Othello comes from a long pantheon of great characters written by the master himself, Shakespeare. Having seen various incarnations of the character in an array of settings it would take something fairly fresh and inventive to see another. Back in the summer of September 2014 at the Drayton Arms I got just that. An exciting update of an old tale revived and told through fresh eyes, modern context and a young and vivacious cast. This led up by Ben Kavanagh as the scheming Iago, Felicity McCormack as the rebooted stronger but still loyal Desdemona, Kate Cooper as the cynical Emilia, Fergus Leathem as the upstanding Cassio and Hainsley Lloyd Bennett as Othello himself.
In an era of films that are littered with comic books, book adaptations, remakes, reboots, rehashes and re-imaginings its increasingly difficult to find something new or original as studios clamber for familiarity to draw audiences in. So when I stumbled on the Kickstarter for indie drama White Awake it wasn’t just a breath of fresh air but a perpetual gust of wind slapping me in the face and demanding my attention. What immediately struck me about the project was the tone, subtle understated but with a real undercurrent of passion and emotion by a filmmaker who knew the film he wanted to make.
Hainsley Lloyd Bennett has enjoyed success as a model as well as actor in film, theatre, music videos, television, and virals. He has been in commercials for corporations such as McDonalds, The Times, Rubicon, Burger King and Boots. Hainsley has made television appearances in the longstanding British drama Casualty as well as Papuan kidnapper Yudas
in the true story documentary My Holiday Hostage Hell and starred in the
BBC series Crimewatch. Hainsley’s first feature film was London
Boulevard where he played alongside Colin Farrell, Ray Winstone, Keira
Knightley and Ben Chaplin.
Self taught composer Zaalen Tallis was born into a very creative and musical family from Perth, Western Australia and has been composing music since he was the age of twelve. He played the trombone and studied classical and jazz music for a very brief time in his early teen years however he left studying music to just focus on creating music. Since then he has composed music for projects in Australia, America and China and has been nominated four times for Best Original Music Award at the West Australian Screen Awards and in 2004 he received the Western Australian Swan District Education Award for Excellence In Music.
Katja talks about music, performing live, overcoming bullying, and the special place she has in her heart for the LGBT community.
Katja Glieson is an award winning Australian artist who writes her own songs and music video concepts. Most recently, Katja starred in the Princess Rap Battle viral video where she rapped as Elsa from Frozen. The video has received over 100 million combined views on YouTube & Facebook with press coverage by Perez Hilton, Cosmopolitan,Huffington Post, Smosh, Elite Daily, MTV, Pop Crunch, Daily Motion, The Disney Blog, and Breakaway Daily!
Italian born Flavio Sala has been captivating all kinds of audiences around the world with his amazing abilities on the guitar. He has played as a soloist and with orchestras around the world, in important festivals, theatres and concert halls. No matter if he is playing Bach or Santana Flavio Sala moves hot only his fingers, but his audience. After releasing several albums as a soloist and featuring renowned artists from Classical, Flamenco, Jazz, Latin, Pop and Rock, he has just released his new discographical project “Mi Guitarra y Mis Amores” (“My Guitar and My Loves”).
BREAKAWAY DAILY: You have been acting since the age of six, how did you catch the acting bug?
GIZEM: I can say that I was really curious about everything back then, especially when it came to the entertainment business, I was really confident and happy mostly in singing and acting. They always felt like home. I was the “funny but weird” one in the class. I wasn’t popular or anything in fact, I was a really quiet student. I first discovered that our school had an acting course by my best friend.
Eleri embraces contrast on her gorgeously lush full-length debut, Love Cyanidation where she delivers a plaintive tale of unrequited love. She remains entrenched in the classical training she received in her youth while also forging into the electronic expanse mined by mavericks such as Imogen Heap, Nine Inch Nails, Björk, and deadmau5. As a result, the Los Angeles-based singer, songwriter, and producer conjures up a seductive sound that is unequivocally her own.
Growing up in a small town just north of Chicago, Eleri immersed herself in music, taking guitar, voice, and piano lessons and frequenting Berklee College of Music summer programs.
Doublehead Music consists of Shaun; a composer, vocalist, drummer, and keyboardist. He also dabbles in some slide guitar now and then. He studied jazz dumset performance at CalArts (California Institute of the Arts) that includes notable alumni such as Tim Burton, Katy Sagal, Dustin Hoffman, and Sofia Coppola. When Shaun is not making music, he teaches drums privately. How’s that for beating to the tune of your own drum!
Shaun’s music is not intended to be modeled after a certain style, but authentic self-expression. His music is influenced heavily by jazz, triphop, and fearless self-expressionists like Bjork, Portishead, and Radiohead.