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'Mark Rylance' (born as Mark Waters on January 18, 1960) is an internationally well-known English actor and theatre director.
His various film roles include Ferdinand in ''Prospero's Books'' (after a play by William Shakespeare), Jay in ''Intimacy'' (after a novel by Hanif Kureishi) and Jakob van Gunten in ''Institute Benjamenta'' (after a novel by Robert Walser (writer)), where he worked with directors like Peter Greenaway, Patrice Chéreau and the Brothers Quay.
He was the first Artistic Director of Shakespeare's Globe in London, from 1995 to 2005.

Contents

Life and career

Shakespeare Controversy

Theatre credits

At Shakespeare's Globe Theatre

Other theatre roles

Filmography

As himself

Archive footage

Notable TV guest appearances

Books

External links

References

Life and career

Mark was born in England, to Anne and David Waters, both English teachers (as an adult, he took the stage name of Mark Rylance because the name Mark Waters was already taken by someone else registered with Actors Equity). When he was two, his parents moved to Connecticut in the United States and in 1971, to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where Mark later attended school and began acting. His first notable role was ''Hamlet'' in a 1976 school production (with his own father as the First Gravedigger), and the next year Puck in ''A Midsummer Night's Dream'', during the University School of Milwaukee's First Shakespeare Festival.
With considerable juvenile experience already in hand, Rylance won a scholarship by audition to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts (RADA) in London. There he trained from 1978-1980 under Hugh Cruttwell, and with Barbara Bridgmont at the Chrysalis Theatre School, Balham, London. In 1980 he got his first professional work at the Glasgow Citizens' Theatre.
1982-1983: playing for the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) both in Stratford upon Avon and London.
1980s: worked with the London Theatre of Imagination, Royal Opera House, English Stage Company at the Royal Court Theatre (with Max Stafford-Clark).
1987: work with Mike Alfred's Shared Experience at the Royal National Theatre (RNT),
met Claire van Kampen, musician and composer (the first female Musical Director at the RNT and RSC, and both at the same time).
1988: played Hamlet with the RSC in Ron Daniels' acclaimed production that toured Ireland and England for a year. The play then ran in Stratford-upon-Avon, where Mark alternated Hamlet with Romeo in the production of ''Romeo and Juliet'' that inaugurated the rebuilt Swan theatre in Stratford. ''Hamlet'' toured to the United States for two years.
1989: married Claire van Kampen.
1990: with Claire founded "Phoebus' Cart", their own theatre company.
1991 (summer): performing ''The Tempest'' in magic sites with Phoebus' Cart: at the Rollright Stones Circle in Oxfordshire, the ruins of Corfe Castle in Dorset and the site of not yet started Shakespeare's Globe (
★ Shakespeare's Globe online) in London. Mark was then invited by Sam Wanamaker to join the Board of Directors of Shakespeare's Globe, thus getting involved with the project.
1991: played the lead in Gillies Mackinnon's film ''The Grass Arena (1991)'', and won the BBC Radio Times Award for Best Newcomer.
1993: starred in Matthew Warchus' production of ''Much Ado About Nothing'' at the Queen's Theatre, produced by Thelma Holt. His Benedick won him an Olivier Award for Best Actor.
1995-2005: first Artistic Director of Shakespeare's Globe Theatre. He has directed and acted in every season, both in Shakespeare's works and those of his contemporaries, notably in the all-male production of ''Richard II'' in 2003.
Under his directorate, the first new play for the Globe in 400 years, ''Augustine's Oak'' (ref. to Augustine of Canterbury and christianisation of Anglo-Saxon England) written by Peter Oswald, writer-in-residence at the Globe, was performed in 1999. A second play of Oswald written for the Globe followed in 2002: ''The Golden Ass or the Curious Man''. In 2005, the third play of Peter Oswald written for the Globe was performed for the first time: ''The Storm'', an adaptation of Plautus' comedy ''Rudens'' (''The Rope''), that was one of the sources of ''The Tempest'' by William Shakespeare.
Other historical first nights organized by Mark Rylance as director of Shakespeare's Globe include ''Twelfth Night'' performed in 2002 at Middle Temple, to commemorate its first performance there exactly 400 years before.
In summer 2004, the performance of ''Much Ado about Nothing'' at Hampton Court was another event in the original surroundings to commemorate a Shakespeare's first 400 years in the past.
Claire van Kampen is Artistic Associate and Director of theatre Music at the Globe since 1995.
Mark is a Friend of the Francis Bacon Research Trust, and an Associate Artist of the RSC.
One of Mark's prime interests lies in the use of symbols from Alchemy, Neoplatonism, and the Jewish mystical tradition of the Kabbalah in Shakespeare's plays.
Mark Rylance is also involved in a number of social and political activities among which the UN's Peace One Day Campaign; he is a member of the Club of Budapest.

