunteer to fill
a part opposite a prepared role. The guy (bless his heart) seemed to
me to have a terrible lisp and stumbled through the words. Sam turned
his focus to this guy and taught him the iambic and the subtext and
continually had him repeat these two lines over and over and over,
using different exercises and with different stresses, etc. and at
the end of ten minutes, you'd think the guy had spoken Shakespearean
verse since he was very small. This blew me away! At times Sam would
rattle off ten lines from a play to illustrate a point only to shrug
it off in favor of another play which might illustrate it better from
which he'd then quote another large passage. Only to scrap the thing
entirely and site the feeling you get when you're at a rave (which he
said he attends from time to time on weekends) and the music is
pulsing and everyone is dancing in the same rhythm... But never
pretentious. He was truly a mixture of classic intelligence and
contemporary groundedness. Well anyway~ after several pieces, we took
a break. That is, most of the room did. I'd seen enough to be
mesmerized. He was a renaissance man in every sense. I sat in my
chair trying to catch up on filling in the blanks of my scribbled
notes so as not to miss anything I could take with me to use later.
And then the moment came. One girl had no partner. He scoured the
very few of us left during the break and begged for a female
volunteer. No one responded. I wanted to do so terribly, and he even
stopped several times looking at me right in front of him, but I was
afraid! I am not usually a performer, and felt I'd definitely have to
know my stuff not to make a fool of myself in front of this well-
educated actor. And then my biggest reason to stay where I was came
as a result of my nationality. I was afraid of my American accent
butchering the lovely language! I know, I know. We have great actors
too, blah blah. But I knew this would count. And besides, I needed to
write my notes.... Ugh. I was so disappointed when he finally did get
a girl to volunteer and then proceeded to stand over her shoulder
pointing out the lines and giving tips quietly before we started back
again... We finished up late, which no one minded. It was so much
information and all of it relevant.
And though I knew it would make me vulnerable, I walked over. All I
could think to say was "Thank you". Which I did when he finally
turned around from talking to whom I guess was the acting students'
professor. Maybe I didn't say it loud enough, maybe he waited for me
to say more, but he just looked at me. And then I did as most others
would do. Gracefully walked away wondering if it was worth it to try
to say anything at all. Mind you I didn't even know who this person
was....
I met up with my California friend who I'd met on the trip to London
and we went top check our email at Easy Everything internet cafe, and
as she responded to her email, I surfed the web for his name. I truly
didn't expect to find anything. Most thespians aren't well noted in
media. But then finally I came across a page. A very large and very
nice resource. Jami's Page!!!! Thank you. Thank you. Thank You! I
found the picture page and then the one most like what I remembered
him looking like. It was that black and white one from the side you
use as a framed link too. I load it, and got my friend's attention
and she snapped~ Who's that!? UM~ Samuel West. The guy I've been
rambling on and on about. Then guy who taugh the class. And then in a
hushed yell (is that possible?) she yelled "That's Leonard Bast! You
b***h! You met Leonard Bast and you didn't let me go with you!!!!" (I
reminded her I had indeed invited her when I thought it was just some
learned man teaching about Shakespeare...) She couldn't believe it.
At which point I realized there must be something even more to this
person who had entranced me by his mastery of Shakespeare and
language in general. So this only made me pursue it more. I didn't
realize that there was a following at all. I thought it was just me
and Jami! :) Silly me! I tried to find what I could which wasn't
nearly enough, (despite finding out that we have a lot of the same
major interests~ Shakespeare, phtotgraphy, theatre, sailboats...) so
mostly I kept up with Jami's page and with the RSC and my own web
searches. I can't believe he doesn't get more offers. Though now he's
at least getting his theatre due with his extended stay with the RSC.
It's only a matter of time before others take note. Once you get that
RSC, it's like the actor's version of having the "DR." before your
name.
Dr. Samuel West... Hmm. Not bad either. :)