Stephen Fry, the 23rd holder of the Cameron Mackintosh Visiting Professorship in Contemporary Theatre gives his first lecture at the University followed by Q&A with Roger Ainsworth. (Contains strong language).
Using the experience of his own journey and career in the arts, Stephen Fry talks frankly about his acting roles as a student at Cambridge, the benefits of writing your own material when starting out and the importance of team work in the arts. He mentions the works and artists that have inspired him giving a special mention to "The Red Shoes" the classic British feature film about a ballet dancer, written, directed and produced by the team of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger.
"I hope I can inspire and engage with students who are enthusiastic and passionate about the performing arts. Dance and music will feature little in my time here I am sorry to say, but I hope to help students devise comic and dramatic pieces, talk through rehearsal, writer-performing techniques and procedures, and give what benefit I might have to offer from over a quarter of a century of larking about on stage and screen. Above all, I hope we’ll all have fun - it's not by accident that dramatic pieces are actually called plays, and that in Shakespeare’s day actors were players".
