Today’s #quickfiretheatre interview is with EmmaClaire Brightlyn!
How would you describe what you do?
I tell stories… I’m an actor and a fight director and sometimes a teacher too.
What theatre inspires you the most?
I love getting to see things that surprise me, and engage me on a very human level. That change my heartbeat and the air around me. Often that is very physical work. Always it is work that is brave.
What is your dream role/project?
I have so many… this picture is from one. It is a play called “becoming” by Kathy McKean. It is about Rome’s greatest gladiatrix on the day of her last fight. I had the chance to do some work on it last year with a team of the most astoundingly talented artists. My dream is to get to do it again, and tour it, around Scotland, then the world.
What’s your favourite play?
ooft… I don’t think it has been written yet.
What’s the best advice you’ve ever been given?
When I was just starting out, even before drama school, I did semi-professional performance in my hometown. One of the other actors in the show, when I told her I hoped to be an actor one day, said to me “you’re here. You’re doing it. That makes you an actor.” That and “do a great job, and don’t be a jerk.”
What advice would you give to someone starting out?
Think about the projects you are getting involved with. There are 3 reasons to do anything: 1 — the money (obviously), 2 — the people involved, 3 — the project itself. When you start off, only one of those is key. Make the show with your pals. Give up going to the cinema for a summer to play that part. Cash that paycheck. But as your career grows, you should look to have 2 reasons to every project. One day, if you are really lucky, all three will come together. And you will be grateful.
What are you up to next?
I am part of the summer rep company at Bard in the Botanics, playing the roles of Apemantus and the Senator in Timon of Athens, and Goneril in Queen Lear, both of which I am THRILLED to bits about. I am also staging the fights for the season. Simultaneously (well, with some very careful scheduling) I am directing a show called Calvinball for Ipdip Theatre, which will go up at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, and staging the fights for a remount of This Restless House, an award winning adaptation of the Oresteia by Zinnie Harris, as part of the Edinburgh International Festival.