Shakespeare Controversy

On September 8, 2007, Derek Jacobi and Mark Rylance unveiled a "''Declaration of Reasonable Doubt''" on the authorship of Shakespeare's work, afer the final matinee of "''I am Shakespeare''," a play in Chichester, England. The "''real''" author was identified as Christopher Marlowe, Francis Bacon, or the Earl of Oxford, Edward de Vere. The declaration named 20 prominent doubters of the past, including Mark Twain, Orson Welles, Sir John Gielgud and Charlie Chaplin and was made by Shakespeare Authorship Coalition duly signed online by 300 people to begin a new research. Jacobi and Rylance presented a copy of the document to William Leahy, head of English at Brunel University, London.^[1]

Theatre credits

At Shakespeare's Globe Theatre

★ 1996 ''The Two Gentlemen of Verona'': Proteus

★ 1997 ''A Chaste Maid in Cheapside'': Mr Allwit

★ 1997 ''Henry V'': Henry V

★ 1998 ''The Merchant of Venice'': Bassanio

★ 1998 ''The Honest Whore'': Hippolito

★ 1999 ''Antony and Cleopatra'': Cleopatra

★ 2000 ''Hamlet'': Hamlet

★ 2001 ''Cymbeline'': Cymbeline (toured to New York in March 2002)

★ 2002 ''The Golden Ass'' (Apuleius' ancient novel adapted by Peter Oswald): Lucius

★ 2002 ''Twelfth Night'': Olivia (won the Olivier critics award)- (toured to US cities in autumn of 2003: LA, Chicago etc)

★ 2003 ''Richard II'': Richard II (also TV broadcast on BBC 4)

★ 2004 ''Measure for Measure'': Duke Vincentio (also TV broadcast on BBC 4 and toured to US cities in autumn of 2005)

★ 2005 ''The Tempest'': Prospero / Stephano / Sebastian / Alonso

★ 2005 ''The Storm'' (an adaptation of Plautus' ''Rudens'' by Peter Oswald): Daemones / Labrax / The Weather ("you can call me Clement")

Other theatre roles

★ with the Royal Shakespeare Company: 1989 ''Hamlet'' (Hamlet) and ''Romeo and Juliet'' (Romeo), also 1982 ''The Tempest'' (Ariel)

★ 1993 Theatre For a New Audience (NYC) ''Henry V'': Henry V

★ 1993 Queens Theatre ''Much Ado About Nothing'': Benedick (won the Olivier Award for best actor) Matthew Warchus' production, produced of Thelma Holt.

★ 1994 Theatre For a New Audience (NYC) ''As You Like It'': Touchstone

★ 1994 Donmar Warehouse ''True West'': Lee/Austin.

★ 1995 Greenwich Theatre ''Macbeth'': Macbeth

★ 2000 Royal National Theatre ''Live x 3'' (comedy by Yasmina Reza): Henry

★ 2007 Comedy theatre "Boeing Boeing" : Robert

Filmography

★ ''The McGuffin'' (1985) .... Gavin

★ ''Wallenberg: A Hero's Story'' (1985) (TV) .... Nikki Fodor

★ ''The Grass Arena (1991)'' .... John Healy (won the BBC Radio Times Award for Best Newcomer)

★ ''Prospero's Books'' (1991) .... Ferdinand

★ ''Love Lies Bleeding'' (1993) (TV) .... Conn

★ ''Loving'' (1995) (TV) .... Charlie Raunce

★ ''Institute Benjamenta, or This Dream People Call Human Life'' (1995) .... Jakob van Gunten

★ ''Angels & Insects'' (1995) .... William Adamson

★ ''Henry V'' (1997) (TV) .... King Henry V

★ ''Intimacy'' (2001) .... Jay

★ ''Leonardo'' (2003) (TV) .... Leonardo Da Vinci

★ ''Hearts of Fire'' (1987) .... Fizz

★ ''Richard II'' (2003) (TV) .... Richard II

★ ''The Government Inspector'' (2005) (TV) .... Dr. David Kelly

As himself

★ ''Changing Stages'' (2001) (TV) Series .... Himself

★ ''William Shakespeare'' (2000) .... Artistic Director, Shakespeare's Globe

Archive footage

★ ''Celebrity Naked Ambition'' (2003) (TV)

Notable TV guest appearances

★ ''Breakfast'' playing "Himself" 19 April 2004

★ ''Biography'' playing "Hamlet/Himself" in episode: ''Hamlet'' February 1995

Books

★ Mark Rylance: ''Play'' - ''A Recollection in Pictures and Words of the First Five Years of Play at Shakespeares's Globe Theatre''. Photogr.: Sheila Burnett, Donald Cooper, Richard Kolina, John Tramper. Shakespeare's Globe Publ., London, UK. 2003. ISBN 0-9536480-4-4.

★ ''The Wisdom of Shakespeare Series'' by Peter Dawkins (Foreword by Mark Rylance):

★ ''The Wisdom of Shakespeare in As You Like It''. I.C. Media Productions, 1998. Paperback. ISBN 0-9532890-1-X.

★ ''The Wisdom of Shakespeare in The Merchant of Venice''. I.C. Media Productions, 1998. Paperback. ISBN 0-9532890-0-1.

★ ''The Wisdom of Shakespeare in Julius Caesar''. I.C. Media Productions, 1999. Paperback. ISBN 0-9532890-2-8.

★ ''The Wisdom of Shakespeare in The Tempest''. I.C. Media Productions, 2000. Paperback. ISBN 0-9532890-3-6.

★ ''The Wisdom of Shakespeare in Twelfth Night''. I.C. Media Productions, 2002. Paperback. ISBN 0-9532890-4-4.

★ Peter Dawkins. ''The Shakespeare Enigma'' (Foreword by Mark Rylance). Polair, UK. 2004. Illustrated paperback, 476pp. ISBN 0-9545389-4-3.

External links

★

★ Interview with Mark Rylance

References

1. Yahoo.com, Coalition aims to expose Shakespeare