eading your Way
Tennant and he told me he was
watching Succession, so I binged it that
night so I could talk about it with him
the next day.”Josh Zaré, 29
Claudio in Measure
for Measure,
Shakespeare’s Globe
You might recognise
Zaré from his past
life in the boy band Kingsland Road,
who came ninth on The X Factor in- Once his “flash-in-the-pan music
career” ended, he went into acting and
has been praised for his performance
in Josh Azouz’s The Mikvah Project at
the Orange Tree Theatre and last year
for his “riveting performance” as
Claudio in Blanche McIntyre’s Measure
for Measure. He’s now appearing more
on our screens, with supporting roles
in Edgar Wright’s Last Night in Soho
and as the love interest of the
new assassin in Killing Eve, starring
Jodie Comer.Production that inspired me
“Yerma at the Young Vic was
amazing. Billie Piper really
explored almost the entirety of her
emotional range.”Anna Russell-
Martin, 24
Rosaura in Life Is a
Dream, Lyceum
Born in North
Lanarkshire, Russell-
Martin has been performing since she
was three years old, when her mother
signed her up to dance lessons. Her
teachers suggested she try drama
because she was more interested in
the characters than dance. Critics
praised her “towering performance”
as Rosaura in Life Is a Dream. On
television she has played a supporting
role opposite Nicola Walker in the
crime series Annika. She’s working on
a new ITV murder mystery, Karen
Pirie, based on Val McDermid’s book.Most embarrassing moment on stage
“I was once in a production where I
had to pretend to masturbate while
my dad and two older brothers sat in
the audience. It was horrendous.”Baker Mukasa, 27
Angelo in The
Comedy of Errors,
RSC
The morning after
Mukasa had
performed at the Olivier awards
with Tina — The Tina Turner Musical,
one of the biggest nights of his life,
he had to film a promotional video
dressed as a coffee cup. “It’s luck of
the draw and you often just hope you
can get enough so you can eat,” he
says. Mukasa grew up in southwest
London and was spotted by an agent
in his showcase performance at the
Central School of Speech and Drama.
Since then he has gone through a
Shakespeare phase: he delivered
a vivacious turn as the perplexed
goldsmith Angelo in the RSC’s joyous
production of The Comedy of Errors
and will soon star as Norfolk and
Sands in Henry VIII at the Globe.Preshow ritual
“I have a terrible habit of eating far too
close to when I should be on stage.
That’s me living life on the edge.”Norah Lopez
Holden, 27
Ophelia in Hamlet,
Young Vic
Lopez Holden’s
mother encouraged
her to join a drama workshop when
she was a child, after the family moved
to Manchester from Spain, to help her
to learn English. She was intimidated
by the part of Ophelia, but criticspraised her performance as
“extraordinary”. She is playing Mary,
the ambitious girlfriend originally
played by Gina McKee, in Radio 4’s
revival of Our Friends in the North.What I bought with my first paycheck
“When I played Regine in Ghosts at
HOME Theatre, I bought a pair of
punky, red Dr Martens that I always
used to pass in the shop’s window.”Jonathan Ajayi, 25
Laertes in Hamlet,
Young Vic
Ajayi grew up in
Chiswick, west
London, and says that
as a “black man I never felt like I could
identify with classic texts”. He says that
to be commended for his contemporary
take on Laertes, dressed in a tracksuit,
in Hamlet at the Young Vic opposite
Cush Jumbo, “felt very special”.Actor I would like to emulate
“Michelle Williams, Mahershala Ali
and Stephen Graham. Their work has
a real impact.”Preshow ritual
“I like to wait outside the theatre for as
long as possible because it demystifies
the threat of the audience.”Rebekah Murrell, 29
Juliet in Romeo and
Juliet, the Globe
She has a black belt in
karate and has been
acting since she was
a child, when she was spotted at an
after-school club in Barking, east
London, and cast in the CBBC show
Roman Mysteries. Playing opposite
the Harry Potter star Alfred Enoch,
Murrell was praised by critics for
her “spirited performance” as a
strong-willed, trainer-wearing Juliet in
a pared-back production by Ola Ince.
On television she played the lead’s
romantic interest in In My Skin, which
won a Bafta for best drama. Next up is
a mockumentary called Swede Caroline
with Aisling Bea.Play that made me want to be an actor
“The House That Will Not Stand at the
Kiln Theatre. It was the first time I had
seen black women take the helm on
stage and it really rocked me.”Preshow ritual
“When I played Juliet I had a jasmine
essential oil that I would put on my
wrists and my neck to get me into
the story.” c
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