Interview

Lucy Hunter James & Alexandra Pavlidou

by Phil Willmott
06/10/2005

Acting's a tough profession, especially for women, with few opportunities in your early career or decent parts once you hit your mid thirties. I spoke to two actresses - Lucy Hunter James & Alexandra Pavlidou - who've addressed the problem by switching to off-stage roles.

Lucy Hunter James is one half of "Popular Productions." With her business partner John Payton she first produced the slick "Off West End" review "I love you, you're perefct, now change" at Jermyn Street theatre earlier this year. She's currently producing a stage adaptation of Stephen King's horror story Misery at the Kings Head Theatre starring former "Robin of Sherwood", Michael Praed, and Susan Penhaligan.

For my taste I would have preferred a slower unravelling of the terror, this production bangs straight in with a blood red set, Chris Madins's great scary music and Penhaligan at full psycho pitch in a role which, Kathy Bates, on film effectively first introduces as a sympathetic figure. She plays an obsessive fan who captures a famous novelist and nurses him back to life, in an isolated farm house, following a car crash. Praed confusingly forgets to react to things like a dead rat landing in his lap, his nurse's handling of the only copy of his new manuscript and refusal to phone his agent etc. But it's still a great achievement for two young producers to be employing two such established actors in such a good looking and enjoyable production.

Q: What made you think of becoming a producer?

A: It was the show "Love/Perfect/Change" I heard the cd and wanted it to have a much better London production then it's original outing which had been critically panned. I applied for permission to put it on, the agreement came through and I thought "Oh, this is it; I really have to do this now". As performers John and I had been treated badly by producers in the past so we decided we could probably do a better job ourselves.

Q: How does the partnership work?

A: I think we have complimentary skills. He's very good at design and presentation, I'm very organised and have the creative ideas - we're a good team.

Q: You were both in "Love/Perfect/Change" so there was a danger that it could be perceived as a vanity project that you'd put on to showcase yourselves as performers. You've banished that impression in this second show, neither of you are in it.

A: Yes, it's been odd not to be in the rehearsal room as the piece develops but we've been able to really throw ourselves into our producer role. It's been a bit of a roller coaster. Plans at the King's Head were thrown into confusion by the sad death of it's artistic director, Dan Crawford, and we only got the go ahead to stage the show here seven weeks before first night. It was then a mad scrabble to find a director and especially to choose actors as this was August and everyone we needed to talk to was on holiday or at the Edinburgh festival. But we're delighted with who we've got.

Q: Does it really feel as satisfying as being on stage?

A: Oh yes, I love watching the audiences reaction to Misery and thinking "I made this happen".

Q: Would you recommend producing to other performers?

A: It's very tough, the other night I ate baked potato with no filling because I'm so broke and we haven't managed to pay ourselves yet so we have to hold down other jobs too but if you can get by on a couple of hours sleep a night then why not pour your energies into doing something you really believe in.

Q: What's next for you?

A: We've formed a very exciting relationship with a theatre in Dubai which will allow us to take our shows out there, giving them an extra life and finance and we're also hoping Misery will move from the King's Head. Lots of producers are coming to take a look with a view to touring or maybe even helping us to take it into the west End. It's so exciting that in a short time we're taken seriously as a new creative force in theatre production.

Greek actress Alexandra Pavlidou is also trying to switch careers. She's currently in London assisting experimental director David Glass as he develops a new piece at Battersea Arts Centre. She too is working unpaid.

Q: what made you think of becoming a director?

A: I found myself having to work with directors who were much less qualified then me to do the job. I also found that I'd got trapped by early TV fame on the whole celebrity path in Greece. I wasn't getting to work on projects I considered worthwhile. My dad is a director, so I guess it's in my blood. There was no reason not to give it a try.

Q: How do you find being an assistant director?

A: I'm not sure yet because this current process is a collaborative effort where our roles aren't clearly defined. We're devising this piece together in rehearsals, making it up as we go along, so it feels like a team effort. I'm not just running errands for the director. He's also performing in the piece so he needs more input from his assistants.

Q: What makes you think you've got what it takes to be a director?

A: I've had so many great experiences working with kids on creating shows, I've also been making theatre in Greek prisons with women who've never experienced this before. It's given me the confidence to direct professional actors.

Both Lucy and Alex have an infectious enthusiasm for their work. Producing and directing has always dominated by men. It'll be very exciting to see how theatre develops if we can get more women bosses in the business. After all the vast majority of theatre tickets are bought by women, it's about time they took more control of what we see on our stages.