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ED was born in Watford, where he arrived to the world as and Oliver! fan. He watched the film endlessly whenever he could get his hands on it! This was his introduction to musical theatre, and since then his interest has grown, via Joseph and other Webber shows, through Rodgers and Hammerstein, right up to Stephen Schwartz and Stephen Sondheim.
Now living in St Albans, Ed attends a secondary school in Hertfordshire, where he studies history and religion, and of course drama., and is soon to take his LAMDA exams in acting and musical theatre.
Ed’s participation in musical theatre at present is at an amateur level, performing with many local societies. He has performed roles such as Jerome in South Pacific, Prince Chululongkorn in The King and I, Baby John in West Side Story, Digga in Willy Russell’s Our Day Out, Knuckles in Bugsy Malone, and has been in Lionel Bart’s Oliver! four times – having been practically everyone from Oliver to Noah Claypole. Nancy may however be beyond him. From a young age Ed was involved in Stagecoach, and later Best Theatre Arts Schools, playing roles as the title character in Oliver! and many other lead roles in musicals written specifically for the schools.
At his school, Ed has recently co-directed, co-choreographed and performed in their production of Oliver! Throughout his past years, he has been in all the school musicals, including Our Day Out, West Side Story, and their interpretation of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, a play with music in which he played Flute. The school also has a regular one act play competition and an improvised drama competition between the four houses (imagine Hogwarts without the magic and you get a picture of his school!). He has performed in both of these most years, and the 2009 team (including him!) is currently rehearsing their production of The Audition by Don Zolidis.
Ed’s specific favourites in musical theatre are Rodgers and Hammerstein and Sondheim, and he continually searches for roles in R&H shows. Ed is also interested in the technical side, and has done lighting for many shows in his local area. He also enjoys directing musicals in his own style as a form of self expression, which is one definite reason for his love of performing in musicals. He has written a one act play, Reality, which he may be staging locally next year, and attempted to write a ‘jukebox’ musical interpretation of the novel The Book of Dead Days.
Ed is an avid fan of musical theatre and goes to the West End as regularly as his bank balance will allow! He enjoys the commercial end of the market (e.g. Wicked and Billy Elliot), but enjoys some lesser known pieces such as William Finn’s A New Brain, and the very successful (yet strangely controversial in MusicalTalk circles) Blood Brothers, on which he did work experience front of house. Ed also enjoys opera and ballet, his favourites being Mozart’s The Magic Flute and Matthew Bourne’s ballet interpretation of Edward Scissorhands. In February 2009 Ed will be auditioning for the Nation Youth Theatre, and in November will be performing in an amateur production of Les Miserables.
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